Please check this page for details of upcoming events and reunions.
Alumni reunion 2024
Join us at St Mary’s University on Saturday 17th August 2024 for a memorable evening and a chance to relive your campus experience. We warmly welcome our entire alumni community to join us in celebrating shared experiences and connections.
We hope to organise dedicated areas for different decades, so you will be able to find your friends easily. There will also be memorabilia to view throughout the evening.
If you would like to make a weekend of it, then the option to stay the night is available, along with breakfast and Mass at the University Chapel on Sunday 18th August.
Book your tickets
We look forward to seeing you in August.
Should you have any queries, please do contact us at alumni@stmarys.ac.uk
Alumni reunion organised by Peter Ekers
Alumnus Peter Ekers will be organising an annual celebration and remeberance garden party on Sunday 7th July 2024.
Venue: Gidea Park (Elizabeth Line). The borders of Essex and the London Borough of Havering.
Please read Peter's message.
Your host
Peter Ekers is your host
Who is welcome?
The usual suspects who have attended previously, of course. Maybe you’re a friend of a friend who knows me. That’s perfect too.
Plus, I’m hoping we might be able to track down at least some of you who have dispersed far and wide. As well as those of you who have simply not heard about our reunion till now. So, regardless of whether you knew me well or not at all.
Do not doubt that we will be delighted to see you so don’t miss the opportunity.
Remember we automatically share a common bond from having attended St Mary’s. A bond that guarantees you will feel totally welcome and instantly at home the moment you arrive.
The event's origin
There is nothing surprising about how this annual event came about.
Although youth often deludes us into assuming we will live almost forever, the decades soon pass and with it a new reality dawns. Never more potently than when one starts attending the funerals of much-loved contemporaries.
The lightbulb moment arrived for me in spades, a few years ago. Funerals of much loved friends had started to become too frequent. Bitter-sweet affairs. Inherently sad occasions lightened by the delight of meeting too-rarely seen pals.
Action was demanded. Only meeting wonderful friends at funerals. Not good enough! And so the idea of an annual garden party came into being.
So far
We started in July 2020, so have enjoyed four. This summer’s will be our fifth!
The plan is to continue indefinitely, each year at the same venue, on the first Sunday in July until we reach “last man standing”.
Improved communications
Up till now our efforts to get the word around have been limited. We have had to rely on our own piecemeal communications network. But things are about to improve dramatically.
Going forward our communications and publicity will be getting the professional treatment. I am delighted to say that from this year onwards we will have the invaluable help of Georgia and Harry from the alumni office.
If you are reading this it will be because of their success in contacting you.
More information
Just contact Georgia and Harry at alumni@stmarys.ac.uk.
One small favour to ask. If you are able to attend please seriously commit and confirm in good time. Being able to organise the hospitality depends on accurate and reliable numbers.
That’s all from me for now other than to say I look forward to seeing you.
Kindest regards,
Peter Ekers
1974 – 1979
Student President 1979 – 1980
Past events
Alumni BBQ gathering
Saturday 18th June 2022, 12-5pm (Priests lawn)
We are delighted to announce that we are organising an alumni BBQ event for all our St Mary's alumni community. This event is free to attend and will take place on campus on the 18th June. We invite all our fantastic alumni community to come along, there will be food, drinks and music to enjoy!
For more information, please email alumni@stmarys.ac.uk.
Simms 1967-70 alumni gathering
Alumni who studied at St Mary’s in the 1960s and 70s are warmly welcomed to a lunch at Strawberry Hill House, organised by Simmarian Brendan Murphy.
Lunch costs £30 a head and will be served at the Garden Café at Strawberry Hill House. For instructions about how to book lunch, contact alumni@stmarys.ac.uk.
For more information email alumni@stmarys.ac.uk.
Arranging a reunion?
If you are holding a reunion off campus, we would love to hear about it, and help publicising it to a wider audience. You can contact us at alumni@stmarys.ac.uk.