CLASS NOTES

Class Notes is a regular feature of Hartley News: alumni from across the decades get back in touch with life updates to share. Do you recognise any of the names from your years at Southampton?

Brian Thomas Hitch (BSc Chemistry with Physics, 1959) now lives in Naples, Florida after retiring from a long, esteemed career with British Petroleum. Brian’s family became US citizens in 1970 but he, along with his wife, still continues to enjoy visits to their original home in Poole, Dorset.

Veronica Thomas-Fuller (BA English and French, 1965) would love to get in touch again with any of her fellow graduates or anyone who has fond memories of their time together at the University of Southampton.

Bob Ingram (BSc Electrical Engineering, 1969) along with six friends from his Southampton University days celebrated their collective 75th birthdays this year. The group has gathered generally on an annual basis ever since they first studied together. They are Peter Hutchinson (BSc Maths, 1968), Tina Hutchinson nee Farquharson (BSc Maths, 1968), Richard King (BSc Maths, 1968), Phyllis King nee Martin (BSc Chemistry, 1968) and Alan Walker (BSc Maths, 1968). The group sends best wishes to any fellow students who may remember them.

Jeremy Krause (BSc Geography, 1972) now lives back in the South of England and enjoys exploring again the chalk downlands. He has great memories of Professor John Small explaining all about the downlands to him and his fellow classmates back in ‘72.

Stuart Barry (BSc Electronic Engineering, 1973), after reading the RAG Week article in the recent edition of Hartley News, reminisces about his time on the organising committee of the 1972 RAG Week. He shares memories of a lovingly crafted dragon made from wood, chicken wire and papier-mâché that made an appearance in the local newspaper after being kidnapped and placed inside the middle of Stonehenge by rival departments of the University.

Ray Rumsby (MA Education Curriculum Studies, 1974) now 75 years of age, has had his first book, The Prentice-Boy, published by Claret Press. A literary-historical novel set two hundred years ago written from the perspectives of an aquatint artist, William Daniell, and a runaway teenager living on the streets of London. The Prentice-Boy, recommended for reading-groups, is available from October Books in Portswood.

Jonathan Cross (BSc Geography, 1989) recently published his first book ‘Making very difficult things easy to do’. A surreal self-help parody inspired by the purchase of a pandemic puppy.

Dr Bruce Englefield (MSc Companion Animal Behaviour Counselling, 1996) recently received the Order of Australia for their conservation and community work, an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service.

Dr. Irene Crocker (PhD Medicine, 1999) cowrote a fascinating new book, sharing memoirs from her mother’s time growing up in the Netherlands during the second world war. The book ‘Brave Face: The Inspiring WWII Memoir of a Dutch/German Child’, published by Amsterdam Publishers, is available now.

Ian Wyllie (BEng Mechanical Engineering, 2002) is sailing solo around the UK and Ireland in his aged Vancouver 27 ‘Trilleen’ as part of his rehabilitation from a spinal injury and mental health issues. During the sail Ian will raise funds for, and awareness of, the Andrew Cassell Foundation a unique charity that helps disabled people become independent sailors.

Miss Elizabeth Falzon of Windsor (BA Fashion, 2006), the daughter of Mrs Deanna Catherine Falzon and the late Mr Vivian Egidio Falzon, is to marry Mr Nicholas William Kingdom of Finchampstead. He is the son of Mr John Richard

Kingdom of Bristol and Mrs Christine Suzanne Kingdom of Bedfordshire. Elizabeth and Nicholas got engaged at the top of Mount Hoven while on a Norwegian Fjords Cruise on Thursday 2nd June. They plan to marry in May 2023.

Hector Hamilton (MEng Electrical Engineering, 2016) was recently selected for the Young Printmaker prize, an award for artists under the age of 35 working in print, for his work in the Wells Cathedral Exhibition. A later stage of his piece, ‘Brutally Untitled 6’, has also been selected for exhibit by the RE Printmakers in Bankside this September.

Melissa Albarran (BA Spanish and English, 2018), who moved to Edinburgh shortly after graduating, secured a managerial position at the award winning, female led PR agency Represent Comms. Melissa says “Studying at the University of Southampton gave me the skillset, work ethic, and confidence to take on a senior role at this first-class agency within a few years of graduating.”

Jill Lovelock née Denmark (BSc Social Sciences, 1969, in Commerce and Law) died on 9th March 2022, aged 73. She had been diagnosed with metastatic (‘secondary’) breast cancer in 2009, after a ‘brush’ with the disease a few years earlier, but had continued to live a full and active life.

Jill and Robin (BSc Social Sciences, 1969, in Politics and Sociology; MSc Social Sciences, 1998, in Political Theory) married in July 1970. Having stayed in Southampton they bought an early-Victorian townhouse in the centre of the city in 1975, where Robin continues to live. He is also continuing to spend 2-3 months each year in several visits to their old stone house in a small country village in central France. Jill had a successful career as a local government officer: two spells totalling over twenty-three years working for Hampshire County Council ‘bookended’ fifteen-and-a-half years at Southampton City Council. In the last decade or so of her career Jill played a key role in developing Hampshire’s international policy and links, including managing a multi-authority office in Brussels.

Professor George Stevenson died peacefully in Oxfordshire on 1st July.

During his career, George pioneered the idea that antibodies could be used to treat cancer and along with his wife, Professor Freda Stevenson, established the Tenovus Cancer Research Group at the University of Southampton. Southampton continued George’s world-leading cancer immunology research and, thanks to the support of the alumni and supporter community, opened the UK’s first Centre for Cancer Immunology in 2018.

Outside of work, George led a busy social life, enjoying squash, chess and understanding how things work, especially his favourite subject –clocks, which he spent time building and repairing. He will be greatly missed by his family and friends including his wife Freda and three sons, James, Philip and Neil.