In 1946 he came up to Selwyn to read estate Management, gaining a first. a talented distance runner, he ran for the University: a photograph shows him leading a three-mile race at Fenner’s with a contemporary, Chris Brasher (later a gold medallist in the 1956 olympics) in third place. His group of close friends, George Brimyard, John Scott Waine, Keith Wright and robert Myers (all Se 1946), were all members of Hermes and Logarithms. They kept in touch, meeting regularly at Commem. With their wives, five more particular friends and Betty and Derek Childerley, who had risen from gyp to Butler, they met in College in September 1996 for a fiftieth anniversary reunion. after university, Peter joined the estate Management Department of ICI in Cheshire, played rugby with Winnington Park rugby Club and travelled europe on his Triumph motor bike. He was a member of the Worshipful Company of Skinners and a regular attender of the Masonic Lodge. He met his wife, Pauline, through the Ski Club of Great Britain. In 1956, with a new job as Principal of Wye agricultural College in Kent, they married. The college, an offshoot of reading University, was not viable financially, so Peter set up his own farm-management consultancy, with Pauline as secretary. Without a secure income, they lived in a rented house in Braunston in rutland for five years. Peter was also a part time lecturer and external examiner at Sutton Bonington agricultural College. In 1965 they bought rosemount, in Leicester, their base for fortynine years. The state education system did their girls proud: all attended Cambridge and have successful careers as an academic GP, a town planning consultant in new Zealand and a university senior lecturer in multimedia. There are seven grandchildren. Peter managed estates including Loseley Park in Surrey and more locally near Melton Mowbray, and advised at Lord King’s estate. It was relentless work. each year he took just two weeks family holiday. He developed the aston Farm Management System, selfpublishing a book on Farm business and land ownership (Leicester, 1979). He continued with golf and a daily walk through his eighties. aged ninety, with Pauline, he visited Malta with the Heroes return scheme. He retired aged ninety-one, following a serious fall. His physical health had been declining and, although mentally alert, he moved to Devonshire Court residential Home, where he died in april 2017, aged ninety-four. robert Myers (Se 1946) adds: ‘Peter was charming. Self effacing, he never dwelt on his distinguished naval career or his athletic achievements. He was a fun companion with a good sense of humour, great integrity and firmly held beliefs.’ Caroline Anderson (Peter’s daughter).
The essex Yeomanry provided artillery support fire for the D Day landings at Gold Beach on 6 June 1944, though Marc arrived a few hours late, as his landing craft had broken down mid-Channel. The baptism of fire for the regiment took place at the fierce battle of St Pierre on 9-11 June, then the furthest point of the allied advance. The gun position was almost overrun by elements of the newly arrived Panzer-Lehr-Division and Marc’s troop-sergeant was killed by shell fire. For the rest of the campaign, including the ill-fated operation Market Garden to take the rhine bridges and the city of arnhem, Marc acted as a forward observation officer, helping direct fire in support of the three armoured regiments of 8th armoured Brigade and the King’s royal rifle Corps – working with a Major Bill Deedes, later editor of the Daily Telegraph. Marc was mentioned in despatches for his war service and later received the Légion d’Honneur. after the war, Marc came up to Selwyn to read History. He later wrote, ‘I had no formal academic qualifications, but my military service appealed to the Senior Tutor, who had been involved in the 1914-18 War’. at Selwyn Marc was taught by William Brock, who wrote of Marc’s ‘exceptional command of the english language’. He lodged with the Childerley family and Derek Childerley later became Butler of the College. after Selwyn and a year at Corpus Christi College oxford studying for a Dip ed, Marc was appointed as a lecturer (later a senior lecturer) in the Modern Studies Department at the royal Military academy Sandhust; aspiring officers needed to learn about the emerging Commonwealth. He ran the sailing at Sandhurst, skippering a 100metre sailing boat, robbe, purloined from the Kriegsmarine, which required considerable nautical skills off the treacherous Brittany coast as it had no engine! at thirty-five he moved to oundle School to teach history, start up the sailing and later to be the housemaster of Sanderson House, named after a headmaster who almost alone among his contemporaries in the early part of the century saw the importance of teaching science in schools. In 1970 Marc was appointed headmaster of Cranleigh School in Surrey. His development of his staff and his new, often risky, appointments provided in due course fourteen headmasters of other independent schools including the current master of Marlborough, two successive headmasters of the Purcell School and the master of Peterhouse Zimbabwe (the late alan Megahey, Se 1962). The new headmaster of Cranleigh abu Dhabi, Michael Wilson, was originally appointed by Marc primarily as a tennis coach! In Marc’s final year in 1983 Cranleigh won twenty-two oxbridge places, including eight awards. His schoolmastering was marked by a deep humanity and humility, rooted in a lifelong Christian faith. Marc leaves his widow Tessa and his four children from his first marriage, two of whom went to Selwyn: Kelvin (Se 1971) and Julian (Se 1972).
M van Hasselt (1946) Kelvin van Hasselt (SE 1971).
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Selwyn Calendar 2017–2018
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Marc, born in 1924, was the son of an immigrant Dutch telephone engineer who refused to allow his wife to speak Dutch in their new home in england. Marc volunteered for the army in 1942 and was sent to aberdeen University, where aspiring gunnery officers were taught physics. after five weeks the army realised its mistake (Marc had opted not to do science at school!) and sent Marc to Larkhill to learn with ordinary soldiers the manual skills of loading and aiming guns at speed. There he earned a ‘layer’s badge’, which proved invaluable when commissioned as a troop leader into the essex Yeomanry in February 1944. The regiment was preparing for the european offensive.
P Haynes (1947) Peter Haynes was born in 1925. after education at St Brendan’s College, he came up to Selwyn to read Theology, gaining a first with distinction. Following Cuddesdon Theological College, he was ordained in 1952, and served a curacy at Hessle, then an incumbency in the Hull dockland parish of St John’s, Drypool. Peter went on to serve for
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