Slightly off track, but one of my oldest friends is a John Smith. Back in the 1960's he used to get very strange looks when he tried to get hotel rooms for himself and his new wife.
Dean Martin was in my class. It was a bit of a commute for him to get to school, mind. He had to come from Mill End or Maple Cross. I can't remember which. Jane Austen was in my year, too.
My Dean Martin came from Birmingham...he did get about! Did Jane Austen come top in English? As far as I remember Dean Martin never shone in school plays!
Apart from me you mean Clive Anderson, Roger Glover (Deep Purple) and Michael Portillo, there are probably more who's names I have forgotten. Winston Churchill went to the school on the hill, whereas us famous chaps went to the school in hollow. Post script, I have just looked it up on Wiki and note that Ian Brady is a "famous" aluminii. there are loads more but not what I would call celebrity names, strangely I am not mentioned . When it went all comprehensive the following are noted. Angus Fraser MBE, cricketer Mark Ramprakash MBE, cricketer Marvin Sordell, footballer for Bolton Wanderers and England Under-21s, his Watford career was not mentioned!
Angus Fraser (and his brother Alastair) played cricked for Stanmore when I lived in Northwood while I played in the same side as Mark Ramprakash at Bessborough when he perhaps 16. Mark was a useful footballer too as I remember. Later on in his career I used to see Fraser in the Riverside gym in Northwood trying to get fit before the season started. Another who frequented the same gym was Audley Harrison.
Now I am forgetting my roots here, on failing the 11+ I went to Lascelles Secondary Modern Boys' School in Harrow, a fine establishment with some awesome teachers who brought out the best in this failure and who enabled me to move onto a Grammar School for 6th form and thence to Uni. Per Wiki there are a few of note, including another Watford player: Actor Kate Magowan. Actor Dev Patel. Drummer Terry Lee Miall. Watford F.C., Southend, Peterborough and Barnet football player Derek Payne. Zayn Shah, Sanitation Engineering at Cambridge. Not quite sure about the last one unless he was one of the first to go to Oxbridge.
we went to the same school! Josh Lewsey went there as well (Rugby World Cup Winner), Steve Easterbrook (CEO of McDonalds) and less impressively, Grant Shapps (former Conservative Chairman).
