Sticks bridge and up to Prince Llywelyn’s cave. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014, aberedw was the first place she wanted to visit. It was also the last. Catrin died on 30 May 2017 and is buried in St Cewydd’s Churchyard, high above the edw. She is survived by her husband alex, their two children Huw and elin, her parents and her sister.
philosophy because it was the most intellectually challenging subject, but perhaps a deeper reason was his abiding interest in understanding and communicating with other people. He once said to me that we see the truth when we see the face of God in other people. Let that be his parting word. Based on a contribution by John Walker (Fellow 1988-2002).
Alex Oliver (Catrin’s widower). T R Morgan (2002) M J C Hodgson (1987)
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Selwyn Calendar 2017–2018
Timothy rhys Morgan was born on 16 July 1982 and schooled in Brecon, where he became Head Chorister at the Cathedral and subsequently progressed to singing alto, tenor and bass during his teenage years. He also received keyboard tuition from the assistant organist Hazel Gedge, featured on recordings of the choir and at various times held the posts of organ Scholar and acting assistant organist at the Cathedral. He came up to Selwyn in 2002 to read Music. He was an organ Scholar and during his undergraduate years was awarded the associateship Diploma of the royal College of organists. one of the highlights of his performing career was playing the finale of the organ Symphony by Saint-Saëns at the 20th Biennial London Welsh Festival of Male Choirs in the royal albert Hall in 2006. While at Selwyn he made many close friends, whom he entertained with his amusingly outrageous organ improvisations. He loved both dressing formally and dressing up: he always played the organ in his socks and would delight those who saw him in action with his multi-coloured feet! after graduating from Selwyn in 2005, Tim was appointed as the first assistant Director of Music at Lambrook Haileybury School in Bracknell and by the end of his first year the school had gained a new orchestra and a second choir. Tim later became Head of academic Music and during the following nine years he oversaw the creation of other ensembles, including the Lambrook (Haileybury) Singers, the launch of residential trips for the chapel choir to Brecon Cathedral, the composition of an anthem for the commemoration service to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Lambrook, the acquisition of a new computer organ, the completion of a PGCe and the enlightened purchase of boomwhackers as well as ukuleles –all of which helped to seal his reputation as an outstanding organist, pianist, composer, conductor and teacher. eager for the challenge of running his own department, Tim took up his final appointment as Director of Music at Ludgrove School, Wokingham, in September 2014, where he ensured the continued development of the Music Department, commissioned the installation of a new three-manual organ for the chapel and presided over the annual Interset Music Competition. Passing away so suddenly and still in the prime of life, Tim ‘organ Morgan’ will be remembered as an inspirational and passionate musician and teacher.
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Michael and I first met on a cold January in 1989 when John Sweet, the Dean of Chapel at Selwyn, asked me to attempt to teach Michael German. This was an enterprise in which I failed miserably, both because of my lack of skills as a language teacher and because it rapidly became apparent that Michael was not really very interested, although he valiantly typed out a few German words on an ancient Braille typewriter. What he was however passionately interested in was talking about philosophy. Michael was born in 1966 and the root of his life was in his loving family in Darlington. He would often speak with great affection of his and their favourite places in County Durham, north Yorkshire and northumberland. He loved his native County Durham, although no one was likely to mistake him for a member of the county set! Such were his roots until he lost his sight just before his sixteenth birthday and he left Darlington for the national College for the Blind in Worcester. This was a key period in his life, though obviously a very difficult one. It was the beginning of his strong Catholic faith which sustained him throughout his life, fostered especially by a lifelong friendship with Sister Hildelith Cumming, a Benedictine nun at nearby Stanbrook abbey. It was also the first time Michael really began to flourish academically. He remembered his astonishment at being told for the first time in his life that he was academically able. His Worcester teachers’ belief in him played no small part in his belief in himself and eventually his securing a place to read Philosophy at Selwyn. This was the happiest time in his life, when he made a wide circle of friends both within and outside his subject. It was important also because there he met his beloved wife Julie, who was working as rehabilitation officer for blind people in Cambridgeshire. The next stop after Cambridge and his marriage to Julie was Walsall in the West Midlands. Michael threw himself into a wide range of charitable and community activities and worked as an assessor on disability tribunals throughout the West Midlands, a task he approached with the combination of realism, humour and compassion which were his hallmarks. He and Julie founded the charity W’eYeS for blind and partially-sighted people in Walsall. Perhaps the most important and characteristic of his activities was his work for the Samaritans. He undertook the enormously difficult task of setting up a branch of the Samaritans in Winson Green Prison in Birmingham and in Brinley remand Centre for young offenders. Many people found it paradoxical that this apparently formal, somewhat reserved and highly educated man was able to communicate so effectively with such a wide range of people. The clue was that he was always just himself and therefore able to communicate that self to others. He once remarked that he had chosen to study
Based on an obituary by John Kimbell for Lambrook Haileybury School, with additional material by Tania Russell (SE 2001).
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