Obituaries

John Anthony Goodall

(KJGS 1953-1960)

Almondburian with many interests and talents who devoted his life to education John Goodall , of Marsden, died on 26th August 2022 after a lengthy period of ill-health.

Born in Longwood, John’s life was shaped by the Pennines and a deep love of the Yorkshire countryside. His father Jack had trained with the RAF at the start of World War 2 and didn’t return home permanently until 1946. Injured in the war, he sadly died in 1955 when John was 13.

John passed for King James’s Grammar School in 1953, and he thrived in the academic setting, absorbing all aspects of school except for Mathematics and Sport. He often commented that Sport must have skipped a generation as his father had been a true sportsman as, later, were his children and grandchildren.

He passed his ’A’ Levels in 1960 in English Literature, History and Geography (distinction) and was awarded a Borough Scholarship. His initial thought was to study Geography at Birmingham University and for his interview he hitched a lift there, arriving very late at night. The driver thought it best to drop the 18-year-old off at the Police Station, where he was accommodated in one of the cells. When the Inspector made his initial rounds at midnight, he came across John and said he’d take him home and let him sleep in one of their spare beds. Next day, fed and spruced up he set out on his way for his interview. ln 1965 John became a lecturer at Bradford University and made some close friends who remained in contact with him throughout the rest of his life. He loved teaching adults on Open University courses and joined Nottingham University as a Resident Tutor in Lin - coln, running a wide range of courses for adults and taking several Open University Summer Schools in Durham University.

In the event, he turned down the Birmingham offer and decided to study Geography at the London School of Economics joint school with King’s College in London. Having been awarded his BA(Hons) at LSE he went on to Leeds University to study for a higher degree, choosing to carry out research into the immigration of Indian and Pakistani men into West Yorkshire.

John missed the Yorkshire hills while he was in Lincolnshire so he returned to work in West Yorkshire. There, he was employed by the former West Yorkshire Authority and subsequently Wakefield Metropolitan District Council. However, he decided that local government wasn’t for him and, beset by physical and mental health problems, accepted early retirement

To fill his time, John attended Asian Cookery and photography classes and also learned Russian. He was invited to go to Estonia and Russia to help students at teachers’ Training Colleges with their English language conversation.

John and his wife Heulwen often opened their house at Marsden to accommodate Pennine Way walkers and people visiting Last of the Summer Wine country. and they entertained thousands of Bed- and-Breakfasters. He also joined many choirs over the years and he was delighted to be invited to sing with the Huddersfield Methodist Choir when they performed Handel’s Messiah in a packed Huddersfield Town Hall.

He was also an enthusiastic traveller, with trips all over Europe, India and the USA.

Apart from his love of languages and singing John loved photography and designed cards and gifts for many. He won several photographic competitions.

He also wrote a large number of poems, having one published in the Siegfried Sassoon Journal. Many of these were funnier as he grew weaker, and he shared each new limerick with his carers and nurses thus ensuring they all left him with smiles on their faces.

In addition to his wife Heulwen, John leaves two children and three grandchildren.

Our thanks to Heulwen Goodall John Anthony Goodall, born 10th February 1942, died 26th August 2022 aged 80.

Martin John Wood (KJGS 1961-1969)

Warm-hearted intellect who became one of the UK’s top divorce barristers

Martin Wood died in hospital on 12th March after a long, painful illness. It came as no surprise to learn he’d spent his last hours listening to Barbara Streisand. At a packed thanksgiving service in Hubberholme Church in Wharfedale three of her songs sounded out. Her portrait rested on the coffin. All of us there – local people, hotshot lawyers, schoolfriends, family – knew we’d never meet anyone else with Martin’s unique mix of warm heart, powerful intellect, gloriously cynical wit, immense courage… and lifelong obsession with “Barbara”.

