Floreat 2016 - Obituary Supplement

FLOREAT 16 O B I T U A RY S U P P L E M E N T

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Major Peter Frederick Barshall (S, 1934) Peter Barshall, father of James (Ch, 1983), died on the 12th December 2014, aged 97.

On leaving College he worked in his father’s office for £9.50 a week as a 17 year old and with the help of a friend he joined the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) as an underage. In 1936, he was sent to South Africa but by 1938 he was back in London.

At the start of World War II, he became a forward observation officer in 138 Field Regt. R.A. On the nights of 22nd & 23rd December 1942, along with the 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards, they mounted an attack, which was to become known as the battle for Longstop Hill in Tunisia. While heavy rain fell, they captured what was thought to be the entire massif, before being relieved by the 18th US Regimental Combat Team. The Germans counter-attacked, driving the Americans off Djebel el Ahmera.

The following night the Guards successfully recaptured the hill only to find when daylight came that another summit, Djebel Rhar, remained to be assaulted. During the night the Guards once again attacked but after capturing the second hill, they were driven off by a furious counter-attack by the Germans on Christmas Day. Peter moved his little detachment consisting of five men into the valley. Both the British and the Americans had evacuated and they were the only allied troops in the area. He told his men to scatter and hide until nightfall, before trying to get back to their lines. He hid for many hours in the bottom of a haystack but to no avail. Some local Arab farmers came and dug him out, seized his automatic and marched him in the open to the line of Panzers.

After a while the guns of his regiment seemed to have got the range of the Panzers, so he had the experience of being shelled by his own side! He was taken in a motorcycle sidecar to Tunis and then on an Italian Navy sloop to Italy where he was interned near Naples. He and two parachute officers escaped but were caught and taken back to the camp. Their documents were marked in red ink ‘pericoloso’ (dangerous). The whole camp was then evacuated by train to the north of Italy, where they were herded into a large building, Fontinellato, intended to be a home for orphans. On September the 8th 1943, they heard that Italy had surrendered and agreed to unite behind the British and the US. The Italian Commandant, Colonel Vicedomini, told them there had been fighting since dawn in Parma and Piacenza between German and Italian troops. The Colonel was a friendly civilised man and he ordered the gates to be opened. Later the Germans shot him for this. They all streamed out of Fontinellato into the countryside, organising themselves into groups of up to six men.

Peter led his group south towards the Apennines and tried to restrict movement until after dark. They were tired and very thirsty but as they got into the foothills they found friendly contadini (Italian countrymen), who let them sleep in their barns and gave them bread and fruit. With the help of a friendly girl, Peter sent a letter to Signor Piero Olmo, his father’s partner in Milan. He waited to see if anything would happen - it did! Through one of his managers, Piero Olmo sent him civilian clothes and some money. The manager, Signor Balabio, was very brave to come and meet Peter who was planning to make his way to Switzerland.

The rest of the men weren’t interested so they agreed to split up.

It was decided that the oldest member of the group would stay with Peter. After saying their goodbyes, they began their journey to freedom. They were optimistic, they had money, and clothes and Peter had a good smattering of Italian. They headed by train to Como via Milan, where instead of connecting with the train to Como they found themselves spending the night on the floor, playing a sort of hide and seek with the guards. In due course they arrived in Como and had a rather dangerous, if not exciting, exit from the station under the eyes of the Gestapo, police and soldiers. They walked through as if they owned the place and met up with two very pleasant contrabbandieri (smugglers). In the 1.

evening they travelled by car to the north side of Lake Como. At night they rowed across and started walking up the mountain, led by their new smuggler friends. After many hours of climbing they reached somewhere near the summit of Monte Generoso and could see below them the Swiss valley and the town of Chiasso.

They allowed themselves a short rest in a broken down hut, to await the daylight - then, without delay, descended the other side of the mountain - and so into Switzerland. They were instantly arrested by police and taken to a camp for refugees.

Peter managed to obtain work as a liaison officer for the Military Attaché at the British Legation with the Palais Federal.

Communications were all in French and very formal. Under the Geneva Convention there is a difference between refugees and internees. The former could leave at any time possible; the latter had to be confined while hostilities lasted. Amongst these were some men important to both the British and American governments, such as scientists and undercover agents. There were many thousands of internees, but no means of moving them once outside the Swiss frontier and this was quite a problem.

Peter was ordered to take over the sharp end of the operation.

He found an old unused station south of Geneva, which had a local tramline adjacent. At the station was a cafe and this had a cellar, which could be reached through trap doors outside and on the platform. The police would check all the men going through the station and then watch the train depart. The illegal men were taken to the station during the day and put into the cellar long before the main body arrived during the night. As the train was ready to go, and just before Peter gave clearance for departure, the illegals would rush out of the cellar through the trap doors, onto the narrow platform and jump into the train. During this daredevil activity some friends would create a bit of confusion as a cover. Quite a few Americans escaped this way, and Peter got a very nice commendation from the Ambassador. In addition, the name of Captain (temp.) P.F.Barshall, Royal Artillery, was published in the London Gazette on 20th December 1945 as Mentioned in a Despatch for distinguished service.

Having rejoined the HAC, Peter regained his commission and commanded a troop in A Battery, after which he was promoted to Major and became 2 i/c of 1st Regt. At the time of the Coronation, Peter commanded the HAC Street Lining Detachment in Oxford Street. It was the only TA Regt. to parade on their own, the others parading with their parent Regiments. The Detachment spent three days in a tented camp in Hyde Park practising street lining before getting thoroughly soaked on the day. He served on the Court of Assistants.

He was chairman of the Ski Club of Great Britain and involved himself in the scout movement, rising to the level of Commissioner, albeit uneasily after many years in the armed forces. Peter attended the B Battery annual luncheon in September 2011 at which event the former Battery Commander and Commanding Officer, Lt. Col. Sir Douglas Morpeth TD announced that Peter was to become the Father of the Battery.

This announcement was met with universal acclaim. It should be added that Peter, a young 93 year old, drove himself to Armoury House from St John’s Wood.

After retiring from the active reserves, he became a Special Constable and was often charged with the enviable duty of policing International Rugby games on Saturdays!

Peter’s European lineage fostered a fearless lust for travel reflected in his building an international trading company, FM Barshall Ltd, with offices in West Africa, Latin America and his much loved Italy. He travelled for extensive periods to China – even throughout the revolution. As his children grew older he frequently took them out of school in the belief that one would learn far more by seeing the world; Charlotte to India for a week long wedding and Amanda to Brazil on the first Concorde trip.

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Family meant everything. He loved their extended summer holidays in Italy and the family benefited from his passion for mountains and skiing with happy days in Zermatt and St Anton, while his wife high tailed it to the sunshine of Morocco. He loved horses and rode frequently out of the St John’s Wood barracks.

for managing the mowing of the Olympic Stadium grass before the opening ceremony of the 1968 Olympics. Always a very keen sportsman, his local hockey team provided warm up matches for the British and New Zealand Olympic teams at the Olympics – soundly beaten by both, of course!

Peter was also rather strict - table manners were his pet peeve to the end and a directed glance was supposed to be interpreted as to what was incorrect – elbows, fork, knife – who knew?

Boyfriends were terrified and few survived an invitation to Sunday lunch. Having lost his memory during the war he was a stickler for writing everything down – that did not extend to his children’s names; he called them all by the dog’s name and was infuriated by the lack of instant response!

When the Mexican economy took a turn for the worse in the seventies, and Ransoms was sold to Massey Ferguson, he moved the family to Tauranga, New Zealand. There, he ran his own business consultancy, was a dedicated member of the Tauranga Officers’ Club, grew avocados commercially, and became a fixture at the local tennis and croquet clubs. He was, for many years, the New Zealand contact for College, which he greatly enjoyed.

Despite being stoically conservative, he was extraordinary in his ability to embrace change over his near Century. He researched his ancestors and compiled his memoirs for his family and descendants, no mean undertaking for a very reserved man in his nineties. Many of the family received detailed emails from him the day before he died.

Peter is survived by Susan, his wife of sixty years, his daughters Charlotte, Amanda, sons Andrew, Peter, and their grandchildren, who delighted him.

Robert Stewart Beausire (H, 1942) Robert (Bob) Beausire, father of Robert (H, 1977), died in New Zealand on the 5th January 2015, aged 90. He was born and raised in Chile and then moved to Switzerland before coming to College in 1938. Having attended school during the beginning of World War II, he had many stories to tell. One of them told of an unexploded bomb that pupils located and duly placed outside the Housemaster’s study. (What do you do with an unexploded bomb? Give it to someone in authority!). He also vividly described sneaking upstairs during an air raid and watching a lone (lost) bomber drop its load on the High Street whilst hanging out of an upstairs Hazelwell dormitory window.

On leaving College, he immediately entered The Royal Navy Reserves. Choosing to be an able seaman, he began his career below decks before entering officer training and being commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. During the War, he was primarily in minesweepers but also served on the Russian convoys and then entered the submarine service where he was stationed in Northern Ireland. At the end of the War he was in charge of one of the crews that went to Norway to take possession of the new U-boats stationed there, which the Germans had planned to use to escape to South America. He had a lot of wartime stories. One of his favourites recounted the time he decided to surprise fellow officers coming back from VJ (Victory over Japan) Day celebrations by throwing a few thunder flashes behind them. Unfortunately, the officers were less merry than he imagined, and Bob got shot in the leg as a result of his prank. To the end of his days, he was annoyed at the incident – not because he got shot, but because the officer never offered to replace his best pair of uniform trousers!

He left the navy in 1947 and moved to South America. Bob worked for a variety of international companies in Peru, and met and married his wife, Rae, a young New Zealander teaching at the British school in Lima. After a brief stint back in the UK, working in Ipswich at Royal Doulton, he moved with his family to Mexico City, where he was appointed General Manager of Ransoms, a British firm that manufactured lawn mowers and farming implements. He was proud to have been given the responsibility

Bob will be remembered for his loyalty to his friends, his sense of humour, his ability to listen and communicate with everybody, and also for his competitive croquet, which he played up until the last year of his life. He would arrive at croquet proudly sporting his OC socks and beanie during the winter, and an old OC tie made into a hatband for the summer! Needless to say he was buried wearing his OC tie!

He was predeceased by his wife of nearly fifty years, Rae, and is survived by his son Robert, daughter Jane, and his grandchildren.

