Obituaries

It was with great sadness that we learnt of David’s death on 17th March 2022 at the age of only 68. David was the College’s Accountant from 1995 to his retirement in 2005 – although his retirement lasted only 4 days before he started work part-time at The Manor. David continued to work at The Manor until his illness made it too difficult to continue. David’s funeral was on 12th April 2022 and amongst the many kind words that were said, some of the most common were kind, thoughtful and gentle. David was a true gentle man. If I could use a few words from a poem that was read out at the funeral –

I read of a man who stood to speak at the funeral of a friend. He referred to the dates on his casket from beginning to the end. He noted that first came the date of his birth and spoke of the following date with tears, but he said what mattered most of all was the dash between those years.

The dash in David’s life was full. His two children and grandson brought him great joy and one of David’s best holidays was with his daughter, Laura, to Iceland. David also had a love of motorbikes which started when he was young and he enjoyed many wonderful trips abroad. David’s downfall was cake – he had such a sweet tooth and would forfeit something savoury for a slice of cake any day of the week. He also had a huge love of walking and spent much of his time away from the office in the Lake District (in particular, Betty’s Tea Rooms) and we all looked forward to the gingerbread he brought back with him!

As well as meticulous (he was the College Accountant after all!), David was kind, good natured and a fabulous listener. It took an awful lot for him to become cross about something (or someone!). If you were looking for someone for a sound board, David would be your man.

We missed him when he retired and miss him more now we can’t see him.

Written by Richard Pollard, Common Room 1970-2008 It was with great sadness that we heard of Gary’s untimely death. He contributed to many areas of College life and his David Bridgford

sociability meant that he made close friends across the campus.

When Jim Pettifar retired after 30 years as RSM it was a challenge to find someone with the right skills to fill his shoes. There were many applicants but a recommendation from Major Ingram, school liaison officer for the Army Air Corps, led us to interview Gary. Both metaphorically and literally he stood head and shoulders above all other candidates. His interview with Richard Morgan was spent mostly talking rugby and even though Gary was a passionate supporter of Scotland, Richard said that he was the man for the job and agreed that he had a commanding presence, something that was evident throughout his time at Radley. His wide military experience provided the expertise for the job.

Gary spent 22 years in the Army, starting his training with the Junior Leaders Regiment RAC in 1976. His original intention was to join the Royal Military Police but shortly before pass off in December 1977 he decided to transfer to the Army Air Corps. He served in Bunde, Hildersham and Soest West Germany, Hong Kong, Northern Ireland, and England. His successful career took him to WO2 in 1990 and as Squadron Sergeant Major when 661 sqn went to the Gulf War. A friend from his early training days says that “he was respected by all who served with him both above and below in rank. His attention to looking after his men in the Gulf War was second to none and to this day his men talk about what a great SSM he was. They talk of how he could be a strict man but also a very fair man and they knew if they dropped the ball he would defend them staunchly but would also be the disciplinarian if that was what was required.”

Dealing with soldiers was one thing, dealing with stroppy teenage boys was another but Gary adapted very quickly and this same approach meant that he commanded respect from the boys. His commitment to high standards of discipline and behaviour meant that they knew exactly where they stood, that he would not stand for any nonsense and would always get at the truth if anyone prevaricated – most would not dare. He was particularly good at dealing with those boys who always seemed to be in trouble, one or two of whom might well have been expelled had they not been guided by Gary.

From the outset he was meticulous in organising the CCF stores, maintaining weapons and running the armoury. Training activities included drill, military tactics and weapon handling and all were carried out with precision and good humour. His skills as a drill sergeant were evident when the boys paraded smartly for Inspection Days and Remembrance Sunday. He provided valuable support on CCF camps. He enjoyed the Adventure Training in Snowdonia and the Lake District where his good humour prevailed except when heavy rain threatened to swamp his tent. He never quite understood why some of us enjoyed being

Gary Miller

under canvas for a week in March rather than in a hutted camp. Nevertheless, he appreciated that challenging boys and taking them out of their comfort zone enabled them to achieve more than expected in areas not normally experienced back in College. This was very evident in what Gary accomplished with a group of 40 to 50 Remove boys on CCF Central Camps. Very quickly he would have them looking smart, drilling well, motivated to work together as a team and often becoming one of the best Contingents on camp. He was always particularly pleased when they won some of the inter-contingent competitions; the boys responded well to the pressure he put them under.

With so much to offer, it was no surprise that he was keen to be involved in other areas of College life. Becoming a livein sub-tutor in A social, he and Marie provided a constant source of order, hospitality and friendliness. He supported the JCR, where his natural authority and sociability helped to keep everything running smoothly. After coaching Colts 3 Rugby with success he moved on to being a referee and was greatly valued for his fairness and knowledge of the game. The new role of Proctor was organised around him and in this he helped to maintain the overall discipline and behaviour of boys around College.

He and Marie left Radley in 2009 for a new life in Germany but sadly their marriage did not survive the move. Gary returned to Scotland to work as a Prison Officer in a Young Offenders Prison, and then as a Youth Justice Support worker where he was involved in steering youngsters away from a possible life in prison.

On retirement in 2019 he took on a small holding in Scotland but very sadly he developed a brain tumour in 2021. Unfortunately, a seven month period of treatment was not successful and he passed away on New Year’s Eve. He leaves behind his two daughters Gemma and Lee-Ann, his new partner Lorna and his best pal Daxx the Labrador.

Michael went to Radley in 1938, in the footsteps of his elder brother David, and his father Charles, who had started at the school in 1911. A talented sportsman, Michael played in the cricket 1st XI for two years. He continued to play a lot of sport when he went up to Cambridge in 1944 to study modern languages. Alongside his evident passion for cricket he won a Blue at hockey.

This sporting success came despite an eye injury suffered in an accident at Radley which left him with very little sight in one eye, even after months of treatment on leaving school. He had taken up golf as a boy at Bungay in Suffolk, and went on to play until his late seventies. Not long before his death at the age of 96 he remarked that when he couldn’t sleep he liked to entertain himself by re-living the three “holes-in-one” of his career.

In the late 1940s, after university, Michael taught for a while at Eton College, before deciding to become a fruit farmer. He spent time learning the rudiments at a farm in Essex. And he then returned to Suffolk, where he spent the rest of his long life. He bought an established but somewhat neglected farm north of Framlingham, and moved there in 1954 with his new wife Gillian. They had two sons. He farmed there for almost 40 years.

The orchards were immaculate, and he played a leading role in one of the cooperatives which processed and marketed apples from the dozens of fruit farms which at the time peppered Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk.

Just as his standards on the farm were high, they were too, quietly, in life. A friend wrote of him recently that he was “a person of absolute integrity, unshakeable in his values”. He was also supremely modest, kind, courteous, considerate, and thoughtful. Outside of Suffolk, he was an unlikely but dedicated participant in a City livery company, the Tylers and Bricklayers. He and his brother each served as Master in the 1970s.

Michael was married secondly, in 1979, to Marie, a widowed fellow Suffolk fruit farmer; for a while they operated both their farms, before retirement.

Some years after her death he finally decided in his nineties to go into a home nearby run by an agricultural charity. He remained in remarkable health, well in tune with events of the day; interested and proud of his family including four grandchildren.

Michael Bagot Parry-Crooke, born 16th November 1924, died 30th July 30th 2021, aged 96.

Donald was born in Bolton Lancashire and attended Mostyn House prep school before going on to Radley in September 1939. He was a keen sportsman playing cricket for the 2nd XI and rugby for the 1st and 2nd XV. He also represented E Social (Hope’s), at squash, hockey and fives.

He left Radley in 1944 and gained a commission with the Coldstream Guards, becoming a company commander in Palestine in 1945. His aptitude at shooting led to his selection for the army team where he was particularly proficient with the submachine gun. He later became Chief Instructor at the Small Arms Wing, School of Infantry and later at the Defence Nuclear, Biological and Chemical School at Westbourne Gunner.

He retired from the army in 1967 to focus on running a poultry farm, before entering the charity field as an appeal consultant helping to set up charity committees along with fundraising. In this role he was involved with a number of charities including the Wishing Well Appeal at Great Ormond Street Hospital, Katharine House Hospice for children, London College of Music and the Guards Museum at Wellington Barracks.

At the age of 67 whilst involved with the children’s hospital at Alder Hey, Donald was forced to retire with ill health. He

Michael Bagot Parry-Crooke

found this sudden change very difficult as his great interest in life had always been helping the numerous charities and meeting the variety of people connected with them. Donald and his late wife enjoyed many family occasions over the years including their Golden Wedding anniversary.

Major Donald George Miles-Marsh passed away peacefully at the age of 96 and is survived by two daughters and a son.

Anthony was a prefect at Radley in 1943 and, according to his son Julian, was a proud Old Radleian who always spoke very highly of the school and of his time here.

After leaving Radley he went up to Trinity College, Oxford, to read History. He became Director of WFDA Underwriting Ltd and was married in 1951 to Palola Francesca.

Anthony enjoyed attending reunion events and Old Radleian Dinners.

Anthony Ledward Wallers died on 13th December 2021 at the age of 96.

