Peter, Cedric and Andrew Sander
Cedric Sander, the middle brother of the richly-talented Sander family from Bickley.
You never know what’s round the corner with this project and recently I was delighted to receive an email out of the blue from Cedric Sander.
Cedric, who started at St Mary’s in 1957, was the middle of three very talented Sander boys hailing from Bickley who joined in the 1950s. He was sandwiched between Peter who started in 1955 and Andrew, who joined in 1958.
Peter, known at school at PAS, was well known at St Mary’s for his superb artistic skill. So it was no surprise when he went on to enjoy an illustrious career and global success in the animated film industry. When he was 28, in 1972, he received an Oscar nomination for the animated short film of Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant. In the same year, he also won the Silver Bear at The Berlin Film Festival. Other works included The Christmas Messenger starring Richard Chamberlain and David Essex and The Little Mermaid.
Many Beatles fans will also be familiar with a series of animated Beatles cartoons which featured in a hugely successful US TV series in the 1960s. Maybe I’ll write more about Peter’s work at some point.
Peter Sander, known as PAS, with his much-admired cartoon drawings of The Beatles
According to Cedric, youngest brother Andrew was the most diligent and hard-working of the trio. He chose not to go down the Oxbridge route, opting instead to study Law at Liverpool University.
He achieved an outstanding First Class degree and came top in the Bar Finals examinations. There followed an outstandingly successful career as a barrister. He was Head of Oriel Chambers in Liverpool and a renowned and highly respected legal expert.
Andrew Sander who enjoyed an outstanding legal career after St Mary’s
Cruelly, Andrew’s life was cut short in 2005 when pancreatic cancer was diagnosed. The day after his funeral, the legal community of Liverpool gathered to celebrate his life. No less a figure than Lord Leveson (of the famous inquiry into the ethics and practices of the Britsh press) presided and gave the address which was a glowing tribute to one of Liverpool’s legal finest.
But what of Cedric himself, whose email it was such a pleasure to receive? Firstly, he supplied many other memories of his time at St Mary’s but these must wait for the book. But here’s what happened after he left in 1962, the same year as Fr Leo McIver handed over the headmaster reins to Fr Charles Howarth: “After St Mary’s, I tried my vocation for a short time with the De La Salle brothers before spending my life working in education in the north of England, including a secondary school headship and several years as a lead inspector for Ofsted,” says Cedric. “The foundations for that career path were laid in the amazing three years I enjoyed studying English at St Catherine’s College, Oxford University. By that time I had very much lost contact with Sidcup and St Mary’s but two former class companions did come into view.
“I had sat next to ‘Ted’ Bowden in class and Francis Gallagher had been a couple of rows behind. Suddenly, Ted came to mind as I read in the university newspaper, The Cherwell, of a campaign he was running to support the hot dog sellers on The Broad. I had never seen him as an activist but St Mary’s had clearly instilled in him the importance of supporting the underdog and a just cause!
“Unexpectedly, Francis and I found ourselves sitting behind desks in the university examination schools when we both tried, unsuccessfully, to win the Charles Oldham Shakespeare prize. We did, however, enjoy a much more valuable and enjoyable chat about old times after the ordeal of putting pen to paper was over.”
In 2015, Cedric had published a novel entitled The Call which draws upon the experiences of Catholic boys who were encouraged to join religious orders in the 50s and 60s.
“So St Mary’s proved to be an important springboard for all three Sander boys,” added Cedric. “Neither of our parents had enjoyed the fruits of higher education but had always nurtured in us a determination to do our best (not the same as always to succeed). That was, I think, the ethos at St Mary’s on the sports field, on the stage or in the classroom, although Fr McKeown, in particular did not take kindly to a defeat or even a draw.
“Looking back, and comparing it with the school where I spent my sixth form, St Mary’s was in a different league. It had a uniquely amazing set of teachers and a much more lively and creative ethos inside and outside the classroom; not only because of the staff subject expertise but because they retained their individuality and were, thankfully, not subject to directives to perform as government ‘clones.’ They were all ‘teachers’ in their own special ways, not technicians of an arid curriculum. They ‘made’ the school and so many of them left indelible memories of themselves as ‘characters’ as well as experts in their subject.”