{"id":3005,"date":"2022-12-07T10:08:20","date_gmt":"2022-12-07T10:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/alumni\/?p=3005"},"modified":"2024-06-21T08:51:05","modified_gmt":"2024-06-21T08:51:05","slug":"former-student-celebrating-a-landmark-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/alumni\/2022\/12\/07\/former-student-celebrating-a-landmark-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"Former student celebrating a landmark birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"\">Having started at St Mary\u2019s College \u2013 now University of Gloucestershire \u2013 80 years ago, Olive Pitman has just celebrated her 100<sup>th<\/sup> birthday with 100 guests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">On leaving the college, which was then based at Park Campus, Olive spent most of her 41 year career teaching at Bishop Gilpin CE Primary School in Wimbledon. She and her late husband, Cyril, were often seen at College Reunions, and the highlight for them was always the Reunion Sunday morning service in the college Chapel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">They were devoted to the Chapel and the two paintings of saints, either side of the chancel arch, were commissioned by Olive in memory of her brother, Dr Fred Holwill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Guests gathered to celebrate Olive&#8217;s birthday at Kingswood Golf and Country Club for a tea party, organised by All Saints&#8217; Church, Benhilton, in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">John Harvey, who was taught by Olive as a nine year old, and studied at St Paul\u2019s College, a predecessor of our University, from 1962-1965, said: \u201cI was able to speak about Olive&#8217;s college days and then, on behalf of the Alumni Association, present her with a birthday card and letter of congratulation from University of Gloucestershire&#8217;s Pro-Vice Chancellor, Dr Matthew Andrews.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">\u201cKeeping in touch with her student year group was always important to Olive; she acted as year secretary from 1944 until the early 21<sup>st<\/sup>\u00a0century. There may not be many of Olive&#8217;s years remaining, but she will be remembered for her love of the college and her abiding Christian faith, nurtured at St Mary&#8217;s.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2022\/12\/P1090019-1-1-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3015\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Left to right, Janice Harvey, Olive Pitman and John Harvey at Olive&#8217;s birthday celebrations<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Having started at St Mary\u2019s College \u2013 now University of Gloucestershire \u2013 80 years ago, Olive Pitman has just celebrated her 100th birthday with 100 guests. On leaving the college, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":3006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3005"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4498,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3005\/revisions\/4498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}