Michael Lynch

OH Staff 1987-2004 died 9 June 2022

Peter R Hart

OH 1946-1954 died 19 December 2021

Michael Lynch taught at Hymers College Junior School and was well respected by all of his colleagues. He passed away peacefully at home after a long fight with cancer, aged 73 years.

He was the beloved husband of Nina, dearly loved Dad of Simon, Andrew and Emma, and a beloved Grandad. He was one of six children and will be missed by his surviving brothers, Richard and Peter.

A colleague from the Junior School, Andy Taylor paid tribute:

“I taught with Mike for many years at Hymers and will remember him as a hugely funny, articulate and intelligent man - a teacher of the old school type! This is very sad news - love to Nina, Simon, Andrew and Emma.”

Former Head of the Junior School, Paul Bryan also remembered him:

“Mike was a friend first at St Mary’s College in Twickenham in the early 1970s. Our paths crossed again in 1995 when I started as Head of the Junior School and Mike was Head of History and Geography there, as well as Form Teacher of Year 6. Mike was a wonderful teacher. He went about his work with a quiet, humorous authority, displaying all the qualities one would expect from a first rate schoolmaster.

He started the Junior School French trips, which then became the Second World War Battlefield tours for Year 5. He was always the narrator in the Year 6 plays, providing the basis for all of Year 6 to take part in the productions. As a friend and colleague, he could not be bettered. Hosts of Hymerians will remember him announcing that “Mr Lunch says it’s Lynch time.” My friend of many years has gone and Hymers has lost another one of its own. A fine schoolmaster.”

Although Peter fondly remembered his time at Hymers College, it was not until later in his life he had time to become a member of the Old Hymerians, but then managed to revisit the school and thoroughly enjoyed a number of Old Hymerians dinners.

He always admitted to everyone that he did not shine at anything in particular during the first five years at Hymers College, and his school reports emphasised he was ‘average’ but he really enjoyed his education, had an amazing memory, and particularly enjoyed his time in the Sixth Form. His particular talent was as an artist which was nurtured in the Sixth Form. He enjoyed drawing buildings and has left albums of beautiful sketches which he could finish very quickly with pencil and pad simply by leaning on a lamp post.

It was not surprising that he found Hymers high standards difficult as he started primary school at the beginning of the war at Willerby Carr Lane, and then went to seven different primary schools until he started at Hymers in 1945. His father was a Squadron Leader in the RAF with Coastal Command. The family left Hull at the beginning of the war and rented homes wherever his father was stationed.

Peter attended schools from Willerby Carr Lane, Hull; Ilkley Ben Rydding; Hartburn Primary School near Stockton on Tees; Wick Primary School, North Scotland; East Newport Primary School, North Fife; Hornsea Primary School; Cleethorpes St Peter’s Primary School, North Lincs, before finishing the last few months back at Willerby Carr Lane for his 11+ exam.

On leaving school he went to Hull University, studying Geography and English, and trained as a teacher. He first taught at Hessle High School, but the salary was not great so to supplement this he started to teach in the evenings and then became a full-time Tutor Organiser at Everthorpe Borstal, from there he moved to Hull Prison and then to Suffolk (near Lowestoft) as Tutor Organiser at Blundeston Prison. Big decision time, whether to leave education and move into the prison service as a Prison Governor? He decided to stay in education and was appointed to the Education Department at Leeds City Council, working in Further Education Colleges which eventually became part of the University. He went on to become the Development Officer for the school building, transforming Victorian schools for Boys and Girls into Mixed and involved in building new Schools and Colleges. He had various promotions, until early retirement completing his time in the Civic Hall as Assistant Director of Administration.

Peter’s work then was in York, where he spent his time with the Local Government Ombudsman covering Liverpool and Newcastle etc, followed by two other employment appointments in York. Then back to Leeds, he returned to lecturing in Colleges and Schools and finally employed part-time as a Clerk to a number of local government Parish Councils. He retired aged 80. He had a wide interest in everything and over the years has been WM and Treasurer in his Masonic Lodge, the Leeds Luncheon Club. He liked committees but particularly enjoyed having a leading role: Treasurer of the Rotary Club of Leeds, moving on to be District Treasurer, and then for one year District Governor of Rotary International.

His final responsibility was as Warden of Leeds Minster, work that was very important to him. This was where his funeral was held in January 2022. The church was full of his family and many friends. The hundreds of tributes were to an amazing, kind, unusual, and talented man. He has left his wife Ann, (who he used to meet from Hull High School for Girls when he was still at Hymers) three adult children, and nine talented grandchildren. Thank you Hymers College.

Mrs Ann Hart MBE

Roger Lonsdale

OH 1945-1952 died 28 February 2022

The death has occurred in Oxford on 28 February 2022 of Professor Roger Lonsdale, one of the most distinguished Old Hymerians. In the words of the website of the Oxford University English Faculty (2 March 2022) he was ‘one of the greatest scholars in the history of the Oxford English Faculty’.