The family would like to take the opportunity to thank College, its staff, students and alumni for the values they inspired and encouraged in their father’s life and consequently in their own lives – true sportsmanship, honesty, the value of working and playing hard and the courage to dare.

Major Anthony Valentine Noel Bridge MBIM (OJ & Ch, 1936) Anthony (Tony) Bridge died on the 24th May 2015, aged 97. He enjoyed his sport at College, playing for the Grasshoppers and Military XVs and captained the hockey 2nd XI in 1936. He was Drum Major and Under Officer in the CCF and on leaving College he went to Sandhurst from where he was commissioned into the Dorsetshire Regiment in 1938.

He was in the British Expeditionary force from 1939-40. Tony took part in the Burma Campaign as a Brigade Major (5th Infantry Brigade) and was Mentioned in Despatches. He retired from the army in 1949 and moved to South Africa where he worked for a year with a dam building company, followed by a year as an Assistant Master in a Prep School. Tony then joined the HM Colonial Service in Nyasaland (Malawi from 1964) in 1952 and he was District Commissioner from 1961-62. He then joined the Malawi Diplomatic Service in 1964 and served in the Ministry of Overseas Development from 1965-66.

Returning to England in 1966, he worked for Smiths Industries for four years before becoming Management Development Manager for G.D. Searle Ltd, High Wycombe. In 1976, he was appointed a Captain of Invalids at the Royal Hospital Chelsea (The hospital maintains a military-based culture that puts a premium on comradeship). The in-pensioners are formed into four companies, each headed by a Captain of Invalids (an ex-Army officer responsible for the day to day welfare, management and administration of the pensioners under his charge).

On retirement in 1983, he moved to Milford-on-Sea and was a regular attender of the OC Hampshire luncheon. Tony was predeceased by his wife Pamela and son Michael and is survived by his other son Christopher.

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Major John Davies Campbell CVO CBE MC & Bar (H, 1939) Major John Campbell, father of P.H. Campbell (H, 1978), son of Major W.H. Campbell (H, 1901) and grandson of J.D. Campbell (H, 1880), died on the 30th July 2015, aged 93.

On leaving College in 1939, John went to St Andrews University to read Chemistry but enlisted in the 7th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in 1940 after being selected for officer training from the ranks of the East Kent Regiment. In 1944, he joined the not inappropriately named No 1 Demolition Squadron in Italy after its charismatic commander, Vladimir Peniakoff, had won the outfit its eponymous nickname, Popski’s Private Army (PPA). Emanating from a Russian émigré family domiciled in Belgium, Peniakoff formed the PPA with two fellow officers of the Libyan Arab Force after winning a Military Cross while attached to the Long Range Desert Group. With its hills and winding roads, Italy offered less scope for outflanking enemy positions in jeeps than the Western Desert, but Peniakoff persisted.

PPA had become operational two years earlier in the Western Desert when it undertook raiding and reconnaissance missions behind enemy lines. It was equipped with heavily armed jeeps and was trained in parachuting, mountain warfare, demolition and intelligence gathering. Patrol members carried a tommy gun or a rifle, a semi-automatic pistol and a fighting knife.

Peniakoff had misgivings about recruiting John and set him a test of finding his way across 60 miles of rough, mountainous country carrying 40lbs of equipment and getting back in record time.

He passed the test and, having been made Adjutant, impressed “Popski” with his ability to scrounge kit, equipment and stores from niggardly Quartermasters!

In September 1944, as the Eighth Army pushed up the Adriatic Coast to try to liberate Ravenna before the winter set in, John took command of ‘S’ Patrol. By winter, British and Canadian forces, much reduced in strength by losses suffered on their push northwards, were overstretched. John’s small force drove up and down the pine forests on the Adriatic coast leaving tracks in the hope that enemy spotter planes would report that there was a much larger formation there than was the case.

One night in November – on his 23rd birthday – he had only driven a few yards from the farmhouse where they were based when the wheel of his jeep was blown off by a mine. After an hour spent putting on a spare, he travelled only another 100 yards before the vehicle struck another mine. John went back to the farmhouse on foot. The following day, when he returned to repair the damage, he saw his footprint just one inch away from a third anti-personnel mine! The patrol moved to another house but they were soon spotted. A German 88mm gun opened fire and one of the shells came in through an upper window, flew down the stairs, burst through a door and smashed into John’s jeep at the back of the building. After being blown up three times within 24 hours, and emerging unscathed, he acquired the nickname “Bulldozer”.

A few days later, an order was given to attack and capture an enemy outpost in a farmhouse near Ravenna, which was holding up the Allied advance. It was reported that there might be as many as ten Germans in the house, but the operation had to take place without weapons being fired in order to conceal from the enemy the fact that they had lost an important strong-point.

John’s patrol crept into an empty house behind the outpost during the night and waited for daybreak. Then, as soon as they saw smoke rising from the chimney, which meant that the Germans

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were preparing their breakfast, they rushed the farmhouse. Four terrified Germans were on the bottom floor. They cried out; “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!” before being captured. Bill O’Leary, John’s troop sergeant, led the onslaught up the stairs. He met a soldier with an automatic weapon in his hand, charged him and knocked it from his grasp. He then ran into a room in which there were four more Germans. Three were in bed, but the other reached for an automatic weapon. O’Leary overcame him and the remainder surrendered.

Early in December, John was ordered to capture a German unit based in a fortified tower and customs house at the mouth of the Fiume Uniti, south of Ravenna. During a six-mile night reconnaissance, wading across a marsh, he stepped into a swamp and sank until he was up to his neck in water. The following night, he and six men set out along the canal in two rubber boats. Shortly after midnight, they disembarked and hid until a German patrol had passed. At three o’clock in the morning, they set off again, treading in the footprints left by the patrol because the area was mined. They crawled the last 100 yards until they reached a cowshed, which was about 25 yards from the fort. They climbed in through a window but no sooner had they concealed themselves and were preparing their attack than all of them had a fit of coughing. John said afterwards that he was terrified that the Germans would hear them and that, for him was probably the most frightening moment that he had experienced during the whole war.

At dawn, a door in the fort opened and an Alsatian was let out.

When it started to take an interest in the cowshed, John threw out a tin of bully beef but its suspicions were not wholly allayed and it was a great relief when, 10 minutes later, its master whistled for it and it ran back inside. They watched for the smoke to appear from the chimney and then formed up outside the front door.

They broke down the door, rushed in with tommy guns and, without a shot being fired, captured eleven enemy soldiers with all their equipment, which included three machine guns. John then evacuated his prisoners without attracting the attention of the enemy, who were in another strongpoint nearby.

On the way back to his base, he ambushed two parties that were bringing up reinforcements, killing six and capturing four others.

After another of PPA’s patrols took over the fort, a succession of German soldiers, numbering about 50, arrived to find out what had happened to their comrades. They, too, were taken prisoner. John was awarded the first of his MCs. The citation stated that his feat of arms was one of the best examples of courage, leadership and self-control.

Although the war was almost won by the Allies in both North West Europe and in Italy, isolated German detachments held out determinedly offering no sign of surrender. On the 23rd April 1945, Peniakoff received information of a well-armed enemy force, estimated to be 40 strong, holding a position at Massa Fiscaglia, about 40 miles North East of Bologna, and ordered John to deal with it. Judging a frontal assault on foot to be suicidal, he attacked using two jeeps armed with machine guns, driving down the road with guns blazing to keep the enemy’s head down until he could get among them. Once there, he and his five comrades killed eight of the enemy, wounded eleven and forced the remainder to surrender. Six days later, on the 29th April, he used the same tactics to overwhelm the crew of an 88mm gun that was holding up the advance of the Eighth Army. He was awarded a bar to his MC in recognition of his gallantry and initiative during these two actions.

After demobilisation in September 1945, he set up a fishing business in his native Ireland. This foundered when its only boat sank and he moved to Kenya where his parents were living. He joined the Colonial Service in 1953, serving as a District Officer during the Mau Mau emergency. He was fluent in Kikuyu and

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Swahili and in 1956 he enlisted as a Territorial Officer in the Kenya Regiment and received a Mention in Despatches the following year. What he did is not recorded, but he was known never to carry a gun. John also took great interest in developing the sporting interests of the Kikuyu people, particularly in competitive running, at which their Olympic athletes now excel.

hospital took over the site in the mid 1970s), to its present position in Thirlestaine House. It was during the holidays, there was no heating on and the rooms were without the necessary shelves, cupboards, and probably pianos too, but she took on her new role with the cheerfulness and calm which was always so characteristic.

John was awarded a MBE in 1957 for his work as a District Officer in Kenya. In 1959, he married Shirley Bouch in Nairobi Cathedral.

Joining the Diplomatic Service in 1961, John was sent to the British delegation at the U.N. in New York. After two years, he was posted to the British Embassy in Belgrade and later to the Embassy in Bonn. In 1972, he was attached as the Diplomatic Adviser to the British Olympic team in the eventful Munich Games.

She is survived by two daughters, a son and five grandchildren.

Following promotion, John was posted to the British High Commission, Ottawa, before his final appointment as British Consul-General, Naples and Sicily. Being bilingual in Italian, John was in his element. A royal visit by HM the Queen, who appointed him C.V.O., was followed by a severe earthquake in Southern Italy.

With his usual enthusiasm, he threw himself into the organisation of the British Government’s earthquake relief operation and was subsequently made a Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.

On retirement, John was appointed a CBE and the family set up home in Herefordshire. He built up a business treating potentially dangerous surfaces on roads, airfields and the hard-standings in farmyards to prevent skidding, using a machine of his own design. Settled in Leominster, he enjoyed travel, listening to music and going to the theatre. He also became involved in the formation of the Association of Friends of Popski’s Private Army, serving as their President up to the time of his death. He wrote an appreciation for the 2002 edition of Peniakoff’s book, Popski’s Private Army, first published in 1950. He also was instrumental in raising funds for a national memorial to those who had lost their lives serving with the PPA - including Italian partisans - which is to be erected in the Allied Special Forces Memorial Grove in the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. His death leaves only two known survivors of PPA. Among his comrades, he was always known as the “most daring of us all”.

He is survived by his wife Shirley, son Piers (H, 1978), daughters Tara Catriona, Eugenie Louise and his grandchildren.

