He had always been interested in overseas work and the opportunity came in 1983. He became the Principal of Karachi Theological College in Pakistan and later also worked in Islamabad and then spent nine years as Principal of the Discipleship Training Centre in Singapore. During this time he travelled extensively throughout asia, visiting past students, including a month-long visit to Pakistan which he managed to enter without a visa and, in his inimitable way, also managed to talk himself out of the situation without being arrested. He also spent three years as Director of Interserve in Seoul, Korea, and a year at the Tyndale Seminary in Toronto before semi-retiring in adelaide. He continued as a guest lecturer and visiting minister for some years before finally slowing down in 2005, although he did continue to travel and spend time with the church and his family. There is no doubt that Dad packed as much as he could into his life. He died on 15 December 2018, survived by his wife Gwen, and his three children, robert, ruth and Joy. Brian Dickey (SE 1961), based on the funeral address by Bryan’s daughter Ruth
J P Singer (1963)
ParT FIVe
Jan Peter Singer was born in Birmingham in 1944. He was the only child of Hanus Kurt Singer and his wife alice, Czechoslovakian Jews who had moved from Prague in 1939 to evade the nazi occupation. His grandfather was a lawyer who secured their exit visa with a recommendation from the composer richard Strauss, one of his clients. as a boy, Singer’s precocious talent for languages soon became evident, much to his parents’ surprise. on occasions when they did not want him to know what they were talking about they would revert to Czech – until the day young Peter piped up with a fluent reply in their native tongue. They switched to German, but a few weeks later so did he. He was educated at King edward’s School, edgbaston, and, after a-levels, spent a gap year in Israel and Corsica as a tour guide for Club Med. He won a scholarship to read Law at Selwyn. He became president of the University’s Law Society and was known to his friends as ‘Le Patron’, on account of his Maigret-style pipe, a penchant for Campari and his wistful reminiscences of Corsica. He graduated in 1966 and was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1967. He joined chambers at 1 Mitre Court, now 1 Hare Court, under the pupillage of Stephen Tumim and Matthew Thorpe. He soon built a successful practice, specialising in family law, especially in cases involving high financial stakes. according to one of his former pupils, Sir nicholas Mostyn, Singer had a photographic memory and, for someone without even o-level maths, was ‘incredibly numerate’, capable of doing complex long-division sums in his head. In 1970 Singer married Julia Caney, who worked for the Department of the environment. They settled in Islington and had two children: Laura is a community development worker, and Luke a teacher. The couple were divorced in 2006, and Julia died in 2011. Singer took silk in 1987 and sat in the county court as a recorder until his appointment as a High Court judge (Family Division) in 1993. In 1990 he collaborated with Mostyn to devise At a Glance, an innovative publication for family lawyers combining up-to-date tables, cases and commentaries in one volume, now in its 25th edition. In 2013 a case turned on the interpretation of ‘habitual residence’ as set out by
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