In memoriam

Since the last edition of OC, we have been advised of the recent deaths of the following Old Chucherians. We have included a few words and reflections which have been sent to us by family and friends. More details can be found at Community.ChurchersCollege. com.

Lesley Archer (47).

One of Britain’s most successful motocross riders Les Archer Junior passed away on December 18, 2019 aged 90 in Spain, where he had lived since his retirement. Les was born into motorcycling royalty - both his grandfather and father raced successfully and established a thriving motorcycle business (Archers of Aldershot) in the 1930s which continued after the war. In 1947, Les Senior and Junior both competed in the Isle of Man TT - dad on a 250 New Imperial in the Lightweight TT and young Les in the Clubman’s class on a 250 Velocette where he finished a fine third. The father and son team also competed in the 1948 TT on Velocettes.

Although he was enjoying a successful time in road racing, young Les’ interests shifted to scrambles where he really shone, especially after the head mechanic at the business, Ron Hankins, put together a very special Manx Norton scrambler, a machine that was to achieve legendary status. In fact, there was a series of the Manz special, each one more refined, and Les and his traveling companion Eric Cheney scored countless successes on the motocross version of the Continental Circus in the 1950s. In 1956, Les and the Norton won the European Championship - forerunner of the 500cc World Motocross Championship which began in 1957. He scored ten Grand Prix wins during his career which continued into the 1960s. Taken from Australian Motocross magazine and submitted by Richard Elliott (50)

Simon Battinson (63) always spoke very warmly of his time at Churcher’s. He was a keen member of the Navy CCF and went to Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, upon leaving Churcher’s, where he graduated as a mid-shipman and specialised in Navigation.

In his early days in the Navy his ship was sent to the Far East to join the forces involved in the Malayan Peninsula Crisis and was awarded a campaign medal for his actions. He retired from the Navy at the age of 28 when diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes – he was never going to get his own ship because of that. However, he went on to lead a full and fascinating life working for Racal Decca and being involved in the installation of radar in a wide variety of locations across the world including Heathrow, the Straits of Dover and an oil terminal in Scotland. At Churcher’s, he participated in all school sports and enjoyed returning to the College to watch his youngest son play rugby against Churcher’s (he was at Hurstpierpoint College). He immersed himself in College drama productions, particularly those with singing involved, and carried this on into the Navy, at one time producing a play for HMS Dryad, where Prince Charles was also amongst his pupils for a short time.

Simon leaves a wife Susan, three sons and four grandchildren.

William John Caine (55), always known as John, attended Churcher’s from 1948 to 1954 after passing the 11+, “aged 10” as he always liked to say. He always spoke very fondly of his time at Churcher’s and still had the photograph cutting of his long jump record from when he was at school. He sadly passed away on 2nd February 2021 after being diagnosed with a brain tumour in early December. He will be sadly missed by his two daughters and his granddaughter. Bernard Chiswell (59), otherwise known as ‘Bernie’ or ’Chis’, joined Churcher’s College as a boarder in 1956 when his father was posted to Malta by the RAF. After leaving school, where he experienced the thrill of flying a Tiger Moth whilst in the Sixth Form, he ended up training in retail management. He met his wife, Christine, at an RAF Ball and they, together with their son Simon, went to work in Zambia where their daughter Yvette was born. Then moving to Southern Rhodesia, Bernie was called up into the Rhodesian

