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Pembroke College Record
P.O.W. camps in Britain to interview German prisoners of war. In 1948 on the disbandment of P.I.D. he joined the B.B.C. Monitoring Service at Caversham as an editor, specialising in Soviet affairs, both political and economic. In 1952 he married Shirley Thomas (who survives him). By this time interest in Devon had increased as he father came of Devon stock, and so the marriage took place at the chapel at Uppacott, Poundsgate, on Dartmoor. From 1959 to 1966 William edited the Transactions of the Devonshire Association. In 1971 he retired to the Highlands of Scotland, where he lived at Keil House, Ardgour. For many years he enjoyed hillwalking as well as joining in the neighbours' sheep-gathering and helping in other farming work. It was at this stage that he found the Gaelic language a challenge and studied it. He also travelled to towns in Scotland and the North of England to study their architecture and history.
MARK TWYMAN 14 December 1962 - 7 July 1997 The following address was given at the Memorial Service in the Damon Wells Chapel, Pembroke College on 13 December 1997 by Duncan Tincello (1981). I met Mark during the first weeks at Pembroke, when we were freshers here together. I felt a little awed and out of my depth; Mark had already endured three unfamiliar and challenging years in this country, and seemed ready for anything. He spent much of that first year immersed in the serious business of study, and was often unavailable for whatever mad scheme was going on, worried as he was about the workload, and alive to the responsibility he owed to his family for his education and the opportunity at Oxford. But, as you all know, Mark was someone who thrived on companionship and interaction with people. He mellowed, and we all saw more and more of him. We became great friends, we spent a lot of time together, cycling, walking, drinking ale and
talking. Then all too suddenly I left Oxford after that great trauma that is Finals, a trauma that we shared and that reinforced the strength of our friendship. Mark continued his studies, and, as many of you know, he went on to complete his Doctorate. He joined Exxon and gave that organisation two years of his energy and passion for chemistry. But Mark had become unhappy. To many of us he now seemed quite the quintessential Englishman, and indeed Mark loved this country deeply, its traditions and culture, and his many friends here. Yet in Mark there remained a loyalty to his home and family that I did not fully understand, and may even have surprised Mark with its intensity. He spent a year or more embroiled in that battle you may recognise where we search for the goals that are truly ours. Maybe it is a search for identity. I saw a lot of Mark during that last year. He spent Christmas with me in Cheltenham; we took long walks in all weather, and we talked. He decided to return to Jamaica to run his father's coffee farm. He felt that this was a worthwhile goal. He could make a contribution to his country, and take a small part in the battle against injustice. These needs were always in Mark, but he had been busy soaking up the world of experiences here. I have one recollection that might help to explain Mark's decision. He used to have a crudely written slogan taped to the wall in his bedroom up at the flat in Cowley, which read, 'Remember, you are a Twyman, and you are a Jamaican.' I was shocked by the power of it when I first saw it. Mark was always a Twyman in all senses, and now the Jamaican in him was reasserting itself. It was time for him to return. He built a new life in Jamaica. He was undaunted by the immense task he had undertaken. He threw himself into it completely. The farm now spread over 120 acres, much of which was badly overgrown and damaged by hurricane. Mark grappled with the many problems of farming in a poor country, and he grappled with building a working relationship with his father, Alex. I was never sure which was the greater challenge. They were quite awesome together, each as stubborn and vigorous as the other.