Roger Harrison Lonsdale was born on 6 August 1934 and came from Hornsea. He entered Hymers College in September 1945 in Form LIIIa, and left in July 1952. At Hymers he had an exemplary career, becoming a full prefect (1951-52), having been Editor of The Hymerian (1950-2), Secretary of both the Music and Debating Societies, Under Officer of the Combined Cadet Force, Head of Brandesburton House, awarded the Woodhouse Essay Prize in 1951 and played in the First XI. He left in July 1952.

After National Service (1952-54) as an RAF Navigator, he entered Lincoln College, Oxford, in 1954 and gained First Class Honours in English Language and Literature in 1957. He embarked on an Oxford Doctorate (awarded 1962) and apart from two years at Yale (1958-60) his career was at Oxford: Andrew Bradley Junior Research Fellow at Balliol (1960-63); Tutorial Fellow (1963-2000) of Balliol; Vice-Master of Balliol (1978-80); and Emeritus Fellow (2000). In the University, promotions followed in parallel; a Readership in English Literature (1990) with promotion to a full Professorship in 1992.

National honours followed in tandem with those at Oxford: a

William Alfred Burkinshaw

OH 1944-1949 died 14 February 2022

Bill started at Hymers when he was eleven years old. When he left school he started work for British Gas at the Bankside works in Hull, in the laboratory.

When the country converted to natural gas he transferred to the gas terminal at Easington, were he worked until he retired, becoming the terminal manager.

Bill never married. He was keen on sports and played cricket for the gas board, then rugby union for Withernsea, and then was very keen on golf. In his younger days he enjoyed walking. He also enjoyed playing cards at the local bridge club.

Ron Burkinshaw

British Academy Readership 198284; Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (1990) and a Fellow of the British Academy (1991).

The bedrock of these honours and the legacy of his life is a sequence of, principally, editions (magisterial, and profound in scholarship and insight) of 18th century authors: the Longman’s Annotated English Poets edition of Gray, Collins and Goldsmith (1969); the New Oxford Book of 18th century verse (1984); an Anthology of 18th Century Women Poets (1989); and finally a magnificent edition of Johnson’s Lives of the Poets (2006), which won several awards. Preceding all these was a Life of the musicologist Charles Burney (1965), an intimate of many of the great literary figures of the 18th century.

He married first in 1964 Anne Mary Menzies, by whom he had one son and one daughter, and secondly in 1999 to Nicoletta Momigliano.

Such is the collegiate structure of Oxford that I only really encountered him at Faculty meetings, or when we examined together in the Final Honour School. There he would contribute to discussion with authority and courtesy, qualities not always found together in the Oxford English Faculty. I found he was an effective man to have on one’s side.

No one exemplified better - and in abundance the Hymers College motto - ‘High Merit, High Reward’!

Edward Wilson, OH 1949-1959

Ian Hanby

OH 1949-1958 died 27 December 2020

Unreliable memories of the escapades of two Old Hymerians!

In 1949, two young men started in Form 1 of the Hymers Junior School under tutelage of Miss Allen. The headmaster at that time was Mr. W.V. Cavill. MC with a reputation for sternness and good order – he came from the old school traditions forged by his service and the aftermath of The Great War! We had his morning inspection lined up along the wall of the quadrangle to check for clean polished shoes, socks uniform and hats of the right type and worn correctly! Quite an ordeal for eight-year-olds but we survived, and both enjoyed our time at Hymers.

I was one of the boys and the other was Ian Hanby - we went through school together until the Sixth Form when Ian went to Nottingham University to read Physics and I, after a period with Blackburn Aircraft at Brough, went on to Cambridge - our paths diverged but interestingly Ian returned to Hull to study Aeronautical Engineering and also worked at Brough in his vacations! After graduating Ian moved to Bristol working with BAC on missiles followed by a career change to work in mining with British Coal and living just outside Newark.

Only in later years did we rekindle our contact but sadly this proved all too short as Ian passed away in December 2020. This epistle is the result of a conversation with Christine, Ian’s widow and a promise I made to write a little about our less academic activities in those 10 years we were together at the school. We were both inclined towards science and so inevitably our careers followed that direction but in later life, Ian also became a talented organ player inspired I have no doubt by the musical and classical inputs from school.

I have scoured all my old editions of The Hymerian for helpful comments but clearly we avoided the scrutiny of the eagle-eyed editors and our prowess on the sports field was less than scintillating it would appear!

In 1951, Ian is noted in Remove A “as our best linguist” but had to be warned about spending too much time in the Pleasure Gardens (the school’s endeavours for the 1951 Exhibition). My memory is now so hazy I cannot even recollect what was done to mark this event but clearly it had some impact on my fellow pupils. In 1952, it is noted that Hanby’s toys steadily multiply and his French linguistic skills merit further comment.

