Obituaries The thoughts and prayers of the whole Barnard Castle School community are extended to the family and friends and of those Old Barnardians no longer with us. May they rest in peace. C A R (Bob) Johnson (‘86) - suddenly in Feb 2013. Bob leaves a wife, Samantha and two sons, Chris and Isaac. Richard Ridley Reay - passed away in July 2011. Keith Rochester - passed away suddenly on March 10th 2012. Keith had 2 sons who are doctors and five grandchildren. He was married for 43 years. Alan Chadwick - Much loved Prep School Headmaster, Chemistry teacher and polymath, Alan Chadwick, died this year, aged 73. His funeral was held in the School Chapel, 31st August, 2012. ‘A grammar school boy from humble origins, Alan’s early achievements as Head boy of his school, then Cambridge graduate, were conventional enough but he had a life-long suspicion of pomp and ceremony, leant towards radical left-wing politics, regarded religion and most grand narratives of human existence as a weakness and forsook his first teaching post in Hull for a more grounded educational approach, which he found in Tanzania then Zambia. Married to Barbara (whom he had met as a lab technician in Hull) with small children, David and Nina, he returned from turmoil in Zambia, to be offered the headmastership of Barnard Castle Prep School. Here the legend grew. With a photographic memory and an ability to learn new skills at any time in his life (he produced the first timetable programme in the school), Alan was an engaging conversationalist but, above all, an eccentric with explosive tastes – literally! To the delight of staff and children, terms would often end with a march to the top of the school field and extraordinary pyrotechnics which would probably have failed any modern health and safety procedures. The most memorable was a bomb, built along IRA lines, which left a crater in the field and cracked windows in the Bowes Museum. His skills were put to good use in more conventional ways, in the garden, where he was an expert on fertiliser compounds and, in retirement, tended a garden full of flora which bulked the arrangements in School Chapel on the day of his funeral. Prep School Headmaster from 1979 to 1989, in the days when pupils and resident staff competed for space in Westwick Lodge, Alan was the driving force behind the gooseberry picking expeditions, the sledging in winter, cub camps and hiking, swimming and rounders – the very stuff of childhood memory. Taking up the cudgels of Chemistry in the senior school from 1989 to2001, I remember thinking the labs were ablaze, only to be told that Alan always lit every Bunsen burner in the winter to take the chill off the place. Retreating to part-time teaching between 2001 and 2003, Alan remained a fixture on the Waddington walking trips for several years beyond this and was only robbed recently by illness of the sparkling intellect and humour which lit up his career and all those around him. His legacy? Top flight chemistry students from Africa and this country who were fired by his thinking and personality, colleagues who found in him a counterweight to stifling educational convention and, of course, his family – Barbara, his wife of over 40 years, children David and Nina and grandchildren Nina, Alison and Tom. His daughter’s concluding remarks at the funeral were “My father was a good man. We love you very much and hope you are now at peace”.’SJR. The Old Barnardians Secretary received messages via email which were made into a booklet and presented to the family. 16
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