Phil Maclaurin 1971 to 1978
Phil Maclaurin was in the same school year at Our Lady of the Rosary in Blackfen as my older brother Gavin and we knew the Maclaurin family quite well as both families were in St John Fisher Parish in Bexley. When I joined St Mary’s in 1977, my prefect in the first year huts was none other than Phil who was then in the upper sixth. Always a studious, high-achiever, Phil went to Worcester College, Oxford after St Mary’s to study Geology, a subject he excelled at and obtained an A Distinction in the Special Paper at A-Level. Here’s what happened next, in Phil’s words:
“‘Where is Cabinda?’ Knowing the answer rather shaped my future... whilst the others on my oil-field training course headed to Denmark, I was the know-all sent to northern Angola in the grip of the civil war. This gave me a taste for challenging postings; Somalia as the refugees came in from Ethiopia during the “Live Aid famine”, Al Ain in the days before there were roads from Dubai, war-ravaged Uganda in the days of hope immediately after Museveni took power, Cuba under Helms Burton embargo, Myanmar under the junta and Albania as it opened up from its xenophobic time warp.
“My career as a geologist was punctuated by a series of car crashes and then a terrifying seat on the Paddington train crash, after which I chose to leave the UK for good. Just in time to settle in Pakistan ahead of 911, a day I spent with an Afghan seismic crew in the Baluchistan desert out of radio contact in blissful ignorance of the horror elsewhere. In 2004 I established a subsidiary of Premier Oil in Vietnam and discovered, developed and, at its peak, produced about 10% of the nation’s oil and gas.
”I am now retired and Fran and I live 15 minutes from downtown Ho Chi Minh City, overlooking the Saigon river and banana plantations beyond. We can focus on our long-time ‘other interest’; educating and developing marginalized children with the self-confidence they need to transition from ‘street kid’ to ‘young professional’. As part of the roll-out of the UN Sustainable Development Goals in 2016 I presented to the Junior Chamber International, at the UN HQ in New York. When asked by disadvantaged young people why we invest in them I tell them of my debt to my outstanding free education at St Mary’s and Oxford which offered me the opportunity, rewards and friendships that have enriched my life ever since.”