2020 Obituary Supplement

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Anthony Simon Bendall FSA, FRNS (OJ & L, 1956) Simon Bendall died on the 26th July 2019, aged 82. In 1953, he found his first Roman coin in a local field, inspiring him to become a collector. He frequented the antique shops in Cheltenham perusing their bowls of unidentified Roman coins. His interest lay in Imperial Roman coins, not the Republican series; he noted in his autobiography that, “I have never been able to raise any enthusiasm for them.” He was secretary of the Archaeological Society and began to spend his spare time and holidays working on excavations, mainly of Roman sites, for the next 17 years.

On leaving College, he served his National Service in the Royal Artillery. He then joined HJ Heinz in London in 1959, and in 1961 he enrolled at the Institute of Archaeology, London University, for a four-year part-time course. After the first three years, respectively on Prehistory, the Ancient Near East, and Bronze and Iron Age Europe, there were options for the fourth year and Simon chose Roman Britain. He went on to a very successful numismatic career and his interest in coins led to him being elected a Fellow of the Royal Numismatic Society (FRNS) in 1961, the requirement being an evident interest in ancient coins and the support of two existing Fellows.

He worked for Spink & Sons in the Ancient Coins Department from 1962-1965. In 1967, he became the ancient coin expert at AH Baldwin where he worked for 20 years. He joined Numismatic Fine Arts in Los Angeles and worked there for two years. In 1998 he catalogued the first sale of the Byzantine gold coins from the Nelson Bunker Hunt Collection for Sotheby’s, New York.

Returning to London, he was self-employed between 2000 and 2006. He then re-joined Spink, where he worked until his retirement in 2010. Between 2000 and 2006 and since 2010 he acted as a consultant on late Byzantine coins to museums, auction houses and private collectors. He regularly participated in international conferences on various numismatic topics.

Over the years he has written a series of books on Byzantine coins and weights, as well as over 200 articles dealing not only with ancient coins but also military history and jewellery. His contributions have been published in many scientific journals. In 2015, his monograph entitled ‘An Introduction to the Coinage of the Empire of Trebizond’ presented the first major work on this subject for more than a century.

Simon is survived by his sister Elizabeth, his nephew and six nieces.

Major Anthony Lloyd Bowyer (Hon OC, Former Staff Member 1953 - 1962) Anthony (Tony) Bowyer died on the 13th December 2019, aged 95.

Before entering the teaching profession, he was a Major in the 4th Prince of Wales Own Gurkha Rifles during the Burma Campaign in World War II: they were heavily 1.

involved in freeing the Mawchi Road, as part of the successful battle for the relief of Mandalay Road in 1945. He was mentioned in Despatches and named in the Regimental history. He later joined the Territorial Army (TA) and was awarded the TA Distinction medal in 1964.

Tony, having been awarded an open scholarship to Pembroke College, Cambridge, to read Classical History, taught at Repton and then Wrekin College before coming to College. He taught History, and was Contingent Commander of the CCF, he led the boys on four Nijmegen Marches.

On leaving College he became Head of Oldbury Technical College and, later, Head of Highfields School, Wolverhampton.

Tony is survived by his wife Sheila, son Mark and daughter Julie, his grandchildren Camilla and Lucy, and great-grandchildren Finley and Molly.

Donald Grayston Burgess (Xt, 1950) Donald (Grayston) Burgess died on the 6th March 2019, aged 86. Brought up mainly by his grandparents after the death of his father, he began his musical career by joining his brother in the choir of Canterbury Cathedral. In May 1940 the Choir School, together with the Cathedral organist, were all evacuated to Cornwall, where they spent the rest of the war singing at services in Cornish churches. In 1945, with Grayston now Head Chorister, the choir returned to Canterbury, and a year later he came to College on a music scholarship.

Grayston enjoyed a very successful time at College where he was heavily involved in music and sport. There is barely a copy of the Cheltonian where he wasn’t involved in rugby, hockey or music.

He played in the 1st XV for two years and the 1st XI hockey in his final year. He played in House and College concerts. The 1949 Cheltonian reported on the House Concert: “They sang ‘Bonnie Dundee.’ DG Burgess took a prominent part, and gave a most suave, polished and aristocratic performance. He then continued to hold the stage – now in company with D Reid (Xt, 1952), who was his partner in two piano duets – Spanish Dance (Moszkowski) and Sword Dance from Capriol Suite (Peter Warlock).”

He won a music scholarship to King’s College, Cambridge, and aged 17 was the youngest ever appointed. In the years after the rediscovery of the counter-tenor voice by Michael Tippett (one of the leading composers of the 20th century), one of the names most frequently associated with the movement that followed in the 1950s is that of Grayston Burgess. He and John Whitworth, a counter-tenor who enjoyed an international career and went on to become a Professor at the Guildhall School of Music, both sang in the choir of Westminster Abbey, and were frequently to be heard as soloists on the concert platform, in recordings and, particularly, on the wireless; the counter-tenor revival coincided with the setting-up of the BBC Third Programme.

Grayston also sang with professional ensembles such as Schola Polyphonica and the Ambrosian Singers. Appearances at the Aldeburgh Festival with The Purcell Singers, directed by Imogen Holst, eventually led to the formation, in 1963, of the Purcell Concert of Voices, directed by Grayston himself, and including

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such distinguished singers as Ian Partridge, Christopher Keyte, Geoffrey Shaw and Felicity Palmer. The consort appeared at the Edinburgh Festival, as well as in Europe, Australia and Canada, and in several countries then behind the Iron Curtain.

Martin, and the Anne Cadbury Resources Room, again off the library, was named after Anne.

His voice was described as, “the gentlest and most sopranosounding that we have yet heard in England,” and although no doubts were expressed about his sensitive musicianship, the problem was his lack of volume; the counter-tenor voice of those days was not of operatic dimensions. It was all a question of scale: two years earlier, in a recital of songs and arias by Monteverdi, Humfrey and Purcell, he was described as having “a strong voice of considerable compass,” and his agility and vocal assurance seldom failed to impress. Nevertheless, he was still in the Midsummer Night’s Dream cast when the Covent Garden production subsequently toured to Manchester, Edinburgh and Lisbon. In 1967, he sang the role of Hymen in Laurence Olivier’s all-male production of As You Like It at the Old Vic, and in 1973 he took part in the first performance, at the Royal Festival Hall, of Notre Dame des Fleurs, the opera by Peter Maxwell Davies, with Vanessa Redgrave and The Fires of London.

Anne Houston was born in Birmingham to Presbyterian parents from Glasgow and the Clyde, and by all accounts was a precocious, witty and intelligent young girl who blossomed into an attractive young woman.

From 1971 to 1976, he was Music Tours Officer for the British Council and, in the 1980s, he moved to Worcestershire, teaching at Ellerslie School, Malvern, and at Malvern College, after the schools merged in 1992. In 2000, he helped set up a community choir at Histon in Cambridgeshire, which is still going strong today.

Latterly, Grayston lived as a Brother at the Charterhouse in London and remained a staunch supporter of the traditional Cathedral Choir.

Grayston was predeceased by his wife Katherine and is survived by his daughters Greta, Susie and Rebecca.

Annette Lorimer Knox Cadbury OBE, JP, DL (Council Member, 1970-1996) Annette (Anne) Cadbury, grandmother of Charles (OJ & S, 1998), Tim Cadbury (OJ & S, 2000), Douglas (OJ & Xt, 2003), and Tor (OJ & Cha, 2005), and step-grandmother of James Bull (S, 2006), Nicholas Bull (OJ & S, 2008), and Phillipa Bull (OJ), died peacefully on the 1st January 2020, aged 94, with her surviving family members at her side.

Anne’s husband, Martin Cadbury, was a Member of Council from 1962-1969, and when Anne stood down from Council in 1996 her daughter-in-law, the late Pam Cadbury, was appointed to Council and served from 1998-2008 and was for a time Chairman of the then Finance & General Purposes Committee.

Anne and her family were great supporters of, and benefactors to, College. She was a regular attendee at the Remembrance Sunday Services and Speech Day where the Cadbury Cup was presented, and other Cheltonian Society events. When College went coeducational, Anne donated the Cadbury Cup, for a girl who has made an outstanding all-round contribution to College life. This was to match the John Bowes Cup awarded to a boy.

The Cadbury Room, off the Library, was named in memory of

(The following tribute has been written by her family.)

In 1946, soon after turning 21, she met Martin Cadbury and they married in January 1947, starting their married life in Manchester where their first son Ian was born. After that, they moved to Barton Road in Tewkesbury in 1949 and had their second son, Bruce.

Anne helped out with Martin’s new printing business in Cheltenham as well as her father’s brass foundry business in Birmingham, whilst bringing up two young boys and supporting Martin in his charitable work. Anne’s first daughter Jane was born in 1956 and her second, Bryony, in 1958 after a move to Kemerton. Around this time, Anne became increasingly involved in the YWCA, the NSPCC and the Gloucestershire Association of Boys’ Clubs.

In 1968 Anne tragically lost her eldest son, Ian, in a car crash and in 1969, her husband died suddenly of a heart attack, aged 44, events which shook the remaining family to the core.

She enjoyed her time as a Magistrate (1968-1995) in Tewkesbury and also took on the Presidency of the National YWCA (19761980). She took a deep interest in education, taking on governorships of Tewkesbury School, Ellerslie in Malvern and The Downs School in Colwall, as well as sitting on the Council of Cheltenham College and Kings in Gloucester. As Anne became more embedded in Gloucestershire life, the organisations in which she participated continued to grow, mainly focussed on youth volunteers. She was exceptionally proud of her time as Mayor of Tewkesbury in 1988. She was also Chairman of the Friends of Tewkesbury Abbey for nearly 20 years and became a Deputy Lieutenant of the County in 1991. She was awarded an OBE in 1996.

She was involved with many charitable organisations, an interest that had begun in her school days, including acting as either President, Chair or Patron to a number of these, and as a Trustee of two very large charitable trusts. She had an interest in causes for young disabled people and was particularly proud of her roles as Vice-President of the National Star Centre in Gloucestershire and as patron of St Vincent’s Centre, with which she had an association for over 50 years. She was also County President of the Order of St John and a founding member of the Honourable Company of Gloucestershire.

Throughout all this time she spent many holidays in ‘Trejabbim’, the family holiday house in Cornwall. It held very special memories for her and she loved to walk along the coastline around Trebetherick where she spent many happy family times. She had been forced to give up playing tennis due to a series of back problems, but this didn’t stop her from playing golf on the course at St Enodoc until well into her 60s. She also enjoyed a game of Scrabble until the very end.

Anne has been described as an archetypal matriarch, a public servant with boundless energy, quick wit and a twinkle in her eye.

Not only will Tewkesbury and Gloucestershire deeply miss her 2.

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presence, but so will her surviving family of two daughters and a son, four grandsons, three granddaughters, five great-grandsons and two great-granddaughters.

There will be a Memorial Service for Anne in Tewkesbury Abbey at 2.00pm on 4th April, with tea afterwards - all welcome.

Geoffrey Herbert Cassels (BH, 1959) Geoffrey Cassels, father of Julien Herbert Cassels (BH, 2005), died on 16th November 2014, aged 73.

Geoffrey rowed in the 1st VIII for two years and was Captain of the Boat Club in his final year. He was a College Prefect and a scholar.

On leaving College, he trained as an accountant in London. In 1979 he got an offer to work for Coopers & Lybrand in New York, following a merger the firm became known as Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC). He was awarded a Master’s degree from Columbia University, qualified as a certified public accountant, and became a partner in the firm, for whom he worked in New York for 33 years and retiring in 2003. His work took him overseas many times; he lived in England and Hong Kong for a number of years.

