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Obituaries
John Hicks (1954)
Peter Hicks (current staff) writes: John joined the Perse Prep in 1945 from Whittlesford primary school. On entry to the Upper in 1947 he achieved the required standard for a Foundation Scholarship, though he instead took up the more advantageous County Free Place under the Government’s Direct Grant Scheme. John always spoke fondly of his time at The Perse and how, as a cadet in the RAF Section, he had learnt to fly a glider solo, which no doubt fostered his life-long interest in aviation.
On leaving school, he spent a year as a student apprenticeship with Vickers-Armstrongs (later the British Aircraft Corporation) before going to Downing College to read Mechanical Sciences, specialising in Aeronautics. After graduation, he returned to Vickers where he worked on structural testing of the VC10 and the aerodynamics of the ill-fated TSR-2. He then joined the British Welding Research Association in Abington and became a specialist in welding and metal fatigue. His book - Welding Joint Design, first published in 1979 is still available today. In the mid-1970s he set up his own specialist consultancy on welded construction which he pursued for over 30 years. During this time, he worked on a range of high-profile projects including North Sea oil platforms, the Jubilee Line extension and the Thames Barrier. In 1990, he was elected to a Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering. Approaching retirement age, John’s career took another turn when he became Secretary General of the International Institute of Welding, a job which took him all over the world. In retirement John was for 12 years the Secretary of the Alumni Association at Downing College and Editor of its annual newsletter. In recognition of his contribution to the College he was elected an Emeritus Fellow Commoner in 2011.
John was a cheerful and sociable man who was modest about his achievements. Beyond his professional life he played an active part in the life of his village, being treasurer for a local charity and church organist for many years. He often returned to The Perse for reunion dinners and sang with the Friends of The Perse Choir as recently as 2015.
John died on 21 October 2019. He will be greatly missed by his two sons, David and Peter; and grandson, Philip.
John Bullen (1954)
Richard Bullen writes: John Bullen passed away on 18 October 2019, aged 83. John joined The Perse in 1946 as a day pupil and then became a boarder in 1950 before leaving the School aged 16. In recent years he returned to the school for alumni events, the last time being for the Half Century Club lunch in 2018, where he would recall many fond memories of his time as a Persean: notably the kindness of the staff, the visit of Field Marshal Smuts, the rugby, and the School’s theatre productions which he enjoyed immensely.
Growing up in the Cambridgeshire countryside, his first passion was agriculture and on leaving school, he completed his qualifications at the Winmarleigh Hall Institute of Agriculture in Lancashire before completing his National Service with the Royal Navy between 1954 and 1956. In 1970, he joined the Ministry of Agriculture, Food & Fisheries fulfilling a variety of roles, most notably the national response to live animal exports in the early 1990s and, following his retirement in 1996, his recall to support the Ministry’s response to the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in 2001. John moved to Lodsworth in West Sussex in 1958, where he married Janet in 1962. He had a strong sense of public service, becoming a parish councillor, and was instrumental in a number of projects for his adopted community such as the Oakfield housing development and the new village hall, which opened in 2000. He had active roles on the village’s recreation ground, fete, allotment, amateur dramatics, football and village hall committees too.
He was a loved husband, father, grandfather and friend who enjoyed being around people and delighted in chatting to everyone. In later life, he began to travel more widely visiting most continents, not focused on the sightseeing, but being more fascinated in the way in which other people lived. He is sorely missed by his wife Janet after 57 years together, his three sons Roger, Richard and Robert and their families including his grandchildren, James, Chesapeake and Summer.
William “Bill” Johnson (1957)
Michael Hammond (1959) writes:
William Johnson was born on the 16 December 1938 in Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. He joined The Perse in 1945, after attending a private nursery.
Bill was extremely clever, displaying a particular talent in technical drawing. He left The Perse at 16 and decided to take his technical drawing further at the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology.
Bill’s family was steeped in music. His father was a church organ builder, running the family business of E J Johnson & Son on Hills Road. Bill’s grandfather had made violins; his mother was an accomplished violinist and pianist. Bill was having piano lessons at the age of four, and went on to receive more serious piano tutoring by Bernard Timberlake and organ and harmony training by Harold Fleet.
In 1954 he began working in the family business, alongside his father, as an apprentice organ builder. When his father retired, Bill took on the business at the age of 37. One of the first things he did was to move the premises from Hills Road to a site five times larger at Bar Hill, enabling more room to build larger instruments. He also took the company further by undertaking chamber organ hire, which took him and the company’s work all over the country, from the Royal Albert Hall to the Brighton Pavilion. The company undertook work on organs at Westminster Abbey and St George’s Chapel Windsor, secular buildings such as the Royal Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Purcell Room, cathedrals at Norwich, Ely, Oxford and Newcastle as well as at a number of Cambridge college chapels. There were very soon over 200 organs on the company’s regular maintenance book, including St Martin-in the Fields on Trafalgar Square. The company would become renowned for the highest standards of workmanship and customer service, and Bill himself was tirelessly generous to staff and customers alike.
Bill was incredibly generous with his time and absolutely committed and devoted to his work. He loved nothing more than to be delving in among the pipes and solving problems. Music was his life. He was relentlessly relaxed and at ease with life and everything in it.
William had a very deep Christian faith, together with a love of church liturgy and church architecture. He died on 6 October 2019, following a long illness.
In Memoriam
Robin Blake (1957) died 3 November 2019, aged 80 years
John P Church (1948) died January 2019, aged 87 years
Barry E Clarke (1960) died 2019, aged 78 years
Michael T Farthing (1946) died January 2020, aged 91 years
Alun T Frey (1964) died 1 July 2019, aged 74 years
Stephen E Frost (1960) died 29 February 2020, aged 78 years
Janet Oswald (Former Staff) died 27 December 2019
Ray Revell (Former Staff) died October 2019, aged 87 years
John H G Saunders (1958) died May 2019, aged 81 years
Michael M Sharp (1944) died 10 October 2018, aged 92 years
Alan J Shoote (1965) died 17 June 2019, aged 72 years
Anthony “Michael” Sparrow (1961) died June 2019, aged 77 years
Robin H Starte (1949) died January 2020, aged 88 years
This list was up-to-date when we went to print. Obituaries may be read in full on our website: perse.co.uk/obituaries
