A civil wedding in Cambridge
19th September · Cambridge
So here we are, 7am on Friday 18th. Some guests have arrived. Anyone is welcome to turn up in Girton (#51 Weavers Field, CB3 0XB) Friday morning.
If you are in Cambridge City, the best way to get here is a #6 bus from near the Round Church to Girton Pepys Way, or £12 should be enough to pay for a taxi (Veesu or the rank opposite Christs's College). Friday morning, an open house in Girton, maybe some lunch. But in the afternoon we'll be busy doing wedding preparations where guests can assist, or go be a tourist. Friday evening, Roland is staying at the College, and will join in with any plans others have for the evening. Maybe the Curry King behind the Baron of Beef. Lyndsay is having a private gathering on Friday evening. On Saturday there's a group of family and close friends going to the Ceremony. Which is 10am to 10:45-ish at the Cambridgshire Registry Office. We will then be splitting up into various sub-groups (some perhaps to The Mitre which opens at 11am) and to arrange the setup in the Mong Room, Sidney Sussex from noon to 1pm, welcome drinks and canapes until 2pm, when we'll be having Speeches and Cards (both dead tree and video-notes). Wrap up at about 5pm. Early arrivals can gather at D'Arry's behind the College from Noon onwards. Saturday evening, plenty to do in the City. Sunday not looking too bad weather-wise for a chauffeur-punt trip. But I don't want to jinx it.Lyndsay, with a degree in Biomedical Electronics from Salford University, working at British Aerospace on Corgi-carrying planes, Richard Watts Associates designing music synthesisers including the Amstrad CKX100, BT Research Martlesham, Microsoft Research Cambridge with a string of patents in her name, Consultant for Apple Inc, and now a retired Associate Professor from UNN; FRSA, MIEE.
Former Parish Councillor, mother of Louise, whose day-job is at the University Library, where she manages reader membership, and helps look after more than eight million books, which is at least seven million more than she and her mother own themselves.
Roland went to Brentwood School (when still Direct Grant), Sidney Sussex Cambridge (the year after they won University Challenge despite being probably the smallest college entered, and before student loans were invented), then helped establish Ambit International in Brentwood High Street, managed 1978’s third retail home computer shop Sintrom Microshop in Reading, eight years at Amsoft/Amstrad, columnist at Computer Shopper, CIX subscriber and MD/Technical Director for a year, UKOnline (the family-friendly ISP not the government website), LINX, RIPE NCC and Digital Trust.
In 1988 Roland met Jennifer Bradley at COMDEX in Atlanta, and after a whirlwind romance married in Dallas in October. Jennifer relocated to Brentwood and they moved soon after to a former school house on the main street in Watlington, Oxfordshire to equalise commutes to work, because Jennifer had been hired as Marketing Manager for Commodore UK in Maidenhead, followed by Siemens Nixdorf in Bracknell and Cyrix in Swindon.
They have two wonderful children, Bradley and Olivia, and the four of them proceeded to live in various places, usually to be close to work. This included spells in Nunney (Somerset), Hinchley Wood (near Esher), West Bridgford (half a mile from Trent Bridge), Eltisley Avenue (Newnham Croft, Cambridge), Melbourn (Cambs), Atlanta (Georgia) and Ely riverside.
Roland gradually transitioned from bringing new technology to market, to attempting to reduce the harm that technology inflicted on their users, which as well as talking to Industry, involved engaging with Westminster, Brussels and the UN in Geneva. And doing an awful lot of International travelling. It all came to an abrupt halt “because of Brexit”, when Westminster was paralysed by the consequences, and the Government has only just this year begun to start taking online safety seriously again.
When most people were locked down “due to Covid”, Jennifer was diagnosed with what turned out, despite her consultant being Head of Cancer Research UK at Addenbrookes, to be incurable breast cancer, and passed away aged 60, in January 2024. They threw the book at it, but it just bounced off.
Her wish was that Roland re-married, but not with undue haste. Nor we suspect did either know it would be to someone she called “your other girlfriend”, a penpal on the infamous cam.misc newsgroup, and later Facebook, for 25yrs. They finally met in person when Roland asked for advice on buying his son a 3D printer as a birthday present at the end of 2023.
Lyndsay has been living in a house in Girton, built on land bought from the College, since 1998; relocated there by Microsoft Research when they were in offices above the shops in Petty Cury. Her office window looked out onto Sidney Street, and with binoculars could probably have seen Roland’s College in the distance. Like Amstrad’s former HQ Brentwood House, in a series of co-incidences, it’s also now a Premier Inn.
Cambridge Register Office · family and close friends.
All welcome · drinks at The Mitre on Bridge Street, then dispersing to set up the venue and snack-lunch at D'Arry's.
Sidney Sussex College · Mong Room.
Short videos welcome by the end of August if you cannot attend.
They have booked the civil marriage at 10:15am [participants to arrive by 09:50 please] on 19th September at the Cambridge Register Office, a somewhat unprepossessing affair in a residential area about a mile north of the City Centre. It’s nicer on the inside than the outside. For family and close friends.
The reception is from 1pm at Sidney Sussex College, Mong Room, where there will be a buffet with the usual dietary options, open bar, and a display of some relevant artefacts.
There’s no on-site parking, but the aptly named Park Street Car Park is just a few minutes away, and there’s also formal and informal park-and-ride facilities available from all points of the compass. We also recommend Veezu for efficient taxi service.
Speeches and cards @2pm and if you can’t come in person, a short video can be played. The happy couple have sufficient toasters and crystal glasses to last another hundred years, but would welcome donations of vintage technology hardware/software/documentation to add to their joint collection.
The room has to be vacated by 5pm for another booking in the evening, but hopefully several attendees can decamp to one of Cambridge’s numerous hostelries or restaurants nearby.
Many central Cambridge Colleges offer very reasonably priced B&B rates, and are grander and friendlier than hotels, but generally don’t have parking. Because 18th-20th turns out to be also The University Alumni Festival, tourist rooms are selling out fast, and guests should contact Sidney Sussex direct https://www.sid.cam.ac.uk/conferences-and-events/stay-sidney/booking-conference-delegates with code PERRY2026. More single rooms than doubles.
For those wishing to make a long weekend of the event, the days before are Cambridge Tech Week, or just wandering around the City while it’s still slightly sleepy towards the end of the Long Vacation. Alumni should bring their CamCards, for ease of entry to places otherwise a bit grumpy towards tourists.
Best quirky museum is perhaps Archaeology and Anthropology on Downing St, but there’s also the Fitzwilliam, a British Museum clone but without the marbles (or a Bayeux Tapestry).
Depending on the weather, punting on Sunday. Champagne and strawberries not compulsory, but definitely recommended.