Geoffrey enjoyed summering in Amenia, New York, and became a full-time resident in 2005. He was a member of the New York Athletic Club and the Royal Over-Seas League and was a longstanding parishioner of St Thomas Episcopal Church, Amenia Union.

Geoffrey is survived by his beloved wife Danielle and their son Julien, daughter Zoe and grandson Jase-Parker.

Major John Chandler AFC (NH, 1947) John Chandler died on the 23rd September 2019, aged 90. He played in the 1947 XV. The Cheltonian report on the match against Wellington said: “They attacked persistently, but every movement was countered with close marking and deadly tackling in which Ruck, Chandler and Strover excelled.”

College won 6-3. The report on the Richmond A game said: “College increased their score after Ruck had made an opening for Chandler to force his way over for a good try wide out.” College won 11-5.

John’s father was a rubber planter who managed estates in the north of Malaya. John was born in Penang on 5th August 1929.

He spent the first eight years of his life there, going at the age of five as a boarder to Tanglin School up in the Cameron Highlands.

In 1937, John came to England to board at St Piran’s Prep School in Maidenhead. When war was declared John, aged 10, expected straight away to see troops, guns and tanks come rolling over St Helen’s Green, on the Isle of Wight, where he was staying with his grandparents, but life seemed to go on as normal, much to John’s disappointment. The Headmaster of St Piran’s was a retired naval officer, so he quickly prepared the school for air-raids. The Blitz began a year later and the boys spent many nights in the cellars sleeping in their clothes. When a German invasion became a real possibility, however, John’s parents preferred to have him with them, so he sailed back to Malaya on the Empress of India in the summer of 1940.

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In September 1941, John’s father was due six months leave, but it was considered too dangerous to return to England, so the family went to Australia, setting up a temporary home in Melbourne, where John attended Geelong Grammar School. It was a tough school but had plenty of outdoor activities which suited John very well.

This period of leave was a stroke of luck for the family because in December 1941 the Japanese invaded Malaya. The rubber estates which John’s father managed were near the Thai border and were overrun on the first day. They lost everything, including many colleagues and friends, but at least they were together as a family.

By October 1942, John’s father, who had served in the First World War, decided he could not continue to stay in Australia while his fellow Englishmen were fighting, so the family moved again. They travelled by Dutch cargo ship across the Pacific to New Zealand, through the Panama Canal, then up the east coast of America to New York, where they spent Christmas. In January, their ship joined a convoy preparing to cross the Atlantic to Belfast. John was only 13 at the time, but because of the danger inherent in the voyage he was trained as a supernumerary member of the crew. He was part of the gun crew, took his four-hour watch on the bridge, and was responsible for signals displayed by international flags and Morse code. Although really very dangerous, at the time the whole thing seemed like a huge adventure to John and he was delighted to be treated like an adult.

John was called up for National Service in 1948 and afterwards joined the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. He entered Sandhurst in January 1949, receiving his commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in July 1950. His first posting was to Jamaica, which he maintained was six months of parties, golf, swimming and evenings in a Kingston night club called The Glass Bucket. He said he never took the army too seriously after that!

Shortly thereafter the regiment was sent to Egypt for four months, and then on to Kenya on active duty during the Mau Mau problem.

From there John was posted to the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers depot in Northern Ireland, as Adjutant, until May 1956. In 1954 they fended off an IRA arms raid on their depot in Omagh.

In July 1956, John was seconded to the French Foreign Legion for a few weeks before returning to take up the post of instructor at Sandhurst. Later that year he applied for flying training and was accepted. He subsequently became a very accomplished pilot in both fixed wing planes and helicopters.

The following year John was sent to Malaya, where he spent three years flying reconnaissance sorties during the Malayan Emergency, constantly searching the jungle for communist camps.

Towards the end of 1959, he was carrying out reconnaissance just over the border into Thailand and discovered a large Communist camp in the jungle. The information was given to Brigade Headquarters and an operation was mounted. After a short battle the Communists withdrew, abandoning equipment and vital documentation. It turned out to be the HQ of Chin Peng who was the leader of the Communist uprising. The Malayan Emergency was over a few months later, and John was told that his work had played a major part in this. He was Mentioned in Despatches in 1959 and was awarded the Air Force Cross in 1960 for “his outstanding ability and hard work which produced much valuable information regarding terrorist activities.” He was the first army officer to be awarded the Air Force Cross since it was established in 1918.

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John was in command of 11 Flight AAC based in Malaya and Borneo, flying helicopters, which included dropping the SAS into remote places and working closely with local tribespeople on a ‘Hearts and Minds’ basis. One night while on the base in Malaya, John got a late night call from the regimental doctor, who told him one of the Gurkha’s wives was having a difficult labour and they didn’t have the facilities to do a caesarean. It was 3.00am and the air base was shrouded in thick fog, with just a tiny air strip surrounded by 100ft trees. John took off in his helicopter and managed to get her to the British Military Hospital in Singapore in less than an hour. Thanks to John’s experience and courage, both mother and baby were saved.

From 1967 to 1969, John was posted to Germany where he set up the first Army Air Corps Squadron. By 1970, John had decided to leave the army to focus on his family. He was offered a job with Firestone in South Africa, which he accepted and he and his wife Mary Rose and four young children started a new life in Port Elizabeth. However, his marriage broke up and he married his second wife Susanna.

John started a new career as a management consultant, but he still found time for sailing at the Squadron and the Seaview Yacht Club of which he had been a member since 1951. He became Rear Commodore Sailing from 1982-1983, Vice Commodore in 1984 and Commodore from 1985-1987. In 1985 he established the Commodore’s Trophy which is a barograph awarded at the AGM to a Club member for a special achievement in the sailing world outside Seaview waters.

By 2007 John was single again and he met Elizabeth in 2009.

John and Elizabeth had 10 very happy years together, marrying in 2013.

He was a kind and gentle man with great charm and a warm smile which endeared him to everyone he met. He was courteous, patriotic and had a good sense of humour. He never had a bad word to say about anyone, and had a gift for friendship which made him a very popular and much-loved man.

John was predeceased by his son James and is survived by his wife Elizabeth, daughter Sophie, sons Marcus and Hugo and his grandchildren.

Col William Robert Hunter (Robin) Charley OBE, JP, DL (BH, 1942) Robin Charley, son of Colonel HR Charley CBE, DL (PBH, 1887) and grandfather of Rebecca Reynolds (We, 2014), died on the 15th July 2019, aged 95. He came to College in 1938 from a prep school in Northern Ireland.

During a visit to College to visit his granddaughter in 2013, Robin visited Archives and was shown the original application form for him, that had been written by his father when Robin was a year old. In the part that said “future occupation if known”, he discovered his father had written “probably army!”

On leaving College, he went to Queen’s University, Belfast, for a year, before enlisting in The Royal Ulster Rifles (RUR). Later in life he was interviewed by the BBC and said: “Near the end of the war, I was given the job of going up to Hoyton Camp in Liverpool

where I had to march 1000 German POWs down to Cheltenham to the camp there. I had a little sergeant, Intelligence Corps, who spoke German, and one or two others. We were on this train with 1000 Germans on it. And when we got to Cheltenham I formed them all up. They had to march about a mile to this camp they had to go to. On the way we passed near my old school, Cheltenham College, and, you’d never guess, I met my German master there.

I said ‘Look, sir, look at what I’ve got here!’ I had a thousand Germans under me, and he was the one who’d been teaching me German a few years before. That was quite fun.”

He served in Palestine, Egypt and then in Korea during the Korean War. When, in 1950, his Battalion was posted to Korea, he was acting as a General’s ADC (aid-de camp) and volunteered to go.

There was no vacancy for another Captain and all ranks were filled. However, not wanting to miss out, and keen to go with his men, he agreed to drop to the rank of Lieutenant and took a pay cut. On the night of 3rd/4th January 1951, he was involved in the so-called Battle of Happy Valley, where 157 RUR soldiers were killed or taken prisoner in a single night. In this battle, Robin led a group of soldiers out of the valley. The fighting was some of the fiercest since the Second World War. After regrouping and reinforcement, the Battalion moved into another defensive position on the River Imjin, where they repulsed a further major attack.

Whilst preparing this position the Battalion was short of supplies so Robin, using his initiative and his fun side, went to a nearby US Army Depot and commandeered a truck with enough supplies for 100 men, signing the paperwork as Mickey Mouse!

Robin was a well-liked and much respected figure among all ranks and members of other regiments. Everyone who knew him experienced his fun side at one time or another.

In his later years, Robin led a number of visits to Korea, accompanied by his daughter Catherine. He was greeted as a VVIP by National, Regional and Local Government and warmly received by surviving locals and their families. He was responsible for the erection of a permanent memorial in Seoul in 2013 and a memorial plaque in Happy Valley, making a remarkable speech there at the age of 91, when it was unveiled.

In 1951, he was posted as Officer Commanding the UK company at the Commonwealth Division Battle School at Hara Musa in Japan, before moving with the regiment to Hong Kong. A series of career appointments followed in the subsequent years, including time at the War Office and then in Staff College in Camberley in 1958. 1960 saw Robin being posted as training Major to the 6th Battalion Royal Ulster Rifles. Further key staff appointments followed, but undoubtedly his military high watermark came with his appointment as Commanding Officer of Queen’s University OTC in 1965. He was an instant hit and the officer cadets and his staff adored him. He increased the size of the OTC and persuaded a number of students to join the army.

He later served as the recruiting officer/schools’ liaison in Northern Ireland, then as the Army’s Liaison Officer to the HQ Royal Ulster Constabulary and, subsequently, to the HQ Ulster Defence Regiment at a time of considerable challenge and the emergence of a ruthless terrorist campaign led by the IRA. His military experience and local knowledge helped him advise the police on planning and co-ordinating operations with them and the regular army.

After his retirement from the Army in 1971, he took up a retired officer’s post as Regimental Secretary of the Royal Irish Rangers, 4.

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which he held for nearly 20 years.

He was also greatly supportive of a number of charities, including St John Ambulance where he was made a Knight of St John. He was Chairman of the board of Clifton House, a member of the board of the Northern Ireland War Memorial, and took up a role in the RUR Museum.

In the early 1990s he was appointed a trustee and honorary treasurer of the newly constituted Somme Association, which had been established to commemorate the sacrifice of the Irish soldiers in the First World War, and particularly at the Somme where his uncle had served. Robin was influential in helping to establish the Somme Heritage Centre, which opened in 1994 and later became known as the Somme Museum. Caroline Walker, Director of the Somme Association, paid the following tribute to Robin: “As Chair, Colonel Charley was responsible for overseeing the centre into the fully accredited independent museum that it is today.

Colonel Charley will always be remembered by all in the Somme Association and Somme Museum as a truly remarkable gentleman who was full of life, and a man of integrity. He was inspirational and his enthusiasm was infectious. He had a fun-loving nature and could captivate people with his stories. He will also always be remembered as always having the loudest expressed ‘Yo’ when the regimental march was being played!”

Robin had many hobbies, including playing the trumpet, which he had learnt at College, in the CCF. In Belfast he had entertained the crowds by playing the trumpet from the back of a friend’s motorcycle on VE day. On Mess Nights in the Army, he would join the band to play Irish jigs on a rifle, after fitting a special mouthpiece to the barrel!

He was a Deputy Lieutenant of County Down, a former High Sheriff of County Antrim and a Justice of the Peace.

Robin was predeceased by his wife Janet and is survived by his daughters Catherine, Elizabeth and Jane, and four grandchildren.