Martin Warner Horrocks was born in 1928 to farming parents who lived in Wheatley near Retford, Notts. His younger brother, Oliver, was two years younger and currently lives in Cheshire. Both boys attended prep school at Maidwell Hall, Northamptonshire.

In 1939, at the age of 11, Martin continued his education at Radley College, Oxfordshire. Its schoolboy population largely consisted of the offspring of the professional classes and politicians; a farmer’s son was the exception, and he was christened “Mudwash” by his contemporaries. When Oliver arrived, Martin became “Mudwash 1” and the newly arrived Horrocks “Mudwash 2”. Martin enjoyed life at Radley, he was involved in most sports, especially Rugby. He showed a great interest in the College beagles, caring for them and accommodating them outside of term time.

After completing his education at Radley College, Martin was conscripted into the Army in 1946. He served in Palestine during the later stages of the Jewish Insurgency, and in Persia and Cyprus: he said that his most notable contribution to Army life was being responsible for the guard of honour for the Shah of Persia.

Following demobilisation, he returned home to take up farming and gained employment on a farm close to his parents’ holding. In 1952, with experience under his belt, he obtained tenancy for Crooksford Farm, Elkesley, Notts. There he lived with the Bell family and their three daughters.

In 1962, Martin increased the area of land under his stewardship by taking up the tenancy of Manor Farm Elkesley, he and his surrogate family moved into new accommodation in the village. He became a keen member of Elkesley Parish Council and Retford Rural District Council where he stood as an Independent Councillor: he became Chairman for the RDC in the 1960s.

For recreation, he played rugby for Worksop Rugby Club into his late 30s. In the early 1970s, after he stopped playing rugby, Martin took up horse riding and became involved with the Grove and Rufford Hunt, essentially for the rest of his life. Only 2 weeks before his death he’d attended a meet, although not on horseback!

As his farm workforce began to retire and he himself approached retirement age in the mid-1980s, Martin decided that his relatively large holdings could be better managed on a partnership basis with others taking over day to day operations. Relieved of daily farm management duties he had the time to pursue his interest in antique artworks and books related principally to hunting. He also had the opportunity to spend more time following the Grove and Rufford Hunt. In his 70s he developed a close relationship with an acquaintance from his teenage years, Margaret Morrell, who had been widowed a few years previously. They were to spend 18 years enjoying each other’s company until Margaret passed away in November 2021. The last couple of years of his life, he was cared for by one of the Bell’s daughters, Eleanor. Martin was a great character and will be sadly missed.

Willy Cave, who has died aged 95, was a television broadcaster, rally car navigator and pilot who pioneered early outdoor broadcasting at the BBC and was a veteran of over sixty Monte Carlo, Alpine and RAC car rallies.

William Sturmy Cave, born in Westminster on 29th January 1927 to William Sturmy Cave Senior and Lorna Cave (nee Wishart and later Burmann) grew up in Eversley Cross, Hampshire, with one sister, Susan, and later with his mother and stepfather, Walter Burmann, in Coleshill, Bucks. Married and divorced twice, first to Julia Cave in 1958 and later to Sam Pease in 1971, he often joked that he was the most eligible bachelor in Barnes despite his advancing years, until his death on 13th March 2022.

Returning from wartime evacuation in Canada - his oft-told anecdote of the time he ‘went on a cruise with Elizabeth Taylor’ - Willy attended Radley College and then went up to Trinity College, Oxford, to read Engineering Science, where he restarted the Oxford University ski team and flew Tiger Moths at Abingdon in his spare time. After graduating, he was called up for National Service, gaining his Wings flying Harvards in 1949 and winning the RAF ski championship in 1950. As a member of the RAF Volunteer Reserve, he went on to fly Spitfires before moving on to early Meteor and Vampire jets. An avid air enthusiast to the last and naturally thrifty, in his early 90s he negotiated a discount to fly himself on a sightseeing tour around his beloved Courchevel ski resort and was never without his flying maps and compass on

Martin Warner Horrocks

family holidays, insisting on a window seat to track the flight’s progress and sparking a lifelong fascination with geography in his grandchildren.

In a 26-year career at the BBC, Willy rose through the ranks to become studio director of the Tonight programme with Cliff Michelmore, working on outdoor broadcasts with Alan Whicker and becoming a founding member of the Tomorrow’s World and Horizon teams. He was a pioneer of innovation in outdoor broadcasting, producing the maiden Concorde flights, covering the Coronation, a live climb of the Matterhorn and the first television satellite link-ups with Australia and Japan. He produced live coverage of the London International Fireworks Competition for many years, and following a broadcast of naval exercises in the English Channel was asked to sign a chit by the Ministry of Defence promising to replace the aircraft carrier Ark Royal if his activities damaged or sank it.

Although twice a BAFTA winner with the Tonight and Tomorrow’s World teams, Willy joked that his proudest achievement was the introduction of coloured lane indicators in swimming competitions to enable the viewer to tell who was in the lead no matter what the camera angle. After the BBC there followed ten years at Scotland Yard as the Metropolitan Police’s first ever broadcasting advisor and a role as Director of Studies at the National Broadcasting School until its closure.

His life-long love of car rallying spanned over 70 years, including stints in the MG, Standard-Triumph, BMC and Rover works teams, navigating and co-driving for the likes of Paddy Hopkirk and John Sprinzel and winning Best of British in the Monte Carlo rally alongside countless other trophies. A navigator of the old school increasingly frustrated at the introduction of satnav technology and known by his classic rally drivers as ‘our secret weapon in the Alps’, Willy was renowned for his meticulous preparation and was a familiar sight in Peter Barker’s classic Mini Cooper with stopwatch, compass and his ancient maps updated painstakingly by hand after watching countless hours of Tour de France footage, his interest being the roads, not the riders.

An enthusiastic skier and sailor into his early nineties, Willy is survived

by two daughters Rosy and Vici and grandchildren George and Scarlett.

William Sturmy Cave died on 13th March 2022.

Richard Simon Brooks (called Simon) was born and brought up in Bristol but, owing to the war, attended prep school in North Wales before joining Radley College as a scholar from 1944 to 1948. On leaving, he became articled to a firm of chartered accountants, subsequently qualifying in 1954. He then was enlisted under National Service in the Royal Air Force into which he was commissioned. After two years, mainly spent abroad, he was discharged and then spent a few more years in the Royal Auxiliary Air Force until his unit was disbanded.

His business career revolved around the family business known as Brooks Dye Works Ltd, founded in Bristol in 1819 but which had subsequently focussed on laundry, dry-cleaning and textile rental for industry and hospitality sectors. Simon led the business from 1973 until his retirement in 2001, first as Managing Director and later as Executive Chairman. Over the years the business changed and grew enormously. Simon led the group to become a public liability company, Brooks Service Group plc, in 1987. On retirement, the business had grown to be among the fifth largest laundries in the UK, providing employment for 1600 people.

Other business interests and related activities included a seat on the board of Bristol United Press plc and the chairmanship of the Clifton Suspension Bridge Trust from 1991 to 2001, during which time he championed the experience of the bridge as a heritage asset of Bristol. He led the development of a visitor centre as well as a new lighting system to enhance its appearance by allowing routine nocturnal illumination, which had previously only been possible on special occasions. Over the years he was involved in a number of other professional and charitable organisations and trade associations, both national and international. He was also a member of the Dyers’ Livery Company, of which he was Prime Warden from 1996 to 1997, and the Society of Merchant Venturers in Bristol. In 1959 he married his wife Helen and they had three children, two daughters and a son, who between them have produced eight splendid grandchildren.

He was a proud Old Radleian and frequently could be seen wearing some form of regalia, whether it be the OR tie, cricket jumper or boater, as seen in the accompanying picture, showing him taking part in Swan Upping on the Thames on behalf of the Dyers’ Company. He had many happy memories of his time at Radley, particularly of the extensive grounds, the social plays and the river, where he rowed in his Social’s first IV. Being the smallest boy in the school during his early years, he spent some time as a cox, although his career of coxing a school trial VIII came to a rapid end when he crashed the boat into an Oxford College’s crew and he never coxed an VIII again.

As well as the happy memories, he would also speak of the rather austere, characterbuilding nature of the school at that time, especially of the cold baths, the terrible food, the compulsory boxing and the over-public lavatories, features that were unrecognisable to his grandchildren attending public schools of the modern era; we were never really sure if he felt that his grandchildren were missing out.

Richard Simon Brooks died on 1st May 2022 at the age of 91.

Richard Simon Brooks

In the autumn of 1946 John had just started his second year at Radley when his father unexpectedly died. It was a terrible blow to the family. The financial consequences of my grandfather’s death meant that John could not remain at the school. In an act of true compassion and Christian charity, the Warden, John Vaughan Wilkes, let my father stay on at Radley, despite the family’s inability to pay the school fees. My father never forgot the kindness he was shown. John was born on 24th April 1931 at home, in Kent. He was the third of three children born to my grandparents Eric and Louise Pattisson. For my father there was a strong sense of family as he grew up, but he was somewhat isolated. His brother David (who was also at Radley) was a delightful man, courteous, amusing and an embodiment of old-fashioned values, but he was nine years older. His sister Charlotte was a charming, gentle person, but also several years older. His mother was loving, but emotionally detached. It was his father to whom he felt closest.

