EIGHTEEN old school friends gathered for a reunion this week - 55 years after first meeting at a North-East grammar school.

Many of the old boys of St Mary's Grammar School, in Darlington, saw each other for the first time since 1950 last year, at the 75th anniversary of its opening.

The year group which started at the school in 1945 was well represented, and decided to hold its own reunion this year.

Organiser Dick Whiteside was able to contact all but one of the 30 people on the class list.

Mr Whiteside, 65, was deputy headteacher of Carmel School, until his retirement in 1994, which was formed when St Mary's merged with other schools in 1974.

"Out of 30 people in the class, there are 18 here," said Mr Whiteside.

Of the others, six had died and five were unable to attend.

He said: "From the class, we managed to contact everybody except one man of our year - Terry Cannon. We don't know what's happened to him, or even whether he's still alive."

He said the tracing process did not take as long as expected, with people eventually making the trip to the Darlington reunion from as far as Kent.

"It was done over a quick period of months. We even contacted one of ours who lives in Canada. He has responded, but he hasn't been able to come. But other people have come some distance."

Mr Whiteside continued at St Mary's until 1952, having stayed on at sixth form, while others left in 1950 at the age of 15.

They met up with their former classmates yesterday at Hall Garth Hall Hotel and Country Club, in Coatham Mundeville, near Darlington.

"It's been marvellous," said Mr Whiteside.

"On the day we had the full school reunion, we really didn't find we had finished the business of meeting one another and we wanted more time together.

"We particularly wanted to meet the people who were in our own year.