Timothy Ruthven Clarke (L, 1981) Tim Clarke died on the 23rd July 2019, aged 55. He is survived by his widow Pippa and daughters Georgie and Anna.

(Mark Glowrey (W/L, 1981), a contemporary and good friend of Tim, wrote the following tribute.)

Tim Clarke joined College from Woodcote House Prep school, quickly becoming a popular member of Leconfield. On the sports field, Tim was generally economical with his use of energy, and had been known to find cunning short-cuts on the cross country course. However, he would certainly put his heart into the House Pots for rugby, and was also cox for the 2nd VIII and IV, competing in the Worcester Head of the River, the Bristol Ariel and the Putney Heads. He studied A-Levels in Physics, Chemistry and Maths and displayed a talent for electronics.

After College, Tim started on a degree in Engineering at Birmingham, but decided that this was not for him and switched to Law at Bristol. Still uncertain as to where his interests lay, a career was put on hold for a few years in favour of a more freewheeling period of life. Tim joined Starlight in West London, a provider of lighting and scenery design for grand parties. As ever, firm friends 5.

were made and for some years Tim and his colleagues travelled the length and breadth of the land, transforming marquees into sciencefiction sets or empty warehouses into ancient Rome for the course of the night.

However, thought was given to the future and Tim decided to take up accountancy, joining the firm of Morison Stoneham in London, qualifying as an ACA in 1993. The choice of Morison Stoneham was a good one; it was at the firm that he was to meet his future wife, Pippa.

By the late nineties, Tim had set his sights on a move to the West Country, in order to better enjoy sailing and the outdoor life he loved. Pippa and Tim settled on Cargreen, just up the estuary from Plymouth and perfectly equipped for Tim’s requirements with moorings, a sailing club and the Crooked Spaniard pub. Tim became a valued member of the local community, serving as a Governor at Landulph School and a regular competitor in the sailing club races both in his Hobie Cat and his Sadler yacht.

Tim was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2010. He remained positive and cheerful to the last, raising two daughters with Pippa and continuing to enjoy family life, sailing and camping in spite of difficulties of the disease and its treatment. Sadly, on the 23rd July 2019, Tim died. On 5th August, he made his last voyage, towed down the Tamar estuary on his Hobie Cat to the Church of St Leonard and St Dilpe, where family and friends from his many walks of life awaited.

Tim left the Landulph Parish Church to the strains of Chuck Berry’s Johnny B Goode, a song Tim had been known to play loudly on guitar in the corridors of the Leconfield shacks. It was a poignant reminder of Tim’s ever-cheerful and irreverent outlook on life.

John Louis Brunel Cohen OBE, DL (Xt, 1940) John Brunel Cohen, brother of the late George Brunel Cohen (Xt, 1936) and son of the late Major Sir Jack Brunel Cohen KBE (PBH, 1899), died on the 30th January 2019, aged 96. His father was a first World War soldier who lost his legs on the first day at Passchendaele in 1917, at the age of 19, and was one of the co-founding members of the Not Forgotten Association (NFA) and the British Legion.

John joined the Royal Marines soon after war was declared, training at the officers’ school at Thurlestone, Devon. As a Lieutenant, he commanded a squadron of eight small landing craft on D-Day 1944.

His slow-moving Landing Craft Mechanised (LCM) started their Channel crossing ahead of the Allied Armada and were well on their way to Normandy when, on the night of the 4th of June, the landings were postponed after a forecast of bad weather. Turning back, his craft had not reached shelter when the decision to land on the 6th June was made, and he turned again for France. His orders were that in the event of difficulty in forming up in the dark or becoming separated in low visibility etc, the golden rule is let the whole confusion proceed at an even speed of advance.

The open-decked, flat-bottomed LCMs, measuring 48ft 6in long and 14ft wide, were tossed in rough seas, and, when it became necessary to refuel using jerry cans, it was impossible to avoid

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spillages which left a strong stink of diesel. After a night and a day at sea it was a triumph that his squadron arrived together off Juno Beach as darkness fell. There he anchored, under shelling, until unloading could begin at first light.

For the next few days, John ferried stores from the bigger ships anchored further out to sea, with no lee until the artificial Gooseberry harbours arrived. Only after their mother ship, the exCunarder Ascania, arrived were reserve crews available and John and his men could enjoy the comfort of a 24-hour respite once a week.

John recalled that in a break in ferry duties his squadron was ordered to berth alongside the battleship Rodney to act as a buffer in case she was attacked by torpedoes. The noise of her guns firing over his head permanently damaged his hearing. He recalled also, while his “boys” were brewing tea on the beach on the 16th June, seeing King George VI step unexpectedly down from a DWKM or Duck (amphibious truck). John wanted to offer the monarch a cuppa! John’s LCM operations only came to an end two weeks after D-Day when a fierce storm swept up-Channel damaging several of his craft.

On the 6th June 2014, he attended the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings which saw 156,000 Allied troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Free France and Norway begin the liberation of France which eventually helped lead to the defeat of Nazi Germany. He was the oldest Royal Marine veteran and valued his close connection to the Corps.

After the war, John joined the Cunard Steamship Company and subsequently became a name at Lloyds. He became a trustee of the Not Forgotten Association (NFA) in 1965. He was Chairman from 1979-1993 and since then was an Active Vice-President. His family’s involvement with the charity covers its entire history as his father co-founded the NFA and became its first Chairman. John’s long involvement with the NFA from childhood to Chairmanship gave the NFA a special place in his life and affections. He also introduced many benefactors and always said that the veterans he met through the NFA were “some of the finest.” His life, his generosity and his involvement with the NFA over so many years will always form an important part of their history. He was awarded an OBE in recognition of his service with the NFA. John was a Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London from 1992-1997, Master of the Worshipful Company of Gardeners 1977-1978, and a Member of the Royal British Legion Benevolent Committee 19831988. He was presented with the Légion d’Honneur (the highest French order of merit for military and civil merits, established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte) at a ceremony at the French Ambassador’s residence in London in 2014.

A month before his exploits on the Normandy beaches, he was initiated, with his brother George, into the OC Masonic Lodge and remained a member for the rest of his life, passing away just before the 75th anniversary of his initiation. He became Worshipful Master (WM) of the Lodge in and served for many years as Chief Steward. He should have been the centenary WM in 2007 but unfortunately suffered a heart attack and stood aside. He held Senior London Grand Rank and was a member of the St Andrews Lodge. Between his uncle Harold Sington (Corinth, 1896) and himself, one of the Cohen family has been a member of the Lodge for the whole of its 112 years of existence.

Until quite recently, and for 37 years prior to that, he used to winter

vacation in the West Indies. He was a member of the Carlton Club which he frequented quite often.

John’s first wife Simone died at a young age leaving a daughter, Jane, and twin sons, Richard and David. He subsequently married Christine who took a close interest in the NFA and who sadly died after over thirty years of marriage in 2007. He was predeceased by his daughter Jane and survived by his twin sons Richard and David from his first marriage, and two stepsons and two stepdaughters.

John wished that his body be donated for medical research. There was not a funeral but a Celebration of his Life was held at the Carlton Club in London.

David Frederick Barbour Denham (Xt, 1950) David Denham died on the 13th May 2019, aged 96.

John Oswald Dick (Ch, 1968) John Dick, son of the late John McGill Dick (Ch, 1927), nephew of the late Thomas Oswald Morgan Dick (Ch, 1931) and the late Oswald Hector James Dick (Ch, 1932), and uncle of James Dallas (L, 1994) and Edward Dallas (L, 1997), died peacefully at home on the 23rd February 2019, aged 68.

Before coming to College, John attended Hillstone Prep School where he excelled both in the classroom and on the sports field playing in the Cricket XI for the school three years running.

At College, his interest in History and English Literature flourished and he took up Golf, Racquets and Fives. He won a Travelling Scholarship to study Renaissance Art in Florence and Rome and became a College Prefect. He left College in December 1968, having won a D Wightwick Scholarship to Pembroke College, Oxford.

His gap year was spent in Zambia on the Prain family’s property. Aside from herding cattle he also had the chance to fly a light aircraft, a skill he later pursued at Oxford, and most memorably delivered a baby in the back of a Land Rover!

At Oxford, John read Jurisprudence also finding time for the University Air Squadron and rowing in Pembroke’s Gentlemen’s Eight. After graduation, he had a brief flirtation with a career in accountancy before realising this was not his calling. Instead he took his bar finals and was called to the bar in July 1974. It was at the College of Law that he met his future wife Irene, a fellow student.

He became a tenant in Robert Watson’s Chambers, at 3 Temple Gardens in the Middle Temple, which specialises in revenue law. There he spent his successful professional life, in a room with a turret overlooking the Thames, dealing exclusively with Trust and Revenue Law. The corporate problems he tackled were challenging and financially rewarding but the work he did for individuals and families gave him considerable satisfaction with glimpses into different worlds as he dealt with industrialists, ancient estates and modern artists.

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When, because of his health, he gave up his practice, he continued to help people on a pro bono basis working with Tax Help for the Elderly. He loved a complex problem, the opportunity to help and make a difference and devoted the same attention to detail and dogged determination to these cases that he had shown in all his professional life.

Although he spent his adult life living in London, John was at heart a country boy and never missed the chance to travel to the mountains of Scotland or Switzerland. He loved Kettleburgh in Suffolk, where he had a country home, appreciating the peace of the countryside, his garden and the community, which he soon became part of. His ashes will lie in the churchyard there, once they return from the medical school where his body is currently teaching medical students anatomy.

He was particularly happy among his family and is survived by his wife Irene, sons Jonathan and Robert, his granddaughters Alexandra and Emilia and his sisters Elizabeth and Margaret.

The Honourable Tim Hamilton-Smith (OJ & Th, 1962) (Lynn Rowland (Xt, 1962) and Chris Davies (Th, 1962), contemporaries and good friends of Tim, have written the following tribute.)

Tim Hamilton-Smith, younger brother of Lord Tony Colwyn (DB, 1960), died in Cape Town, South Africa, on September 25th 2018 aged 74, after a long battle with cancer. He had a distinguished career at College and was a passionate sportsman: a triple colour in rugby, cricket and hockey. He became a College Prefect and Head of Thirlestaine under Edwin Calvert.

In 1963, Tim began his time at University College Oxford, where he achieved a degree in Geography and a Diploma in Education.

He excelled on the rugby pitch, playing around forty times for the Blues XV, without actually achieving a ‘blue’, which was a huge disappointment to both himself and his friends. Tim was also a golfer of some repute and once hit a golf ball from the back corner of the University front quad into that of Queen’s College, on the opposite side of ‘the high’ – no mean feat!

During his time at Oxford, Tim met Carolyn and they married in Malmesbury Abbey in July 1967. Anyone who attended Tim’s ‘stag’, imprudently held on the night before the wedding, will never forget it!

Tim and Carolyn moved to Cape Town in December 1967, to some extent influenced by the South African friends Tim had met at Oxford. He returned to the UK briefly in 1971 to teach at The Lees School in Cambridge, on an exchange. He taught very successfully at Bishops, the Diocesan College, Rondebosch, Cape Town, soon becoming a Housemaster, Head of Geography and was Vice-Principal for fifteen years before retiring in 2007. He then became the Old Boys’ secretary for six years, with Carolyn as his Assistant, liaising and keeping in touch with former pupils.

Tim was an ebullient character with a dry wit and sense of humour, which all of us who knew him will surely miss and never forget.

He is survived by his wife Carolyn and his daughters, Fiona and Annabel, and their families, including his grandson Jake.

7.

John Henry Walter Harford (H, 1954) John Harford passed away on the 13th April 2019, aged 83.

