Queens’ College Record 2008 history of Justice and an on-line information service on the world’s airports (‘Airwise’ still exists today), but ill health forced him to curtail these activities. He was still able to make valuable contributions to the magazine of the Confederation of Scandinavian Societies in Britain and to teach English to foreign children in London. A true gentleman, he is sadly missed by his family and many friends and colleagues.
returning to London as Head of Light Entertainment. He became comptroller of Radio 2 in 1980 and then of Radio 4 in 1983. In 1987 he was promoted to Managing Director of Network Radio and became a member of the BBC’s board. Unusually for a top BBC executive, his career was entirely within radio. In 1993 he became an advisor to the Director General of the BBC and retired from the Corporation entirely in 1995. As a J.P. in Buckinghamshire it is said that he sometimes anonymously sent cash to offenders for whom he felt sorry, to pay their fines. From 1996 to 2000 he was Chairman of the National Consumer Council and in 2000 he became Chairman of the Parole Board. His appointment was unusual in that previous Chairmen had all had a background in government service. Hatch opposed the early release of Tony Martin on the grounds that he still believed him to pose a danger. He was a staunch defender of the Parole Board’s independence. Having been awarded a C.B.E. in 1994, he was knighted in 2004 for services to the Parole Board. He lived in retirement in Chalfont St Giles and sat on the village conservation committee. His death followed a long battle with cancer. Fittingly, news of his Memorial Service in October 2007 was deemed significant enough to warrant an item on Radio 4’s evening news bulletin. The service itself featured tributes from Sir Terry Wogan, Jenny Abramsky, Sir David Jason, John Cleese and Sue Lawley, amongst others.
J. Abbott (1955) aged 71. John Abbott attended Dulwich College, where he was captain of hockey and was also in the cricket, rugby and athletics first teams. He did his National Service in the 6th Royal Tank Regiment in Germany and won Army medals for hockey and athletics, before coming to Queens’ in 1955 to read Geography. On graduation he worked as a Trainee Buyer for Harrods, before joining GKN to work for their subsidiary Sankey Sheldon, who made metal office furniture, as a sales and marketing man. By the age of 31 he was their youngest Marketing Director. He then moved to one of the divisions of Standard Telephones and Cables as Marketing Director before going into general management as Managing Director of the Angel Toy group. A spell sorting out problems for Dunlop’s sporting goods companies was followed by a return to the toy industry when he was headhunted to join Airfix and Lesney Matchbox Toys. At Lesney he was Chairman of nine companies, two in the U.K., five in Europe and two in the Far East and the job involved a great deal of travel, sparking a life-long interest in civil aviation. John kept a record of his travels and by the time of his death had made 2200 flights on 425 different airlines, landing at 530 different airports. John remained at Lesney when it was taken over by a Hong Kong firm, but after a while took on general management roles first with Reed International (where he acted as something of a troubleshooter ‘fixing’ marketing problems for subsidiary companies) and then with Automated Security. After a spell as a divestment consultant and as Chairman of commercial companies, he became Director of Fundraising and Marketing for Macmillan Cancer Relief, more than tripling its annual income. He was responsible for the launch of ‘The World’s Biggest Coffee Morning’. He was also active on the Board of Missionary Aviation Fellowship, helping reorganise its fundraising, and was Chairman of the U.K. branch for six years. He served on the Board of the Edith Cavell charity, on the Council of Holiday Property Bond and was a non-executive Director in the Cambridgeshire NHS. For his charity work he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St John. He retired in 1999. All his life John was a committed Christian, for many years a member of Purley Baptist Church, then, during the 27 years he lived in Cambridgeshire, of local Anglican churches. He and his wife also owned a flat in Battersea and they became guides at Lambeth Palace and friends of the Archbishop and his wife, organising the Archbishop’s garden party marking the Queen’s Golden Jubilee.