Mary Clifford (Former Staff, 1973 - 2008) Many OCs will have fond memories of their piano lessons with Mary who was a visiting music teacher at College for thirty-five years. She died after a short illness on the 28th June 2015. She was a firm supporter of the music department and attended concerts regularly even after she had left College. She combined a genuine interest in people with a lifelong passion to share her love of music with others, be it with adults, College teenagers, or her own grandchildren.

Mary spent her early life in Bedfordshire and she went to the Dame Alice Harpur School in Bedford and then on to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Teaching posts followed in Windermere, Chingford and Croydon, and she moved to Gloucestershire when her husband was sent to work for the government in Cheltenham in the 1960s. In Cheltenham, the Cliffords became firm members of Highbury Church and Mary’s expertise as a choir trainer and accompanist were keenly valued.

She enjoyed the musical opportunities in Cheltenham and joined the Bach Choir and regularly sent pupils in for the Festival of Performing Arts.

Her first acquaintance with the College Music Department was in the transition from the old building in College Road, Linton House (only the gate posts of that building remain since the

Guy Lincoln Cragoe (OJ & W, 1977) Guy Cragoe died on the 10th April 2015, aged 55, after suffering a massive brain haemorrhage. He led a tirelessly full existence and had only recently started a new chapter in his life with a move to France. He tried his hand at many things with enormous enthusiasm, including stints in the Blues and Royals, Estate Agency and more recently commercial photography. However, his greatest achievement came with the birth of his two children, Hugo and Poppy, who live with their mother in Hampshire.

Hugh Roland Crooke B.A. O.B.E. (NH, 1942) Hugh Crooke, son of Roland Crooke (BH, 1907) died on the 22nd November 2015, aged 91.

Christopher John Daintree (H, 1945) Christopher Daintree died on the 10th February 2015 in Paris, aged 87. Philip Harris (Ch, 1945) has written to say: “Christopher and I started in Form 4a in 1941 at the return from the evacuation to Shrewsbury, just as the big game trophies were being removed from Big Classical to transform it into, of all things, a library.

Elliot-Smith, the newly arrived Headmaster, brought about many fundamental and necessary changes into teaching and other areas, much to the horror of the remaining staff, most of the younger members having joined up. Even though Cheltenham was hardly affected by air raids, the war overwhelmed our lives.

Christopher and I joined the Army on VJ Day. He served with the Intelligence Corps until 1948 when he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, to read History. We were able to meet again and later when training as a Chartered Accountant. When qualified, he moved to Scandinavia with Price Waterhouse (PW) and soon fell in love with a beautiful Swedish girl, Agneta, who sadly predeceased him. I was his best man; the service was stiff and very formal.

Following a spell in Germany, he moved to Paris as a PW Partner for 20 years.

They retired to Burgundy, close to Gevrey Chambertin, a good address, and enjoyed a happy retirement there, with forays to Paris for theatre and opera and to his beloved Glyndebourne, his favourite.

He was a quiet, contented person, well suited to the intricate accounting of large companies, yet allowing time for his own enthusiasms. He asked little, but gave much.”

Andrew De Abreu (H, 1982) Andrew De Abreu died on the 10th December 2015, aged 52, in Melbourne. He was born in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, but his parents emigrated to South Africa when he was very young. Upon returning to the UK in 1972, he went to Oakley Hall Prep School prior to joining College and Hazelwell in 1977. Trevor Davies (his Housemaster) has written 4.

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in to say that: “Andrew showed great character throughout his time in College. In his final year he was an excellent House Prefect, played for the 2nd XV, captained the House XV and was Captain of Athletics”. The Headmaster, David Ashcroft, wrote in his final report: “Few boys can have earned as much admiration during their time at College as Andrew has done. He can read his Housemaster’s Report with total pride.”

In 1976, at the age of 13, Andrew was diagnosed with a renal disease and battled this throughout his school life. Some of Andrew’s schooling was disrupted by extended stays in Cheltenham General Hospital. In 1985, Andrew’s illness caused him to be hospitalised for eight months during his final year at University. He continued to attend lectures and study and graduated with a BSc in June 1986. Whilst in hospital Andrew was approached by the medical staff and asked to trial the use of anti-rejection drugs even though he still had some function in his kidneys. This trial was successful and Andrew had four and a half years in remission with very good health. After graduating, he worked for a number of UK corporates such as BTR and Unigate in Financial and Management roles.

In 1991, the renal problems returned and again Andrew tried different medications and treatments to try and stop his kidneys failing. Eventually, his kidneys were removed using a new surgical technique that has since developed into key hole surgery and went on to a regime of dialysis 4 times a day. Taking time out from his career, Andrew pursued his hobbies during the time he waited for a transplant. He watched games during the 1991 Rugby World Cup and worked on his golf handicap.

In 1992, Andrew was lucky to receive a kidney transplant at St Mary’s Hospital, London. He was again asked to be a guinea pig for the treatment of the cadaver kidney with antibodies prior to transplantation. The transplant gave Andrew a new lease of life and he continued to work until he died.

Andrew changed his career path in 1994 and moved in to the Telecoms industry. He joined Energis as a salesperson, formed a telco aggregation company called Telemark, was the Global Operations Director Worldcom and for BT. He focused on project and program management for large scale projects in the later part of his career. He also worked for a venture capital company, Interregnum, working on Internet start-ups during the dot com boom.

In 2007, Andrew and Gwyn, whom he married in 1987, moved to Melbourne both to work for Telstra. He also worked for a system integrator as a professional services manager, focusing on CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solutions. For the last few years, Andrew worked for Telstra leading a team of project managers. He took an active role in mentoring his graduate and junior staff.

In his leisure time, Andrew followed the Llanelli Scarlets and Wales rugby teams with lots of holidays spent watching them.

He followed the British and Irish Lions on tour in 2013 and also enjoyed watching England win the Ashes in Australia in 2010/11. He was a keen golfer and his other passions were cooking, wine tasting and being an online gamer. He has written 2 unpublished novels.

In 2015, Andrew was diagnosed with Leukaemia and underwent an intensive chemotherapy program. He passed away in Melbourne on December 10th from complications caused by the chemotherapy resulting in his bone marrow failing. He fought his illnesses till the end. His life was celebrated at the Welsh Church, Melbourne, on December 16th 2015 and he was cremated. His ashes will be returned to the UK later this year to be scattered in Wales as he was a very proud Welshman.

Andrew is survived by his wife, Gwyn.

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David John Ellison (College Staff, 1957-1963) David Ellison died on the 1st January 2015 in Christchurch, New Zealand, aged 81. He was educated at Aldenham School, after which he did his National Service and was commissioned as an officer in the Royal Artillery, serving in the Korean War. He then read Mathematics at Merton College, Oxford, and on graduating he joined College. Trevor Davies (College Staff 1962-88) has written in to say: “David Ellison was an enthusiastic, energetic and a bon viveur schoolmaster and as a result a very popular Driver in Leconfield when he was at College. He seemed to do everything at a 100 miles an hour, and when he left College it took three officers to replace him in the Corps. In those days there was a Corps/Outward Bound Trip to Skye in the Easter holidays.

It involved driving an army three tonner truck, full of tents and provisions, to a campsite at Glenbrittle, sited beneath the Coulin mountains. We were blessed with beautiful weather for the whole week, cold, frosty and bright sunlight. My main memory of David is him emerging from his tent one freezing morning, looking at the mountains, taking a deep breath, before saying ‘the air’s like wine’.

No doubt when he went to New Zealand, with the air, mountains and wine of that beautiful country, he enjoyed many such mystic moments. He was probably the only person to ski down the Toboggan run from the 18th hole at the Lilleybrook Golf Club during the winter of 1963, and certainly the only person ever to be warned by the police for playing his bagpipes on College Field, and thereby disturbing patients in Cheltenham Hospital.”

The 1964 Cheltonian reported that: “Mr. D. J. Ellison left College at the end of last term to take up an appointment at Wanganui Collegiate School, New Zealand. We are most grateful to him for all he has done for us, whether as a mathematician, musician, mountaineer, gunner, piper or winter sportsman. His gaiety and dash will be very much missed, and we send him all our good wishes for success in his new hemisphere.”

David’s sense of adventure led him to New Zealand where he continued to teach Mathematics but also became Head of Music.

He was an accomplished violinist and had a resounding baritone voice. A climbing trip in the South Island sparked his move to Christ’s College, Christchurch, in 1969.

The boys of Christ’s College benefited from the endless hours he devoted to them both in and outside the classroom. As well as teaching Maths, David was a live-in House Tutor, Master in Charge of Hockey, Rowing and the Cadet Corps, Acting Director of Music and Lay Reader and Preacher in Chapel. He took skating and skiing trips for boarders, ran the mountaineering society and ski club, was in charge of the press (printing) club and played violin in the College orchestra.

He was an eccentric and energetic Christ’s College Master with total commitment to the boys’ education and welfare. He was a humble man of boundless energy. Yet, he remained detached and visited the staffroom only occasionally and rarely fraternised with staff members. His eccentricity was expressed by wearing shorts every day of the year, insisting classroom windows remained open in all weathers, skiing across the quad to the dining hall after snowfall, playing the bagpipes from the roof of Richards House at 6am, bolting his meals and grabbing an apple as he rushed off to his next engagement, and roller-skating into the bank!

He lived frugally, wearing second-hand clothes, driving a banger and camping in a clapped-out Bedford van. After retiring in 1992, he moved to a small cottage at North Beach. He continued to conduct ski trips for College boys in his retirement, until his stroke, which left him a broken man, paralysed down one side and not able to communicate. After a slow recovery he learned to cope and exercised regularly to regain strength but ill health plagued the rest of his life.

The realisation that he was lucky to have survived sparked his

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desire to help the less fortunate. He began by donating to various charities. Then he established the David Ellison Charitable Trust, which accepts funding applications for projects within and outside New Zealand. He was passionate about the trust and ran it personally as long as he could. He worked on an old typewriter, staunchly avoiding computers.

18 runs. Instead of delivering a reprimand, Flos gathered the team and said: “Try and get a few of them out before they win.

Make sure they have to fight for every run.” And then he smiled.

Inspired, they bowled with passion, took every catch, prevented any boundaries and delivered the most unlikely of victories, as Dean Close collapsed - all out for 17.

David was patron of Christ Church Cathedral’s Choir Society and a Canon Almoner (fundraising adviser to the Dean). He funded a scholarship for a chorister to attend the Cathedral Grammar School.