In 1940 John went to Brunswick School in Haywards Heath and almost immediately the school was evacuated to Michaelstow House on the edge of Bodmin Moor, in Cornwall. His time at Michaelstow gave rise to a love of Cornwall that was to last his whole life.

In 1944 John came to Radley. He was bright, and particularly good at mathematics, and he won an entrance scholarship. He left Radley in March 1950 having been Head of House for five terms and Senior Prefect for two terms. His final school report paints a vivid picture of the person he was and, even at this early point in his life, his loyalty to Radley is already clear.

His tutor, Tony Gardiner, writes: “He has been a very wise and level-headed counsellor and an extremely faithful friend. In performing his own job so conscientiously, I am afraid he has very often sacrificed his own interests for those of the social and the school.”

The Warden’s report reads: “He was given a real ovation on the last night of term; and it was very well deserved. He has certainly given Radley his best – and his best is very good indeed. I have seldom known a more completely unselfish boy. His wisdom and sound judgment have been invaluable. With all his goodness, he is never anything remotely resembling a prig. We shall miss him enormously. Our grateful thanks, and good wishes.”

In John’s final term at Radley he won a place to go on an African tour, organised by the South Africa Aid to Britain fund. This tour consisted of 22 boys from schools across the country selected by a Prime Minister’s committee. In May 1950 the group flew to Nairobi, and then travelled overland to Cape Town. They returned by sea in September of the same year. It was an expedition which helped turn schoolboys into confident young men.

On John’s return from South Africa, he did his National Service, joining the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. After National Service he went to Trinity College, Oxford, to read Politics,

◀ John Harmer Pattisson

Philosophy and Economics. At Oxford he was in the ‘Ox and Bucks’ TA battalion with his contemporary, and great friend from Radley, Richard Van Oss. The pair of them carried the battalion colours in the coronation parade of 1953 in Oxford.

John applied for his first job at the start of 1955. His CV was short and matter of fact. Under ‘other information’ he notes he “played the usual games, without outstanding ability, and spoke a little French (but wasn’t fluent)”. And that is it.

He was quickly offered a job with the Industrial Finance and Investment Corporation but soon was asked to join Dawnay Day Group, a merchant bank which specialised in raising finance for small and medium-sized companies. He stayed with Dawnay Day for the next 26 years and was managing director from 1969 to 1981. In 1980, recognising that the company needed to be part of a larger group he negotiated their acquisition by Jacob Rothschild. This was the right move for the business, but he effectively put himself out of a job.

In 1964 John had arranged the flotation (on the stock market) of a small Huddersfield-based haulage company called Wiles Group. James Hanson, the son of the founder, was keen to grow the business. John’s previous association with the company, his deep knowledge of the way the City worked, and his understanding of the mysterious moving parts of London finance, when coupled with his astute brain, meant he was the ideal person to help turn James Hanson’s corporate ambition into reality. He joined Hanson Trust in 1982 and this was the start of the most rewarding 15 years of his working life.

When he left Hanson plc (as it was now called) in 1996, aged 65, he kept working as Chairman of various pension schemes associated with Hanson subsidiaries. He was also Chairman of various publicly quoted companies. He didn’t really retire until he was about 75.

Along the way, John was a council member of Aims in Industry and a member of the governing body of one of the first City Technology Colleges, at Kingshurst in the West Midlands. He was a Trustee of the Literary Review. He was an enthusiastic member of the City of London Club, and Boodle’s in St. James’s. John was also, in 1969, a founding member of Tramp, the central London nightclub. Annual membership was 10 guineas (which became £20 in 1971 following decimalisation). The cost of membership for founding members never increased.

Work was important to John, but his family and friends were at the centre of everything he really cared about. My parents married in 1958, having met at Oxford. My brother Edward was born in 1960, and I arrived in 1963. The marriage was not to last but there was a closeness between my parents which remained until the day my father died. In addition to the profound affection he felt for everyone in his family, he also had a real gift for friendship and loyalty. He made people feel special. His Christmas card list was evidence of the wide range of people, from all walks of life, with whom he kept in touch. The large number of birthday cards he always received, was testimony to the respect and love that others felt for him.

John showed remarkable loyalty to numerous causes. He was asked to join the governing body of Radley College in 1965 and served the school faithfully for 40 years. It was a remarkable act of devotion. He was involved with the investment committees of both Trinity and St Anne’s Colleges in Oxford for over 20 years. His contributions were valued so highly he was asked to be an Honorary Fellow of both Colleges.

And he was generous; he helped people in need. I think he enjoyed being able to help people, whether individual lost causes, or institutions. He also had no qualms about getting his friends to help when required. He persuaded various people, including Tim Rice, the lyricist, to help him raise funds for the renovation of the church hall in St Teath in Cornwall. In memory of my brother Edward, he funded the rebuilding and repairs to the organ in Truro Cathedral. He also funded the renovation of the altarpiece in Chapel at Radley.

About 20 years ago John recognised the impracticality of living in a tall, narrow house on the Fulham Road in London. It was not well suited to someone with a creaky knee and carrying a bit too much weight around the middle. He spotted a new development of ‘retirement’ homes in Winchester, only a couple of miles from where we live. He rang me up to ask if we would visit it to assess its suitability for him. After a positive report, he came down to Winchester the following day and bought one of the remaining flats on the spot. He was good at making decisions!

Within a few months John was happily ensconced at 19 Wyke Mark, a smallish retirement flat which suited him perfectly and had the big advantage that he was much nearer his immediate family. This brought him enormous pleasure, and it was rare for a month to go by without him coming over for lunch to see his four grandchildren. It was a very special time for us all.

Four years ago, John rather ambitiously decided, in the middle of an October storm, to go to the post box to post a letter. Unfortunately, the wind upended him, he took a tumble and broke his hip. He was unable to continue living independently and he moved into a care home. He did not want to end his days there, but he dealt with his frustrations with good grace and unfailing courtesy to all the staff.

I have received numerous letters of condolence since my father died. The common theme in them all is his generosity of spirit, his friendship, his loyalty, his formidable intellect, and his sense of humour. One of the letters I received was from a former colleague on the Radley Council. He finished his letter with the following words:

“I can see and hear your father as I write this letter – he had a very strong presence and a very strong personality. Knowing him, I feel I can imagine what the greatest of the Victorians were like; of course, he was entirely up to date in his mindset but brought with him the values and integrity of that more cultured age.” It is an image which gives a strong sense of the man he was.

My father was able to think with true originality, and he had the rare skill of rigorous intellectual precision. But, more than anything else, he was a kind man. He accepted everyone for who they were, nothing more, and nothing less. And he went out of his way to help others, particularly those in need. He was a rare individual: wise, thoughtful and a friend to many; he was a loving father, and a true Christian.

John Harmer Pattisson died peacefully on 5th September 2022.

I quote “I would go as far as to say that I am not sure there can be anyone who has given as much to Radley (in terms of his time, his talents and generosity) as John did in his 40-year stint.” These are the words of Christopher Clarke, a colleague of John’s for 25 years on Council and his successor as Vice Chairman. None of us who served with him would disagree with that view. John has been an immense figure in Radley’s recent history.

We have heard from William of John’s very considerable skills in business and financial matters. These were fully deployed over his time on Council. At his first Council meeting in December 1965, he would have heard a report on Radley’s finances delivered by, a rather appropriately named, Mr Hole. The minutes read, “in the unanimous opinion of the GPC, reserves were inadequate to cover such important items as the rise in current costs, the accumulated obsolescence of the buildings and the financing of new buildings. Unless standards were reduced, a substantial increase in income was essential …” Boy numbers were down to 440. When John stepped down 40 years later, the campus was transformed, finances secure, school numbers were at 580, and Council had approved the addition of two new Socials to raise numbers to 650. He played a very, very substantial role in that transformation.

John spent 40 years on Council, 11 as Vice Chairman. 36 years on the Investment Subcommittee, 34 years on the General Purposes Committee. He became Chairman of the Friends of Radley in the 1990s and worked with Richard Morgan, Anthony Robinson, and Thomas Seymour to set up the Radley Foundation, for which he became the inaugural Chair of Trustees.

It was clear to Council, after questionable financial management in the 1960s that, with the arrival of a new young Warden with ambition in 1968, much more professionalism was required. A full school with burgeoning waiting lists over the next 50 years would give a sound base for Radley’s finances. Radley has also been fortunate to receive a series of windfalls from land sales over that period. The school has been even more fortunate to have John Pattisson working with its Chairmen, particularly David Rae Smith in the 1970s and 80s, and with two superb Bursars, Mickey Jones and Richard Beauchamp, together managing these finances. It was John, inevitably John, who plucked Richard Beauchamp from a subsidiary of Hanson. That Richard had an engineering rather than a bursarial background raised a few eyebrows, but John was held in such esteem by all of us on Council that the appointment wasn’t challenged. Richard quickly mastered every aspect of the job. With his engineering experience, he oversaw the transformation of Radley’s campus in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Listening to this, you might think that John was some kind of company doctor brought in to treat an ailing patient, working with others to turn it round and bring growth and success. In basic terms, that is what John has done, but that would be a gross misrepresentation of the totality of this contribution. He was unconstrained in helping any and everyone connected with Radley. For instance, he made it his business to keep in touch with retired Dons to check that they were surviving with the assistance of a modest College pension scheme. If necessary, he lobbied for additional contributions and when they died, for their wives, who were excluded by the terms of the scheme, to inherit the benefit. When Anthony Robinson, with whom John worked extensively setting up the Radley Foundation, faced “no fault” circumstances requiring him to step down as Chair of the Foundation Board, John got into his car and drove all the way to Anthony’s house in Gloucestershire, to console him.

