Officers and Committee 2023/24

Our committee meets regularly during the year to organise events, to manage policy between General Meetings and to generate the Newsletter and the Magazine that is mailed to all of our Members.

President: P. (Peter) Ayling

President’s Profile P. (Peter) Ayling

Peter was born at Lewisham Hospital in September 1964 and commenced at Aske’s in 1976 which was to be Aske’s last year as a grammar school.  Peter followed in the footsteps of his mother who went to the prep school and then the girls school. Peter was followed in 1979 by his younger brother Alan and in 1987 by younger sister Debra.
Peter started in Form 1A with Gordon “Jack” Allen as form master and who was a strict disciplinarian with much use of a slipper. Peter did not know anyone in the form but soon became friends with Andy Lovell who later would find fame as Shovell the drummer with M People who had many chart hits in the 90’s. After 2 years with Gordon Allen , Dave Lightfoot took over with form 3L. Peter was in Brooklands House and had Mr Tutt as house tutor in the upper school.

Prior to Aske’s Peter had played football and cricket and now was introduced to rugby. For the first 2 years of school the team was unbeaten under the management of Mark Foster and Peter played as a 2nd row. In the third year games became more challenging and Billy Rogers an old boy and now a teacher came back to coach the team and Peter moved into the back row where he stayed. At this point studies and sport we’re going well with Peter also representing the school at cricket and basketball and winning the Lower School Cup. In the 5th form Peter played in a very strong 2nd XV as Neal Cooper was the 1st XV captain and the side that year won the Askean Floodlit Cup. 
In the lower 6th Peter captained the 1st XV and the team had a strong year. Bolstered by some 3rd year Sixth ( Neal Cooper, John Ibbs, Nehi Fakoya, Andy Miller and Dean Gillette) the side reached the final of the Askean Floodlit Cup only to lose to local rivals St Joseph’s Academy. A certain John Gallagher who went onto play for New Zealand and win the World Cup had a starring role for St Joseph’s. The vice captain in that side was Paul Duggan who is this years Junior Vice President.

 

Peter again captained the 1st XV in the Upper Sixth as well as playing for the 1st cricket XI occasionally in the 5th form and fully in the 6th form including 4 50’s.
Further sporting highlights were the rugby tours to Hilversum where we beat the Dutch National Youth XV and cricket tours to Bideford. Peter became House Captain of Brooklands, School Prefect and in 1982 School Captain.

 

After A-levels Peter joined the Midland Bank on a Management Trainee Programme in September 1983 and started at the New Cross branch.
On leaving school Peter joined the Askean Rugby club and had 2 great years playing in a very strong Princes XV captained by Mark Bromage.
The rugby was so strong that the Princes played the 1st XV matches when they had a Kent Cup game so as to maximise their chance of winning it and gaining entry to the John Player Cup. The Princes won most of these games.
In 1985 Peter decided, for a variety of reasons, to move to play for Midland Bank RFC. On the first training session he met Mark Jackson, another Old Askean (1970-1977) who recognised the Askean socks Peter was wearing and they remain firm friends 38 years later with Mark recently joining the Association.
Peter became vice captain in 1986 and captain in 1987. A serious knee injury finished Peter’s 1st XV rugby career in 1999 but he recovered to play social rugby at 2nd XV level finally retiring in 2001. Peter is currently the Chairman of HSBC RFC and is on his 4th stint covering over 25 years.

Peter also played cricket for a wandering side called Brackley CC from 14 until 28 when the club folded. Peter had 2 seasons with the Askean CC in 96 & 97 as an opening bat and wicket keeper in the 2nd XI scoring a lot of runs.

Peter moved around several branches in South East London before getting his first managerial appointment in 1992 as Operations Manager at Tooting Broadway Branch. Peter then was asked to open a new branch in Wimbledon Village in 1995 and spent a great 2 years building up clients and meeting the likes of Bob Willis, Dick Best and Rodney Marsh. Further branch manager roles followed before in 2001 Peter specialised by joining HSBC Receivable Finance ( HSBC had acquired Midland Bank in 1992). Peter joined as a Business Development Manager covering branches around South London and Kent. In 2011 after a spell working with Sean McManus , who played rugby for Askeans, in Business Banking in Pall Mall , Peter became Regional Sales Manger for HSBC Receivable Finance covering the South and South East. Peter had a team of 15 BDM’s covering a region stretching from Canterbury to Norwich to Reading and down to Southampton and so a lot of travelling and overnight stays were involved.

 

In 2013 Peter suffered a Pulmonary Embolism and after a week in critical care and 3 months off work moved back to a BDM role in London to avoid excessive travelling. Peter spent the last 6 years of his career working in Canary Wharf with the East London Corporate Team as Senior Corporate Business Development Director structuring working capital facilities for a wide variety of companies
Peter retired in 2021 after 38 years and spending the last 18 months working from home due to the Covid pandemic.

Peter met Elaine while working at HSBC and they got together in 1996 marrying in 1998 and celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary in August this year. This has already been marked with a trip to Australia with a cruise around New Zealand.

Peter’s other interests away from rugby were scouting where he was a Venture Scout until 1984 receiving The Queens Scout Award at a St George’s Day parade at Windsor Castle in 1985. Peter also spent time as a Cub Scout leader
Now being retired Peter enjoys time at the gym, out cycling, cooking, playing and improving his golf, gardening, skiing and lunching with friends
Peter currently resides in Beckenham.

Peter is looking forward to his year as President and would like to seek to get more of his peer group involved with the Association