Hugh’s career ended with a flourish, as he arranged the farewells for Headmaster Phil Davies (1964-86), another ex England rugby international, and then saw in the arrival of the new Head. At that time he described the 25 years at the Junior School as “the happiest years of our lives” but the 29 years that followed continued to be golden, as he focused all his usual energy and enthusiasm on Jo, the growing family, his house and garden, the local community, Coberley and later Leckhampton churches.

Holidays in the UK and overseas allowed further outlet for his spirit of adventure.

In recent years he failed to look after himself properly. After the 2011 Christchurch earthquake he was taken from his cottage to a retirement home. He returned to North Beach briefly but a series of heart attacks prompted his move to a home in 2012. David never married and had no relatives in New Zealand.

Robert Hugh Foster (Junior School Staff, 1961-1986) Hugh Foster died on 13th October 2015, two days after his 93rd birthday. Hugh (Flos) will be remembered with affection by many who were at CCJS during his 25 years there. He taught English, Latin and History to boys in their final prep school year and also French to younger pupils. Hugh was Second Master for his final two years. All three of his sons were Cheltonians - John (OJ & Th, 1967), Bill (OJ & Th, 1971) and Tim (OJ & Th, 1976).

Hugh had the happy gift to be able to see the best in everyone, pupils and colleagues alike. He was always fulsome in praise and encouragement, bringing out the best in all those he taught in the classroom, on the stage, in the scout troop and on the rugby field.

The unusual was always to be expected when Hugh was involved.

He conveyed his passion and enthusiasm to others in a way that allowed pupils to achieve beyond their own expectations.

Born in Bristol, Hugh attended Clifton College, where he developed his passions for rugby, hockey, cycling and singing.

Here he first affirmed his deep Christian faith, much inspired by the Reverend Peter Brook (School Chaplain, Rugby Coach and former England rugby international). Joining the Royal Navy in 1940, Hugh served on HMS Cotswold, on convoy duties in the North Sea, and then in shipping control in Northern Ireland, East Africa and Mauritius.

In 1946 he went to Merton College, Oxford, to read History where he met and married a nurse, Joyce (Jo) Gwyn. Their legendary whirlwind romance (eight weeks from meeting to the altar) led on to 67 years of wonderful partnership. Hugh and Jo took much joy in their ever growing family (4 children, 9 grandchildren, 7 great grandchildren and counting). His teaching career started at Queen’s College Taunton followed by 9 years at Durham School where he coached their 1st XV and was a Housemaster. Mike Weston, one of the stars of his all-conquering Durham School rugby XV of 1955-6, recalled that of all the coaches that he had in his career (which included England, the Barbarians and the British Lions), Hugh had been the most enthusiastic.

Hugh’s influence at Cheltenham College Junior can be illustrated by some recollections of former pupils. Bobby McEwen (OJ & H, 1971) recalled a dazzling run by David Rust (JS, 1960), resulting in an end-to-end try. Hugh asked both teams to guess what had pleased him most …. it was Bobby’s supporting run alongside David for a pass that never happened but might have been needed. Richard Dean (OJ & Th, 1972) remembered the Junior 2nd Cricket XI being bowled out by arch rivals Dean Close for

Hugh never lost his great gift of enjoying every day, making the most of any experience, and seeing the beauty in nature. He had a deep interest in other people and a gift of being able to make all feel special. He was an original and inspiring teacher to his pupils, a motivating Rugby Coach, and a source of strength and encouragement to teaching colleagues. Always the perfect gentleman, in the old style, charmingly gallant to all ladies, he was the life and soul of any social gathering, where he would greet everyone with his famous smile.

Hugh is survived by his wife Jo, daughter Kerry, sons John, Bill, Tim, his grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Stephen Edward Gould (NH, 1962) Stephen Gould died on the 11th February 2015, aged 70.

Bernard Russell Powrie Hopkins (OJ & L, 1958) Bernard Hopkins died on the 19th March 2015, aged 74. He came to College on an Open Exhibition. He enjoyed his rugby and hooked for the 2nd XV in 1957 and played in the XV in 1958. He was a good athlete and ran the mile in the College Athletics team – he won the event on Sports Day in 1958. He was a member of the 1st VIII cross-country team and was awarded his colours.

Bernard won a Dorothea Wightgift scholarship to Pembroke College, Oxford, to read French and German. He played rugby and rowed for his College. After graduating, he joined Tube Investments that in due course merged with British Aluminium and the rest of his career was within the aluminium industry.

He remained devoted to his rugby and was a regular supporter of Wales at the Millennium Stadium. In retirement he played a lot of golf and continued to travel widely as he had done throughout his life.

Bernard is survived by his sister Anne Chiene, niece Stephanie and nephew David.

Michael George Hyde (H, 1942) Michael (Mike) Hyde died in Canada on the 7th August 2013, aged 87. He was born in Calcutta and lived in Britain and Trinidad, before settling in Canada in 1958. As an engineer, he worked on projects in many

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countries before retiring to Vancouver Island in the 1980s.

passion and commitment

Mike is survived by his wife Mary, daughter Janet, son Phil and his grandchildren.

Dick was a very influential human being. His words could encourage but also keep those who shared his company grounded. He once turned to a member of staff at the Junior who had declared how stressed he was and he replied: “Stressed is when your life is threatened - not working at CCJS”. When he took over rugby at the JS, he inherited a system that needed an overhaul. Within a couple of years, the JS was taking on and beating Millfield and The Dragon on a regular basis. His time in charge is remembered by ex-pupils as their halcyon days on the rugby field. He would always allow a child to reinvent himself or herself and he would never write off anyone. His skill as a teacher, his experience and knowledge as a rugby player and his innate ability to motivate players made him the great coach he was.

John Fraser Lawrie (OJ, 1942 & H, 1946) John Lawrie, son of Harry Lawrie (East DB, 1917) and father of Michael Lawrie (H, 1974), died on the 24th October 2015, aged 86. On leaving College, he moved to Glasgow to start management training with J&P Coats (a leading industrial thread and consumer textile craft business) and worked for them for the next forty four years, the last eleven as Group Manufacturing Manager with responsibility for operations in Europe, South America, Southern Africa, USSR, China, Hungary and Slovakia. He retired in 1991.

John met his wife Martha, (who predeceased him in 2006), in Glasgow and his four children were born abroad. He can be defined in part by his sense of honour and by his understanding of right and wrong. He was a fiercely loyal man, loyal to his family and loyal to the values that he was raised to believe in.

The only time he seemed to forget these very honourable values was if somebody hurt or insulted his family, then he’d turn into a charging bull and woe betide the person who stood in his way!

He could also be defined by his kindness, generosity and his wonderful sense of humour. He did so love to have fun and his hearty laugh will always remain in his family’s hearts.

He was highly intelligent and extremely interested in the world around him. His family called him a walking encyclopedia! It was this innate curiosity which once led him to remark: “The worst thing about dying is that you don’t get to see how the world goes on!”

John remarried and moved to Sherborne in 2007 to be with his wife Christine. He worked for the local museum, was a guide at Stourhead House, worked on the town council and in 2010 became Deputy Mayor of Sherborne. He dearly loved Christine and also loved living in Sherborne and right up to the very end he claimed “what a lucky boy I am”.

John is survived by Christine, his daughters Rosalind, Deborah, Fiona and son Michael.

Richard Arthur Lewis (Junior School Staff, 1999-2012) Richard (Dick) Lewis died on the 25th October 2015, aged 63. He was born and grew up in Pyle, a Welsh mining town, the youngest of six children. His mother recognised his academic prowess when he was an infant and vowed never to allow him to go down the mines.

Instead, he became a Schoolmaster.

In the 1970s, Dick moved to Cheltenham and began his professional career in education when he secured his first teaching post at Pates Grammar School in the PE department and was a member of the team that coached the 1st XV. In the 1980s, he worked at Sandford Park and then Bownham School, both special schools. To say that Dick has been a massive influence on the lives of literally hundreds of children throughout his career is an understatement, but the impact he had on the lives of the children at these special schools gave him more than job satisfaction, as he saw it as his mission in life to help them. Dick moved to the Junior in 1990, which was a dream job for him. He was much respected by the staff, pupils and parents. He was described as a legend due to his incredible 7.

Dick was a member of the Old Patesians (Pats) Rugby Club where he was not only a dynamic 1st XV centre in the 1970s and 1980s, but also someone who devoted his life to helping, coaching and mentoring junior rugby players. He could also be considered among the elite group of Old Pats ‘Legends’ based on his passion and commitment to the Club. He first played for the club in 1975 and played his last game in an Old Pats jersey last year, aged 62, albeit a fun game versus Civil Service with nine members of his family involved. He took on many roles at the Pats, most prominently as the very first Junior Rugby Chairman, and became one of the biggest influences on the creation of the fantastic set up they have at the club today.

It was at the Old Pats club that he met his wife, Ann, and they celebrated 36 years of a very happy marriage this year. To his family, he was just the most caring, genuine and selfless person you could ever meet, whose ambition was quite simply to make them happy. His spirit will live on in the five grandchildren he adored and worshipped, none more so than Marcus who he proudly saw play for the Old Pats1st XV, aged 17, last season.

His last three years were not easy for him, but he made the most of them, and never lost his sense of humour. He and a group of fellow cancer suffers were in a group who called themselves “A Sense of Tumour”. Ann cared for him and loved him unconditionally during his illness. He died surrounded by all his family with the Rugby World Cup semi-final playing in the background. He is survived by Ann, son Chris, daughter Annette and his five grandchildren.

Dr Peter Howard Mackie FRCP (H, 1965) Peter Mackie, brother of Philip Mackie (H, 1968), died on the 2nd September 2015, aged 67. He came to College from The Wells House in 1961, having been awarded a music scholarship. After leaving College, Peter went up to Hertford College, Oxford, where he was awarded a medical degree (MA, BM BCh) and devoted much of his spare time to church bell ringing, at which he became highly proficient. His medical career took him to Harefield Hospital, Cheltenham General Hospital, Bristol Royal Infirmary, Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and John Radcliffe Hospital Oxford after which he was appointed Consultant Haematologist in the East Berkshire district in 1982. He was elected FRCPath in 1993 and FRCP in 1995. He retired from clinical practice in 2012.

Peter had a successful career as a Consultant Haematologist, and was well-liked and respected by all his colleagues. He also participated on many committees and in positions of governance.

