This month, many of our former students will be excitedly heading off to University for their first time. However, for George Husband and Michael McCormack, who have been best friends since they started together at Fyling Hall School aged 3, this new chapter of their lives will mean parting for the first time in their 15 years of education.
Both boys began their school careers at Fyling Hall School in 1999, where they attended pre school together. Although now the best of friends, Michael remembers that he did not take to George straight away as he felt that he was too “naughty”. However, the stars were obviously aligned so that George and Michael were intended to be friends, as, due to an odd ratio of right to left handers, their teacher insisted that they sat together. Their parents and teachers remember that they became inseparable from that moment on.
Michael, recalls that they “shared the comedy of Father Timothy Whitwell and a naïve fear of Mrs Birchall, Ms Gilmour and Mr Allen” throughout the early days. However, although their friendship was always strong, Michael and George were also each others fiercest adversaries. They both achieved the accolade of ‘House Captains’ in Year 6 and they competed for the lead roles in all of the school plays. In Year 6, the school staged an unusual production of a “Doctor Who Movie”: George was the Doctor, and Michael was the super villain. Later on in another school production, but this time “An Inspector Calls”, the roles were reversed when Michael was awarded the lead part of “The Inspector”, much to George’s annoyance.
Although inseparable as friends, Michael and George always had their own individual characters and they have developed very differently in their 15 years at Fyling Hall School. “Perhaps this is why we are such good friends” George commented. George became a good cricket player who abhorred rugby and Michael became a good rugby player who abhorred cricket. George’s light always burned brightest in performance: year upon year, he won the school’s annual “Daisy Hardy” poetry recital competition and he became a regular participant, and winner, of the Whitby Rotary Club’s Youth Speaks competition. George’s talent for music also flourished at Fyling Hall School. He is a member of local band “By The Sea” and performs regularly with his singing partner, Kate Lavery, at a variety of prestigious venues including more recently the “Port Eliot” Festival” in St. German. After achieving good grades in his A Levels, George, unsurprisingly, is leaving to study Music at Fulham University in London. Michael describes himself as more of a bookworm, having achieved A and A* grades in his science and art A Levels, but he cites his friend George as the reason for his decision to take Art A Level and more latterly for his decision to study Fine Arts in London.
The friends are not ashamed to reflect on their friendship publically. “We are like brothers really.” Indeed, George wrote and then publically performed a song about his friendship with Michael at a school concert that was attended by Eliza Carthy this year. The song, entitled “Dear Michael” did not leave many dry eyes in the house. Michael returned the favour by writing and delivering a heart warming tribute to their friendship in his recent Head Boy’s end of year speech.
They have always lived within three miles of each other and even though their time together at our school has come to an end, it seems fitting that even in this new and exciting phase of their lives, they will still only be two tube stops away from each other in London.
“George and Michael have been a very significant and successful part of our school’s life for 15 years and they have matured into two very confident and successful young men. It has been a delight to watch their friendship, as well as their individual characters grow throughout this time. Fyling Hall School wishes them well and we wish them lots of luck at University and in the future.” (Mr Allen, Fyling Hall’s Headmaster)
>