John came to College from Dean Close Junior School and quickly excelled as a sportsman. He played in the Hockey 1st XI for three years, captaining the side in 1954. The 1954 Cheltonian report on the match against Magdalen College School said: “Outclassed, and with backs to the wall, College nevertheless defended steadily, and Halford showed himself to be one of the few who could clear quickly and efficiently.” He played for the 2nd XV in 1953 and 2nd XI cricket in 1954. In the match against Rendcomb he took 5 for 27 and scored 52no, guiding the team to victory. John was a College Prefect in his final year.

On leaving College, he served his National Service in the Duke of Cornwall Light Infantry and was seconded to the Somaliland Scouts. In 1957, he joined the Colonial Police in Tanganyika where he commanded a Police Field unit in Tanga and Mwanza, and where he stayed until 1962. He then joined the Intelligence Core of the Army, and he quickly rose through the ranks until retiring in 1991.

John enjoyed his retirement, being with his family, extensively researching his family history and playing golf, which he had taken up whilst in the Army.

John lived a very full and rewarding life with plenty of memories and stories from his time both at Dean Close and College. He is survived by his wife Rita and daughter Angela.

Elizabeth Mary Hawkins (Prep Staff, 2010-2019) Elizabeth (Liz) Hawkins passed away peacefully on the 4th August 2019, aged 46, after a long battle with cancer which she fought very positively.

Liz’s family moved to Cheltenham in 1973 and after attending St James Primary School and Bournside School, she pursued a teaching degree at Trinity College, Carmarthen.

Soon after finishing her degree, she married Simon.

On graduating, Liz briefly held a teaching post at a private school in Swindon, before changing tack and working for the Environment Agency for several years, something she enjoyed immensely and gained a great deal of satisfaction from. After a career break to have her children, Ryan and Millie, Liz went back to teaching, initially covering as a supply teacher, but eventually ending up as a learning support assistant at the Prep School, a post in which she stayed until her death. Her time at the Prep was an immensely happy time, with her determination and work ethic always shining through. Liz was immensely proud of her role and work and a huge advocate of the school.

Liz had always been part of the Guiding movement from a young child. When she left the Guides and went to Trinity College, Liz trained to be a Guide Leader and this continued throughout her life. She was in charge of 17th Bethesda Guides for over 20 years, seeing hundreds of girls throughout this time, organising numerous trips to Big Gig, Wellies & Wristbands, Malvern Challenge,

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Strategy and many more. Her determination and drive throughout meant that the unit remained strong; when Liz started, the unit only contained 6 guides, but after she took over the numbers increased and stayed at nearly 20 throughout her tenure. For the last 10 years, Liz helped start up and run a Rainbow unit as well, something she grew into loving as much as the guides.

During her time as a Guide Leader, Liz took on the role as District Commissioner for the Park District as well as becoming a South West Junior Council member.

In accordance with her wishes, her ashes will be spread near to the Girl Guiding HQ in Cowley.

Liz is survived by her husband Simon, son Ryan and daughter Millie.

Evan David Adam Hill (BH, 1955) Adam Hill, son of Cenydd David Hill (BH, 1924), died in November 2018, aged 81. He was born in Njoro, an agricultural town 18 km from Nakuru, Kenya, situated on the western rim of the Rift Valley, where his father farmed.

On leaving College, he worked for his father until 1969, gradually taking over the management of a vast dairy herd and later a cheese factory, with the result that he became a highly skilled cattleman.

Adam was also a great mimic and acted out many a part for the local Nakuru theatre scene, including the popular Christmas pantomines.

He moved to Rhodesia with his first wife Wendy and their family, but after a short spell there he was invited to Florida by a former Kenyan farmer, to help establish a grand residential development from scrubland and swamp, complete with schools, sporting grounds and commercial centres. It was in Florida that he first showed signs of the crippling rheumatoid arthritis that was to dog him for the rest of his life, and caused him to move to England for treatment.

The years spent in England could be described as Adam’s wilderness years before he found a job in Tanzania, where he met his second wife Elizabeth, firstly running a coconut plantation on Mafia Island, then taking over the administration of a hunting safari company out of Arusha. This job suited him perfectly as he was an avid and knowledgeable birder until the onset of macular degeneration when, unable to see the birds, he learned to distinguish them by their calls.

Adam was a born fighter, tenacious to the last. One evening, ten years ago, a knife-yielding gang savagely attacked him as he sat alone on his veranda, leaving him scarcely alive. Badly cut and bleeding profusely, he managed to crawl to his car and drive one-handed to the nearest neighbour whom he alerted with a continuous blast of the horn as he fell over the steering wheel.

Adam was predeceased by his son Simon, and is survived by his wife Elizabeth, his daughter Louise and grandson Peter.

John Richard Hunt BEd, MEd (JS staff, 1971-91) John Hunt died on the 20th April 2019, aged 71. He is survived by his wife Sue, his children Luci and David, and his three grandchildren Lily, Ella and Tom. (The following tribute has been written by Andrew Schuman (OJ & S, 1986.)

John was a man born to teach, and born into a world of teaching.

His father, Gerald Hunt, was the Head Teacher of the village primary school that John attended in rural Wiltshire – and his mother, Marjorie Golder, worked at the same school. The family lived modestly ‘over the shop’, in a school house, the austerity of post-war Britain shaping John’s formative years.

He moved on to Commonweal Grammar School in Swindon, and it was there that John’s life-long love affair with sport began.

He remembered playing football at every opportunity, always with a tennis ball, as anything larger was banned, and was also captivated by cricket. He confessed that he could never quite see eye to eye with some of the other subjects, particularly mathematics. “Why would anyone want to explore how long it would take three men to dig a hole if it took five men two hours?”, he later mused. “Clearly, the people who wrote these questions took no account of the rule book of the Amalgamated Union of Hole Diggers, nor of their shop steward, who would undoubtedly have been working out potential redundancy deals for two of his original squad of five.” John’s keen sense of social justice and fairness was evidently forged in these early years.

His sporting prowess progressed as he moved through secondary school. In the freezing cold winter of 1963, as the football season got underway, he was selected to play in the 1st XI, which was effectively an under-19 team. He was just fifteen. The Head of the PE Department spotted this burgeoning sporting talent, and encouraged him to apply for a place at the prestigious Loughborough College. It was one of the first things he said that he’d really wanted to do.

After leaving school, and before going up to Loughborough, he spent the summer of 1966 working as a redcoat at Butlins in Margate. It was there that he and his school friend would, as he put it: “learn more about how to deal with people, about how to keep smiling in even the most taxing of circumstances, than we had learned in more than seven years of secondary schooling.”

His ‘gap year’ over, John began the rigorous and demanding Loughborough course. Three years of training culminated in a Certificate of Education, and a Diploma in Physical Education.

But, even more important, it was at Loughborough that he met his future wife, Sue, romance blossoming in the jazz club of the students’ union. She had previously studied at the College of Art in the same town, but by then was working as a designer in a fashion house in Birmingham. They were to marry the following year, in 1970.

John began his first paid employment in a primary school in the West Midlands. On his first day, and within half an hour or so of meeting his new class of 11-year olds, one of them – a pale, shy girl – opened her desk lid and was promptly and horribly sick inside it. It was perhaps no surprise that John had always 8.

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wanted to spend more time outside the classroom, in his words “in the realm of physical education.” As good fortune would have it, an advert appeared in the Times Educational Supplement for a teacher to take responsibility for PE at the Junior School of Cheltenham College, known simply as ‘The Junior’. His interview was with the redoubtable former England rugby player Headmaster, WPC Davies.

John’s arrival that day didn’t go unnoticed. He was spotted waiting outside the Headmaster’s study by one of the more recently appointed younger masters, Jim Dunn (JS staff, 1986-2009). It was John’s dress sense that most struck Jim: “He looked all shiny and new, youthful, fresh faced, lean and athletic with perfect black hair and perfect white teeth…” The only potential sticking point was his agnosticism – staff members were expected to attend school chapel every Sunday, and John hadn’t attended church since his primary school days. But he stuck to his guns, and sure enough the phone call came through two days later, Phil Davies offering him the job. John was elated.

As Jim Dunn later recalled, “John was an almost instant success.

He began by calling the boys by their first names, a practice unheard of at the time. It established a rapport with the pupils, and a quiet authority, that I could only dream of. Other members of staff followed his lead. It was catching. Even the Headmaster, Phil Davies, called him John in public, when I had only ever been addressed by my initials.” Phil Davies had been ahead of his time in appointing a specialist teacher in physical education - the remit: a broad appreciation of physical education beyond the confines of the school’s major games – rugby, hockey and cricket. And John was one of a new breed of staff from teacher training colleges who brought much needed innovation and change. He made sure that all boys played games on three afternoons a week, had a double lesson of PE – and, in the summer, two additional swimming lessons. Only two years later, he took over coaching the 1st XV. But he was always mindful, with so many matches to be played, that there was sufficient time for the boys to develop individual and group skills.

John and Sue’s two children arrived during this time: Luci in 1972 and David in 1975. With endless open space, away from busy roads, the school provided a very happy environment for the children to spend their early years – and they were apparently fussed over by the boys, particularly the boarders, many of whom were missing their own brothers and sisters.

Hungry for new challenges, John went on to teach History and Geography, initially to the younger classes. Then in 1980, and with the enthusiastic encouragement of Phil Davies, and the generous and unconditional financial support of the school, he enrolled for an in-service three-year BEd at St Paul’s College. The commitment was immense, working not infrequently late into the night, before going on to teach the following day. It also coincided with a time of political and social turbulence – of black-outs, bomb threats, and shortages of anything from sugar to toilet paper.

But John flourished, and with the help and encouragement of Phil Davies, he was able to move to, and between, different roles in the school, satisfying a personal need for new challenges, and increasing the range and depth of his experience. He became successively Form Tutor, then Head of History, and finally Second Master, but steadfastly continued to run the 1st XV, and the swimming. The huge success of physical education at The Junior was such that a second PE master was appointed in 1981 – another Loughborough man, Derek Maddock, with whom he would 9.

share some of the most enjoyable times of his teaching career.

Ever since childhood, John had always had a quiet determination to prove wrong those who might doubt him. And so it was that five years as second-in-command, the culmination of 20 years of service at the school, gave him a real taste for ‘the top job’. He needed a complete change, and enrolled on a Master’s degree in Education at Bristol University, a bold move, and one without a job at the end of it. He revelled in being a full-time student again.

It was the chance to learn from other teachers, and, for the first time, he felt himself taken seriously in a rigorously academic environment.

In 1993, he was appointed Head of Ferndale Prep School, in Faringdon, Oxfordshire – alongside his wife Sue, who became the school’s administrator. The school had a broader socio-economic range of children than The Junior, and a larger catchment area.

John and Sue eagerly rolled their sleeves up and set to work, expanding the fabric of the school, swelling pupil numbers, and enriching the staff mix. Music, art and drama were encouraged to gain strength. But it was a manageably small school, and mercifully left him time to teach. Visitors to the school were struck by the children’s easy courtesy, their lack of arrogance and their sheer enthusiasm. John had clearly left his mark.

He stepped down from Headmastership in 2001, and, never one to rest on his laurels, was brought in as an educational coordinator for the Asquith Court Group, a consortium that bought and maintained an expanding portfolio of schools in the South of England. Ferndale was among the first schools that it acquired.

John’s task was to improve and develop Asquith’s support for its schools through closer and more immediate educational guidance – as well as assistance with preparing schools for inspections. But as the Asquith Group’s expansion continued apace, John found the personal touch that he could offer the schools became ever harder to achieve, especially when, in 2005, it was taken over by the then newly-established group, Cognita, with Chris Woodhead as its Chair. Within a year or so, John had left.