It is characteristic of John’s generosity that, at the end of his time on Council, when we were all reflecting and marvelling at his contribution, he should initiate and personally finance the renovation and re-siting of the reredos on Chapel’s east wall. It had been half hidden behind the altar which, prior to the chapel extension, was located just behind where I stand. It is so appropriate that the reredos has pride of place in a re-modelled Chapel which was so dear to his heart. It will serve as a memorial to one of Radley’s greatest.

The motivation for granting a bursary to John after his father’s tragic death was certainly, in William’s words “true compassion and Christian charity.” Such has been John’s devotion to Radley, so impactful his contribution to this place, if that bursary was the catalyst, it must represent the most successful investment ever made by this school.

Graham attended Radley between 19441949 and was a prefect. He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, before becoming a GP and later a consultant psychiatrist. He married, and was a father and grandfather. He will be very much missed by his family.

Dr Graham Maxwell Petrie died on 23rd July 2021 at the age of 90.

Richard Norman Whigham Teasdale was born in Lahore on 7th of August, 1931. He very much enjoyed his time at Radley although, with typical modesty, he always described his academic career as undistinguished. Richard developed a lifelong love of rowing while at Radley and made the 1st VIII.

After National Service in the RAF, he made a career in the carpet business. Together with his Swedish wife, Margareta (who died in 2016), he was to be seen in the Stewards’ Enclosure at Henley Regatta every year without fail, sporting his OR blazer.

In later years he suffered from COPD and his daughter Kristina cared for him at home in Camberley, Surrey. He bore his illness stoically and very cheerfully and continued, when he could, his hobby of constructing models of old sailing ships in amazingly intricate detail. After a fall leading to complications, he was admitted to hospital where he had the misfortune to catch Covid and died on 8th of October, 2022.

After Radley, where he was a school prefect and was awarded the CCF Sword of Honour, Mike spent his National Service in Hong Kong as a Second Lieutenant with the Royal Artillery, and then went up to Hertford College, Oxford, to read law. On graduating, he joined Mather & Crowther as an advertising executive, and during his time there he met Gillian, to whom he was happily married for almost sixty years. After nearly a decade he made a move to ICI where he spent the rest of his working life, starting as an assistant brand manager in sales at Paints Division and rising to National Sales Manager, before changing direction and going into HR.

On retirement, he spent four very enjoyable years working part time for Surrey University’s schools and industry liaison unit, supporting the teaching of STEM subjects and harnessing practical support from industry. Latterly he was a senior guide at Guildford Cathedral for over 20 years. Mike had a lifelong love of music and the theatre and was a prolific reader, something which was frequently mentioned in his Radley reports.

Michael John Williams died on 30th December 2021.

John Stuart Waddilove was born in Yorkshire on 8th May 1934. His early years were spent at Nesfield, near Ilkley, and then Weeton near Harrogate where John attended Grosvenor House School. He excelled at academic subjects and at sports, especially cricket which became one of the great loves of his life. From 1947, he attended Radley College in Oxfordshire, where he spent probably the happiest years of his life. He always spoke warmly of his years at the school and remained a proud Old Radleian. In his will, he bequeathed to Radley his collection of a complete run of Wisden’s Cricketers’ Almanack. And what a cricketer he was. In Junior Colts Cricket, he scored his first 100 for the school (101 Not Out) in 1949. The write up for the match credits him as one of the best in his cohort: “Outstanding amongst the most promising cricketers was Waddilove – an unusually good captain for a young boy.” Such was his skill that he played for the Cricket XI alongside future England Captain Ted Dexter in both 1951 and 1952, with the team’s scores appearing in Wisden’s for those years. He was also awarded colours for the First XI Hockey in 1951. Richard Norman Whigham Teasdale

John Stuart Waddilove

In 1955, after National Service, John went up to Pembroke College, Cambridge, to study Law; membership of the College became another proud memory alongside that of Radley. After Cambridge came the most exciting adventure of his early years. In September 1958, he became a management trainee in Nairobi with Standard Vacuum Oil Company East Africa. John always looked back on the four months induction programme as one of the happiest periods of his life. One highlight of his time in Kenya was his ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro in 1959. He also worked in Uganda. In 1963, John moved to London to work for Esso, but life in the UK and the end of his short marriage left him restlessly seeking new adventures. He decided to emigrate to Australia in September 1967. After renting a flat in Kirribilli for a few years, with a view of Sydney Harbour Bridge and the construction of the Opera House, in 1972 he bought a bungalow in Avalon Beach, north of Sydney, which was to be his home for the next forty-five years. He soon took out Australian citizenship. He worked for Esso in Human Resources until 1985 when he took early retirement in order to pursue his many interests. He was a keen bibliophile, accumulating a collection of around 3000 books by his death. The most common subjects were Africa, Art, Music, furniture, biography and history. He was a great fan of J.M.W. Turner and Joseph Haydn.

John did not remarry or have children, but he was an adored uncle and godfather, and had a gift for turning his friends and neighbours into family. For one of his dear friends, he was a role model of how to grow old well. He was always cheerful with a huge smile and frequent chuckle. He was conservative and appreciated tradition, but he was never stuck in his ways; shy, yet fun loving; humble, yet curious and knowledgeable; and generous not only financially but also with his time and devotion. Before the shadow of vascular dementia fell over John in his last four years, he had created a vast store of happy memories for those who knew him. He remained an adventurer, explorer and good sportsman (in both senses). One of his oldest friends said of him: “John belonged to an era when most men aspired to behave like gentlemen, and he, more than most, undoubtedly succeeded.”

John Stuart Waddilove died on 13th November 2021, aged 87.

David was always very proud of his time at Radley College. He spoke often about his school days and their influence on his life – especially in starting his love of music and films, encouraging the development of his acting talent, his stage craft, and his singing. He attended the annual Old Radleian Dinner for very many years and was honoured to accompany the school song on the piano for many of these reunions. Aged 6, David went off to a succession of 3 boarding schools, first at Hains Hill School near Wargrave, and then to Cothill House School, Abingdon and later to Radley College. David picked up a love of music, playing the piano and singing. He was a keen sportsman, rowing and playing Rugby and Cricket for the school. He also showed a talent as an actor, often playing the female lead in the school plays. After school he entered the Royal Marines. He was a junior officer and took responsibility for amphibious landing craft as part of his National Service in 195354. He was very proud to have been on duty for the guarding of the Royal Yacht Britannia when it visited Gibraltar in May 1954.

After National Service, David secured a job at Catesby’s Limited, an interior design department store in central London. Starting at the bottom, he learned the trade and then opened his own contract furnishing company which did a lot of business in the Middle East.

David married his beloved wife Jean in 1957 at St James’s Piccadilly. With the imminent arrival of daughter Catherine, they came to Dulwich in 1962. Here, David pursued his passion for performance as

David Lake Wells

a member of the Dulwich Players and various other amateur groups. David had a great partnership with friend and pianist Robert Nisbet, entertaining many people, in care homes and hospitals, with their take on musical hall songs. David supported the arts, enjoying easy access to London for the recitals, theatre, opera and art galleries. He could identify a soprano on the radio with the greatest of ease. His knowledge of concert piano music repertoire was phenomenal.

Another of his great passions was horse racing, a passion which he acquired from his mother. He would be asked to put bets on for his mother and through this process was drawn into the sport from a young age. There was many a fortunate race goer at Ascot, Goodwood, and other courses who sat next to David and just happened to ask his advice. They were to be treated to a really expert insight into the runners and riders, but he would never let on which horse he had bet on!

The most endearing thing about David, for anyone who knew him, was his generosity of spirit and his generosity in sponsorship. He was a great sponsor of the arts: the Dulwich Picture Gallery, the Globe Theatre, the Horniman Museum, and the Royal Opera House, to name but a few. He was a sponsor of many charities which touched him, and always generous to family and friends. He could pick you up with his cheery greeting. His concern for you, your friends and family. His offer of help in whatever form he could find to give if he spotted a need.

Jean predeceased David by 20 years. David and Jean were a good team, and they shared many loves. David is survived by his daughter Catherine and two grandchildren: Thomas and Emily; and four great grandchildren: Lucas, Maisie, Elodie and Francis.

David Lake Wells died on 30th July 2022.

