Obituaries and Tributes

WALTON BELL, Douglas (1959-63)

Doug was born in early 1939 and lived in Kingsbury in north-west London. During the Second World War he was evacuated twice to live with relatives in the northeast of England where he attended the local school, where because of his London accent, some children called him a German. This was the beginning of his love affair with Durham.

He went to Preston Manor Grammar School and while there he developed his passion for sport. A highlight of his school football career was when he once played against Jimmy Greaves. After leaving school he worked for a year in what he was later to describe as “a dead-end job”. He was encouraged by his school to apply to Hatfield College. He always said it was his good fortune to be accepted by one of the UK’s leading Geography departments. He decided to become a teacher and completed his Post Graduate Diploma again at Durham. At a later stage in his career, to his credit, Doug studied for a higher degree at the University of Sheffield gaining a M.Ed degree. After leaving Durham he taught for two years at South Shields Grammar School for Boys. He and Jenny married in December 1963 and their first home was in Whitley Bay.

Doug always wanted to travel and in 1965 was appointed to St. John’s Technical School for Boys at RAF Episkopi in Cyprus. He taught Geography and was a staff leader on expeditions to the Libyan desert and the Elburz mountains in Persia. In 1970 he became Head of Geography at King Richard School, Dhekelia. The family moved to Pergamos where they spent the next three years.

On returning to England he became Sixth Form Master at Churchdown School, a post he was to occupy for 20 years, developing the size and scope of the Sixth form.

At Hatfield he continued his enthusiasm for sport playing soccer for both Hatfield and for Durham Colleges. He was a speedy right winger who could deliver an accurate cross which yielded plenty of goals. On Wednesdays, his team would play in a local league in places such as Consett, South Shields, Gateshead, Sunderland, and Ryhope. On Saturdays, fixtures were against local Colleges and schools and against Teacher Training Colleges such as Leeds, York and Hull. While teaching in South Shields he played with a local team, the Bohemians. When in Cyprus he founded a team called the Academicals, the strip they played in was, of course, black and white after his beloved Newcastle United, the team he supported the whole of his life. After moving to Gloucestershire, he played for King’s FC eventually becoming their captain then manager.

Doug was always interested in cooking. While still at school he started preparing meals for the family and quickly learnt that boiling potatoes in the same pan as peas, was not a good idea. He was a member of Laithwaites Wine Club and became very adept at choosing exceptionally good wines to complement his meals, through much practice. Over the last ten years Doug joined a group of former Hatfield students led by Roger Furniss and including Andy Blowers, Ron Bower, Bob Ensum, Jim Miller, Ron Carruthers and Tony Maxwell, that revisited Durham every year for three days taking in a day

at a test match in Chester-Le-Street. In a pub after the day’s play Bob Ensum would often remind Doug of him becoming very animated and vocal about the publication of Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Doug was a loyal supporter of Hatfield Association functions.

Tony Maxwell

Geography, 1959-62

Bill Heal in retirement in a café in Budapest

HEAL, Professor Bill (Oliver William) (1953-56, 1956-59)

Originator of the University of the Arctic and leader of long-term environmental monitoring, Honorary Fellow of Hatfield College.

A conversation at a meeting of the Arctic Council in 1997 led to the formation of a new, global university. Bill Heal, who has died aged 86, was representing the UK Government on the Council’s biodiversity working group. Unencumbered by official policies, a discussion over a beer with a Swedish colleague, Lars-Erik Liljelund (who became President of the EU’s Environment Agency) turned to how to secure the long-term continuity of arctic environmental research. What was needed, argued Bill, was something that could ‘combine the limited resources of the eight Arctic countries but not be limited by national policies and attitudes - a University of the Arctic’. A year later, the Iqaluit Declaration of the Arctic Council announced the establishment of the said University, ‘a university without walls’. Bill was lead editor of the feasibility study, sub-titled ‘Turning concept into reality’, and published by the University of Lapland. Now a vibrant network of 143 mainly university institutions, all but 21 are in Arctic states, with Russia having the largest number. Collectively these work to promote education and research in the arctic region, placing strong emphasis on empowering indigenous people through collaborative research and sharing knowledge. This autumn the University of the Arctic will honour Bill as it celebrates its 20th anniversary. Bill made his mark in research as a soils biologist, specializing in the role of ‘decomposers’. Although unglamorous, soil decomposers are the ‘factory of life’ comprising a great diversity of belowground organisms, ranging in size from bacteria and nematodes to earthworms and molluscs. A quarter of the planet’s animal species exist in our soils. In order to study soil decomposition and factors affecting it researchers devised cotton fabric strips, inserted vertically into soil, with the degree of decomposition assessed by the loss of the strip’s tensile strength. In 1974, Bill led the publication of a paper which for

Bill Heal (centre) captains Hatfield College Cricket Club 1956

the first time reported the use of cotton strips to compare decomposition rates across Arctic, Antarctic and alpine sites. Decades before concerns about climate warming, it is only relatively recently that scientists have been building on this work, and keenly researching decomposition – or lack of it – in northern regions, especially across peatlands. The very slow rates of decomposition in peat enable the removal of phenomenal quantities of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, as well as storage of carbon in its acidic and waterlogged conditions, and in doing so helping combat climate heating.

