Written by Gordon Aspey
19 October 2022
The unspoken SPEECH
Luck of the draw
Final annual dinner of Coram Foundlings at Brunswick Square London WC1
About 89 years ago I came to this very room with several other 3 month old babies. We were baptized, given new names, allotted foster mothers and shunted off to the Kentish countryside.
The name- smith avoided using common names like Smith, Brown, Jones, Johnstone etc. In earlier times he adopted the names of the famous like Shakespeare, Salisbury, Abbot and other prominent people.
This caused some complications with contested wills of the deceased and new laws were introduced to prevent this happening. Foundlings were forbidden to own land or property. They were not allowed to join the Freemasons or even the Police force. Give it another 30 years and many present day laws will appear equally silly.
The name given to me was Edwin Uphill. I suspect the Name-smith would have been aware of my background story which probably influenced his choice of name. But maybe Edwin Everest would have been more apt. My journey through life has been a tad steeper than a puny hill climb.
He appears to have had some head scratching with the naming process. Deprived of common and more exalted names he appears to have spent much time in the pubs for inspiration. Many names give connotations of the brewery industry. It’s a good job he didn’t have premier League footballer names at his disposal. An indication of his desparation can be gained when he named one chap Nut, he married a girl called Hazel. You can imagine what his kids were called.
The one thing that strikes me more than any other during my life has been the predominance of LUCK both good and bad in every facet of life.
A recent questionnaire by a university asked students to say whether they considered themselves to be lucky or unlucky. A surprisingly high percentage considered themselves to be unlucky. It doesn’t bode well for the future.!
I tend to think if you consider yourself lucky the chances are you will be lucky. I won seventy five pounds with the premium bonds this month which seems to confirm my thinking. But no matter how carefully you plan things, luck will have a bearing on the ultimate outcome. I think all of us who went to the Coram Foundling school are lucky.
When you consider the appalling abuse many thousands of kids suffered through paedophile priests and grooming gangs, apparently still going on. And the total lack of backbone by establishment officials who were supposed to look after them, but looked the other way. And the politicians are banging on about some ridiculous party. I think we Coram kids are exceedingly lucky. The Coram foundation had its faults but they really did protect and care for us kids. Far better than Dr. Barnados, I would add.
My Wife’s father didn’t approve of our marriage. He cut her out of his will and predicted the marriage wouldn’t survive more than 6 months. My best man, believe it or not, agreed with him. ‘Well I don’t reckon you’re really the marrying sort Gord, you be a bit of a rolling stone’ he said.
“Huh’
His marriage lasted eighteen months and he vanished from our Radar.
This month we will be celebrating our 64th wedding anniversary.
We have three grown up children, 6 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild .I think all kids deserve a decent family life with a caring mum and dad.
We owe Coram a debt of gratitude for his Foundling Hospital which has enabled us ordinary underprivileged kids to live happy and successful lives.
This meeting will be our final farewell, it is the end of an era but I’m sure the memory of Coram will live on. This room will also be remembered by my daughter, I hired it 27 years ago for her wedding reception which was a great success. Thank you my school friends for listening and may the good luck continue for all of us.