50
OPUS • Issue 4 • Spring 2011
Portsmouth Grammar School • www.pgs.org.uk
In memoriam Andrew FALUDY (1955-2010)
Rob will be remembered and missed by his friends and colleagues for his quick wit and calm, gentlemanly attitude, and for his energy and sense of fun.
Lt. Col. David W TAYLOR (1955–2011)
Twice married, Rob was a loving father who took great pride in his six children and grandchild. Our condolences go to his wife Tania and all his family.
David then went to Cyprus as Senior Staff Officer with responsibility for Ministry of Defence estates. His last Army post was as a Staff Officer at MoD Estates HQ in Sutton Coalfield. After retiring at age 50 he joined a civil engineering company and worked on construction projects in Iraq, Botswana and Dubai. It was at this time during a routine health assessment that asbestosis was discovered.
Christopher LAMBERT (1949-2011)
Andrew was a former member of the PGS English Department (1989 to 2002) and a former Head of Publications. He was a graduate of Sussex University and before joining PGS he taught French and English at Churcher’s College and Media and Communications to mature students at Highbury College. He was a colourful individual with a passion for justice and an unwavering commitment for individual freedom of thought and action. Andrew was a JP on the Portsmouth Bench and a valued advisor on Law to the Careers Department. His interests included winemaking and he was a qualified oenologist – he even founded the PGS Wine Club! Andrew retired from teaching in 2002 through ill health.
Rob HASKELL (1955-2010) Rob (known as Bob during his school years) passed away suddenly in October. He was 55. Rob had a long and successful career, first with IBM, and subsequently with AT&T when it bought IBM’s Global Network interests. Initially prompted by an early childhood in Scotland, Rob had a great love for the natural world. Folk music and traditions were another passion; at one time Rob had a folk music show on a local radio station, and was an enthusiastic member of the Victory Morrismen. This led to a side line as a barn dance and ceilidh caller, working all over England, including some unusual places such as aircraft hangars and HMS Victory. In 1997 he toured Northern China with Victory Morris and called at four ceilidhs.
David Taylor (at approx. 10 years old)
We are grateful to David’s lifelong friend, Wally Green, who served with David on three separate tours of duty with the Royal Engineers, for this information on David’s career.
Christopher attended PGS from1960-1966 and on leaving school he completed teacher training at CF Mott College of Education in Liverpool. His passion was for drama and English and he was appointed Head of English at Manhood High School, Selsey, West Sussex where he also created a Drama department. Christopher moved to Bridport in Dorset in1992 where he took the post of Head of Drama and second in English at Weymouth College. He was also a keen sportsman playing hockey, squash and tennis to a high standard as well as being a stalwart of the Chideock Players Amateur Dramatic Group. Friends described him as ‘the best quiz master in Bridport’. He retired from teaching in 2001 due to ill health. He is survived by his wife, Ann, and their two children.
Cambridge when his tour of duty was over. In 1992 he moved to a garrison in Chilwell, Nottingham, as the Officer in Command of a specialist team of Royal Engineers. He served in Bosnia, where he was involved in assessing damaged buildings for possible use by NATO, and this is how he believed he contracted asbestosis since the material was used frequently in these buildings.
David died on 18th January 2011, at 55 years of age, after battling from malignant mesothelioma. He attended PGS from 1964-1973 and later, after leaving university, joined the Royal Engineers. David’s record card shows that he excelled in many aspects of school life, rowing for the 1st IV rowing team and was described as ‘a boy of high intelligence, vigorous drive, sound balance, pleasant personality and good intentions’, qualities which served him very well indeed for the illustrious military career which followed. He remained firm friends with many former classmates throughout his adult life, including Nick Stevenson OP (19651974), who was a guest at his wedding. Wally first met David when they served together in Germany and Canada and were based at Cambridge. In Germany David commanded 65 Core Support Squadron of Royal Engineers, a heavy engineering unit which was quite unique at that time. In 1983 he served in the Falklands with 53 Field Squadron Royal Engineers returning to
He was highly qualified Chartered Civil Engineer with a passion for engineering and a wicked sense of humour.