After school and Cambridge, Martin became a barrister on the Northern Circuit specialising in family law. Fellow lawyers soon talked about him in awed tones as “the best on the circuit”. Cham- bers Guide to the Bar described him later as “a phenomenal advocate”. For the celebrated family lawyer Marilyn Stowe, he was a “consummate barrister” because of “his charm, his peerless advocacy” and a “surprising lack of aggression” which disarmed his adversaries. “He doesn’t make enemies; he makes friends. I have never once heard a bad word spoken about him.”

Martin was one of the kindest people I’ve ever met. He put on a show of witty cynicism like his literary hero, Oscar Wilde. We’ve had so many arguments together over the years, especially on politics, and I can’t remember ever winning one. Yet in Martin’s company that never mattered, because the more we disagreed the more fun it was debating. And under that formidable intellectual firepower lay a generous spirit, always sensitive to others’ needs. There was also a wonderfully crazy side to him. Everyone at the thanksgiving had stories to tell about Martin’s mad exuberance and appetite for risk. Meeting rain-soaked Hell’s Angels at a Dales pub and inviting them all to spend the night at his house, crammed with precious artefacts. His hospitality to all comers even if guests usually ended up doing the cooking. Epic hill walks with friends often ending in deep mud or darkness without benefit of compass, torch or map, but cheered by Martin’s trademark reassurance, “Don’t worry. I know these hills like the back of my hand”.

We were in different classes at King James’s, and my family moved to the Lakes after O Levels. I got to know him the following summer when he and Ian Robertson came up for a week’s fellwalking. Martin made that week hilariously unforgettable. Slogging up boulder-strewn ridges we’d suddenly be deafened by Martin singing Climb Every Mountain at maximum volume. He knew The Importance of Being Earnest by heart. If he felt our spirits were flagging, he’d start declaiming complete scenes. There was never a dull kilometre on a walk with Martin. By the end of that week I knew I’d found a friend for life.

We last saw Martin a year ago, when early Spring was bringing new life back into the valley round Starbotton. He’d invited three of us from school – Les Orme, Ian Robertson and me, plus our wives – to join him for a weekend reunion at his beautiful farmhouse. He was in poor health but on sparkling argumentative form. Martin now had a young dog, Rupert, on whom he lav - ished affection. He was looking ahead to a peaceful future in his glorious corner of the Dales. He will be much missed by us all.

Jon Barton

Graham Cliffe adds: Martin’s early career was notable for the fact that his pupil master was a barrister called Igor Judge who later became Lord Chief Justice. He now sits in the House of Lords.

After pupillage Martin joined Broadway Chambers in Bradford and he practised there until his retirement about two years ago.

When I was a practising solicitor I appeared in direct opposition to Martin on two occasions – honours even, we won one each. When I became a Judge he appeared before me on many occasions. I enjoyed his style of advocacy which was, at times, very direct but all Judges tend to be grateful to those who get on with the job and deal with the critical issues promptly. On one occasion he was acting for a frail and elderly man who had entered into an unfortunate second marriage late in life with a woman much younger than himself who was quickly found to be enriching herself at his expense. Martin’s opening words were “the wife in this case is a gold-digger – nothing more, nothing less”. The temperature in the room rose instantly but Martin was able to support his pithy submission and it was the only case of post-divorce financial applications with which I dealt where the wife was awarded nothing at all.

Martin specialised in big money divorce cases for the last 25 years of his career. He was acknowledged as one of the top three barristers dealing with such work on the North-Eastern Circuit which covers the eastern half of England from Sheffield to the Scottish border

Martin John Wood, born 19th December 1950, died 12th March 2023 aged 72.

Derek Alwyn Law (KJGS 1947-1954)

Leading Mobil Oil organic chemist who has 38 patents to his name

We were saddened to learn of the death at St Mary’s Hospital, Pennsylvania of father, chemist, manager, and lifelong world traveller Derek Law, of Yardley, Pennsylvania.

Born in Huddersfield, Derek received BSc and PhD degrees in Organic Chemistry from the University of Liverpool and the University of Alberta Canada.

In 1963, Derek emigrated to the United States and joined the applied products research group of Mobil Oil in Paulsboro, New Jersey.