Retirement allowed John to develop his life-long love of musicmaking: he played the guitar, banjo and mandolin, on occasions with friends and in bands, and was also an accomplished songwriter, too. He proudly remembered that, as a schoolboy, his very first guitar had been loaned to him by a friend called Justin Hayward. And John’s first amp, a Vox 10-watt, was one he had also bought from this friend, the same Justin Hayward who went on to become the lead singer of the Moody Blues. As John later recalled: “If I have failed, singularly, to match my one-time friend’s achievements, then from his initial help and encouragement I have gained a lifelong interest.”

With education in his blood, John was not one to leave the skills and experience he’d gained in over 40 years spent learning his craft. He read voraciously, and during the next five years produced a remarkable and fascinating book, Schooled for Life (2016), a personal as well as scholarly reflection on a lifetime spent in teaching, interwoven with a parallel story of the changing fortunes of education in England since the War. John always believed passionately that schools should play a part in preparing the young for an adventure of extraordinary colour and complexity, a journey of revelation leading, one hoped, to self-knowledge, understanding and a keen sense of social awareness and responsibility. If there was one thing that schools should encourage above all, he said, it was informed scepticism.

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There was talk of another book, on politics. And, throughout this period, he was a dedicated letter writer, not infrequently to the papers and the policy makers, allegedly signing off, on occasions, as ‘angry of Gotherington’. John seemed unstoppable. But aggressive and inoperable oesophageal cancer robbed us of this eternally youthful man, after 71 years well-spent.

For all his many successes as an educator, John would no doubt have regarded his greatest achievement to have been his long and wonderful marriage to the love of his life, Sue, and their adored children, Luci and David, of whom he was so proud. His two beloved grandchildren, Lily and Ella, brought him such immense happiness, and they were joined more recently by a third, Tom, whose timely arrival brought such joy to John’s final months.

To the end, John was always more interested in others, than in his own plight. When I last saw him, less than a week before he died, I remember him still asking: “Anyway, how are you, Andrew?” That’s John, true to form – and a braver man than he, I’ve yet to meet.

A multi-faceted man, he was also a keen and very fine poet – something most of us were not aware of until near the end.

Ideas for his poetry often came from walking and observing the landscape. Not one for rambling groups, he would invariably set out on his own, amongst his thoughts and the natural world. He was, in the words of another fine poet, Thomas Hardy, “a man who used to notice such things.” This is one of John’s:

The Lane A blue-grey shroud Of early morning mist Envelops all the land

Not strong enough yet For battle, the sun Struggles to break through

The tunnel of trees Hung heavy with dew Cries its crystal tears

A silvered skein Of spider’s thread Is stretched across my path

Do I cleave the thread And walk straight on Or turn, and walk away?

The lane is straight But the way unclear – What does the future hold?

John Richard Hamilton James OBE (BH, 1950) John James, son of John Neville Abraham James (BH, 1910), grandson of Samuel Alexander James (Price, 1876) and father of David James (BH, 1977), Mark James (NH, 1979) and Jeremy James (NH & Ch, 1994), died on 2nd May 2019, aged 86. He was predeceased by his wife Anne and is

survived by his sons David, Mark, Jeremy, daughter Caroline and his nine grandchildren.

(The following is the address given by his son David at the service in St Multose Church, Kinsale.)

My father was a very organised man, and never more so than in relation to his passing: he left us with 13 pages of instructions and advice on what should be done.

He was born in Ahmedabad in India on the 29th September 1932, 86 years ago. His father worked on the railways in India, having gone there on the basis of experience gained during the First World War. My father went to school in West India, to Rajkumar College in Rajkot, then in England, to Wells House in Malvern before coming to College. On leaving College, he graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, followed by Magdalene College, Cambridge.

However, it was in the Christmas of 1947 that my grandparents came to Kinsale. They stayed in Acton’s Hotel, of which my father said: “the service was a bit irregular and the food often lukewarm but the atmosphere was terribly friendly.” They purchased Rampart House and joined the community. I know that this is some 72 years ago; I also know that 72 years in Ireland is not really a very long period of time. But, I do hope that my father’s time here has been sufficient to transform him from “blow-in” to a “proper” Kinsale resident.

In his memoirs it is clear that he enjoyed Kinsale as a youngster.

He mentions dancing in black patent leather shoes at Garretstown House, playing golf close to Belgooly, tennis at Ummera and at Rampart House and, importantly, playing table tennis in the Fisherman’s Hall and becoming the Cork Boys’ Table Tennis Champion for 1950. It was then in the summer of 1952 that he was invited to an evening picnic party at Roberts Cove where he met what he described as a “very pretty girl”, my mother. They were to marry some six years later in the Church of St Anne, Shandon, her family’s church.

In the meantime, he had joined the British Bank of the Middle East and was sent on his first overseas posting, to Kuwait in 1955, in charge of current accounts, a role for which he admits he had absolutely no training. Nevertheless, he then went on to work in Calcutta, Dubai, Baghdad, Basra, Doha, Khorramshah in Iran, Beirut, Dubai again and Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Hong Kong, Beirut for a second time and then Dubai for a third time. He moved on up through the bank hierarchy and retired to London in 1986, having worked for the bank for some 30 years and having seen the remarkable transformation of the Middle East following the oil price rises of the early 1970s.

My parents returned to Kinsale full time at the very end of the 1980s and they became fully involved in the community. My mother passed away in 2002 and for the last 17 years my father has lived on in Rampart House. For most of this time he was accompanied by his dog, Mr Riley – they were quite devoted to one another.

I’m not really sure exactly what devilment he got up to with a wide range of loyal friends during this period – I have heard, for example, of the cut and thrust of intellectual debate at the Kinsale History Society, of afternoons disappearing to the rugby and, in recent years, the coffee mornings at the Yacht Club and the Trident, expeditions which he always looked forward to. He also 10.

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particularly appreciated all the help that he received in getting to those events.

His health may have then deteriorated, but a fantastic gang of carers emerged to look after him. Not only did they keep him going physically, but they also kept him in touch with all the Kinsale gossip. In addition, he had Mary who provided consistently loyal support over many years.

I have spoken so far of my father’s life in more or less a chronological manner, but I can’t conclude without commenting on what I think are some of his great characteristics.

The first is his humour – so many people I have spoken to have commented on this, and it never went away. He even managed to, almost, persuade the nurses on his arrival in the Community Hospital that I was his brother and, when asked, was insistent that I was definitely the elder brother. He almost got away with it as well.

The second was his incredibly positive outlook on life. When ill and seemingly knocked back time and time again with medical mishaps, he may have been intermittently grumpy with family about these mishaps, but he generally retained the most positive and forward looking outlook on life. Although on the end of some of that grumpiness, I was always in awe of his ability to be so positive.

The third is really difficult to categorise as it covers so many different and related things – but it is probably best expressed by saying that, in an old-fashioned way, he was a gentleman throughout. He was kind, honest and upright and there was an element of correctness that flowed through his character.

Finally, and for me probably most importantly, was his curiosity, his inquisitiveness, his interest in anyone and everyone and all of their stories, what they were doing and their plans. He combined this interest with what seemed like encyclopaedic knowledge and a memory that remained razor-sharp until the end. I have been really struck over the past few months when people would visit him in hospital and he would ask “What’s the price for calves in the market?”, “How are your plans for Canada going” and always, always, “What’s the gossip from Kinsale”. He was incredibly pleased to have returned to Kinsale Community Hospital, where he could be so much closer to the action, and to this community.

James Leslie Frederick Kellie (BH, 1957) James Kellie died suddenly on 29th September 2018, aged 79, whilst snorkelling in Australia. James was predeceased by his daughter Helen and survived by his wife Angela and sons Rob, Dan and Ed.

Roderick Lane (L, 1954) Roderick (Roddy) Lane died on the 1st April 2019, aged 82.

Dr Jonathan Rupert Oliver Leigh (H, 1961) Jonathan (Jo) Leigh, son of the late Air Commodore RHA Leigh (H, 1929), died on the 26th October 2018, aged 75.

11.

Colin Ralph Marsh (NH,1955) Colin Marsh, son of Colonel JEV Marsh DSO, OBE (Ch, 1915), died on the 30th July 2018, aged 80.

Lt Col Ian Kempthorne McKay OBE (OJ & Xt, 1947) Ian McKay died on the 8th April 2019, aged 89.

Ian played in the 1947 cricket XI, taking 4 for 44 in the Free Forester’s match. He also played in the Hailebury v College match at Lords. In his final year, he appeared in the House Play, ‘Personally or

By Letter.’ The Cheltonian reported: “McKay and Moore spoke their elegant lines unselfconsciously, and neatly, in spite of their singularly unromantic treatment of the charming Becher!”

After a formative war time childhood, during which the Junior School was evacuated for a time to Stowell Park, in the Cotswolds.

On leaving College in 1947, he joined the army, One story was that his mother wouldn’t hear of him going into the family business (Stroud Brewery), so packed him off to the army. But he seems to have gone willingly and was very dedicated to his career and proud of his service.

He went to RMA Sandhurst and was commissioned in to the Royal Artillery in 1949. His first posting was to a field regiment at Homs Libya, near Leptus Magna. On his return to the UK, after a conversion course at Manorbier, he joined a Heavy Anti-Aircraft regiment in the UK. As a Captain, he was a field and air defence gunner in Germany. Following the 1960 Staff College General Staff Officer Grade 2 (ranked a Major) course, Ian became General Staff Officer 2(SD) at HQ Cyprus District Dhekalia. In 1963, when Cypriot Greek Turkish relations exploded and British help was requested, he established an HQ in Nicosia and accompanied Maj Gen Young at the drawing of the Green Line. Later, units flown from Britain commanded by Maj Gen Carver took over internal security in Cyprus. On completion of his tour at Cyprus District in February 1964, Ian was posted as a Battalion Commander to 5 Field Regt in Britain, later moving to Germany as an Abbot SP regiment. Besides the rigours of training and exercises in Germany, Ian introduced tennis as an all ranks game and played in a hockey team that reached the BAOR finals.

Next came a posting at Land Forces Persian Gulf, Bahrain, first as Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General (DAQMG), secondly in all ranks followed by 2IC of a Fd Regt in Germany. In June 1971 he was promoted Lt Col and became CO Missile Ranges, the Hebrides. Among the incidents was a visit of the Regimental Colonel who wanted to see a captain who was on St Kilda. The sea was too rough for a visit by boat, so it was a case of radio.

“Fetch officer”-“Officer unavailable” came the reply. It set minds thinking, how could the captain be unavailable. “Where is he?”“He is at a dance”. The Colonel gave up. lt turned out that a mixed crew sail training ship had anchored nearby and invited the island garrison to their dance. After the Hebrides, Ian moved to the MOD as a General Staff Officer 1 (GSO 1) and in 1977 he became Defence Attache in Damascus. He bought a Range Rover and drove to Syria. Uniquely the Syrian army had Russian equipment, so Syria was a country where it could be viewed.

After three years in Damascus, Ian returned to the MOD; he

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was awarded the OBE. He retired in 1983. However, he applied and obtained a post in the MOD as a senior civil servant. Ian finally retired in 1989 and returned to Cheltenham to live in the house originally bought by his father. He was Chairman of the Cheltenham Royal Artillery Association and for several years he organised a St Barbara gathering at churches in Gloucestershire to celebrate the patron saint of field artillerymen. Researching his Scottish ancestry in the Highlands became a hobby. He was a generous host and particularly enjoyed the New Club and the Cheltenham Cricket Festival.

