MILLER AND PARSONS
This edition of Atrium went to print before we signed off the obituaries of two of the leading Paulines of the last 100 years. Shown below are tributes that were written for the Old Pauline Club website. It is with great sadness that the St Paul’s School community learnt of the death of Sir Jonathan Miller (1947-53) on 27 November 2019. Miller qualified as a medical doctor before happening upon success with Beyond the Fringe at the 1960 Edinburgh Festival. He enjoyed an outstanding career as a writer and director for theatre, opera and television. Arriving at St Paul’s from Arnold House in the autumn of 1947, Miller was a member of ‘B Club’. In an interview in the 1982 edition of The Pauline magazine, Miller described how he met his wife, Helen Rachel Collet, in the Walker Library at St Paul’s: ‘My wife was at St Paul’s Girls’ School. There was a play-reading society called the Milton Society, and once a year we had a joint play-reading with the Girls’ School: we met in the Walker Library round a great big table. That was where I met her, and we kept going all the way through. That doesn’t happen very often, and I’ve been married nearly twenty-three years.’ In the same interview, he also mentioned his experience of acting at St Paul’s: ‘I never acted in any plays. I acted in the Colet Club’s revue. The Colet Club was an East End charity which St Paul’s had an interest in, and once a year there used to be this revue put on by Mr Harbord (Master 1928-67) who was in charge of High House. He also ran the school drama, and about three times in my career I appeared on the stage doing funny sketches. But I was always working too hard and
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enjoying it too much for drama to become a very important part of my life then.’ While at St Paul’s, Miller formed a lifelong friendship with fellow pupil, Oliver Sacks (1946-51), writer and neurologist, who greatly credited Miller’s inspiration in the success of his own bestselling book, Awakenings.
While at St Paul’s, Miller formed a lifelong friendship with fellow pupil, Oliver Sacks... In more recent years, the school was most grateful for a visit from Miller in which he invited a ‘question and answer’ session from pupils in the school theatre. He was, by all accounts, sparkling and charming in his interactions. Upon being informed by the then Director of Drama, Edward Williams that the school had recently included Theatre Studies in its curriculum, Miller was less than impressed. He countered that the only subject worth studying was Philosophy. The St Paul’s School Community sends its deepest condolences to Sir Jonathan Miller’s family.
We are deeply saddened by the news of the death of Nicholas Parsons CBE (1937-39) on 28 January 2020 at the age of 96. Born in 1923, Parsons attended St Paul’s School between 1937 and 1939, having
previously attended Colet Court. He was a contemporary of John Treacher (1938-42), who went on to become Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet. A member of C Club, Parsons participated in Rugby, Cricket and Fives and was a member of the School’s Boxing team. On leaving school, he wanted to pursue acting but, at the wishes of his parents, he spent the next five years as an engineering apprentice at Drysdales and studying Engineering at Glasgow University. Parsons enjoyed an outstanding career as an actor, radio and television presenter, hosting Radio 4’s Just a Minute for more than 50 years as well as Sale of the Century, The Benny Hill Show and The Comic Strip Presents for television. He was a regular at the Edinburgh Fringe with The Nicholas Parsons Happy Hour, and the author of four books. In 2011, St Paul’s School was very grateful to Parsons for hosting An Evening with Nicholas Parsons in the Wathen Hall, which raised money for the school’s bursary fund. In the words of BBC director-general Tony Hall: ‘Very few people have done so much to entertain audiences over the decades, and no one deserves to be called a broadcasting legend more than Nicholas Parsons. His charm, inventive intellect and ability to create laughs were unsurpassed.’ The St Paul’s School Community sends its deepest condolences to his wife Ann and his family.