Tony Walton was born on October 24th, 1934 in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, to Hilda (nee Drew) and Lancelot Walton, a surgeon. He arrived at Radley in 1948 and was soon deeply involved in a variety of pursuits. He was on the Tennis Team in the early 1950s, was Captain of the 3rd XV, and a sergeant in the CCF. He won a number of school prizes for art, at which he excelled. He was the Secretary of the Art Society, Artistic Director of the Marionette Society, Head of Choir, and was also involved in debating, drama, playreading, poetry and the Madrigal Society during his time at Radley. Tony was the editor of the Radleian from 195153, and a prefect in 1952 & 1953.

As Artistic Director of the Marionette Society, he led on some impressively ambitious puppet shows featuring music hall and the operas of Mozart and Gilbert and Sullivan. He created the sets and operated the lighting with such success that stage designer John Piper suggested he should follow a career in production design after seeing one of these shows. Tony had a short stint in the R.A.F. for his compulsory military service, and described himself as an ‘inept pilot’. His training took place in Canada, giving him the opportunity to make eye-opening visits down to Broadway during the height of theatre writers such as Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, and Rodgers & Hammerstein. The new ways in which these productions were being designed and staged was a source of inspiration for Tony. Rather than follow his father into a medical career, Tony’s interests led him to pursue the arts. Following his two years at the Slade School of Fine Art.

Tony had first seen Julie Andrews, also from Walton-on-Thames, in a West End production of Humpty Dumpty, where she played the egg, when they were both around 12. He struck up a friendship with her after finding her home number in a telephone book. Following his military service and two years at the Slade School of Fine Art, he headed to New York to join Julie, who was making a name for herself on Broadway. Tony’s theatre career took off in 1957 with the stage

Tony Walton, front row, third from the right ▶ 1953 Marionette Society Pirates of Penzance

design for Noël Coward’s off-Broadway production of Conversation Piece, the first of many designs for stage and screen in the USA and UK. In 1957, Tony and Julie were married. During early discussion regarding her role in Mary Poppins, Julie introduced Tony to Walt Disney who hired him as costume designer, set designer, and visual consultant for the film after viewing his portfolio. He was an avid supporter of the decision to set the film in the Edwardian era, and led on key visual decisions, such as introducing the realistic curved and inclined Cherry Tree Lane, Bert’s ‘jolly holiday’ jacket design of tangerine, cherry and raspberry stripes, and hinting at Mary Poppins’ ‘secret life’ by lining her grey and black clothes with bright colours.

The film musical Mary Poppins was instantly recognised as a visual masterpiece on its release in 1964, when it won Julie Andrews an Oscar for her performance as the Banks’s children’s nanny and gave Walt Disney his biggest box-office success to date. Tony received an Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design.

Tony’s illustrious career spanned film, television and theatre, and included many successful projects. In the 1970s he was nominated for further Academy Awards for Murder on the Orient Express (Best Costume Design), The Wiz (Best Costume Design and Best Art Director), and finally won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction for Bob Fosse’s musical film All That Jazz. He was awarded an Emmy Award in 1985 for Outstanding Art Direction for a Miniseries or Movie of Volker Schlöndorff’s adaption of Death of a Salesman starring Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich. As Scenic Director he won Tony Awards for Pippin (1973), The House of Blue Leaves (1986) and Guys and Dolls (1992). He continued to work on stage productions into his 70s, and branched out into directing and producing.

Tony was a member of United Scenic Artists of America, Costume Designers Guild California, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 2001 he became a board member of the Museum of the Moving Image, New York, and also taught at the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University, New York. Tony and Julie Andrews were divorced in 1968, but remained friends, and Tony remarried in 1991 to author Gen LeRoy. In 2011 Tony wrote to Radley to report that, with the help of his ‘inexhaustible wife Gen’, he was organising, cataloguing, measuring & photographing 55+ yearsworth of his stage & film design work for the Library of Congress in Washington DC. They had been collecting his work over the years and had asked him “for everything”.

Tony died on 2nd March 2022 and is survived by his wife Gen, Emma, his daughter from his marriage to Andrews, and his step-daughter Bridget, and five grandchildren.

At Radley, David Collins rowed in the Second VIII and was remembered by some of his contemporaries as being a fine trombone player.

On leaving, he carried out his basic training for National Service with the Royal Marines, and was subsequently commissioned, into the East Surrey Regiment. On demobilisation, after various courses and tooth-cutting jobs, David joined the family reinsurance broking company, A J Collins & Co, founded by his eponymous grandfather. He worked largely in the German market and lived and worked in Germany for a year, becoming fluent in the language. The company, of which he became a director, was ultimately acquired by Stewart Wrightson, where he remained until retirement. He was also an underwriting member of Lloyds.

David continued a family tradition, by joining the Honourable Artillery Company, where he quickly rose to the rank of Lance Corporal, only regaining his prior rank of 2/Lt after 4 years. Ultimately, he commanded the Medium Machine Gun Platoon, equipped with the Vickers gun. He played rugger for the HAC for many years and, on occasion, turned out for the Radley Swallows. Having given up rugger, he took to sailing, on the recommendation of the late Brian Holland OR, owning a series of Westerly cruising yachts which he kept on the Hamble.

Following another family tradition, he joined the Worshipful Company of Fanmakers in 1958, becoming Master in 1983. He became the honorary curator of the Company’s collection of fans and made a specific bequest of the collection of fans which he had amassed with his wife. At the time of his death, he was the Senior Past Master.

David’s wife, Louise, predeceased him in January 2021. David Arthur Collins died on 15th April 2022.

David Collins

Written by The Revd Canon Professor James Woodward PhD, Principal of Sarum College

The Revd Andrew Henderson, who received the Cross of St Augustine in 2008 for his work with HIV and AIDS patients, died just before Christmas, aged 85.

Andrew Douglas Henderson was born in London in 1936, the eldest child of Hester and Jock Henderson. Educated at Stonehurst and Radley College, he read theology at Trinity College, Cambridge. It was at Great St Mary’s, Cambridge, that Andrew met Mervyn Stockwood, who was influential in nurturing his vocation. After training at Ripon College, Cuddesdon, Andrew served as a nonstipendiary worker priest, while training as a psychiatric social worker.

After working for Wandsworth Council, Andrew became Assistant Director of Social Services for Ealing, under Nick

The Revd Andrew Henderson

Stacey. He then spent more than a decade as Director of Social Services at Kensington and Chelsea. Colleagues remember him as effective, innovative, and insightful, during a period of rapid social and political change.

After his retirement, Andrew re-trained as a psychotherapist. He continued to be engaged in both community and social action. He was a key figure in the recognition of the validity and equality of LGBTI+ people both in Church and society. He believed in the power of the group: a huge part of his witness and ministry took place in groups of one sort or another. This included campaign groups — in the 1960s, he was an active supporter of the then Homosexual Law Reform Society, which, after the passing of 1967 Act, became the Albany Trust. Throughout his ministry, he convened groups that embraced prayer and meditation, theological study, and therapy and counselling. Perhaps Andrew’s greatest legacy was his work with those affected by HIV/ AIDS. With Christopher Spence, he founded the London Lighthouse, helping to raise £4.5 million to transform the building into a refuge for support, safety, care, and complementary therapy. It was pioneering as it became a beacon of hope, care, and love. The Lighthouse was one of the Princess of Wales’s favourite charities; she spent hours visiting terminally ill patients. Andrew chaired the charity for 15 years. This was recognised by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Williams, who awarded Andrew the Cross of St Augustine in 2008. The citation noted that Andrew “sees life steadily and sees it whole; urgent Christian witness enabled many individuals, of every belief or none, to keep their faith in humanity, and in themselves”.

Andrew was inquisitive. He was an adventurer and searcher after truth. He loved ideas, concepts, narratives that helped us to fathom the complexity of our life. He cared about how we communicate truth. He was wise about the human condition and forgiving of complexity and disconnectedness. He wanted always to know more about mystery, silence, growth, and our search for authenticity. His priesthood was grounded in the integrity of his search for truth and in the quality of his attentiveness. One of the most skilful of listeners, Andrew knew about the absurdity of life, its ambiguities, and paradoxes. He possessed deep emotional and spiritual intelligence. Perhaps his sense of life as a gift gave him a generous vision of the world as a good and beautiful and hope-filled place — even if it is also a tragic one — because it is God’s. Andrew retired to Brighton with his partner, Ralph Goulding, who predeceased him. He faced the closing years with calm endurance, aided by the love and support of St Nicholas’s and his many friends. He died in the days before Christmas. He is survived by his two sisters, Janie and Mary, and their families.

Revd Andrew Douglas Henderson died on 8th December 2021.

It is with great sadness and regret that we announce the passing of John Sedgwick who died peacefully in his sleep on 1st February 2022 at the age of 86. The funeral service was held at Woking Crematorium on Friday 18th March.

John Richard Michael Sedgwick was born in Weybridge on 31st December 1935, the eldest of four sons. He attended the Wells House prep school and Radley College. At Radley he enjoyed sciences and cricket. It was while studying at Brooklands College that he met his future wife of 56 years, Su. Together they had 3 children. After Brooklands, John worked in his father’s businesses and then went on to enjoy a near 30-year computer programming career at Penguin Books. When he retired, as a home hi-fi and recording enthusiast, he provided high quality services to various talking news services, first for Weybridge Hospital and then at Blandford when he and Su moved down to Dorset.