Professor J. K. P. Ariyaratne (1961) aged 72. Jayaweera Ariyaratne was born in the coastal town of Weligama in southern Sri Lanka, the eldest of twelve children. He was educated at Mahinda College, Galle, where he won the gold medal for best science student, and then the University of Colombo, where he matriculated in 1953. On graduation he was offered a Lecturer’s post at the University and from there he was seconded to Cambridge in 1961 to study for a Ph.D. in the Chemistry Department on organo-metallic compounds. He then obtained a Nuffield Foundation Scholarship for post-doctoral work, concentrating on organo-metallic penicillins at Oxford University. In 1967 he was appointed as the founder Professor of Chemistry at the University of Kelaniya, a post he held until retirement in 1999. As well as teaching at the University, he pioneered the teaching of chemistry in native language in high schools and wrote a series of much-used textbooks on the subject. He was the chief examiner in chemistry for GCE A level in Sri Lanka for an unprecedented 25 years and did much to maintain the high level of knowledge of chemistry of students entering university. Throughout his academic career he maintained close links with the University of Uppsala in Sweden and contributed to research there on numerous visits. In retirement he published several books on links between science and Buddhism. He suffered ill health for many years with complications from diabetes. R.B.Arnall (1963) aged 62. Dick Arnall was born in Sunderland and attended Monkwearmouth Grammar School before coming up to Queens’ to read Natural Sciences. His interest in film was already apparent during his university days – he ran a film society and set up an animation festival that provided a showcase for innovative and experimental work. He worked on the Beatles’ film Yellow Submarine (1968) and then worked as an Assistant Managing Director at the animation studio Halas and Bachelor from 1969 to 1972. Here, he was able to nurture new animation talent, as well as managing the Jackson Five and Osmond Brothers series for the ABC network in the US. His subsequent career path saw him move in a more independent direction, producing his own material and helping others to do the same. His reputation for innovation made him an obvious person to be involved in the animate! project, set up in 1990 by Channel 4 and the Arts Council, to commission new and exciting work for television. Dick acted initially as an independent production advisor (1990–1998) and then ran the whole project, through his company Finetake, from 2000. A sense of his contribution to the genre can be gathered from the wealth of resources and information available on the animate! website (www.animateonline.org). His died of pneumonia, following on from a brain tumour.
P.B.Rippon (1957) aged 70. Peter Rippon was a foundation scholar at Manchester Grammar School. Having spent part of his National Service in the Intelligence Corps, he came up to Queens’ in 1957 to read Modern and Medieval Languages, changing to English for Part II. After graduation he spent two years in Uppsala and another at Blois before joining the staff of Tonbridge School in 1963. In 1967 he moved to King Henry VIII School, Coventry, where he was to remain until his retirement in 2000. Peter was heavily involved with school life, producing plays, editing the school magazine and leading the school German exchange to Lubeck for many years. His wide interests led to him being appointed head of General Studies and he was able to inspire generations of students with his enthusiasm. He gained an M.Phil. from Warwick University for work on T S Eliot and French Thought and also acted as a part-time tutor for the Open University. He published his first novel in 1998 and was working on a fourth at the time of his death. A lover of good food and wine, he died after a long battle with prostate cancer. Sir David Hatch, C.B.E., F.R.S.A. (1959) aged 68. David Hatch was educated at St John’s School, Leatherhead, before coming up to Queens’ to read History. His college activities included enthusiastic captaincy of the Rugby Fives team. He had originally intended to follow his father into the Church but was seduced by the Cambridge Footlights (he also made several notable appearances in revues organised under the auspices of Bats). The Footlights were then undergoing a golden age with the likes of John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Tim Brook-Taylor, Bill Oddie and Jonathan Lynn all being members. Hatch too was a performer in the 1963 revue ‘A Clump of Plinths’ which transferred to the West End and then toured the US successfully as well. He joined the BBC in 1964 as a writer and actor for ‘I’m sorry, I’ll read that again’ where he played the straight man amidst the anarchic antics of Cleese, Oddie, Brook-Taylor and Graeme Garden. From performer he made the transition to producer. He was responsible for devising and producing such Radio 4 stalwarts as ‘Just a minute’ and ‘I’m sorry, I haven’t a clue’, as well as the now defunct ‘Week Ending’. He became Head of Network Radio in Manchester in 1974, before
P.S.McDonald (1963) aged 63. Stuart McDonald was born in Colwyn Bay, where his father was a successful businessman. He gained a scholarship to Rydal School and his successful school career culminated in his appointment as Head Boy. He came up to Queens’ to read Economics. On graduation he joined Arthur Andersen in London and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1969. Having risen to become a Manager at Andersens, he then joined the merchant bank N. M. Rothschild. He left Rothschilds in the mid 1980s to join the highly successful London and Edinburgh Trust Company. Following a successful battle against cancer in 1993, he continued to pursue various entrepreneurial and business ventures. One regular feature of his calendar was the annual pilgrimage to Twickenham to enjoy the Varsity Rugby Match, together with a group of Cambridge friends.
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