These included Chairman of the Division of Medicine, East Berkshire District; Regional Representative for the British Society for Haematology; Medical Director, Heatherwood and Wexham

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Park Hospitals Trust, followed by Clinical Director of Cancer Services at the same trust; and examiner for the Royal College of Physicians.

Peter married Joanna McGhee in 1973 and together they had four daughters. He loved to play the piano at every possible opportunity, either solo or with his friends and colleagues in chamber ensembles or other musical productions. He was also in demand as an organist. As bell ringing was another passion, he rang a total of 194 peals and quarter peals in his life. He was elected as a member of the prestigious Ancient Society of College Youths in 1970, and rang regularly at local churches as well as in London. Peter was Tower Captain of St Giles’ Church, Stoke Poges, from 2007 onwards and was instrumental in teaching new ringers who subsequently became members of the church ringing band. He was an active member of the Windsor Medical Society, and was President from 2009-10.

Peter was an extremely talented man in many spheres of life, but he will probably be most remembered for his calm, gentle and patient approach to things, and his kindness and willingness to always help others. He is survived by his wife and four daughters..

Sir Nevil John Wilfred Macready Bt CBE MA (L, 1940) Nevil Macready, son of Lt. Gen. Sir Gordon Macready KBE CB CMG DSO MC (L, 1909) and grandson of Gen. Sir Nevil Macready (DB & L, 1880), died on the 27th September 2014, aged 93. His mother, Elisabeth de Noailles, was the daughter of the 8th Duc de Noailles and played tennis, regularly partnered by Groucho Marx. She played at Wimbledon and represented France in the 1920 Olympic Games. Nevil spent many of his school holidays at Maintenon, the imposing French residence from which he could fish in the moat from his bedroom window. He was bi-lingual and largely due to his grandparents employing one of the best chefs in France, he absorbed from his family roots a highly cultured appreciation of food and drink at the highest standards.

Nevil played the part of Orsino in Twelfth Night. The Cheltonian reported that: “It would be difficult to praise too highly the performances of Macready, Clarke and Anderson. Let it suffice to say that the scenes between the two former as Orsino and Viola were almost sublime in the pureness and freshness of their declamation and expression.” Perhaps this was no surprise as Willam Charles Macready, the great Victorian Actor Manager, celebrated so brilliantly by Frank Barrie in his long-running one man show “Macready”, which toured 17 countries, was his Great Grandfather!

On leaving College, he went up to St John’s College, Oxford, but in 1942 he went straight from being a student to being a soldier and served in the Royal Artillery until 1947, as an intelligence officer. He rose to the rank of Captain and was Mentioned in Despatches. His time in the army took him to twelve different countries, including the campaigns in North Africa and Italy. His final military posting was as British Army liaison officer in Paris.

On coming out of the army in 1947, he worked for the BBC European Service until 1950. When the Olympic Games returned to London in 2012, he recalled reporting the 1948 Olympics in nightly broadcasts in French. In 1950, he left the media to work for Powell Duffryn Ltd, before joining Mobil in 1952, then known as Standard Vacuum Oil, just as the company was expanding and opening its first refinery in the UK. He rose rapidly within the company and by the end of the 1950s he was already a main Board Director and was Managing Director from 1975 until he

retired in 1985. Alan Britten (Mobil MD 1987-89) gave the address at Nevil’s funeral.

Nevil became deeply involved with the Royal Warrant Holders Association. Mobil had held its warrant, for the supply of fuels and lubricants to Sandringham, since 1927. He was a devoted monarchist, joined their Council, and in due course became the National President 1979-80. Having secured Commander Hugh Faulkner as Secretary, Nevil then, after discussion with Sir Julian Loyd the Sandringham Land Agent, initiated the creation of the Sandringham Association of Royal Warrant Holders, to balance the existing local Associations around Balmoral, Holyrood and Windsor. This was an immediate and long-lasting success for which Nevil will always be remembered. Even more radical, Nevil and Hugh Faulkner proposed that ladies should be invited to the President’s Annual Reception. Shock horror! Too late, it seems for Nevil to have been able to include his wife Emma, but so pleased were members of the Royal Household with the idea that it caught on very quickly after Nevil’s term of office and of course, it remains the normal and unquestioned practice today.

Nevil had an enormous range of interests and activities in which he distinguished himself. Exquisitely well-mannered, highly intelligent, and a slightly waspish comment, put across with perfect good humour and charm, characterised him. No wonder he was welcomed on to so many Boards and Councils and managed, despite (because of the war) his relative lack of formal higher education, to use his huge reserves of common sense and basic wisdom to lead so many groups of individuals in so many areas of life. He was Chairman of the Crafts Council, a Trustee of the V&A, President of the Institute of Petroleum and Chairman of the Mental Health Foundation. Not surprisingly, he was awarded a CBE in 1983.

Horses were an enduring source of delight for Nevil. Ann Plummer, a family friend and local horse breeder, said she never bred a horse that Nevil didn’t have a bit of! He and his wife Emma travelled tirelessly around the country to sometimes quite minor race tracks, often to witness the success or failure of their own fetlocks. His horse Rada’s Daughter (out of Drama School), made quite a bit of money, coming second in at least one Group race, before becoming a brood mare where according to the straighttalking Ann Plummer, she produced nothing that was any good!

Another, Merlin’s Ring was much more successful, and raced frequently in Group races. So successful was Merlin’s Ring in England that he was taken to France to compete at Longchamp in the French Guineas. This was a very high society event. Nevil, who was a member of the French Jockey Club, wore, as is de rigeur, a grey bowler hat. In fact the only damper on the day was when Emma found that women, when seated, had to be segregated from the men. This, one can imagine, did not play well. For all her sweetness, Emma could be remarkably forthright.

Nevil also chaired the Horseracing Advisory Council (HAC) and was a member of the Levy Board between 1986 and 1993, until the British Horseracing Board (BHB) was formed, when the HAC was disbanded and racing’s administration restructured. Nevil was the first Vice-Chairman of the BHB. It was his leadership of the HAC that made it quite possible for the Jockey Club to give up power to the industry via the BHB. He was involved in racing as an owner in syndicates, while at the same time serving as Vice-President to GamCare for 13 years. They were sorry when he judged it necessary to stand down at the end of 2011, at what he deemed should be the mandatory trustee retirement age of 91.

For all his business acumen, his heart was in music and theatre, especially opera, and he was an ardent Glyndebourne supporter.

Nevil was predeceased by his wife Emma, and is survived by his daughters Caroline, Sarah, Anna, son Charles, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

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Brigadier David Jonathan Richard Martin CBE (Past Parent & Member of Council, 2012-15) David Martin, father of Will (NH, 2014), died on the 2nd March 2015. His early ambition was to join the RAF as a pilot but while at Lancaster University he joined Liverpool UOTC and so began his army career. He attended the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst and was commissioned into the Royal Corps of Transport (RCT) in 1979. His first posting was to Minden in Germany during which he undertook a tour in Belfast at the time of ‘The Troubles’. He became a Captain in late 1981 and served in Belize before becoming the Adjutant of 155 Transport Regiment (Volunteers) based in Taunton, where he met his future wife Diane, a serving TA officer.

David then served in Gloucestershire with 29 Regt. in South Cerney, and in Northern Ireland again, before being promoted to be an Acting Major and commanding a squadron of RCT junior leaders. He was a substantive Major by the time he left the Staff College in December 1990 and he then worked for two years with the Head of the Royal Marines in Whitehall. As a result of his work during that tour, he was awarded the MBE. David was actually one of the most decorated officers in the Royal Logistic Corps as by the end of his career he had added a Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Service (QCVS) and a CBE to his campaign medals.

The QCVS was awarded for an operational tour to the Balkans whilst commanding 60 Squadron, part of 4 Regiment in Abingdon in the newly formed Royal Logistic Corps (RLC). David played a significant part in coordinating a number of agencies to enable humanitarian aid workers to reach the besieged hospital on the east side of the city of Mostar and evacuate the wounded civilians and children.

The next stop for David in 1994 was Army Land Forces HQ and it was during this posting that Will was born. By 1996, David was a Lieutenant Colonel on the Directing Staff of the Royal Military College of Science at Shrivenham. He served there until 1999, when he was selected to command 27 Regiment RLC, taking over command in Kosovo on operations. In 2001, David deployed to Bosnia and at the beginning of 2002 went back to Kosovo as a full Colonel as the Deputy Commander British Forces.

In late 2002, he moved to a Colonel’s appointment in the Defence Logistic Organisation (DLO), and as part of the lead up to the invasion of Iraq, the DLO Operations Centre was established with David in charge. As one of those who worked for David at this incredibly demanding time has said; “His drive and leadership were an inspiration to all of us…despite the pressure he was always prepared to listen…but he was always able to spot the areas we had missed, to add to the outcome and look ahead to what might happen next.” That Ops. Centre has continually, from 2003 right up to the present day, coordinated support to Iraq and Afghanistan (sometimes both at the same time) in accordance with the priorities dictated by the deployed Force. It was David who set it up and made it work and it was for his superb performance there in 2003 that he was awarded his CBE. Away from the DLOC, David reverted to a supply chain policy post in 2003/4 and he was to spend the remainder of his career in logistic posts at Andover, Bath and Abbey Wood during the time of the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns. He was promoted from Colonel to Brigadier in the mid-naughties, firstly responsible for the procurement of and support provided by, some of the most emotive of military items: clothing, food, fuel, medical supplies and general stores and then as the Head of the MoD’s support chain policy directorate.

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Reference to food is relevant to the emergence of the charity uk4uThanks!. The first new Christmas boxes were dispatched in 2004 to all military personnel away on operations, reviving an idea from the First World War. David then took that idea to a different level and made it such a success story, formalising it as a charity which in the most demanding years after 2005 until 2009 was sometimes distributing up to 25,000 Christmas boxes to members of the Armed Forces.

Professional, competent, diligent, committed, thoughtful, generous, gentlemanly, honest, principled, infectious drive, determined, patient, trustworthy: they sound like a veritable wish list of the qualities we admire in others and might wish we had, or at best a couple of them for some of the time to be realistic, but ALL of these qualities were found in David Martin.

On retiring from the Army in 2012, David forged a successful second career as a defence consultant in the logistic sphere.

Alongside this he continued as Chairman of uk4uThanks!, became a visiting fellow at Cranfield University and a member of the Governing Council of Cheltenham College.