Appointed Head of Soil Science in the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (ITE) in 1974, Bill made key contributions to the UNESCO International Biological Programme (IBP). Formed to develop our understanding of the biological basis of productivity and human welfare, this marked the beginning of the science community unravelling how ecosystems work, and the extent to which people influence them. In 1978 he edited with Don Perkins the very influential Production Ecology of British Moors and Montane Grasslands, the culmination of much of the IPB work, and followed by Decomposition in Terrestrial Ecosystems (1979), with Mike Swift and Jo Anderson, a classic and again very influential textbook on the diversity of soil decomposers.

Born in Gateshead, Bill’s father, Oliver William, a Customs Officer, imbued attention to detail, and his mother, Elsie (née Tate) nurtured an unfailingly positive attitude to life. Educated at Gateshead Grammar School, Bill met his wife-tobe, Elsie (née Stephenson), on a Parisian

school trip, and they married on 3 April 1958. Bill came up to Hatfield in 1953 where he studied Natural Sciences (specialising in zoology), and excelled in sport. In the victorious 1954 Cricket Trophy final, The Hatfield Record reported that ‘Heal went from 30 to 50 in five scoring strokes’ and he was awarded Colours in his first season. Hatfield won the cricket Trophy in all three of Bill’s undergraduate seasons including 1956 as Captain. Bill was Secretary then Captain of HCCC and Secretary of HCRFC; he also played for Durham Colleges CC in 1954, and in 1955 and 1957 as Captain; he played for the University in 1959 [He may have played in other seasons too; these are the only mentions in the Hatfield Record]. Neither marriage nor studying for a PhD seem to have kept him off the cricket field! After graduating in 1956, Bill stayed in Durham and took up a Nature Conservancy PhD Scholarship supervised by Professor Jim Cragg, studying protozoans found in wetlands in Moor House, the largest National Nature Reserve in England. Here, Bill joined a team of field ecologists whose members became prominent in academia and society. Bill was not alone as a Hatfield graduate doing a PhD at Moor House: another was Trevor Crisp who was

On moving to Hexham after retirement, Bill was easily persuaded to get involved in College life and soon became President of the Hatfield Association

Bill Heal (right) talking to Jeff Warburton at Moor House, July 2003.

studying peat runoff and erosion. Based in the highest inhabited house in England, Bill described the climate as resembling that of southern Iceland. He also studied under Muriel Robertson at the Lister Institute of Preventative Medicine in London. One of the first women to be elected FRS, having made key discoveries about Trypanosoma gambiense, the cause of African sleeping sickness, she delighted Bill with stories about her friend Albert Einstein, and was his PhD external examiner in 1959.

Rapidly developing international expertise in soil microbes, Bill’s work contributed to Moor House becoming the IBP centre for understanding sub-tundra biomes and, in 1967, to devising a new ecosystem model for describing pathways and flows of energy and nutrients. This formed the basis for what is now vital ecosystem restoration work to halt the loss of carbon from degrading peatlands.

In 1982, after a spell “learning scientific politics” at NERC headquarters, Bill was appointed Director of ITE for the north of the UK, and moved to Edinburgh. He galvanised colleagues to work across organisational and subject boundaries. Working tirelessly, and ten years later, he led the establishment of the Environmental Change Network (ECN). This is now a world-leading, long-term monitoring network drawing on physical, chemical and biological datasets. The 11 terrestrial and 45 freshwater sites provide long-term data

on environmental change, which informs government policies on climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. The ECN belongs to the International Long-Term Ecological Network (ILTER) operating across 600 sites with the purpose of solving international ecological and socioeconomic problems.