Ernest Roy TAYLOR (1919-2010) We are grateful to Roy’s son, Brian Taylor, for this appreciation of Roy’s life. Ernest (known as Roy) was born in Portsmouth and attended Portsmouth Grammar School (from 1928-1937). On leaving school Roy joined the General Post Office (GPO) as a telephone engineer. Simultaneously he joined the Royal Signals TA eventually being called up for the War in 1939. He served as a young officer in General Montgomery’s 8th Army HQ throughout the North Africa Campaign as well as in the Middle East in Iraq and Palestine. He was wounded during the Italian landings at Salerno and was evacuated to Malta where, by coincidence, his Father (who was in the Royal Navy) was serving as an engineering officer in the dockyard. He met Helen, they married in 1944 and had one son, Brian. A source of great delight to Roy was the fact the former Headmaster of PGS (Dr. Hands) is the current Master at Magdalen College School, Brian’s old school. Roy was demobbed in 1946 and returned to work with the GPO in Reading. He continued his studies and qualified as a Chartered Electrical Engineer. One of his claims to fame was the telephone planning and installation for what was then Bracknell New Town. In his spare time
he was an official of “Wot The L Club”, a car treasure hunt, gymkhana and rallying club. Roy developed itchy feet and answered an advert which ended in the family moving to Oporto in Portugal where he was responsible for all telephones in the Oporto area working for the Anglo Portuguese Telephone Company. In 1968 Roy & Helen returned to the UK and settled in Benfleet, Essex. Roy then joined C&W and returned overseas working in the West Indies, firstly Barbados and then St Lucia and then on to Bahrain in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia, where Roy was a consultant advising the Saudi Minister of Communication. On retirement Roy and Helen moved to Gillingham in Dorset into a house they had built to their own design. Helen died in 1997 and after a year or so Roy met and befriended his great companion Mary. They had many happy holidays together. When Mary moved to Seaton, Roy decided to follow and bought a flat across the road from her in 2004. Roy loved to be visited by his granddaughters and their spouses and during the last fifteen months of his life he also got a huge amount of pleasure from seeing his great granddaughter, Megan.
David Edward TENCH, OBE (1929-2010)
working as a tax lawyer at Somerset House. At this time he also started working on a voluntary basis for the Consumers’ Association, contributing to the production of a number of publications for the organisation. In 1969, he joined the Consumers’ Association on a full-time basis as a legal advisor. David worked on the BBC TV programme ‘That’s Life’ with Esther Rantzen as the show’s legal advisor for over 20 years, even making the occasional appearance in front of the camera. He was awarded an OBE in 1987 and retired from the Consumers’ Association as Director of Legal Affairs in 1994. Described by Esther Rantzen as “the consumers’ legal guardian angel”, he was responsible for an impressive array of legislation, including the 1977 Unfair Contract Terms Act and the 1987 Consumer Protection Act. David will be remembered as an energetic, maverick lawyer who enjoyed challenging authority and the Establishment over unfair laws and practices – at a time when consumers had few rights and many within British manufacturing and the media were suspicious of such an organisation. Rosemary McRobert, the former Deputy Director of the Consumers’ Association (which now trades as Which?), described him as “an extraordinary consumer advocate. If it hadn’t been for David, we wouldn’t have got so much consumer legislation on the statute books.”
John DUDDELL (1922-2010) An Apology
David was a solicitor and human rights activist who spent a brief spell at PGS (1943-1944) when his father, a marine engineer in the Merchant Navy, was based at Portsmouth. After leaving school aged 18 David decided to pursue a career as a solicitor. He qualified before undertaking National Service in March 1952. In the Royal Navy, he was posted to Malta, where he worked as a decoder and learnt Russian, reaching the rank of midshipman. In 1958 he joined the Inland Revenue
Regrettably, our report on the death of John Duddell in the last issue of Opus contained inaccurate information. We stated incorrectly “John is survived by his wife Jean and their two sons”. John, in fact, died a widower. His first wife, Jean, died in 1994 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. John later remarried but his second wife, Betty, died in 2009. We would like to apologise for any distress or offence caused by this error.
51