He was predeceased by his wife Gay and is survived by his daughters Fiona and Virginia.

Michael John Montgomery (OJ & DB, 1944) Michael Montgomery, brother of Robert (Bill) Montgomery (DB, 1954), died on the 21st March 2018, aged 91. Though born in Bristol, his youth was spent in Cheltenham where his parents had moved in the early 1930s.

Michael’s time at College was during the Second World War with its difficulties in rationing, and the boiler suits as the daily school uniform. Getting to school every day on his bicycle took ten minutes with no traffic to worry about, there was little petrol about and therefore there were virtually no cars - just a few buses. College had a Fives Court and Michael really enjoyed playing that particular game at which he excelled.

On leaving College in 1944, Michael was called up for National Service in January 1945 and spent three years in the Army. His only comment was that he met a lot of different people. On being de-mobbed, he took advantage of a programme for ex-service people and sat the University Acceptance Exams. He passed and was accepted for St Edmund Hall, Oxford. Here he studied languages - French and Latin. While at Oxford he played Fives, which he had learnt at College, and was awarded a Half Blue.

The ceremony to present his degree was at St Edmund Hall and attended by his parents, maternal grand-parents and his 14-yearold younger brother who still has a vivid memory of the special occasion in a historic setting.

Whilst at Oxford, Michael went to a summer language course in Segovia where he met a French lady, Pierrete Goursaud, whose father was a teacher at Bordeaux. They married in Bordeaux in 1952.

On leaving University, Michael’s first foray into the world of earning a living was with an Insurance Company in Truro, Cornwall.

However, this was not really his forte and he looked around for another opportunity. An advertisement in the newspaper caught his eye and he applied for a job in Switzerland with the Bank for International Settlements. An interview was granted and Michael left Cornwall to cross by ferry from Southampton where he stayed overnight. Michael’s OC tie had been left in Cheltenham which his father found the day Michael left for Southampton. His father thought that it would be helpful if Michael wore it at his interview and he drove overnight to Southampton arriving early in the morning and he gave it to Michael before he left on the ferry. The person interviewing was English and asked him about the tie he was wearing. On being told that it was the OC tie the interviewer

said that he had gone to Haileybury, who play Cheltenham at cricket every year. This helped break the ice and Michael got the job.

Michael was 28 when he moved to Basel, Switzerland, where he stayed for the rest of his life. His career with the Bank for International Settlements was split into two parts. The initial part was in the Trustee Department assisting in the supervision of a financial arrangement between the Import-Export Bank and the European Coal and Steel Community. The second part was as manager of the Bank’s new Sports Centre. After the Second World War, central banks and BIS as the central bank of the central banks, believed in international sports events bringing countries closer. A big part of Michael’s job was to organise such events during which he met many interesting people. He took part himself in the tennis and bridge tournaments. He was also a staunch European.

Aside from his career, Michael enjoyed golf, skiing, tennis and bridge and had many family holidays associated with the first two. Apart from a holiday home in Tournon-d’Agenais, SouthWest France, where his wife’s family had been based for several hundred years, he developed a liking for holidays in Ireland, especially Co Donegal. He also developed a liking for Celtic music.

In retirement, Michael’s greatest pleasures were the weekly bridge games at the BI’s Sports Centre and the family holidays in the mountains (skiing) in winter and the summer ones in Ireland (and occasionally Scotland) with golf, bridge and family card games after dinner. His health was excellent until the last two years of his life when cancer intervened. However, in his own words’ “I had a good life.”

His wife, Pierrette, died on the 31st August 2019 and he is survived by his son Vincent, daughters Christine and Maureen, his grandchildren and great grandchildren, and his younger brother, Robert.

James Robertson Parker (L, 1957) James Parker, brother of Ian Parker (L, 1953), and uncle of Andrew Parker (L & Ch, 1985), died on the 25th June 2019, aged 80.

(Glen Allison (L, 1957), a contemporary and good friend of James, has written the following tribute.)

The best friendships are often forged at boarding school, and mine with James Parker was no exception. We met in 1950 at the Kenya Prep School, Pembroke House (PH), which was founded

by OC Harold Turner (DB, 1907) in 1927, and over the years has produced a long line of OCs. In our time there were fifty pupils taught by about fifteen staff, none of whom were trained teachers, but many were ‘characters’. There was Ms Isobel Rutt, one-time governess to Lord Carberry’s family, and associated with the infamous Happy Valley ‘White Mischief’ mob, about whom we knew little. Our schoolboy attention was more drawn to the fact that Carberry had financed the first single engine crossing of the Atlantic from east to west by the aviatrix Beryl Markham. Another was Col Eric Mallinson, ex-Indian Army, the high point of whose career was making 75 runs against Maurice Tate who toured India in the 1930s. James and I had two years in the Pembroke cricket 12.

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and soccer teams and both boxed.

James arrived at Leconfield in September 1952, while I entered Thirlestaine House in January 1953 and then moved to Leconfield in the summer of that year. Throughout our time in his House, Eric Lamplugh as our House Master and his wife Madge took great trouble caring for us and contributed hugely to our enjoyment of College.

At times we must have tested Eric’s patience. Kit Maunsell (Xt, 1957) was an accomplice in one escapade. Coll had been shown a film in which a bunch of rough necks with homemade nitroglycerin blew up a rock that blocked a mountain road. Kit had a set of chemistry lab keys, and as we were members of Eric Lamplugh’s chemistry set we let ourselves into No 4 lab in the dead of night to try and make this explosive. If successful, we would make more and blast an oak tree out of the ground in Charlton Park. We never got as far as planning how this might then be explained to the authorities. We made about 100ml and tested some by dropping a small quantity onto the bench. It failed to explode so we put a few more drops into an ignition tube and were warming it over a Bunsen burner when there was a huge thump and all three of us were blasted to the floor. I forget now how we explained the event to Eric, but while he accepted our fibs, we were sure that he knew more than he admitted. Presumably he felt we had learned a sharper lesson than any he might have taught.

We both boxed for College in 1954 in the annual quadrilateral match between Malvern, Downside and Clifton. In the March 1957 inter-house athletics matches, James, Nigel Farrow (OJ & L, 1957), Chris Hughes (L, 1957) and I set a College record of just over eight minutes in the 4 x 880-yard relay. This was never bettered before the event was metricated.

We both left Cheltenham in 1957. James was set on flying jets in Africa. There was no opportunity for him to do this in our home country of Kenya, so he went to Rhodesia. In the interim, between applying to and being accepted by the Royal Rhodesian Air Force, he temporarily worked on a ranch. He got his wings in the RRAF in 1958 and flew Vampires which he later recalled were ‘very sweet to fly.’ His career in the RRAF was short and he talked little about why, other than brief mention of flying under the Victoria Falls bridge! He returned to the UK and, whatever the reason for leaving the RRAF, it didn’t bar him from joining its parent RAF in which he first flew Vulcans and then Canberras.

In 1967, newly married to Maggie Try, James left the RAF to fly Cessnas for the Kenya Police Air Wing. It did not work out. Racial tensions in the wake of independence still ran high and when a VIP did not arrive on time he followed orders from his CO to return to Nairobi, while his tardy passenger would be picked up by another machine. This was taken as a racial slur. James left and went to fly Hunters for the Abu Dhabi Defence Force.

From there he joined Gulf Air, flying Short Sky Vans and De Havilland Caribous servicing out-of-the-way places around the Arabian Gulf. He then took his Air Line Transport Pilot’s licence and moved on to the passenger routes flying Boeing 737s, L 1011s, and Boeing 767s until retiring in 1994 as a senior training captain. Flying big jets on routine international schedules was never what James wanted out of flying. In his words it was just moving across the Heavens with a big aluminium tube strapped to your backside. However, needs must and providing financial security for a young family came first.

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This, to him, somewhat humdrum life had the odd excitement.

Whilst having a coffee with a friend from Bahrain’s security service, this man had been handed a note that puzzled him. It had been of no interest to James, but he recalled that mention of something to do with medical cases. Some days later James was on the flight deck while his passengers were boarding when his cabin staff chief mentioned they were preparing to take a stretcher case on board. Intuitively medical cases flashed through his mind and James abruptly ordered the doors closed. The cabin staff reacted quickly and a party with a stretcher arrived to find they could not board. James had meanwhile asked security to urgently check this stretcher case. They did and found plastic explosive taped all along the underside of the stretcher. The terrorist party was spirited away by the security team, but in later years James mused that but for the words ‘medical cases’ over a cup of coffee, things might have turned out very differently.

As an ardent blue water sailor, during his leave he undertook long voyages – an example being the delivery of a yacht from the Mediterranean to the Arabian Gulf – with a fellow aviator Dion Van de Merwe. A man of many parts, he also had green fingers and a feel for farming, which led him to develop a sophisticated aquaculture system at his home in Bahrain, producing both fish and vegetables with great success.

James was a sociable and humorous fellow, who spoke his mind freely and was very much a colonial in outlook and attitude.

Relishing danger and speed, his last great adventure was attempting to secure the world speed record under sail with his brother Ian (L, 1953). They used their aeronautical knowledge to produce three vertical rigid wings on three skis, with a horizontal wing creating a counter-force against heeling. The attempt would be made on the southern end of Kenya’s Lake Turkana where violent winds of more than 40 mph can be counted on for more than 200 days of the year. Unsure of how it would sail on water, they first fitted this very strange boat with aircraft wheels borrowed from a pranged Cessna and sailed it on the Chalbi Desert as a land yacht, achieving just under 100 mph in a wind of less than 30 mph. With this promise they then replaced the wheels with skis and set out on water. Sadly, they ran out of time and the only possible record they may have achieved (very briefly) was the first wind-driven submarine.

With such a frame of mind it was no surprise when James took up paragliding as a retirement hobby for as long as he was physically able, adding it to a lifelong golfing addiction he shared with Maggie. In his declining years his annual highlights were visiting his daughters now with their own families, one in Australia and the other in Dubai.

He is survived by his wife Maggie, daughters Rachel and Melanie and three grandchildren.

John Maurice Randolph (BH, 1940) John Maurice Randolph died on the 16th October 2018, aged 92. John came to College in January 1940 from Normandale Preparatory School in Bexhill-on-Sea. There, he had the lead role in their Gilbert and Sullivan (G&S) operettas, and for his entire life, he entertained friends and family with his beautiful voice and his favorite G&S tunes. His interest in limericks may have been piqued by their

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use in these productions. John composed original limericks with his now deceased brother Edward, and later, with the help of his son-in-law, Dan Merchant, he published Limericks by the Brothers Randolph on Amazon. John left College in July 1940, moving to the USA. He continued his education at Phillips Andover Academy and then the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1948 after having served in the US Army for two years. In 1980 he obtained a Masters of Arts degree in Humanities from Manhattanville College, Purchase, New York.

John had a diversified business career and is known as a founding father of the computer leasing industry. In 1965, he founded and was the CEO of Randolph Computer Corporation which, after having purchased some one-quarter billion dollars ($2 billion today, adjusted for inflation) of equipment, was subsequently acquired by the Travelers’ Corporation and then The First National Bank of Boston before going public. He served on the boards of several companies, including the Genesee and Wyoming Railroad, a New York Stock Exchange listed company, which he served for approximately 17 years. He was also a financial consultant and private investor.

John is survived by his wife of nearly 63 years, Dr Kathleen MacGregor, their son John, daughter Emily and their two grandchildren.

Elly Rickelton (Prep School staff member, 2006-2018) Elly Rickelton passed away peacefully on the 17th June 2019, aged 47.

