Peter Cottrell 1967 to 1974

Peter Cottrell and family. Bottom row, left to right, Maureen, Peter’s wife, next to Peter followed by their eldest daughter Victoria and her husband Joe. Top row, left to right, their youngest son William, daughter-in-law Marie who is married to, next right, Tom followed by their youngest daughter Elizabeth.

A number of excellent rugby players arrived at St Mary’s in the late 1960s and to that list we can certainly add Peter Cottrell who joined from St Stephen’s, Welling.

Describing himself academically as someone who ‘did just enough to get by’ Peter nevertheless says St Mary’s was a great experience for him: “There were some really bright and interesting people in my year like Paul Hendricks, Mark Daley and Paul Kromm and I found it fascinating to be among them. I think I was lucky to catch the tail-end of the Grammar school system and I think the teachers we had during my time were pretty good.”

A mainstay of the school’s first fifteen in the early 70s, Peter played for Sidcup rugby club while still at school and also represented Kent Schools at 19 Group level and later played for Blackheath. He also played football for St Lawrence’s Church when it had a team.

After doing A-Levels in Economics, History and English. Peter left St Mary’s in the summer of 1974 and went to the City of London Business School: “I studied accountancy for a while and then I went into the world of insurance and have done that ever since,” he said.

Peter, who has always lived in and around London is married to Maureen and the couple of have two girls (Victoria and Elizabeth) and two sons (Tom and William, who has Down’s syndrome).

Peter has a good story about Fr Tom Goonan and William. He told me: “A few years back I was driving past the school with William and I decided to have a quick look at the old place. Suddenly I spotted someone who I thought was Fr Goonan. I said: ‘Are you Fr Goonan?’ He looked at me and said: ‘Yes, I am.’ To me he’d hardly changed at all. By pure fluke he was visiting at the time the Marists were leaving Sidcup and we had a lovely chat. I decided to introduce William to him so William got out of the car and I said to him: ‘William, this is Fr Goonan who used to teach me.” Fr Goonan, paused, lent forward and said to William: “I tried William…I really, really tried.”