Although David was a relative newcomer to College Council, he made a real impact in the way he used his intellect, experience and eloquence to challenge his Council colleagues at his first meeting. In his inimitable style and with great charm he questioned College’s strategy on risk management, following up the discussion with an email the following day. He was of immense value to College and its governance but also someone who would make sure the Is were dotted and the Ts crossed, an essential characteristic of good governance. Such was his experience and attention to detail, he was an ideal person to join Council’s Audit Committee.

The Governor’s role can become blurred, especially in a school setting, when as a parent, one quite naturally has one’s child’s interest at heart. David understood those dangers and the importance of not allowing self-interest to get in the way of what is best for College in the short, medium or long term. Equally crucial is to balance support of the Executive, in College’s case the Headmasters and Bursar, with properly holding them to account for offering the very best education to every child in their care. Again, David got this and balanced both of those requirements with charm, genuine concern and doggedness.

As well as holding College in deep affection, he took his role as a Governor extremely seriously, was assiduous in his preparation for any meeting he attended, was always delightfully courteous and never afraid to challenge when he felt it right to do so. College are profoundly grateful for all his work on Council.

A committed family man, he will be remembered by many for his enormous pride and beaming smile as he listened to Will make the Head Boy’s Speech at Speech Day 2014. David was a proud man. He had much to be proud of. A loving husband and father, a person forging new paths in the commercial, educational and charitable spheres since leaving the Army and our memories of him as a person will live on. He is survived by his wife Diane and son Will.

David Timothy Hedley Mayhew (Ch, 1947) Tim Mayhew, brother of twins John (Ch, 1948) and William (Ch, 1948), died on the 15th November 2013, aged 84.

Reverend Ronald Norman McMullen (Ch, 1954) Ronald McMullen died on the 4th September 2015, aged 79.

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Robert James Henry McMullan (L, 1939) Robert (Bob) McMullan died on 31st December 2014 after a brief illness, aged 91. Born in China to a family of missionaries, turned traders, Bob attended College from 1937 to September 1939, when the outbreak of war prompted his return to China. He studied at Trinity College at the University of Toronto for two years before signing up with the Canadian Army in 1943.

Thanks to his knowledge of Mandarin, Bob was invited to join the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and duly completed the training in Britain. He flew to Kunming at the end of 1944 and worked with Force 136 (SOE), commanding Jedburghs, groups of Chinese trained to sabotage the Japanese war effort. He was also involved in ‘Operation Waldorf’, the rescue mission for post-Vichy French citizens in southern Yunnan. Bob ended the war as ADC to Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart, Churchill’s personal representative to China.

After a career in commerce and insurance, Bob devoted his energies to the Abbeyfield Houses Society, first in Britain and then in Canada, where he oversaw the development of almost 30 group homes for the elderly. He served as Executive Director until 2009 and continued to play an active role at both national and local levels. He was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.

Bob is survived by his daughter Alex and sons James and John (L, 1976).

Major Robert Alastair Nisbet MBIM (Xt, 1947) Robert (Robin) Nisbet, son of Alexander Nisbet (Xt, 1921) died on the 16th January 2015, aged 85. He was a College Prefect and played at fly-half in the 1947 XV. The Cheltonian rugby report on the Clifton game stated: “In the last five minutes College attacked strongly and Baynham cut through nicely to score in a good position for Nisbet to convert”. On leaving College, Robin went to Sandhurst from where he was commissioned in 1949 into the Royal Artillery, in which he served until 1977. He saw active service on the front line in Korea where he was the forward observation officer to his battalion when an enemy shell came close to ending his life. He was also in the front line in Cyprus, as well as serving time in both Malaya and Germany. On leaving the army, he worked for a year as a salesman for Johnson Matthey Metals before joining the Project Management team at Hunting Engineering for six years. He then became Bursar of Hertfordshire College of Agriculture for ten years, until retiring in 1994.

For Robin, the pace did not slow in retirement. It simply opened a whole new range of opportunities for his talent and energy.

But it was energy combined with a powerful sense of purpose.

Robin was a dedicated and ardent Christian with a strong sense of social justice. Retirement provided the space in which Robin could dedicate his time and efforts to putting right injustices and inequalities that he encountered.

Robin worked for Christian unity for many years, primarily through Churches Together in Harpenden. He made a lasting impression on the other participants through his willingness and ability to openly express his own grief. Robin was widely seen as a man to turn to in times of difficulty. He worked consistently to strengthen his Christian faith and to support others in Christian fellowship.

Through a group called Koinonia he helped others to affirm their Christian faith. His Christianity was no armchair variety. It was action centred, forward thinking and focused on doing the right thing for those in need. Robin was big in many ways. He had a big heart, a big appetite for doing good, and a big and

generous spirit. He took his inspiration and spiritual renewal from many sources but none more so than the Iona Community in Scotland to where he made several pilgrimages. Robin sought healing, solace, inspiration, renewal and re-invigoration from the community whose principles he sought to emulate in his daily life.

He encouraged all who needed healing to accompany him there.

Robin got involved in a small organisation called Harpenden Spotlight on Africa (HSoA) when it was at a crossroads. It had been supporting a small church in Uganda, but appeared to have lost its way. He was quick to see the bigger picture. Out there, thousands of people were starving, suffering from all manner of diseases and unable to help themselves because they often lacked the life skills for self-improvement. He argued passionately to establish priorities and to focus on education.

He worked tirelessly to convince others; regularly taking up the mantle himself when he perceived others had failed to respond quickly enough. At a time when most others are ready to hang up their boots, settle into an armchair and wield a television remote controller, Robin, at the age of 78, travelled to Uganda by himself and at his own cost. He detailed his visit in a 43 page report to provide a working document for the organisation. He engaged with others in every walk of life to search for sponsors, donors, volunteers, friends and supporters for this cause. He regularly attended meetings of BNI (Business Network International) at 7.30 in the morning simply to find contacts to assist the cause. HSoA now educates over 1000 schoolchildren, has 250 trained health workers, opened 17 boreholes for fresh water and accomplished much more by way of stimulating local economic activity.

Robin engaged in a variety of practical preoccupations. He was an excellent wood worker, having equipped his garage as a woodworking workshop. He wrote poetry and he grew soft fruit.

Robin played bridge regularly and enjoyed the company of fellow participants as much as the game itself. He researched and documented the genealogy of the Nisbet family, tracing ancestors back over 200 years.

He was dedicated to his family and loved them intensely.

Whatever problem there might have been, he was always there ready to stand by his children and his wife, Margaret. He was very, very organised and sometimes this military precision caused some friction. Like any father and husband, he was at times frustrating, demanding, unreasonable, and undemonstrative. But he was always loved and was, himself, always loving. He was the head of a close knit and loving family who will miss him dearly.

Robin was predeceased by his son Duncan and is survived by his wife Margaret and daughters Helen, Fiona and his grandchildren.

Peter Noel Perkins DSc FRAIA RIBA FRSA FIAI AADipl (Ch & L, 1945) Peter Perkins, son of Noel Perkins (L, 1905), died in February 2014, aged 85.

Major (retd) Ioan Gruffydd Llywelyn Phillips (Ch, 1942) Ioan Phillips, brother of Merfyn (Ch, 1952) and the late Hywel (Ch, 1947), father of the late Ioan Robin (Ch, 1969), Huw (Ch, 1971), Ifor (Ch, 1975) and Alun (Ch, 1983) died on the 29th December 2013, aged 89. Ioan was born in Burma where his father was an officer in the Indian Army.

Ioan enjoyed his sport at College. He played in the 1st XV in 1941. The 1942 Cheltonian rugby report described him as: “A very sound defensive centre, but in attack

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handicapped by lack of speed. Played unselfishly to his wing and saved many a desperate situation by tackling hard and low.” He was a keen boxer and was runner up in the 1941 House boxing competition in the middle weight division, winning the event in the 1942 competition. He was also a keen Rugby Fives player. He played in the 1942 team captained by the late Gordon WallaceHadrill (CH, 1942). The 1942 Cheltonian report on the match against Malvern said: “I.G. Ll. Phillips played a vastly improved game as the second pair and deservedly beat both Malvern pairs after long and gruelling games.”

Cyprus. It was here that the greatest example of his ‘wilderness cultivation’ took place. The rather barren land adjacent to their house became a hugely colourful extension to the garden. As well as gardening in Cyprus, taking advantage of the Mediterranean climate, Ioan also took up windsurfing, enjoyed swimming and played tennis. He was a great lover of marmalade and jam, which Lavinia, his wife, frequently made from all sorts of fruit. Afternoon tea with homemade cake was also not to be missed. He once confided that the real purpose of bread was to convey butter and jam from plate to mouth.

He enjoyed long distance cycling and on one occasion at the end of term, he and his close friend, Gordon Wallace-Hadrill, cycled from Cheltenham to St Dogmaels, where he lived, a distance of 147 miles. Although Sturmey Archer gears were invented in 1936 their bikes were not equipped with such luxuries, so it must have been quite a challenge! On another occasion, when the two of them were drinking in the Air Balloon, at the top of Crickley Hill, they had to make a rapid escape across the bar and out through the back door as a College Master had entered through the front door! Gordon was to return to College to teach History and ended up being the Housemaster to the eldest three of Ioan’s four sons.

Life was not all a bed of roses. In 1974 great sadness overwhelmed the family when his eldest son, Ioan Robin, sadly died on New Year’s Eve. Ioan’s funeral service at Letcombe Regis, in Oxfordshire, was thirty nine years to the day after Ioan Robin was buried in St Thomas’ Churchyard in St Dogmaels. The following day Ioan travelled to St Dogmaels to be buried near his mother and eldest son. Ioan’s politeness and respect for others shone through to the last; he was a gentleman to the end. With a twinkle in his eye and his impish sense of humour he will be greatly missed by all his family.

On leaving College in 1942, he entered the Army as an Officer Cadet, aged 18. Ioan was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers. He sailed from Scotland, via Cape Town and Durban, to Bombay to take up his posting with 506 Field Company Royal Engineers based at Ahmadnagar, to the east of Bombay. When the Japanese invaded Assam, the Division moved to Dimapur and to Kohima, where he fought in the bloody battle that was to become the turning point of the war in Burma. The Battle of Kohima ended on the 22nd June 1944, Ioan’s twentieth birthday.

Ioan is survived by his wife of over 66 years, Lavinia, their sons Huw, Ifor and Alun and six grandchildren.