Always exhibiting a love for music, she began to play the recorder when she was 3 years of age. This was the beginning of her journey to become a professional musician. In 1977, she acquired her first flute and engaged in lessons, and likewise with the piano three years later. Within a few years she was playing in the Gloucestershire Youth Orchestra and in 1985 gained a seat in the National Youth Orchestra, aged 14.

Elly’s talent was recognised by many. She was offered sponsorship to attend The Royal Academy’s Junior Conservatoire in London by a local company, where her musical training was furthered until she studied as an undergraduate at The Guildhall School of Music, London. On graduating, she was appointed to a teaching post at Sherborne Girls’ School and was also in demand as a performer.

Her love for travel and for new experiences drew her to juggle her teaching career, her performing and her travelling. India was her favourite country, somewhere she felt a deep affinity with. The people, the flora and fauna, the culture, all of these fed her soul.

These memories were a rich source of pleasure for her in the last months of her life.

In December 2016, Elly was diagnosed with cancer. Having to face chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery, she bravely took charge and lived heroically with her disease. Sadly, in the summer of 2018 it was evident that she was terminally ill. She embraced her last months of life with phenomenal strength and dignity and was generous in love until the very end. She will be widely missed and her students, her friends, colleagues, and family will hold her

shining light in their hearts forever.

She was tenderly cared for in the final few weeks of her life at the Sue Ryder Hospice in Cheltenham. She enjoyed the peace and the quiet beauty of the natural world from her window and would sit watching the deer and the birds every day, right until the end. Her many friends and colleagues will miss her energy, her sense of fun and her lust for life - Elly truly showed them all how to live!

Elly is survived by her beloved sons Theo and Luca, her brother Alex, her father John, mother Jackie and step-father Martin.

Dr Thomas Bruno Ryves (DB & BH, 1949) Bruno Ryves died on the 10th May 2019, aged 88.

Major Anthony Schorah (Former JS staff, 1988-1996) Tony Schorah died on the 3rd December, 2018, aged 80.

Tony was appointed Head of Mathematics at the Junior School in 1988, having spent six years teaching at a prep school in North Devon. He came into teaching as a second career, having spent 27 years in the army travelling the world in the Royal Army Education Corps. After a first posting in Chepstow, he was sent to Hong Kong in the days of travel by troopship and subsequently served in Woolwich, Chelsea Barracks, Troon, Malaysia and Singapore, Windsor, Northern Ireland, Hong Kong (again), Winchester and Fallingbostel.

He was able to use his vast experience in education in every part of his life at the JS, being Head of Persia as well as fully involving himself in all things sporting. He was a qualified rugby referee, his pinnacle of refereeing being at the Hong Kong Sevens, a keen cricketer and a very willing and able coach to the 3rd XV rugby and Colts B XI cricket. He was an avid follower of Blackburn Rovers and Lancashire CCC, and was an keen member of the crossword club in the Common Room back in the days when there seemed to be the time to do it! His easy and popular manner saw him elected as the first ever President of the JS Common Room to coincide with the building of the new facility, where one of his first initiatives was to introduce a set of carpet bowls to use in a staff league.

Tony was organised, caring and very thorough as a teacher.

His belief of ‘mastering the basics’ saw a generation of OJs through Common Entrance and beyond with a solid foundation in numeracy. Those who passed through his sporting teams did so with an understanding of teamwork, support, giving of their best, and, in particular, enjoying themselves.

In retirement in 1996, Tony’s sense of travel adventure continued as he lived in Majorca and then moved to mainland Spain, where he enjoyed bowls, the cerveza and the sun with his second wife, Barbara. Sadly, Barbara passed away in 2011 but Tony continued the Spanish adventure until 2014, when he decided to move back to England. He was very proud of his three daughters – Hilda, Alexandra and Madeleine – and they had real pride in their father, ‘The Major’. He spent his final years in Winchester, close to the base of his family.

Tony is survived by his first wife, Connie, with whom he remained friends, and his three daughters.

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Patrick Richard Sinclair Smith (H, 1952) Patrick Smith, son of Brigadier CHR Smith (H, 1918), died on the 19th May 2018, aged 83.

Sylvia Strange (Former Staff, 1976-1985) (Barry Wild, former Head of Chemistry and Head of Science, has written the following tribute.)

Those who were at College in the 70s and 80s will be sad to hear of the recent death of Sylvia Strange at the age of 90. Sylvia was the Chemistry Technician from 1976 to 1985 but she also made a considerable contribution to the musical life of the school.

She started at College in the old chemistry labs in the Quad area, having worked previously in the laboratories of Elizabeth Arden in London, testing perfumes and other cosmetics. She was instrumental in helping to move the huge amount of chemicals and glassware across Thirlestaine Road and to set up the new Chemistry Labs in 1983. She left us in 1985 to join Nimbus Records in Monmouth to pursue her real love which was the musical world.

Sylvia’s enthusiasm and sense of humour made her many friends at College, both pupils and staff; friendships that endured for the 35 years that followed her time at College. She always had a sympathetic ear for anyone who had a problem.

Sylvia’s fine contralto voice could often be heard in the afternoons when she was practising her part while putting the labs back together after a busy morning. She sang many solos in College Choral Concerts, including the Mozart Requiem; she also was a big hit as Buttercup in the staff production of HMS Pinafore. For 30 years she was a stalwart supporter of Chris Rouan’s College visits to the Royal Opera House. She had a similar network of friends and admirers in the wider Cheltenham musical community, singing in a number of choirs and groups.

She was always accompanied by a small dog – not many people knew that her Lhasa Apso, Ben, sat quietly in a box under a bench in the Prep Room most days, but nobody present will ever forget a golden moment in a rehearsal for HMS Pinafore when a nameless member of staff, with a dodgy tenor voice, started to sing and the somnolent Ben woke up and threw back his head to give a similarly loud and discordant howl. He had become too used to the lovely sound that his mistress would make when she sang!

On January 19th Sylvia’s friends gathered in Thirlestaine Long Gallery to share their memories in words, music and pictures of this remarkable lady.

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Geoff Swift (Head Groundsman,1994-2001) Geoff Swift died on the 1st August 2019, aged 80.

Before coming to College, Geoff had a number of jobs in the Dowty Group. It was in his early days at Dowty where he fuelled his passion for cricket and played in many inter-departmental teams and for Dowty Arle Court. He was up early every Saturday and Sunday during the summer to get up to the ground and make sure the wicket was ready. He drove the roller, got the wickets marked up, made sure the boundary lines were painted and the screens were in place.

Over the years, Geoff developed his love of gardening and horticulture, skills and knowledge he was able to put into practice when preparing the wickets. He had always been a huge fan of gardening and was a member of the Royal Horticultural Society and the Streptocarpus Society (a type of flower!). Some of this knowledge allowed him to make steady improvements to a number of grounds and to widen his own experience; it became his absolute passion to make sure the wickets were right for the matches.

Geoff’s hobby for nurturing and preparing cricket wickets evolved into his profession and by that time he was already looking after at least four different club wickets on a voluntary basis.

His role as Head Groundsman at College allowed him to develop his professional qualifications and develop his knowledge and experience from the other groundsmen, including those from Gloucestershire CCC who were often at College ahead of, and during, the Cheltenham Cricket festival. During his 14 years at College his team won a number of awards for the best ‘out placed’ county grounds. He was rightly very proud, as were his family, of his success.

Geoff embraced the whole of College life, and was a very popular member of staff. He was renowned for having a great voice in support of the Choral Society, who performed their concerts either in Chapel or the Town Hall.

Reflecting back on Geoff’s whole working career, his family said he was probably at his happiest out working on the square at College.

He retired in 2001 but continued to attend the County Cricket Festival every year up to 2018.

Geoff is survived by his wife Carol, son Philip, daughter Rebecca and three grandchildren.

Philip Richard Tallents (L, 1966) Richard (Dick) Tallents passed away on the 2nd December 2019, aged 69.

Dick’s time at Cheltenham College was cut short at 16 when his parents realised they were not having good value from the fees! He spent much of the time smoking down dark backstreets and frequenting local hostelries before he met a master in one of the pubs and got reported. He then embarked on an apprenticeship at Dowty’s which was a bit of a culture shock

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for a public schoolboy. He started on the machine shop floor and quickly graduated to office work as an Export Credit Guarantee Correspondent, riding in from Painswick on his scooter in the snow.

He volunteered for CCP (a local debt counselling service), the Gideons, taking their bibles into schools, hotels and hospitals and he was also a Street Pastor where he headed up his own team.

More recently, he was appointed to look after everything to do with the Safe Space, a converted horsebox, which acts as a night time focal point in the town centre for anyone in trouble.

Following his marriage to Susie in 1974, whom he met when working for Dowty’s, he took Masterline, the Fishing tackle business that his father had founded, forwards through recessions and Japanese, British, American and finally Australian ownership.

He was President of the European Fishing Tackle Trade Association and was instrumental in making the annual trade show happen in whichever European City was chosen year on year. His job saw him traveling regularly all over the world - Europe, USA, Australia, and especially the Far East.

Despite his wild youth, he became a man of the church after hearing Billy Graham speak in Bristol. He was Chairman of the Trustees of Cheltenham Network Church, (formerly Glenfall Fellowship), and served in various leadership roles. Revd Nigel Scotland, the founder of the churches has written to say: “I will always remember Dick with great thankfulness as a long-standing friend with a great love for his wife Sue and his family. He had a sweetness of character, always warm, friendly, cheerful and outgoing and with a delightful sense of humour. He had great integrity which was particularly seen in his business dealings and the way in which he ran his company. It was a real privilege to have known him and I shall miss him very much.”

He volunteered for the Gideons taking bibles into schools, hotels and hospitals, for CCP (a local debt counselling service), and Street Pastors, where he headed up his own team. More recently, he was appointed to look after everything to do with the Safe Space, a converted horsebox, which acts as a night time focal point in the town centre for anyone in trouble.

Never one to sit around, Dick saw retirement as an opportunity for a new career as a builder, helping his son Ed finish his extension and then doing his own at Park Rise, which he was still redecorating in his final weeks. He was not renowned for complying with Health and Safety regulations, and had little regard to his own safety. It would not be uncommon to see him doing things like pulling a chimney stack off the roof of the house, standing on the same wall that he was demolishing using a sledge hammer, or balancing on top of a dry stone wall with a chainsaw in hand, with no protective trousers, goggles, ear defenders or gloves. He kept his guardian angel busy, if not exhausted.

In the last few years he acted as Field Marshal for the Brockhampton Village Show, coordinating all the volunteers and making sure everything was ready for the morning of the show, as well as putting away afterwards.

Even in his final days, his zest for life, eternal optimism, and infectious happiness was most apparent and he died incredibly happy, satisfied, accomplished and loved.

Dick is survived by his wife Susie, sons Ed and Nick, and his beloved grandchildren Jess, Grace, Jack and Poppy.

John Grigor Taylor (Xt, 1940) John Taylor, son of Lt Col John McLeod Grigor Taylor (NH, 1898) died on the 22nd December 2017, aged 96.

He spent his first eight years in India, mostly in Rajasthan, where his father was posted. He was then sent back to school in England and did not see his father for another six years.

John was in Christowe, presided over by Wilfred King, a middle age bachelor who spent some of his income on the boys, ensuring that Christowe boys were the best fed in the school.

