HONG KONG'S FIRST international school, King George V School (KGV), celebrates its 100th year in March. Former students and staff are returning to the SAR for the big party.
The highlight of the week-long festivities, from March 13 to 20, will be a black-tie ball at the Kowloon Shangri-la Hotel, and 500 former and current KGV students are expected to get dressed up for the occasion.
The alumni organisation, which is behind the big reunion, is still waiting for confirmation of many guests, but says its list includes several former principals - Angela Smith and Alex Reeve - and some surprise former students. At a push the guest list could include some of the world's top names in sport since this is a field KGV students have long excelled in.
Success stories include David Millar, who won last year's Tour de France, cricketer Dermot Reeve, who played for England in the 1992 World Cup Final, and Mark McMahon, who went on to become an international lawn bowls champion.
Other KGV graduates have gone on to make waves in the entertainment business. Michael Hutchence, who died in 1997, was the lead singer of INXS and Anders Nelson was a Radio Television Hong Kong DJ. On a more high-brow note, author Martin Booth has written a string of books, most notably Hiroshima Jo, which was nominated for the Booker prize. Booth, who left the school in 1964, remembers the school fondly for its racial harmony.
'While there were the usual teenage animosities, there was no racism in the school whatsoever. If you disliked someone, it was not down to race or colour or creed - just character,' he said.