Ioan was a keen photographer, and among his photographs are some he took during an aerial reconnaissance of the proposed crossing point of the Irrawaddy River. The crossing itself, Ioan described as ‘tough and exciting’. During a lull in the fighting Ioan had the opportunity to return to Maymyo and Mandalay, where he had lived as a young boy. After the war, he served overseas in occupied Japan, from where he brought back souvenirs from Hiroshima.

Peter John Reynolds (L, 1950) Pete (Goofy) Reynolds, was born in Uganda in 1932, the eldest son of Dr J.D. Reynolds, and died on the 11th April 2014, at Tully in Northern Queensland, Australia, aged 82.

He came to College at the end of the war, one of many Cheltonians who came from Pembroke House in Kenya (whose founder, Harold Turner (DB, 1907), established the school in 1927 after a stint in the Colonial Administration). In those post-war years before flying was affordable, Pete could not return home for school holidays, so in the Imperial tradition when Britons abroad sent the children ‘Home’ for schooling, he was lodged with his brother Simon (L, 1952) as a paying guest on a farm in Cornwall. This set his wish to be a farmer.

Ioan was a very organised and methodical person. His early black and white photographs were generally not catalogued, but when he moved to colour transparencies every slide was numbered and indexed. At every petrol station visit the car’s mileage and volume of fuel were recorded in a little book kept in the glove box.

And every financial transaction was similarly recorded. He was an avid reader of Which? Magazine having subscribed to it from its launch. It was a trusted contributor to his extremely thorough research before purchasing any technological product.

At College, he was a member of the cricket XI, where he was a useful batsman but secured a place in the team through mediumfast bowling, for which his tall, gangling frame suited. One of his enduring regrets was not playing at Lords’ against Haileybury.

Faced with having to choose between delaying his flight home and appearing in the match, in later years he felt he had made the wrong choice. Academically he was sound but not a ‘swot’, declined to become a prefect, was fond of Eric and Madge Lamplugh, and enjoyed his time at Cheltenham.

Ioan had a keen interest in photography and in the early days he developed and printed his own photos. He also enjoyed carpentry and a bookcase and coffee table of his are still in daily use at his home. He also encouraged his sons to take up carpentry – one Christmas a joint present of a set of tools, chisels, plane, saw, etc. was given, each tool clearly marked with a hand-painted red ‘B’, for ‘Boys’, to differentiate them from his own!

Uganda had no openings for inexperienced, trainee white farmers, but Kenya did so he signed up for a two year diploma in that country’s Egerton Agricultural College. Part of the course demanded that he get experience working on a farm. After a false start with a land owner who told Pete’s father that he thought his son mentally daft, he was employed by an iconoclast called Ray Mayers. A condition of employment was that Pete joined the Kenya Regiment (T.F.) in which Ray was an officer (and had WWII experience). At the time neither anticipated the Mau Mau rebellion, but when it broke out in October 1952, this territorial force was called up for full time service. The Regiment was ill-equipped and initially its members used their own vehicles for which they were paid mileage. By then firm friends, Captain Mayers and Private Reynolds arrived for duty in the farm lorry.

An enduring passion of Ioan’s was gardening, growing both decorative and edible plants. He not only tended his own garden, he often annexed surrounding common land for cultivation.

During one of the hosepipe bans in the late 1970s, in order to keep the vegetable patch alive, he set up an irrigation system to intercept the used bath water - recycling before it became fashionable. The family enjoyed a bumper crop of courgettes!

After retiring from the Army in 1979, Ioan became a Civil Servant with the Army in a retired officers’ post in Dhekelia Garrison, 11.

Shortly thereafter a unit called Ray Force was formed under Mayers who demanded Private Reynolds should be his driver.

The Force comprised 100 youths under Ray, who while still

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soldiers, to fulfil some legal technicality, were also gazetted as Assistant Inspectors of Police. Split into pairs and with ten African constables per pair, they were sent to set up police posts across the Mau Mau dominated districts. This was a temporary measure, and there were ‘hairy’ times. As Ray’s driver, an important aspect of Reynold’s duties was to ensure that the three inch mortar bomb box case attached to the front bumper held cold beer at all times.

In due course ‘Ray Force’ disbanded, Ray went back to farming and Pete served most of his two year military stint on secondment to the King’s African Rifles. His lugubrious demeanour concealed a keen sense of humour and earned him the sobriquet of “Laughing Boy”.

Released from the Regiment he completed his Egerton diploma, set up farming on his own, (soon in partnership with his brother), and married Maureen Lees from Belfast. Times were a’changing, Kenya became independent and the Reynolds’ farm on the eastern wall of the Rift Valley was compulsorily bought for African resettlement. He then bought another farm west of the Rift Valley, farmed and ran a successful contract harvesting business in both Kenya and Tanzania – again with his brother – and prospered. To keep control of this widespread operation they both became pilots with their own aircraft. However, the land resettlement programme caught up with him again and in 1976 he emigrated with wife, two daughters and three sons to start anew inland from Hastings in New Zealand.

Peter farmed sheep, cattle and developed a contracting company introducing ‘haylage’ to that area of North Island. Yet, for all that he was successful and the family had taken root in New Zealand, he never really got over having to leave Kenya. Retiring from farming in the mid-1990s, he and Maureen settled at Tully, Far North Queensland, to be near their eldest daughter and her family. He died of heart failure while driving to the supermarket, fortunately while stopped at a red traffic light. Maureen predeceased Peter in 2010, and they are survived by five children, twelve grandchildren and four great grandchildren. Though not religious, they apparently took heed of the admonition in Genesis to go forth and multiply!

Ian Parker (L, 1953)

Gerald Robinson (Xt, 1955) Gerald Robinson died on the 7th July 2014, aged 75. He greatly enjoyed his time at College and spoke of it with real fondness.

He qualified as a Chartered Accountant and in 1986 became President of the South Wales Chartered Accountants’ Society, a post that he held with honour and pride.

Gerald married his wife Enid in 1963 and they celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary in 2013. Their relationship was unique and the loyalty they showed to each other was very special.

A lover of sport, steam trains and stamp collecting, Gerald was also an avid reader, owning a large library and always keen to pass on his knowledge to others. He was a keen and active member of the Old Cheltonian Lodge, joining in 1992 and holding a number of posts, becoming the Master in 1999.

Gerald never judged people and always treated them with respect and understanding. He will be sadly missed by all who knew him. He is survived by his wife Enid, their daughter Lara and his grandchildren.

Sqn Ldr Imre Leonard Schwaiger (L, 1948) Imre Schwaiger died on the 1st October 2013, aged 83.

Frederick Norman Shelley (Ch, 1943) Frederick Shelley, son of Spencer Shelley (Ch, 1890) and brother of the late Spencer (Jock) (Ch, 1937), twin brother of the late Charles (Ch, 1943), died on the 13th March 2015, aged 89. He and his twin brother were known as Shelley I and Shelley II! When they were six, they overheard their parents talking. Their father said: “They’re both left handed. We must make them write with their right hand.”

Their mother objected, saying: “But that will make them stutter.” Their parents tried to make them right handed so the twins stuttered for two days and their parents gave up!

He was a keen sportsman and was a member of the Cheltondale Gymnastic team that won the House Competition and was a member of the House XV who reached the final of House Rugby Pots in 1943, losing to Newick House. The 1943 cricket XI, which included Frederick and his friend Norman Skitt (Ch, 1944), who was later to become his brother-in-law, cycled to London to play Haileybury.

At 16, he passed his School Certificate and was accepted as an engineering cadet at Swansea Technical College. Here he found it hard to keep up with the study needed, because, aged 17, he was recruited as a night member of the Home Guard, and assigned to an anti aircraft gun. He said: “I never hit one or brought one down, but sometimes I thought I might have frightened quite a few!” He joined the navy in 1944, and towards the end of the War he was sent to the North of Scotland where he serviced Naval aeroplanes.

During this time he discovered a practical fascination in learning about engines and how they worked. His career as an Engineer was on its way.

After the War, he joined Fielding and Platt as an apprentice fitter and turner. Studying at night school, he gained his Diploma of Engineering and was promoted to the Drawing Office as an Engineer. In 1958, he married Ruth Skitt, sister of his old College friend, Norman Skitt (Ch, 1944).

Frederick decided to move to Australia in 1968 – his mother was Australian. After four months, he wrote back to Ruth that he was impressed by the country and suggested she sell up, pack and follow him! Without hesitation, Ruth did so and impressed Frederick by bringing all their four children through the various foreign airports to Australia, without mishap. The family settled in Melbourne where Frederick obtained a job in the steel industry.

He was in charge of making large steel pipes, which were used for such things as gas pipelines, pressure vessels and piles under tall city buildings. In 1983, he was appointed to be the State Manager of Western Australia for his company, Steel Mains, and the family moved to Fremantle. He retired from the company in 1986.

In retirement, he continued his philosophy of service for fun.

He joined Men Of The Trees, an international, non-profit, nonpolitical, conservation organisation. It is involved in the planting, maintenance and protection of trees. He loved what they did, and his leadership and engineering skills were so useful they asked him to be Honorary General Manager. He led many planting expeditions into the wheat belt. He was also a guide on the Endeavour when it was being built in Fremantle and he was also a guide at the Roundhouse, the oldest public building in the State of Western Australia. He enjoyed doing that very much as it combined his love of History with his love of craftsmanship.

In his younger days he built up a collection of cars – a vintage DeLage, an old Alvis, lots of MGs, and an Austin Healey – all of

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which he proudly displayed at rallies, with their leather polished, their chrome gleaming and their engines purring. He loved sailing and in Melbourne he built a Minnow (No 86) and then a Sabre (No 360), which all the family learned to sail in. He sailed whenever he could. When he was younger he raced in the Solent, the Bay of Biscay and off Milford Haven. He was a member of the South of Perth Yacht Club, where he kept his yacht, and more recently also a member at Fremantle. He sailed well into his seventies, sailing as a foredeck hand out of Freshwater Bay every Saturday.

He had a great love of Poetry, especially ballads, such as that of Rudyard Kipling, Alfred Noyes and Adam Lindsay Gordon.

One of his great personal strengths was he was always more interested in listening to you, than having you listen to him. He also always believed that service to others was a guarantee of happiness, and that is why he was always so happy. He had standards that he lived by, but he didn’t expect the same standards in others; in fact he never judged others, and that kindness made him many good friends.