John recalled that: “otherwise, the living conditions were austere, with bare concrete stairs and no heating in the dormitories (in which the boys slept in cubicles). Every morning the boys were made to have hot showers (while the hot water lasted) in the communal wash-house, but otherwise all washing was in cold water. Every hour of the day was regimented (including on Saturdays), with gobbled meals being fitted in briefly between lessons, two prayer sessions a day, organised sports and two hours prep from 7 to 9pm after supper. There was a lot of beating, both by the Housemaster, often at the request of form masters, and by prefects if boys had violated house rules. During my time there, however, the tide was turning against beating, and it was beginning to taper off; and I managed to emerge without once being beaten, although when I was Head of House I was reluctantly involved in beating one boy for a particularly flagrant abuse.”

John rowed in the 1st IV. He was a very active member of the Debating Society and was on the committee. He was also a member of the cast in the 1940 Speech Day play Androcles and the Lion and performed in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

The Second World War broke out about three weeks before the 1939 Autumn Term at College was due to begin. Many of the older boys left early to join the armed forces. The parents of the others received a letter to say that the War office had requisitioned the buildings at College and that the school was being evacuated to Shrewsbury, to share the facilities of the school there. So for the next two terms the boys boxed and coxed with their peers at Shrewsbury, their hosts having lessons in the morning and games in the afternoon and the College boys doing their games in the morning and lessons in the afternoon.

As there was not enough dormitory space, the Cheltenham boys were billeted with local families. John, along with two others, stayed with an elderly childless couple in a country house about three miles outside Shrewsbury. The boys cycled in each day, often through the frozen snow as 1939/40 was an exceptionally cold winter. Despite the cold, the boys much enjoyed their time at Shrewsbury. Their hosts were friendly, and lived in some style, with maids and a semi-formal dinner!

By the 1940 summer term, the War Office decided that it did not need Cheltenham after all, and the boys returned there. This was John’s final term. In the summer holidays, as part of the war effort, John joined a party of boys from Christowe on a farm on the Cotswolds to work as agricultural labourers in the place of the men who had been called up. Their chief work was to get in the harvest, stacking the sheaves of corn into stooks to dry in the sun and wind, and then loading them onto horse-drawn wagons

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to be taken to where the corn-ricks were built (in the days before combine harvesters, corn was stored in ricks for several months before being threshed). John also looked after the pigs, feeding them and cleaning out their stalls. He grew very fond of them, and to the end of his days could not pass a pig without trying to scratch its back. A bevy of mothers and daughters organised the camp where the boys stayed, cooking meals etc.

John went up to Cambridge to read Economics in 1940, but was called up for war service after only a year. He elected to go to India and join his father’s old Regiment, the Rajputana Rifles. He was natural staff officer material and spent much of the war in Delhi and Bombay, but he also fought in Burma. He had spoken Hindustani as a child and also learnt Urdu, with which he would amaze Asian corner-shop keepers in later life.

In 1945, he returned to Cambridge to complete his degree and subsequently joined HM Diplomatic Service. He was sent immediately back to India, just after independence, to help set up the new High Commission. It was an exciting but difficult time, with the aftermath of partition and the assassination of Gandhi.

Following his wartime experience, John mixed more easily with locals than most of his colleagues and established a number of lifelong friendships.

Postings followed in The Hague, Burma, Paris, and the delegation to the UN in New York. In 1968, John was delighted to be posted back to Delhi as Councillor (Information). His next post was as Councillor (Information) and press spokesman in Washington at the time of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The big Irish-American community in the States was influential in pushing the IRA line, which portrayed the British Government as the villain of the piece, and John had the difficult task of ensuring that a more balanced assessment prevailed. There were also physical threats: during his posting a letter-bomb arrived at the Embassy and blew off the hand of the unfortunate secretary who opened it. John himself received a death threat. His final two posts were in Geneva, and then as Consul-General in Johannesburg where he was particularly concerned with establishing good relations with the black community, not easy in apartheid days.

He retired in 1980, spending his long retirement mostly in London, but travelling widely. He made several visits to India (where a large part of his heart remained) to renew old acquaintances and revisit old haunts. For many years he ran the Rajputana Rifles Association of former British officers who had served in the Rajputana Rifles regiment before Indian Independence.

John is survived by his wife Sophia Lambert, his son Jonathan, daughter Imogen and his five grandchildren Sam, James, Barney, Venetia and Joe.

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David Noel Way (H, 1941) David Way passed away, surrounded by his loving family, on the 27th September 2018, aged 92. He was evacuated to Shrewsbury for a term and in 2009 he returned from Canada, where he had moved to in 1946, for the 70th Anniversary Evacuation Reunion at College.

David’s love for the hardy Ayrshire cow began on Macqueston Farm, in

Dumfriesshire, Scotland, in the early 1940s. In 1946, he moved from the UK to the narrow valley of the Chilliwack River in Sardis, British Colombia, Canada. There he fulfilled his dream, lovingly creating Auchenway Farm with its verdant fields, the towering cedar, and the river roiling at its edge. David was a successful farmer, a respected member of the community, and an inspiration to three generations of family.

He was an active volunteer within varied communities: Weather Observer Environment Canada, Ayrshire Breeders’ Associations, Fraser Cheam Regional District, and the Chilliwack River Ratepayers, among others. His prudence, discernment, tenacity, and wit made him a key member on all committees.

David gently encouraged everyone to move beyond comfortable boundaries and seek adventures of the heart. His delight in the accomplishments and achievements of others were demonstrated through the warmth of his character and his words. His proudest legacy is his family; he often said with wonder, “And to think I started all this.”

He was predeceased by his wife Eileen and brother Tony, and is survived by his beloved daughters Deidre, Claire and Yvonne, son Richard, and his nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

David Edward Morgan Williams (NH, 1954) David Williams died on the 16th October 2019, aged 82. Happier on the sports field than in the classroom, David excelled at all sports, but rugby became his first love. He played back row in the 1953 and 1954 1st XVs. On 10th December 1953, College played Cheltenham Town RFC (the team contained two English internationals and four county players). The 1954 Cheltonian reported that: “the back row forwards Williams and Mathias, by their covering and tackling, curbed the positional play of WE Jones the former Welsh and Gloucestershire fly-half.” Dan Rees (Xt, 1955) played in the same team, becoming a lifelong friend. They acted as Best Man at each other’s wedding. At College, David also sang in the choir.

On leaving College, David was called up for National Service.

Initially, in the 3rd Hussars, Cpl Williams was a Signaller & Gunner and became the youngest Tank Commander in the Regiment.

Whilst serving in the British Army on the Rhine, David cultivated another sporting love, that of skiing. He joined the Army skiing team and underwent intensive training. He was commissioned into the Middlesex Regiment as a 2nd Lieutenant. Seconded to the Royal West African Force, he served a year with the 1st Queens Own Nigerian Regt and was very proud that he was the only officer who could lead the chant with the troops as they patrolled through the bush.

Returning to England, and with a view to joining his father’s print type setting company in Fleet Street, David enrolled at the London College of Printing and Graphic Arts. A fellow student and good friend, Willie Penfold, asked David to return to Australia with him and work in the family’s wine business. David turned the offer down saying: “I can’t imagine anyone ever wanting to drink Australian wine!”

As a Master Printer, David took over as Managing Director when

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his father retired. He spent many happy years in Fleet Street, but sadly, type setting was replaced by word processing and the decision was made to close the Red Lion Court office down.

The 1950s and early 1960s were heady times and London was in full swing. It was against this vibrant backdrop that David met Jenny, a stunning fashion model, who was to become the love of his life. Engagement and marriage followed, and the happy couple moved into a small flat in Hampstead.

David meantime had joined Harlequins Rugby Club, playing on the wing. He then joined Mill Hill Rugby Club and became Vice Captain of the 1st XV. Always a party animal, David took to the social side of rugby with the same verve and vigour that he played the game. Always prominent in the post-match sing-songs, David featured on a vinyl of ‘Rugby Songs’, as a member of ‘The Jock Strap Ensemble.’

After Fleet Street, David dabbled in several endeavours: he joined the St John Ambulance Brigade and became President of the Mill Hill & Edgeware Division. In 1988, he was awarded the Serving Brother of St John Medal. He formed the Icarus Press Agency, helped Jenny with her antiques business and even drove a mini cab. It was while doing this that he had the good fortune to work for the actor Trevor Howard. They immediately hit it off and David became Trevor Howard’s PA, travelling with him to film sets around the world. Such was their friendship that even with ‘A-list’ actors, such as Robert Mitchum in attendance’ it was David who delivered the eulogy at Trevor’s funeral.

David then moved to the beautiful village of Stoke Gabriel, on the River Dart in Devon. He set up a village taxi service and is remembered with affection by a generation of villagers who relied on the Stoke Gabriel Taxi Service. He was a stalwart of the choir at The Church of St Mary and St Gabriel (and the adjacent Church Inn!) and is buried in the graveyard with his beloved wife Jenny.

David is survived by sisters Mary and Joan, and sons Gareth and Jonathan.

David Andrew Young (OJ & Ch, 1960) David Young, son of Captain Charles Young (DB, 1903), died on the 17th November 2019, aged 77.

Whilst at College he was awarded a Royal Navy scholarship in 1958.

David started officer training in Lympstone, Devon, on the 1st Nov 1960, serving the entire decade of the 1960s in the Royal Marines.

He saw active service in some interesting hotspots of the time (Borneo, Aden, Malay Peninsula and Singapore) and wrote an acclaimed history of 45 Commando which sold 3,000 copies.

In 1970, he passed the Public Relation Exams to become a member of the Institute of Public Relations. In the 1970s, he had various Public Relations Manager jobs, before branching into marketing and sales. Then in 1983, he became a Company Director of a Rubber and Plastics company. From 1986-2007 he moved to East Anglia where he ran two retail businesses, settling in Lowestoft in 1989 where he became Chairman of the local Royal Marines Association. He arranged a series of charity

concerts with the Royal Marines Band. All concerts were a sell out and raised large sums for charities.

He was a member of the Suffolk Police Authority 1997-1998 and in 1998 he was elected a Liberal Democrat District Councillor for Kirkley Ward (Lowestoft) on Waveney District Council. He became Leader of the Liberal Democrat and Independent Group, had a seat on the Council’s Cabinet and for his last year, 2008, he was Deputy Mayor of Lowestoft.

The Liberal Democrats appointed him as a Parliamentary Candidate and in 2001, he contested the Waveney seat coming third. In 2005 he stood for the Suffolk Coastal seat, again coming 3rd. However, each time he increased the Liberal Democrat vote.

David met his partner Tricia in the mid 1990s in East Anglia, and they spent 10 happy years there together before moving to France in 2008.

David is survived by his partner Tricia, sons Mark and James, and their wives Penny and Iza and his five grandchildren.

O B I T UA R I E S All these obituaries have been compiled from ones published in national and local papers, addresses and tributes given at funerals, and in some cases by family members, or those who knew the deceased very well.

I am extremely grateful to Rachael Merrison and Katie Barrett (Archives) for the research they have carried out and for providing some of the photographs.

For those I have missed, if you would like an obituary for them published in Floreat 21, please get in touch.

Malcolm Sloan OC Administrator m.sloan@cheltenhamcollege.org

18.

Anthony Bendall

Anthony Bowyer

Donald Burgess

Anne Cadbury

John Chandler

Robin Charley

Tim Clarke

John Cohen

John Dick

Tim Hamilton-Smith

John Harford

Liz Hawkins

Adam Hill

John Hunt

John James

James Kellie

Ian McKay

Michael Montgomery

James Parker

John Randolph

Elly Rickelton

Tony Schorah

Sylvia Strange

John Taylor

David Way

David Williams

Geoff Swift

David Young

DickTallents

Cheltonian Society Cheltenham College Bath Road Cheltenham Gloucestershire GL53 7LD   Contact Details: Tel: 01242 265694 www.cheltenhamcollege.org