In his career at Mobil , Derek was granted 38 patents and was responsible for the development of antioxidant technology now used in Mobil jet oil. Later in his career, he accepted multiple overseas assignments and in 1983, was appointed group leader and manager of the Industrial Oils group which subsequently became the Additives, Minerals, and Chemical Products group in Princeton, NJ. As leader of this group, Derek’s extensive contacts and excellent technical reputation in Japan were key factors in Mobil Chemical’s success in the Japanese market.

After working at Mobil Oil for 31 years,

Derek retired to his home in Yardley Pennsylvania, spending his time sculpting his garden, enjoying English Premier League matches, and planning his trips to destinations around the world.

From the time he was a teenager, riding his bike on a roundtrip from England to Spain, Derek had a passion for travel and making friends in the 106 countries he visited in his lifetime. His passion ranged from careful planning of global multi-week trips, to adventures which embraced jumping on buses for which the destination was ’unknown’. Travelling ’off of the beaten path’ was a habit Derek always tried to instill on his family and friends.

His family always noted that Derek had the ability to walk into a room full of strangers and start up a conversation on any number of topics, initiating friendships which lasted a lifetime. Throughout his life, Derek was most happy keeping in contact with the many people he met on his travels and setting up new adventures.

Of all the places Derek visited over the years, Japan was his favourite destination, a country he visited over 30 times both professionally and personally. From these travels, Derek built many lifelong friendships.

In addition to his wife and three sons, Derek is survived by his five grandchildren.

Norris Bonser(KJGS 1947-54) adds:

In retirement Derek visited UK on several occasions when he met up with Gavin Kane, Jim Dye and myself. In 1953 Derek, Gavin and I made a tour of France with our bikes and a tent, during which we saw the finish of the 1953 Tour de France in Paris. Happy days! Derek Alwyn Law, born 28th May 1936, died 15th April 2023 aged 86.

Tom Rockett

(KJGS 1957-1964)

Lifelong sports enthusiast who ran his own successful catering supply company

To say Tom Rockett was a character was, by any measure, an understatement.

I first met him through the Old Almondburians’ football teams and only a few years later playing golf when I joined Crosland Heath in 1977.

As a footballer I’m sure he was very frustrating to play against in his role as a rugged midfielder who complained about everything to long suffering referees. I always say, light heartedly, that he never passed a football to me in over five years.Tom’s typical pithy response to this comment would, I’m sure, be “why waste a pass!”.

Nevertheless,he was a key member of the Almondburians’ teams of the early 1970s which had so much success at all levels alongside such luminaries as Tony Lockwood, Jeff Senior, Ian Rangely, Paul Wilson and Graham Richardson.

He was without doubt an outstanding sportsman and had a deep knowledge of all sports that he played.

At King James’s between 1957 and 1964 he represented the School at football and cricket, but it was cricket that defined him in later years.

At only 15 he played for Lockwood Cricket Club and returned there after a spell with the Almondburians to finish a fine amateur career in 1990.

He then took up umpiring and, having checked with a few local players, they believed he was one of the best at the time. His last five years were spent at Honley CC, a cricket club he truly loved, before he finally retired in 2022.

How he fitted golf into this I have no idea but at his peak played off a handicap of four, and alongside fellow member Tony Lockwood became a feared fourball partnership at Crosland Heath Golf Club. He was a member for 50 years.

On leaving School Tom had entered and ran the family catering supply business, later taken over by Debriar Ltd , finally retiring in 2014. He would admit that working locally and being in charge of his own time had enabled him to participate in such a wide range of sports, but of course not without the help and understanding of his wife Janet (pictured).

His three children,Jamie,Gillian and Anna have all found great success with their lives and provided him with five much loved grandchildren.

Not that you would know it from Tom, who was typically ’old school’ in terms of talking about family matters, but he was incredibly proud of what they had achieved.

He will be missed.

Simon Russell

Tom Rockett, born 30th August 1936, died 15th February 2023 aged 86.