Bill attended the 150th Hatfield anniversary celebrations in 1996 where he almost literally bumped into Tim Burt at the front gates! They already knew one another through ECN but neither had realised the forthcoming Hatfield connection (Tim became Master later that year). Bill was made an Honorary Fellow when he retired in 2001: fitting recognition of a distinguished Hatfield graduate. On moving to Hexham after retirement, Bill was easily persuaded to get involved in College life and soon became President of the Hatfield Association (2004-2009), giving him a seat on Governing Body (as College Council was then called). Bill’s wise advice and enthusiasm were greatly welcomed. Bill and Elsie came frequently to formal dinners and were always a delight to welcome back. An Honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh, Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, and Honorary Fellow of Hatfield College, Bill was appointed one of the few members of the Circle of Elders of the University of the Arctic. Avuncular, a popular leader, and an inveterate networker, Bill was par excellence the innovative scientific multi-disciplinary collaborator. Tragically, Alzheimer’s disease took hold of Bill as it had his brother, Alan. Bill is survived by Elsie, sons Stephen and Duncan, and five grandchildren. Oliver William (Bill Heal), ecologist and multi-disciplinary environmentalist, born 14 November 1934; died 16 January 2021. Tim Burt, Des Thompson, Rob Marrs, Stephen Heal.

Tim Burt was Master of Hatfield College, 1996-2017; Des Thompson works for NatureScot and was Visiting Research Fellow at Hatfield in 2015; Rob Marrs (Liverpool University) is Vice-Chairman of the Field Studies Council; Stephen Heal is Bill and Elsie’s elder son.

Bill and Elsie at a function in Hatfield dining hall

Edward Hulmes with wife, Shirley, at Congregation

HULMES, Professor Edward KCHS MA BD DPhil (Oxon)

Edward was born in Manchester on 13 June 1932. The family evacuated to live near his mother’s family in Cumberland during the war, remaining there for many years. On graduating from Liverpool University, he spent his National Service as an officer in Army Intelligence in Bavaria, being allowed a long weekend’s leave to return to Heswall to marry Shirley. After National Service, Edward worked in an administrative capacity in West Africa for five years. On his return to England, he began his teaching career. Over the course of his career, he wrote a number of books and articles on aspects of Islamic Studies and Education.

He went to Oxford with his family in 1973 to take up the post of Director of the Farmington Institute for Christian Studies. His DPhil at Oriel built on his observations of Christianity and Islam during his time in West Africa.

He then became Spalding Professorial Fellow in Comparative Theology at the University of Durham until his retirement at the age of 60, being a member of the Hatfield College Senior Common Room. In 1980-81 he was William Belden Noble Lecturer at Harvard University, and for many years was a Member of the Centre of Theological Inquiry at Princeton in the USA. In 1999 he became a Fellow of the Maryvale Institute in Birmingham and continued to supervise MA and PhD students into his 80s. A special award was established in his name in 2010, the Edward Hulmes’ prize for excellence in Research.

Edward became a Knight Commander of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem supporting their work in the Holy Land, undertaking a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 2003.

Throughout his life, Edward’s personal life centred on his family, music (mainly playing the piano and clarinet with friends) and on languages (speaking German, Arabic and Russian). Edward loved fly fishing with his friends, the hills around the Lake District, where he lived as a child, and in Monsal Dale in Derbyshire where he lived for the last 40 years. He leaves behind his wife, Shirley, three daughters, Rosalind, Heather and Elizabeth (Lilly), and five grandchildren.

Rosalind Kenrick

Edward and Teazel, Easdale Island

PHILLIPS, Michael OBE (1964-67)

Michael, known to his friends as Mike, was born in Rawalpindi, then India and now Pakistan, to the distinguished diplomat Sir Horace Phillips who later became Ambassador to Indonesia and Turkey as well as High Commissioner to Tanzania. Mike spent much of his childhood in the Middle East before being sent off to prep school, followed by Glenalmond in Scotland where he thrived and became head boy. In those days the provision of educational facilities for British expatriates abroad was usually limited and often nonexistent. Boarding school was not so much a choice as a necessity.

I first met Mike during Michaelmas Term in 1964 where, like me, he had signed up to read Modern Middle Eastern Studies with his language being Farsi. This was a natural choice for a young man of his background and interest. As well as following me in his choice of degree he also demonstrated excellent judgement in taking over my room, H4 in Pace block, before graduating in 1967. Mike was an all-round sportsman, but his particular passion was rugby and he played for the College.

In 1967, I left the UK to work for The Eastern Bank Ltd in Bahrain. Two years later on reading the staff directory I learnt that Mike was working for The Chartered Bank in Karachi; they were in effect the same organisation and later became rolled into what is now Standard Chartered Bank. I wrote to him asking if he realised that we were both working for the same employer. I recollect his reply as being somewhat ambiguous. Mike had a distinguished and varied banking career serving in Germany, the USA and many parts of Asia. It was while he was running the bank’s business in Taiwan that he was awarded the OBE for establishing the British Chamber of Commerce in Taipei. He retired in 2000 after 33 years’ service. It was when he was in Karachi that he met his wife, Judith, and they were married in 1971. Two daughters followed, Rebecca in Hong Kong and Anna in Bahrain. His family was Mike’s first priority and he became a grandfather to three grandchildren upon whom he doted. Upon retirement, Judith and Mike retired to a village just outside Retford in Nottinghamshire. His was an active retirement. Rugby remained a passion; his playing career had been cut short by a shoulder injury which required an operation and so for many years he refereed wherever he could find a rugby scene, notwithstanding shoulder dislocations which he took in his stride. He became a committee member of the East Retford Rugby Club, was a keen supporter of Scotland and a frequent visitor to Murrayfield. In many other ways he was active in his local community, serving on the Parish council and supporting his local church.

