Where are they now?


In the 1960s and '70s the 'brain drain' was in full swing.  Over thirty years later how many of our school pals have decided to remain 'ex-pats'?

Of 171 former-pupils who registered their current address on the MSN Groups 'DownerGrammarSchool' website during the early 2000s, 32 of them, 19%, claim to be domiciled abroad.  The pie chart below shows in which countries our once-compatriots purport to live.

With the fairly limited sample-size the result can only ever be a crude indicator - for instance one is aware, from FriendsReunited, that former-pupils also live in Holland and, tantalisingly, Brazil.  Then there is 'Seth Efrica' - an exotic destination for our more intrepid, aspirational peers.  No one in the sample group claimed to live on that continent, but one pupil ('60-'67) went to Cape Town in '72 and remains there, very contentedly, to this day.

One surprise is that no-one claimed to be domiciled in France - perhaps the punitive (income-) tax regime, the debilitating bureaucratic processes or the increased propensity for motor vehicles to collide, is a concern.  Or could it just be that, despite Mr Dean and his merry (wo)men's best efforts, the language really is an insurmountable barrier?

Footnote: Although not included in this crude survey, Cynthia Prentice ('64-'69) wishes to declare that not only has she resided in France … in Paris in fact … she so loved it there that she stayed for over 25 years - tant mieux Cynthia!

C.P., 2007