OBITUARIES ISSUE ELEVEN J A N U A RY 2 0 2 0
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.