As St Mary’s broke for the 1971 Christmas holiday, long-serving English master Dermot McMahon recalls waving goodbye to Fr Cyril Trueman as the two men headed their separate ways at the end of term.

Two weeks later, Dermot was stunned to receive a telephone call from Fr Graystone advising him that Fr Trueman had died in the Midlands following a family visit in Wales.

His death from a heart attack at the young age of 51 stunned the St Mary’s community and robbed the school of a Marist priest who enjoyed huge popularity among both staff and pupils.

Fr Trueman had arrived at St Mary’s in the summer of 1966. There had been some concern that when legendary English and drama master Adrian Jarvis left the school the annual play would wither on the vine.

Yet Trueman picked up where Jarvis had left off and maintained an exceptionally high standard of productions which spanned Murder in the Cathedral (1967) to She Stoops to Conquer (1971).

Trueman was a superb linguist and phonetician with a great interest in pronunciation and the spoken word and was in great demand as a public speaker.

Many boys recall his funeral at St Lawrence’s Church in Sidcup.

In his memory, the school established The Father Trueman Trophy for outstanding achievements in English or associated activities. The first recipient, at the end of 1972, was Paul Higham who took the lead role in a number of school players and later became a County Court judge in Australia. Here is the complete list of winners until 2005 when it appears to have been discontinued. If you’re on the list, feel free to get in touch.

1972 Paul Higham

1973 Stevain Stewart

1974 Cormack Kirby

1975 Anthony Pino

1976 Mark Burchell

1977 Anthony Damer

1978 Gerard Baker

1979 No Award (Year of the Amalgamation with St Joseph’s)

1980 Anita Kelleher, Kathryn Tate

1981 Ian Moffatt, Alan Tilley

1982 Pauline Troy

1983 Simon Downey

1984 James Grant

1985 No Award

1986 Paul Donovan, Alexis Gibbs, John Logan, Paul Perman

1987 Anthony Warn

1988 Emma Murray

1989 Miles Larbey

1990 Penelope Stevens

1991 Miles Larbey

1992 Sarah Fendt

1993 Dino Fontes

1994 Louise Whiting

1995 Robert Driscoll

1996 Vincent Venturotti

1997 Unknown

1998 Laura Coleman, Louise D’Angelo

1999 Kerrie Baldock

2000 Daniella Sarcone

2001 Laura Coppard

2002 Natasha D’Sa

2003 Kesha Toussaint

2004 Mary Drummond

2005 Rosie Skinner