Frederick is survived by Ruth, his wife of 56 years, their sons Stephen, Philip, William and daughter Annie.

Oliver Piercy Snow (L & BH, 1944) Oliver Snow died on the 14th November 2014, aged 89. On leaving College he went up to St Edmund Hall, Oxford, to read Law. After graduating, he qualified as a solicitor and practiced in a firm in Hereford for over thirty years, ending up as a Senior Partner. He was renowned for his integrity, discretion and meticulous attention to detail.

He was dedicated to his family. An only child, he was devoted to his mother and father; he was lucky enough to have many cousins. He cherished them as if they were his brothers and sisters. Oliver always looked on his godchildren very fondly, having had eight in total, which shows how trusted he was. He also cared enormously for the Hereford community: he chaired the committee for the Hereford Society for Aiding the Industrious and was a long term member of the Cathedral congregation.

A keen gardener, the family never went short of fruit or vegetables and his flower garden was his pride and joy. He loved colour: Sweet Peas, Winter Pansies, and Michaelmas Daisies. He loved the natural world, especially the Black Mountains which exhilarated him, especially when haring around the single track roads in his Alfa Romeo. This took him back to his motorbike days as a youth or skiing down the slopes, where of course Mr & Mrs Snow met! He also was a great tennis fan and enjoyed playing the game. He became the President and then Honorary VicePresident of the Hereford Lawn Tennis Association.

Probably his most impressive quality was his remarkable resilience - a resilience he learnt from his youth. When he was 18, he suffered a ruptured mastoid in his ear; and because this was before penicillin, he spent a whole year in bed. As a result, he had hearing problems throughout his life, becoming almost totally deaf. On top of that, he had serious operations, four new knees, one new tongue....you name it, and nothing could defeat him. He battled through, with little complaint, often seeing the absurdity in the situation.

Oliver was predeceased by his wife Cor and is survived by his sons Julian, Charlie and daughter Clara.

13.

Dr Nicholas Charles Theodore Tapp MA, PhD FRAI FRAS (Ch, 1969) Nicholas (Nick) Tapp, son of John William Theodore Tapp (Ch, 1942) died in Shanghai on the 10th October 2015, aged 62.

He won a place at Gonville and Cais College, Cambridge, where he read English Literature.

After graduating, he went to Thailand with the UK’s Voluntary Service Overseas and was fascinated by a Hmong (an ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand) village he visited in 1976. He then studied at the School of Oriental And African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London where he obtained a Master’s in South East Asian Studies in 1979, followed by a PhD in Social Anthropology in 1985.

Nick developed his interest in the Hmong in the course of his graduate studies at SOAS, during which time he elected to conduct his doctoral field research in a Hmong village just northwest of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. For over three decades, Nick has been the face of Hmong studies, a prolific intellectual standing at the forefront of the field. This is recognised by most scholars and graduate students alike, and also amongst the Hmong of the diaspora (a scattered population whose origin lies within a smaller geographic locale) and the growing number of Asian Hmong accessing higher education in China, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and indeed in the global West.

Nick was Lecturer in Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (1985-1992), Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh (1992-2000), Senior Fellow in Anthropology at the Australian National University (2000-2010) and joined the East China Normal University in 2010, acting as Professor and Chair of the Sociology Department. A serious scholar and a devoted teacher, his arrival was instrumental in the founding of the University’s Research Institute of Anthropology of which he became Director.

Nick had a special love for China, not only because of his academic interests and scholarly pursuits, but also because he had married a Chinese woman whom he met in Kunming.

Nick was also known by his Chinese name Wang Fuwen. He is survived by his wife and their two children.

Richard Michael Norwood Trye (Ch, 1957) Richard Trye, brother of Christopher Trye (Ch, 1960), died on the 5th June 2015, aged 75.

Michael Arthur Howard Walford MA, FI Mech E, FI Marine E (H, 1942) Michael Walford, son of H.H. Walford (Corinth, 1900), father of Julian Walford (H, 1974), and brother of J.H. Walford (H, 1944) died on the 1st July 2015, aged 90.

Reverend Piers Eliot de Hutton Warburton (JS & H, 1948) Piers Warburton, son of Capt. Eliot Warburton MC & Bar (OJ & H, 1909), brother of John Richard Eliot Warburton (OJ & H, 1952) and uncle of Kate Warburton (Cha, 1994) died on the 1st July 2015, aged 84. He gained his boxing colours, boxing in the College team and won the light heavy weight event in the Inter-House Boxing Competition in 1947. He was also captain of swimming and was a very active member of the debating society and was appointed secretary in his last year. At a meeting in 1948 it is reported in the Cheltonian that: “P. Warburton proposed the motion that: ‘This House deplores Professionalism in Sport.’

He protested about profit in Sport, and deplored the inevitable presence of gambling. J.H. Walford (H, 1944) thought amateurs as good as professionals.”

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Edward Frank Richard Williamson (Xt, 1989) Richard Williamson died on the 2nd January 2015, aged 44. He came to College from the Downs School, Wraxall, on a sporting exhibition. Richard negotiated O’ level Mathematics and Latin with A grades a year early in line with College’s policy at that time for the more able students. He was a competent all round games player without starring in any one particular sport. He played his hockey at 4th XI level and enjoyed his tennis and squash and was also a keen skier. On the extra-curricular side, he was production manager of one of College’s most successful Young Enterprise Projects and greatly benefited from the experience. He had a part in the House Play, ‘Unman, Wittering and Zigo.’ The Cheltonian reported that: ‘Richard Williamson looked the part of smock-clad art master, Cary Farthingale, and the inclusion of J.K. Grimwit did not go unnoticed.’

His personality was the key to his second success as a lawyer, namely as a business generator. Richard was able to communicate with clients on a personal level as well as on a professional level. Clients would identify with his human qualities and also as a trusted business advisor. Richard was always on the circuit for business development opportunities whether at the annual Real Estate Conference in Cannes (MIPIM), organising ski and golf trips with clients, rugby or arranging team events between the firm and clients.

On leaving College, Richard took a Gap year and went travelling in Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. He then went to Edinburgh University where he studied Business Studies. Rob Andrews, his best friend from University days, and his Best Man when he married Cat in 2003, gave the address at his funeral.

He recalled the first time they met, when having a few pre-match drinks at a friend’s flat before going to watch England play Scotland at Murrayfield. He spotted this larger than life character wearing a kilt, an English Rugby shirt and a tartan hat, entertaining everyone in the flat. They connected straight away. Richard’s refreshing lack of political correctness and at times his tendency to shout out the things they all thought but never dared say or even utter made sharing a flat with him always lively, always fun. He had a distinctly mischievous side that his flatmates all loved. Richard obtained a 2.1 honours degree in Business Studies. He was also captain of the 3rd XI hockey team, played inter-mural rugby and enjoyed his golf around some wonderful rugged Scottish courses.

In 2010, Richard decided that he needed fresh pastures and moved to Taylor Wessing, a long established City based international law firm with an established well-honed finance team and a focus on real estate finance. Within months of arrival Richard had become a key partner in the team, bringing clients, his high standards and his love of life. The warmth of his personality reached the whole firm. His passion for hard work and his ability to make time for all members of the team, his devotion to his family, his endless ability to step back and bring humour into every situation made him not only popular but also a respected successful partner. His work hard, play hard ethic brought him success and market recognition. Richard’s untimely death is a huge loss to his family, friends, clients and colleagues.

In 2004, for commercial reasons the NGJ team of which Richard was a part split away and Richard took on the responsibility of leadership for part of the team that remained with the firm (which merged into the firm that is now K&L Gates). Despite just having being appointed a Partner and with reduced resources, Richard was successful in maintaining and enhancing his reputation as a market leader. He remained a friend and a respected professional colleague of all those who had worked with him

Richard was a great father and loved taking his young daughters, of whom he was very proud, swimming, to the park and to local restaurants around Richmond. He is survived by his wife Cat, daughters Sophie and Isla, his mother Sara and sister Lucy.

After graduating, Richard went to the College of Law in Chester to complete the Solicitors’ Professional qualification. He Richard joined Nicholson Graham & Jones, an old established top 30 law firm in the City of London, in September 1996. After two years as a trainee, he qualified into their banking team and by March 2004 had already been made a partner.

Rodney Dukes, a fellow partner at Taylor Wessing, has written about Richard’s successful career. Apparently, it would be true to say that the years between 1996 and 2004 were definitely the transitional years between the wild days of student life and the more staid and respectable behaviour of a partner in a City law firm, from a single bachelor to a family man. Richard had a larger than life personality, his joie-de-vivre and his derring-do were well known and he did bring some of his student life into his professional life. Sometimes, certainly in the earlier years, Richard’s behaviour could verge on the outrageous but he was always conscious of the need to maintain professional dignity.

Richard took his legal work very seriously indeed. Primarily, he was dedicated to representing his clients to the highest standards.

His focus was acting for institutions and investors active in the commercial real estate market. He understood that a clients’ imperative for a lawyer is to achieve a satisfactory closure of transactions with the necessary commercial protection but not to dwell on unnecessary legal point scoring, of which the legal profession can sometimes be accused. He insisted on those highest standards not just of himself but also of the colleagues with whom he worked. Whoever came into contact with Richard found him a warm and caring personality who was a lot of fun to be around. He was a loyal team player with all those whom he encountered.

14.

Peter Barshall

Robert Beausire

Anthony Bridge

John Campbell

Guy Cragoe

Andrew De Abreu

Hugh Foster

Bernard Hopkins

Mike Hyde

John Lawrie

Dick Lewis

Peter Mackie

Nevil Macready

David Martin

Robert McMullan

loan Phillips

Peter Reynolds

Gerald Robinson

Fredrick Shelley

Oliver Snow

Nick Tapp

Richard Williamson

O B I T UA R I E S All the following obituaries have been compiled from ones published in national and local papers, addresses and tributes given at funerals, and in some cases by family members, or those who knew the deceased very well.

I am extremely grateful to Jill Barlow (Archives) for the research she has carried out and for providing some of the photographs.

For those I have missed, if you would like an obituary for them published in Floreat 17, please get in touch.

Malcolm Sloan OC Administrator

Cheltonian Association & Society Cheltenham College Bath Road Cheltenham Gloucestershire GL53 7LD   Contact Details: Tel: 01242 265694 www.cheltenhamcollege.org