John will be hugely missed by his children Caroline, Jeremy and Michael and his granddaughters Susana, Ruby, Leila and Sadbh, as well as his extended family and friends.

John Richard Michael Sedgwick died on 1st February 2022, aged 86.

John Richard Michael Sedgwick

Patrick Michael Whitmore Robinson

Born in Bassell’s Green, near Sevenoaks, Patrick moved up to Radley in 1950 from Fernden Preparatory School. He followed his brother David Robinson into E Social, joining the choir and quickly settling into a life involving rugby, cricket and a strong love of all things mathematical, including algebra which he always alleged he was taught upside down.

Upon leaving Radley, Patrick qualified as a Chartered Accountant, working for American Express in their International Banking Division before moving to Hays Ackers & Hays in the City of London where he helped set up Hovertravel; one of the most innovative start-ups in travel using the revolutionary technology of the hovercraft. Following time at Expo’67 in Canada, introducing the hovercraft and Hovertravel to the world, Patrick moved to British Hovercraft Corporation, the original inventors of the commercial hovercraft, famously based in Cowes on the Isle of Wight. In later life Patrick moved to GKN Westlands in Somerset, working in the finance and commercial teams ensuring helicopters such as the Apache, Gazelle, Lynx and Sea King became household names throughout the world.

His time at Radley was a time my father loved, a place of kinship and camaraderie that stayed with him throughout his life. Ross Anson, his study mate, would even go on to introduce Patrick to Judith, his wife of 55 years, when home from Africa after they had left school. Years later when we were to return with me, his son, stepping out in the blue of Sherborne it was a joy to watch him scamper like a small schoolboy from wherever I was playing to join the massed ranks of Radley’s ever-enthusiastic support on the 1st XV pitch & start up the bellowing calls of RADLEY RADLEY RADLEY while fully bedecked in his Radley scarf and old school tie. To the end he was the devoted husband of Judith, loving father of Lucy and Richard, proud grandfather of Katie, Ben, Isobel and Alex, and uncle to David Robinson (E Social 1944-49)’s three sons Charles, Christopher and Philip.

Patrick Michael Whitmore Robinson passed away peacefully at home on the 25th February 2022 with his family, aged 84 years.

Simon Cowland-Cooper was educated at Radley and Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, before migrating to Australia in 1964.

He spent his first years in Australia managing crop projects in rural New South Wales, building experience in the irrigation industry before setting up his own business. He later moved to Queensland and eventually settled on the Gold Coast, where he continued to work as an irrigation design consultant and was deeply involved in building relationships and representation across the professional community of irrigators in Australia. He was passionate about the water industry. He was still doing and enjoying work in this space even in the few months before he passed away.

When he wasn’t working, Simon was often volunteering, either as a member of the conservative political movement in Australia, or as a member of the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard. Otherwise as time and resources permitted, especially later in life, Simon enjoyed travelling, most regularly to New Zealand and back to England to visit family and friends.

For his service to the irrigation industry and the broader community, Simon was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2022.

He is survived by his wife Diana and sons Michael and David, who were all by his bedside in his final days.

Simon Patrick Cowland-Cooper OAM died on 2nd September 2022.

Simon Cowland-Cooper

Bryan Roddick

Guy Mansell

Guy Mansell was a travel writer and PR consultant. A free spirit and adventurer, Guy lived life to the full. After leaving Radley and a period of work in India, Guy started in the late 1950s as a journalist on the Daily Express. Guy left journalism and initially pursued various commercial ventures before rediscovering his true love in travel and writing in his late thirties. Guy authored the first edition of the Insight Travel Guide to Ireland and his award-winning writing and promotional work included putting the Hurtigruten in Norway and tourism in Croatia well and truly on the travel map. From the 1990s Guy used his travel expertise to lecture on various cruise ships where he met his longterm partner, Glynis.

Guy died on 30th August 2022 following a stroke. He leaves his son, Jason, and daughter, Charlotte, from his previous marriage. His nephews Richard (1994, D) and Nicholas Dew (1996, D) are both Old Radleians.

Bryan Roddick was born on 5th February 1941 in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, to Malcolm J Roddick (1930, D) and Peggy Goodall. He attended Radley between 1954-59, gaining excellent O- and A-Levels, and nurturing an early passion for sport as Captain of the 2nd XI Cricket Team. After departing Radley, Bryan studied at Grenoble University and finished with a 1st class degree. He embarked on a lifelong and distinguished career with Lloyds, as a marine insurance underwriter. A colleague of his commented that he ‘had a deep understanding of international shipping, and understood the great variety of some unusual risks presented to him. He was very patient with young and inexperienced brokers. Bryan hugely contributed to the depth of professional knowledge within the London Marine Insurance market, which was recognised by his being the Chairman of the Salvage Association of London from 1992-94.’

Bryan was a very keen golfer, and had a number of brilliant successes, including winning the Howden Challenge Cup in 1985, the President’s Prize in 1987, and the W. J. Foster Cup in summer 1993. He was Captain of Lloyd’s Golf Club from 2000, and President from 2004, following in the footsteps of his grandfather J. A. Roddick, who was Captain of the Club in 1932. Bryan was also Captain of St George’s Hill Golf Club in 1990-91, and a regular player in the Old Radleian Golf Team in the 1970s and 80s.

Bryan also continued his early success with cricket, and was a member of Purley Cricket Club and Marylebone Cricket Club. He was a regular visitor to Lord’s, and toured Australia with the MCC Golf Team in 2010-11.

In addition to golf and cricket, Bryan was a skilled sportsman with a racket in hand. He joined the St George’s Hill Lawn Tennis Club in 1971, and qualified as a squash rackets professional in 1974. He was the Chairman of the Squash Committee between 1974-80, the first person to do so for the length of six years, and became the Chairman of the Club in 1983. Bryan also wrote the foreward to the first Club book of 1988. Those members who worked alongside him were astounded at the amount of time that he devoted to St George’s.

In 1992, Bryan met Carol, and she very quickly became the greatest enthusiasm of a man with many interests. They married in 1993. Bryan and Carol shared a love of travel and, for twenty years, they spent every winter in Thailand, playing golf, enjoying great food and drink, and spending golden days in the sun with good friends.

A close friend of Bryan’s, John Padovan, grandfather of Old Radleian Oliver Padovan, said of him: ‘Not an ounce of malice will have been found in Bryan. He was one of life’s gentlemen. We have, indeed, been fortunate to have known him.’

Howard Harry Borrodaile Burbidge

Four hundred friends and family attended the service of thanksgiving for Bryan, a testament to the number of lives he touched, and to the years of devoted service he gave to the clubs and friendships about which he was so passionate.

Bryan Malcolm Roddick died on 22nd June 2022, aged 81.

Howard Harry Borrodaile Burbidge passed away peacefully on 4th September 2021, the day of his 80th Birthday. A proud Old Radleian at F Social from 1955 – 1960, he will forever be known as having an infectious laugh and the ability to make everyone feel involved and as if he was totally invested in their story. He leaves behind Susie and his two boys, Guy and Rupert, and four much-loved grandchildren, with pride at a life lived to its fullest and with great love for, and dedication to, his family and friends.

Patrick was born in Brentwood, UK, on 20th May 1942 to Jean Angela George and Frank Cecil Copeman.

After attending Radley College, where he enjoyed participating in most sports and by all accounts got up to a lot of mischief, he joined the Royal Marines where he completed a signals course and trained as a naval pilot. He then had a stint on the P&O boats as a purser, liked what he saw abroad, and decided to move to the “colonies”. In 1965 he landed in Cape Town, found work as a salesman and, while employed with Irvin & Johnson, was transferred to many parts of South Africa and Southwest Africa. He then changed the fisheries & frozen foods company for the bakers and retired as a Sales and Distribution Manager for Sunbake in Pretoria in 1997.

He was a keen sportsman, photographer, and stamp collector. His photographs took him to many countries in the world where he had a special interest in landscape, wildlife, vintage cars and motorX. He also received a couple of medals for his stamp exhibits at National Stamp Competitions.

Patrick died on 23rd June 2022 from complications after a fall. He had a very full and interesting life, and he will be sorely missed by his wife of 46 years, Paola.

Christopher Foyle (right) with Baroness Thatcher and Lord Baker of Dorking (Kenneth Baker), at the annual Foyles Literary Lunch held at the Dorchester in honour of Lady Thatcher in 2002. Foyles was founded in London in 1903 by brothers William and Gilbert Foyle.

The following obituary is from the Daily Telegraph

Christopher Foyle OBE DL, who has died aged 79, was a distinguished entrepreneur and philanthropist who achieved

commercial success in two radically different fields: bookselling and aviation.

With an eclectic range of interests that reflected his lively, inquiring mind, he was perhaps best known for his dynamic chairmanship of the famous bookstore in London that bears his family name. Before that, however, he built an impressive air cargo business that was notable for its innovative use of giant Russian aircraft.