Air Force, until, one morning, the family left for South Africa taking all they could carry in a suitcase and leaving everything else behind. Still in supermarket retail management Bernie worked in both Johannesburg and Durban until Christine’s failing health led them back to the UK where he joined Sainsbury’s as a store manager. Sadly, after 23 years of marriage Christine passed away in 2000. Bernie married Carin in 2004 and joined BOCH where he remained until he retired, when two activities gave him tremendous pleasure; music and flying. He had a good bass voice and relished the challenging demands of singing without instrumental support. He also had a “man shed” outside his back door where he built large radio-controlled model aeroplanes, which he flew at the nearby flying club. ‘Chis’ enjoyed life to the full, was always popular, always friendly, always the entertaining raconteur. He will be sadly missed by everyone who knew him. Submitted by John Hawkins (59) Donald (Don) Eades (53) has died aged 84 at a Horndean care home where he spent his final years after being diagnosed with dementia. His wife, Liz, of more than 57 years whom he had met at a dance in the Petersfield Festival Hall, died in July 2019 after caring for his declining health. He leaves their son David (88) with partner Lisa and grandchildren Rosie, Lucy, Emily and Jamie, and daughter Sandra Campbell (a former member of staff) with husband Ian and their daughter, Emma (14) and son, Jack (18)

Leslie Harfield (47) joined the school during the Second World War in 1941. Having done well in both his School Certificate and the Higher School Certificate he remained on for a third year in the Sixth Form to study for and achieve a Major County Scholarship. During this time, he was, for the last two terms, Captain of College. He was very grateful to the school for preparing him to apply, successfully, to Cambridge and for the opportunities it afforded him both academically and in other regards, in particular music and sport.

His son Myles, said: “I can remember watching him play cricket for the Old Boys at the school and so he must have maintained that active connection into the late 60s if not the early 70s. His love of music, in particular choral music, which started at Churcher’s stood him in good stead when applying, again successfully, for a Choral Exhibition at Gonville and Caius. It stayed with him for life and he derived much enjoyment from it both as a participant and as a listener.” Capt. Colin Robinson RN (45) Rodney Lesley Archer (47) Rodney Leslie Harfield (47) Nelson Alan Cowdrey (48) Drake David Reginald Hutchings (48) Drake John Evans (49) Drake John Bowen (50) Grenville Peter Luscombe (51) Rodney Donald Eades (53) Grenville David Glazier (54) Nelson William John Caine (55) Nelson Prof.essor John Laver (55) Rodney Tony Hayter (56) Grenville Bernard Chiswell (59) Nelson Stephen Hedges (59) Grenville Leonard Hill (59) Rodney Anthony Hall (62) Grenville A. Simon Battison (63) Drake Richard Walker (63) Drake Tom Fortune (65) Grenville David Buckett (68) Drake Alex Smith (70) Grenville Edward Holland (73) Nelson David Harbottle (75) Grenville John Gresham (76) Drake Luke Lipscombe (14) Collingwood

Former staff

Elliot Glyn Hollis (76-93) (known as Glyn) Geography

Due to his age and underlying health conditions, David Glazier (54) tragically died on 4th July 2020 from COVID-19 in San Salvador, El Salvador. David wrote to the Development Office earlier in 2020 informing us that he left the UK after National Service in the Royal Navy and worked for Lloyds Bank in Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, the Bahamas, New York, Ecuador and Spain. He left the UK for El Salvador a couple of years ago, the birthplace of his wife to whom he was married for over 50 years. His daughter, Constance, said that he often spoke warmly of his time at Churcher’s.

Edward Holland (73) or ‘Eddie’, as he was known at school, had already spent a year at Churcher’s when his classmates-to-be started in the autumn of 1966; few of us knew this at the time. Being a little taller than average, and as the only one who owned an Afghan coat, Eddie was a distinctive figure around the school in the late 60s. Eddie’s love of music was already well established and many will remember him with a couple of LPs under his arm, ready to swap with anyone wanting to tap into his eclectic mix of bands. After Churcher’s, Eddie studied computer science at Portsmouth Polytechnic and joined Logica where he was involved in real-time systems work. He moved with Logica to Rotterdam in 1982 and later joined Cisco Systems. Eddie stayed with Cisco for about ten years where he was involved in pre-sales engineering and got to know the Far East through a number of assignments in China, Korea, Japan and Singapore. He left Cisco and moved to Bangkok in 2002 and set up an ITrelated business. In Eddie’s own words: “Thailand is my favourite country of all time.” Having never lost his enthusiasm for music, he also ran a production venture in the electronic music industry. He was instrumental in tracking down former pupils from the Class of 73 when they held their reunions at the School in 2011 and again in 2013, although it was with great regret that he was unable to attend either event to meet up with former colleagues again. Eddie is survived by his wife Tum and his daughter Natalie. Submitted by Bob Hunt (73) and