Once we entered the Senior School we clearly fade off the editorial scene until we both join the Combined Cadet Force (CCF) passing Pt.1 Certificate A and in our pursuit of science we both become part of the Signals Platoon where our passing of various examinations and attaining some ability in signalling became noted over the next three years and achieving promotion as we progressed.

My most memorable recollections of our time at school are linked to both our CCF activities and the enthusiasm of young scientists in pushing back the boundaries of our knowledge and abilities. It is just as well as our parents were fairly unaware of our activities as you will read.

In 1956, our CCF camp was at Castle Martin in Pembrokeshire and stands out in memory for a number of reasons – voracious horseflies eager to sample the blood of these Northern invaders, the apocryphal funeral pyre on the last morning in camp of all the straw fillings from the palliasses we had slept on to for the days before and supervised by Capt. Mo Mitchell and the departure of our Regular Liaison Officer, Lt. Hartley to take part in the ill-fated Suez adventure!

As signallers we even persuaded the local vicar to allow us to climb the church tower to practice our Semaphore flag skills from the top. The real highlight was that Castle Martin ranges were used for tank gunnery practice and had numerous derelict tank hulls as targets scattered over the ground. Needless to say these were a magnet for young aspiring engineers and we found with the use of a few spanners many items of booty could be recovered from these hulks and surprise, surprise found their way back to Hull. The most interesting items were the fire extinguishing cylinders for the tank engine bays which we found were still full of pressurised CO2 gas –using a nail and a large hammer to puncture the seal we found these could be sent rocketing horizontally around the garden of Ian’s house demonstrating the fundamentals of rocket propulsion but sadly with the inevitable destruction of much of Ian’s father’s lovely back garden as the motion, albeit rapid, was very random - it was fortunate that we had a fairly limited number of these heavy cylinders to experiment with.

We moved on from these shortlived antics to develop with our rudimentary chemistry knowledge an unholy interest in pyrotechnics – remember this was a time when anyone could visit any chemist and garden supply centres and buy copious quantities of interesting chemicals - carbon black, sulphur, and other chemicals which I will not detail here for my own safety! Suffice to say we perfected electrical ignition techniques making and launching rockets but far more satisfyingly, making many large craters in the back garden to complement the earlier damage wreaked by the cylinders. We even simulated depth charges in the drain running behind the Victoria Avenue houses as the containers for our chemicals became more robust – I recollect that a tubular steel chair was somehow sacrificed in this pursuit of science. Sadly, no edible fish resulted from these adventures which we tried, having heard about the use of grenades of the SOE training schools in Scotland – we were always safety conscious (at least for ourselves!) but in today’s H&S world we would have been in dangerous territory I fear.

However, we survived with all our limbs intact and moved on to greater challenges and the last one before we both went to University was our unshakeable belief that we could create a miniature version of the Pulse Jet engine used in the V1 Flying bomb or Doodlebug. We had seen designs in model engineering magazines and with some basic knowledge and some acquired Titanium tube tried to build one in Ian’s bedroom fuelled by petrol! The design of the petal valves defeated us sadly but if we had been successful in getting it to run I think with my later wisdom it likely that 126 Victoria Avenue would have been reduced to a smoking ruin so perhaps it was a blessed failure for all!

These are some of the fond memories of an ill-spent friendship with Ian – we both went onto University and Ian became an expert in atmospheric management of mines and airborne dust monitoring equipment involved in safety issues of working conditions whereas I specialised in electron microscopy - possibly without the academic environment we enjoyed in our formative years at Hymers our careers could have been very different – who knows?

Ian is survived by his wife, Christine and three sons Richard, Andrew and Julian - his life and lifelong passion for organ and choral music especially that written by J.S. Bach were celebrated in his funeral service in Elston Church in January 2021.

Richard S Paden, OH 1949-1959

Kiran Kamath

OH 1989-1999 died 17 December 2021

It is with much sadness that we announce the passing of Kiran Kamath, aged 40.

Kiran loved and thoroughly enjoyed his schooling at Hymers for the duration of 10 years. He was a gifted student and consistently had good results in exams and excellent reports from his teachers on parents’ evenings. He kept in touch with some of his classmates throughout his short life. Kiran excelled in his university education too and qualified as an Actuary. At the time of his death, he worked as a Chief Risk Officer at Aviva.

Leo, Kiran’s son, was born in April 2017 and was doted upon and greatly loved by him. Leo, Kishore (Kiran’s younger brother and an OH), and myself are extremely saddened by his early demise. He will forever be in our thoughts. Sunithi Kamath

, Mother

Norman Ransom

OH 1935-1940 and OH Staff 1953-83 died 2 October 2021

Norman was a student at the school in 1935 and returned as a Master in 1953. He became Junior School Headmaster in 1974 and retired in 1984. He was the beloved husband of the late Mollie, dear father of Julie, and grandfather of Charlotte.

During his time at Hymers he was part of the cohort that were evacuated to Pocklington. In 1942, aged 18, he was drafted into the RAF. Subsequently, he received emergency teacher training and after teaching in state schools was