Foyle’s capacity for hard work was accompanied by a gregarious, humorous, generous nature and an openness to maverick ideas. Fascinated by UFOs and alternative archaeology, he funded a number of geographic expeditions, including a search for the Yeti in the Borneo jungle.

In his later life he was also an author; his most widely acclaimed book was entitled Foyle’s Philavery, a term which he invented to describe a “collection of words chosen simply on the grounds of their aesthetic appeal, quirkiness or obscurity”. Typical of the selection was “kakistocracy”, defined as “a system of government in which the rulers are the least competent, least qualified and most unprincipled citizens.”

Another major project was the awardwinning restoration of the historic family home of Beeleigh Abbey in Essex, which dated back to the 12th century. The Abbey had belonged to his eccentric Aunt Christina, who also owned the bookstore, but had long been in decline, its condition made all the worse by her phalanx of pungent, ill-trained cats. “We had to rip up floorboards and remove whole sections of plastering before we finally got rid of that lingering odour,” he later recalled.

He took charge of Foyle’s bookshop in 1999 on the death of Christina who had run it for 54 years in an increasingly bizarre fashion. Christopher had briefly worked there in his youth but then, finding his chances of promotion blocked by his autocratic relative, had forged his own commercial path. The store had become notorious under Christina Foyle for such anachronisms as requiring customers to queue three times to pay for their purchases rather than going to a single till. But that was the least of the problems Christopher faced.

He found for example that, instead of being ordered alphabetically, books were grouped together by publisher across 30 miles of shelving: “The whole place was a mess. There were three elderly ladies writing up the figures in manual ledgers.” Yet he turned the business around, returned it to profitability, and opened a series of other outlets before he sold Foyle’s to the Waterstone’s chain in 2018.

Christopher was born on 20th January 1943, the son of Richard Foyle, who also worked for the family firm founded by Christopher’s grandfather William and great-uncle Gilbert in 1903. Christopher’s mother, Alice, née Kun, was a more formidable figure. Born in Budapest and brought up in Vienna, she had come to Britain in 1934, married Richard Foyle in 1937 and pursued her own, highly successful, independent career in publishing.

Along with his brother Anthony, Christopher attended Scaitcliffe preparatory School in Berkshire, from where he went to Radley. He was a bright but not particularly diligent pupil, his fondness for pranks sometimes landing him in trouble. After he let off some fire crackers in his dormitory he was beaten so clumsily by his housemaster that the cane broke; Christopher kept the shattered remnants in his library at Beeleigh Abbey as a souvenir.

During his schooldays, Christopher also began to attend Foyle’s literary luncheons. These events were major fixtures in the London social calendar, but Christopher’s first experience was particularly dramatic, as it was the occasion when Randolph Churchill drunkenly denounced fellow guest speaker Sir Hugh Cudlipp, editor of the Daily Mirror, as “the Pornographer Royal.”

During his unsatisfactory spell at Foyle’s as a trainee manager in the 1960s, Christopher travelled to Germany, Finland and France to gain more experience of the book trade. By a coincidence, one of the postcards still sold by Shakespeare and Company, the renowned Englishspeaking bookstore in Paris, features a dashing picture of Christopher from this period, clad in fashionable sunglasses and browsing through its outdoor display.

Thwarted of promotion by his aunt, he left to work for a firm of financial advisers before moving into the aviation industry, having been interested in aviation since he had first learnt to fly a glider at the age of 15. From modest beginnings as a small air-taxi service operated from a terraced house in Luton, he built up a fleet that operated major freight services, including for the global giant TNT. His skill as a businessman was highlighted in 1989 when, after two years of tough negotiations with the Soviets, his company became responsible for the operational management of their mighty Antonov planes, which could carry everything from tanks to railway locomotives.

His airline was not just focused on commerce; during the first Gulf War, Air Foyle lifted 600 refugees from Kuwait to Ukraine. In 2007 Foyle was inducted into the International Air Cargo Association’s Hall of Fame, hailed as “a man of great vision, known for his high level of commitment, innovation, resourcefulness and perseverance”.

It was at a party in Luton that he met Catherine Jelleyman, a student nurse who shared his fascination with aviation. Struck by his good looks, easy warmth and selfconfidence, she had an uncanny “sense of knowing that I was going to marry him”. They married in July 1983 and went on to have three daughters.

The couple became renowned for their hospitality and kindness, reflected in their parties and open days for the public in the magnificently restored surroundings of Beeleigh, or the dinners held in Monaco where they based themselves for a time in the last couple of decades. There, Christopher became close to Prince Albert and the Easyjet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou, both of whom became supporters of the Air League that Christopher founded in the Principality to give scholarships to budding aviators.

Christopher did not inherit Beeleigh from Christina, who left her entire £60 million estate to the Foyle Foundation, a charity for learning, education and the arts. So he had to buy the house at market value from the trustees. That he managed to do so was a tribute to his business acumen, though he regretted that he could only afford to buy around 40 per cent of the superb library that his grandfather had created.

Christopher Foyle was appointed a Deputy Lord Lieutenant in Essex in 2007 and was

Charles Laurence in the Falklands, 1982.

Michael Charles Holford

appointed OBE in the Queen’s birthday honours this year. Having contracted a rare form of cancer, he fought heroically for years against the illness, never complaining, never far from laughter. Even in his final days he maintained his stoicism without a shred of self-pity. He is survived by his wife Catherine, by their three daughters and by a son from a previous relationship.

William Richard Christopher Foyle died 10th August 2022.

Michael was born on 12th February 1944, the elder son of Rear Admiral “Bunny” Holford CB DSC and Priscilla Holford (née Micklem). He was happily married to Alex (née Bell) since 1967 and had a son Gerald and daughter Arabella. At the age of eight he and his grandmother launched the largest tanker (35,000 tons) in the world (owned by Stavros Niarchos).

He attended St Peter’s Court prep school (now part of Wellesley House) in Broadstairs and joined B Social (Neil Fisher) in the summer term of 1957. He said that he had two great teachers in Dr Cardwell (Chemistry) and Mr Goldsmith (Maths). He also fondly remembered the kindness of Sister Body but he said that one didn’t want to be a malingerer! He left at Christmas in 1961 and went to Argentina spending 9 months travelling and working on an estancia as a gaucho. On his return to the UK he went up to St Andrew’s and obtained a First in Biochemistry. He also got up to mischief. On the final day of the Open the 18th green was mysteriously covered in flashing bollards. In 1966 he joined Unilever as a Management trainee, working in Selby and Manchester.

In 1971 Michael joined Coates Bros, a large manufacturer of printing ink. After two years in the UK, he was sent to New Zealand swiftly becoming the Assistant Managing Director at the age of 30. In 1975 he was moved to Calcutta (now Kolkata) to become the Managing Director of Coates Indian subsidiary. Returning to the UK in 1977, he moved to Bath but was glad to be made redundant shortly after. He joined BTR’s subsidiary Permali, followed in 1984 by Oldham Batteries. Not enjoying the politics, he left after six months and joined the world’s leading international headhunter Spencer Stuart mostly filling FTSE 100 Main Board positions. He had 15 happy years heading up their Industrial Practice. On retirement in 2001 he became a director of Thirsk Racecourse for 15 years and of Armstrong Craven Recruitment for 6 years.

He and Alex travelled extensively all around the world as well as spending three months a year in their house in the Western Algarve. He loved shooting, was an avid DIYer, renovating seven houses, and was a renowned collector of clocks. He also for a time owned the national collection of the 19th century watercolourists Henry Barlow Carter and his son Joseph Newington Carter. Sadly, downsizing required a large disposal. He was a Freeman of the City of London, a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers and a past Mayor (Master) of the Merchants of the Company of the Staple of England in York.

Michael Charles Holford died on 26th February 2022, aged 78.

Charles Laurence, who has died aged 72, was a newspaper correspondent who covered the 1982 Falklands War for The Sunday Telegraph and later became chief New York correspondent for The Daily Telegraph.

He was born in London on 1st July 1950, the son of Peter (later Sir Peter) Laurence, a diplomat, and his wife Elizabeth, nee Way, and grew up with childhood memories of postings to Cairo, Berlin, and Prague – the last to become the setting of a successful, if controversial, semi-autobiographical thriller which he wrote in retirement. Charlie was educated

at Radley where he rebelled against his establishment upbringing – while in the school cadet corps he painted his boots white so that he would get thrown out. From the University of Kent he worked on local newspapers, among them the Leatherhead Advertiser where he would roll up every morning on a big motorcycle in leathers and then take them off, Supermanstyle, to reveal his suit ready for work. Joining the London Evening News later in the 1970s he made his mark as a young reporter at a time of a cut-throat war with the Evening Standard.

Just as delivery drivers would carve each other up in their effort to reach the news vendors first, so reporters had to race to beat their Fleet Street rivals to the stories. Laurence had an advantage: riding an unusually stylish Italian Laverda motorcycle, he would arrive ahead of the pack at many a breaking news story, be it the discovery of a headless corpse in a south London park, or the spotting of a celebrity in the West End.