Martin Kidd (73)

David Hutchings (48) was born in Southsea and when his family evacuated inland to Liss in 1940, he joined Churcher’s. He was a keen member of the Junior Training Corps and was in the College team for the Ashburton Competition in 1947 carrying the big bass drum. In those days the College provided various extra-curricular courses, among which David undertook ‘Railway Operating’ while completing his Cambridge School Certificate. David’s strength and upright bearing displayed from those days in the JTC at Churcher’s remained with him until he had to retire from his weekly tennis matches at the age of 88! David married Barbara Fiander in 1958. She survives him together with their daughter and two sons, eight grandchildren and three greatgrandchildren.

After leaving Churcher’s, John Laver (55) first went to Cranwell, leaving after a year, going on to the University of Edinburgh. Though his undergraduate degree was unexceptional, he returned to study phonetics at postgraduate level, and from then on his academic career took off. He gained first his PhD, then a D.Litt. from Edinburgh and was promoted to a Personal Chair as Professor of Phonetics. He was also awarded four Honorary degrees, from De Montfort, Sheffield and Queen Margaret Universities and Trinity College, Dublin. Whilst still at Edinburgh he was instrumental in setting up the Centre for Speech Technology Research, and he served for three years as VicePrincipal for Research. He moved to Queen Margaret University in 2001 as Research Professor for Speech Sciences and VicePrincipal.

A staunch advocate of the economic, social and cultural benefits of the Humanities and of interdisciplinary research, he was the founding Chairman of the Humanities Research Board of the British Academy and played a key role in making the case for the establishment of the Arts and Humanities Research Council. In 1999 he was awarded the CBE for services to Phonetics and the Humanities.

Peter Luscombe (51)

It was with great sadness that we learnt of the death of Peter Luscombe who was a Governor at Churcher’s College for 27 years.

Peter was born on 22 July 1932 in Isleworth and was brought up by his mother whilst his father was away at war. Having evacuated to Cornwall his mother found it far too quiet there, so they moved back to London in the height of the war.

Peter was educated at Churcher’s College and it was here that his love of sport, especially rugby, grew. Not long after leaving school he was called up for National Service and joined the parachute regiment. “Knees together, slightly bent, feet together, arms tight” was his mantra.

He met his wife, Kathleen, in 1956 in the dance halls of Winchester and would visit Kathleen in London after her move there. They would frequently be found in the Troubador at Earls Court listening to the skiffle groups playing there. They married in Kings Somborne in 1958 and moved to Hayling Island at the start of their married life. From Hayling Island, they moved to Woodmancote (they lived in the same house in Woodmancote for 59 years) and started a family, having three children Simon, Sally and Michael. In addition to their three children, Peter adored his daughter-in-law Tilly and two grandchildren Mimi and Nico.

Peter joined the Forestry Commission and this was the start of his love of nature and farming. From here he went on to work at Scats and was with them until his retirement 30 years later, working his way up through the company to become a Director.

Sport was a huge part of Peter’s life. He played rugby for over 40 years and only stopped when he broke his leg in his 50s, playing for the undefeated Chichester Taverners team. He played squash well into his sixties – happily beating men a third of his age – and finally moved onto golf. Peter was always more than a participant in everything he did. From being a School Governor to rugby Club Chairman to his involvement at both Westbourne and Woodmancote Churches. He was a Sidesman at Westbourne throughout the 70s and 80s and played a key role in the life of Woodmancote. Peter and Kathleen were happily married for more than 60 years and enjoyed a fantastic retirement together, which included frequent visits back to Churcher’s for cricket matches and prize givings – he loved going back to his old school and catching up with his old classmates.

“Knees together, slightly bent, feet together, arms tight” was his mantra.