The First Record Of The Old Boys Of The Doon School

John Martyn, once he retired, settled down in Dehra Dun and soon married Mady Uttam Singh Virk. By 1975 he had begun what is probably the single greatest instrument of the DSOBS, the register, a DOSCO database. Darshan Singh, (batch of 1962) who was Martyn's right hand, describes this initial mammoth undertaking.

"In those days, digitized information was not available and, therefore, Mr. John Martyn worked from data cards "KARDEX" in the specially made cupboards, which were available in the School Office at that time. He painstakingly put the information together and had invited me to work with him on this effort. Mr. Martyn typed all the information on each boy onto a small piece of paper. This he had done for the first 6 years 1935 to 1940. All the sheets for each year were tied with a string and bound. Then he would make corrections in his own hand in ink. The archive contains these sheets, as typed by Mr. Martyn, corrected in ink in his own hand and then updated again a later year.

Unfortunately, Mr. Martyn had a stroke in 1978 and his wife, Mady Martyn, asked me to continue the effort as the "Record must be brought out". The information on other 'Old' Boys was still on 'Kardex' and had to be transcribed. This was done in the evenings at my home with a Mr. J. Rajagopalan who worked diligently alongside. We wrote to all Old Boys (no emails then!) and waited for responses. Not everyone would reply and reminders were sent. Putting all this information together took the better part of three years.

Later, Mr. John Martyn was able to recover substantially and the progress was routinely shown to him and he continued to give valuable advice. Finally, when the book was brought out, which was based on his initial efforts, Mr. Martyn was delighted to see the first copies of the 'Dosco Record', which had been printed on an old-style letter-press printing machine of another young Old Boy, the late Pradeep (Shorty) Sharma (ex-400K). The Record was an uphill task as, most people at that time thought that this effort would not meet with success. No other School had attempted to put together a complete record, not only of names, but also Roll Numbers, Father's name, Year of leaving, etc. etc. So, it was lonely work with Mr. Rajagopalan and of course the help of Mr. John Martyn and his wife Mady to push the effort. We wrote a few thousand letters and got hundreds of replies from Old Boys, mostly in their own handwriting. From this, information was gleaned to make up the Record.

Soon we were to go to Press but there were no funds (or paper). But help was to come from unexpected quarters. It was Sanjay Gandhi, who on a request immediately agreed to help and soon we had 2 tons of paper coordinated by Kamal Nath. Then the first Dosco Record was on its way. By Founder's 1980, I just made it to the Old Boys AGM in the School Library with 20 copies still wet from the glue of the manual binding."

In those initial years, fund raising came from two major theatrical productions, one each during the tenures of Vijay Kapur and (Tunu) Manjit Singh. Though the most memorable event was the Ball in March 1974 at the Oberoi Hotel, which many still remember, particularly the humour of Piloo Mody. In the years that followed, the Society continued to grow from strength to strength. This can be attributed to the continually expanding numbers of Old Boys that were getting involved and the fact that each Executive Committee continued to invite eminent and successful old boys into its membership. Therefore, the Society was assured of a capable succession plan. The fact that more and more people got interested in the affairs of the Society and through it to further the interests of their alma mater gives a most reassuring feeling as the Society was of course by now on an irreversible path forward.