One lunchtime in the mid-1970s, he raced off to Scott’s in Mount Street, following a tip-off that Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were lunching there privately, having recently married for the second time. As the couple settled down to their meal, in walked the lean, raffish Laurence. Parking his motorbike helmet and grinning broadly, he asked politely for an interview. Not only was he not thrown out, but he was invited to join the couple at their table. Then as Burton, as was his wont, got stuck into the booze, his wife, sotto voce, reached out to the young reporter: “The trouble is, he can’t get it up anymore.” The line was “cleaned up” for the article, but readers were left in no doubt what she meant.

Laurence joined The Sunday Telegraph as a news reporter two years before the Falklands War. He sailed to the South Atlantic in the Canberra with three other Fleet Street men – Max Hastings, Robert Fox, and Patrick Bishop – who would find themselves working together at the Daily Telegraph four years later when Hastings was appointed editor. Morale on board, Laurence reported, was “sky high with the ranks ebullient at the prospect of action” but enjoying the “holiday atmosphere” aboard the ocean liner.

Like his rivals, Laurence had a good war: landing at San Carlos Water with the Royal Marine Commandos, he joined them on their gruelling 56-mile hike in full kit “across moorland swept by blizzards and in below freezing temperatures.” Apart from a brief period of “ignominy” when he had to be evacuated for treatment to a septic blister on his foot, he remained with the troops to witness the liberation of Port Stanley. It was Laurence who introduced the Commandos’ expression “yomping” into the English vernacular, a term defined as “marching, humping up to 120lb of equipment and all the arms needed for the attack at the far end of the trek.”

Back in London, in November 1982, Laurence attended a regimental dinner at which he was presented with a wall plaque featuring the regimental crest and dedicated to “fond memories of the yomp.” It was given, he was told, as a gesture of the Commandos’ surprise that a “long-haired civvie from The Sunday Telegraph” had been able to “hack it” with them across the ferocious Falklands landscape. “We didn’t think you would last two days, let alone yomp across the island,” he was told. But as he observed: “the truth is that without their generosity and help I would not have survived.”

After switching from the Sunday to The Daily Telegraph, Laurence was posted to New York to become secondin-command to the illustrious chief correspondent Ian Ball. Already a dedicated follower of American history and culture (he had read American Studies at university), Laurence fell in love with the city. Under the wing of the stylish Ball, who was approaching an age at which he was happy for the younger man to hit the road while he manned the bureau, Laurence found himself making road trips to all the corners of the US: one day the return of buffalo on the Great Plains, the next a juicy Mob trial in Chicago.

When Ball retired in 1991 there was only one contender and Laurence took on the role with gusto. Whether writing short, sharp reports for the news pages, or “long-form” articles for the Telegraph Magazine, Laurence was in his element.

In 1994 he visited a Michigan Militia “bootcamp” and came back with stories of them shooting at pumpkins with automatic rifles saying: “those boys are going to get themselves in real trouble one of these days.” The Oklahoma City bombing took place just five months later; one of the perpetrators turned out to be a Michigan native.

If Laurence could meet any of his journalistic heroes on his travels – Tom Wolfe, Hunter S Thompson – so much the better. It was their America he wanted a piece of. Writing about the Beat poets, he once followed Allen Ginsberg into the lavatories at the Whitney Museum of American Art (which was showing a Beats retrospective) to get a quote.

He was a certain kind of Englishman who had to escape the establishment strictures of his background, and New York provided the perfect place to do it. Warm and effusive, he took young Telegraph writers fresh off the tarmac at JFK and relished showing them the ropes, and his favourite bars and restaurants, regaling them with stories, and how the city worked. At ease in any social circle, Laurence was equally happy in the company of editors, actors, rock stars, Wall Street buccaneers, or ne’er-do-wells. The common theme was whether they were interesting. He was too sophisticated to be impressed by celebrity.

In retirement from the Telegraph, he moved from the city to Woodstock, upstate New York, and continued to write for magazines and journals in the UK. Laurence’s property dealings were legendary: at one stage, he decided to buy a tin-roofed cottage on the beach of Salt Cay, one of the Turks and Caicos islands. Buffeted by storms, constantly cut off from the outside world, it was a typically bold Laurentian experiment and one his beloved wife, Laura Johnson, remained to be convinced by when her husband finally sold it after one hurricane too many.

Laurence’s sartorial style – leather jacket and black jeans – had a flavour of Steve McQueen, and latterly he favoured linen, and suede loafers. Looking for a suitable car for his retirement, having handed on his Yamaha bike to his son Luke, he hunted down a stylish red convertible Jaguar XK8 to a classic car dealership in New Jersey. A few weeks before his death from lung cancer he drove it with Luke, heading west to Cedar Falls, Iowa, where he and Laura had just bought a second

home. It was to be his last road trip. He is survived by his wife, Laura Johnson, an arts administrator at New York’s Lincoln Centre, and by Luke and Charlotte, his children from a previous marriage to Mia Scammell, a former fashion journalist with the Evening News.

Charles Peter George Laurence died 23rd October 2022.

Bill Wilson, son of Captain J M A Wilson, was born in Emsworth, and along with his brothers C M and J St J Wilson, attended Radley as a member of C Social. He went on to gain a BA in Geography & Sociology at the University of Sheffield, followed by Solicitors’ Professional Exams at the College of Law, before being admitted as a solicitor in 1978. He worked as a solicitor in Bristol and London for six years.

A change of heart led him to return to university at Durham, where he completed a BA in Theology in 1985, and then a Certificate of Ministerial Education in 1985. Bill was ordained as a minister in the Church of England by the Bishop of Southwark in Southwark Cathedral on 6th October 1985. He was curate at Emmanuel Church, South Croydon, from 1985-89, and curate at All Saints with Holy Trinity, Wandsworth, from 1989-93.

In 1994 Bill moved to France and became chaplain to the English Speaking Church of Fontainebleau for six years, he also taught English as a foreign language. In 2000 he returned to England and continued to serve the community as vicar at St Stephen’s, South Lambeth, until his retirement in May 2021.

Revd William Adam Wilson died on 14th August 2022, aged 69.

Written by Nicholas Bayley (1966, A)

Robert Johnston died unexpectedly aged only 69. He flashed like a comet through the skies of Radley in the year 1970-1971, leaving bright memories for many of us, including, I know, Huddy and Dennis Silk, both of whom he kept in touch with over the years. It is no surprise that the impressions he left were very different for each of us (rebel, Social Prefect, guitarist …). He was even known by several different names during his life – Bob at Radley, Bobby to his brother, Logan to all his adult friends.

Born in 1952 in Los Angeles, Robert made a formidable impact in F Social during his gap year on an English Speaking Union scholarship between leaving Harvard School in California and going to Harvard University. At Radley, he played a lot of music, discovered a passion for literature (subsequently changing his life by switching to English Literature from Engineering at Harvard). To the delight of many of us at the time, Robert brought a Morgan 4/4 sports car to College, an incident which Warden Silk handled with very great wisdom. His report at the end of his year says, ‘It was sad to see that familiar gangling American figure shouldering his belongings and heading back West again, but warming to think what an enormous contribution he has made here … [above all] his concern for and interest in other people.’ Throughout his adult life, Robert credited Radley with giving him his true education. He often said that he had learned more in one year at Radley than he had in all the years of schooling before that. He believed the Dons at Radley taught him how to write and think critically.

Known as Logan from Harvard days, he met his dearly loved wife Phyllis Gardiner as a student. He was devoted to her. Their happy married life was based at her family home in Gardiner, Maine. While Phyllis worked as a lawyer, Robert pursued careers in publishing, including co-founding Harpswell Press. He was involved in City and State politics. Then he was a bookstore consultant. In the past 20 years he and Phyllis ran a grass-fed beef farm. He was on the Board of the Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association. That sounds a lot, but Robert also involved himself energetically in the life of the Gardiner family, as well as the life of the city of Gardiner, while never losing touch with his own parents and brother. His involvement with people was infectious and selfless. Serving as a Gardiner City councillor for eight years, he also, together with Phyllis, helped found a local performing arts centre and lead, for over thirty years, the campaign to renovate the 19th century Johnson Hall in Gardiner (which this very year achieved its funding target). The obituary in a Gardiner local newspaper said that Robert ‘made his life’s work the betterment of this community.’

Phyllis has said that it was only after his death that she discovered just how many people he had known and modestly helped. At his funeral in Gardiner, Maine, earlier this year, the Mayor, Patricia Hart, described how she would anticipate his many visits to her office to give her support and advice. She wept at his funeral, saying: ‘He didn’t just talk about the things he cherished, he took action.’ She described how he would sometimes kneel (he was very tall) in front of her desk to help her to see ‘eye to eye’ with his views.

Robert took great pride and joy in his son, Philip, (particularly his choice of career as a teacher), and Philip’s wife and daughter, Katherine and Margot. Sadly, he died before his second granddaughter was born.

Bob was an astonishing man of many talents, and a dear friend to me for 52 years. His greatest gift was the loving, unobtrusive, and unswerving support of his wife, his family, his friends, his neighbourhood and everyone he ever met.

Robert Lawrence Johnston died on 22nd May 2022◀ Robert Lawrence Johnston