I knew Mike as a very convivial and generous hearted man. He and Judith were not only superb hosts but also delightful guests. I remember a very late and alcoholic boys’ night out in Hong Kong, returning to their home as an unexpected

I knew Mike as a very convivial and generous hearted man.

overnight guest. I tried to sneak out early the following morning without being noticed but to my huge embarrassment was accosted by Judith, Mike very sensibly remaining sound asleep. Judith was unperturbed and I was gently seen on my way after being offered a strong coffee. Diplomacy must be in the genes of the family; I have only one recollection of the incident ever again being mentioned.

Many years later I enjoyed their company at my home in Hertfordshire. It was another enjoyable, very convivial and well-lubricated evening. My stamina not being what it was I excused myself at about two in the morning. I was astonished and delighted to find the next morning that all the many glasses and other necessities has been washed up by Mike before he went to bed. That surely must be the mark of a true gentleman. Mike had suffered from congestive heart disease over many years which he battled with good humour; he was not one for letting life get him down. On 21 March 2021, he died peacefully and painlessly in his sleep in a hospice where he was well cared for. On his last day he was able to spend a little time separately with Judith and both of his daughters and managed to enjoy the Six Nations Rugby match when his beloved Scotland beat England.

Inevitably, as part of expatriate life circling the globe in different directions years can pass without seeing colleagues and friends and so it happened between Mike and me but we always kept in touch. I am glad that I had several opportunities to chat with him by phone before he died. When an old friend moves on a little of one’s own life goes as well but with Mike, I am left with a sense of privilege at being able to call him “friend”. Hatfield can join his family and many friends in being proud of his life and his memory.

Barry Northrop (1963-66) STRATTON, James (1990-93)

James read Archaeology at Durham, enjoyed the periodic digs and always challenged pre-conceived ideas which may have fitted an individual’s theory but lacked fact-based evidence. This philosophy stood him in good stead as an Accountant, his chosen profession. He enjoyed his time at Hatfield, played rugby for Hatfield and also represented them in athletics.

After leaving Durham, James studied and qualified as a Chartered Accountant at EY. Once qualified, he took a year off to travel extensively throughout Africa and Central America, stopping in Guatemala to learn Spanish. On his return to the UK he worked in the Finance Departments of several FTSE 100 Companies, his last appointment being in Paris as part of a team investigating fraud. True to his belief in fact-based data, he was an insightful auditor and uncovered trails which had been overlooked by others but led to vital discoveries. He was shrewd, totally honest and honourable in his work and a well-liked and respected Team Leader.

James was a focussed sportsman. He took up triathlon and joined Thames Turbo in 2002. Through his dedication and hard training, he was selected for the GB team for the 2005 ITU World Championships in Hawaii where he took second in the Aquathon before racing the Triathlon. He was selected on two further occasions for the GB ITU World Championships team. He maintained his Triathlon training in order to compete in the European IronMan Championships in Frankfurt where he achieved his goal of breaking 10 hours by some 30 minutes.

James raced for London Dynamo from 2005 to 2015 in 30 open time trials at 10, 25, 50 and 100 miles and was always in contention for the top spot, taking it outright on three occasions. His 51 minute PB for 25 miles on an honest course shows

his class. He also raced in five National Time Trail Championships and the National 3up TT championships. He always placed well. He won the Surrey Cycle Racing League individual TT and was part of the winning 4up team time trial team on two occasions.

Unassuming, hard-working and a popular person both at work and at play, James had a delightful sense of humour and always found time to support family, friends and colleagues. Blessed with a challenging, entrepreneurial and inquiring mind, he explored a range of interests including the piano, writing, poetry and reading and he was always an informed, intelligent and interesting conversationalist. He was passionate about the natural world and hated wastefulness. Periodically he took off on an expedition on his own or with a close friend, either in the UK or abroad making friends en route, covering vast distances and experiencing dangers and the freedom of the outdoors. In 2018 he made his last such trip to Guyana, where he and his partner explored the rainforest and the wildlife of the interior.

James died from an aggressive form of cancer after a short illness. He leaves behind his cherished partner Zoe, his parents, sister and two brothers and many close friends and colleagues. He bequeathed the bulk of his estate for the purchase of land to be planted with oaks and other hardwood trees to be known as JamesWood.

Mrs Suzette Stratton

James Stratton