Old MarlburianMichael Cannon

Go back more than 50 years and you will find that MC was the pioneer of the GAP year. I was one of its first beneficiaries being sent to Chile where I started a love affair with Latin America.

The train of events started with a correspondence in the Times in 1956/57 between the Bishops of Portsmouth and Sarawak, and our then Master, Tommy Garnett, about how to take advantage of the end of National Service and how universities would cope with the influx of school leavers at the same time as those exiting the Services with places at those universities. Caption:

Michael Cannon with a future marlburian and marlburienne, his grandchildren, and their aunt Emily, Michael's daughter.

Several Marlburians were sent to Borneo/Sarawak in 1957 to work with the Dyaks. Then in 1958, due to divine intervention, from my point of view, the Director General of the British Council, Mr A. J. Stanley White (C3 1910-1915) - father of Pete White (C3 1954-58) - took on the project and that year sent some Marlburians to India and Pakistan to teach. My good fortune was to be sent with 3 other Marlburians in 1959 by the British Council to teach or to work in Latin America. By that time their scheme had been opened up to other schools and VSO was in the wings to take over the Gap Year system, started by Marlborough. The rest is history, with at least 130 GAP organisations presently organising great experiences for hundreds of thousands of school leavers each year.

Chile was a revelation, a much poorer country than it is today but with the characteristics which have made it such a success story. Although I had a place at Cambridge, I was sorely tempted to stay on in Chile and even accepted an offer to become a polo player. Having played hockey and squash to a decent level, polo was just a matter of staying on the pony and the rest was easy!

Slightly regretful, I returned to the UK via Buenos Aires where I played for Chile in a regional hockey tournament. However, three years at Cambridge, thence accountancy and a year in the family wine business were the sensible outcomes. After those years, I returned to Latin America in 1968 to work in Peru for two years for a British company, part of the Bank of London and South America.

My MD was an Anglo-Chilean married to a cousin of Bruce Chatwin (B2 1953). Bruce and I shared a study for a year, and never once was Chile mentioned by either, despite the fact that Bruce must have had within him the seeds of his famous book “In Patagonia”. Until I went to Chile, I only knew it as a seemingly hopeless strip of South American littoral, and had never considered it as a destination. Chile, though was always on my aspirational horizons when I worked in Peru, but then I saw it degenerate economically to the point where Salvador Allende took it on for his failed Marxist experiment. So it was not an option in 1970.

Another Chilean twist had entered my life when I met and married the English cousin of former pupils at the Grange School of Santiago in 1969. Cherida's family had connections with Marlborough through the Reeves family. As we had decided against living in Allende’s Chile , we went to Costa Rica to visit friends and have a look at the country. We were so impressed, that on the final day of the ten day holiday we saw and bought the 300 acre farm that I own today. It is located in the Cloud Forest region at 6000 feet, on a ridge between two volcanoes (one active) with views of both Pacific and Caribbean regions. It was a poor piece of land with no electricity, running water, telephone etc; beautiful and wonderfully primitive, but all to play for. From 1970 to 1980 we built up the dairy to a 100 cow modern unit using New Zealand as our model, built a large house surrounded by a beautiful garden created by my wife - helped by the fact that things grow all the year round - and produced 4 children, including Tomas (C2 1993), who was a Windeler scholar .

I returned to the UK in 1980, to the short farming course at RAC Cirencester, as we were to farm in Hampshire on a family holding, leaving the farm in Costa Rica in the hands of a tenant. After several years of reducing returns which OM farmers will know all about, I decided to work within the Chilean Embassy in London to promote links between the two countries. I ran the Anglo Chilean Society and started the British Chilean Chamber of Commerce, organising many events and visits. This work I did until 2000, apparently pleasing both nations. I was helped greatly by all the contacts I had made those years ago. I also formed and managed the British Argentine Chamber of Commerce, and instigated what is now the Anglo Central American Society.

In the eighties and nineties I was much involved in raising money for Latin American charities to do with poverty, children and education. It was a lot of fun also, as Latin Americans know how to enjoy life. I was the Hon. Treasurer of the Marlburian Charitable Funds for five years from 1993, working with a high-powered committee which oversaw high capital growth despite large donations. Thereby I was able to return to Marlborough a little of what she had given me.

Back on the farm in Costa Rica, in 1991 I had started a small B&B operation to bring back our abandoned home to some sort of human state , where bats and tarantulas had held sway for 10 years. I also wanted to get to the stage where I could take back the farm from the tenant, which I did in 2004.

Currently there is a small mountain hotel based on the house we built, where we can accommodate more than 30 guests, and which can be seen on www.poasvolcanolodge.com The lodge has a certificate of sustainable tourism and an environmental blue flag, as we are striving to leave as small a footprint as possible.

The farm is in the process of transition to a 150 cow unit producing milk for the best cheese maker in the country. We have Jerseys and Holsteins, and intend to use some Ayrshire blood. I am experimenting with biodigestors to produce energy using a certain element produced by my cows!

I am part of an environmental group promoting sustainable living and development, as its Treasurer. We have brought UK experts to Costa Rica to deal with issues of global warming and green design and construction. I have been involved, in the teaching of cricket on the Caribbean coast, with various Gap organisations sending volunteers to Costa Rica, and, with the very small British community’s social life. As a Costa Rican of more than 30 years standing, I am also very involved in local affairs, having initiated the local parish council which has developed many of the necessary services and investments for our area.

MC still plays its part in my life, with brother Christopher (B2 1956-61) father of OMs Charlie and Fiona Cannon, living nearby in Great Bedwyn, and with talk of it as the destination for my growing brood of grandchildren. I see several OM friends on my visits back to the UK – it is a wonderful club!

I will sign off with this remark – I am thinking about joining a bridge club in Costa Rica. I was beaten (six of the best) at MC for playing bridge in a study. The authorities then were unconcerned about our openly playing mah jong. How things have changed!

info@poasvolcanolodge.com