OR Letters

Monty and the Radleians at the Alamein Reunion

The VIth form lecture was one of the many initiatives that Warden Silk introduced to Radley in the early years of his reign. He had wide contacts, not least in the cricket world and it was through the MCC, he met Lt.General Sir Oliver Leese and invited him to come to Radley in 1970 to give a talk on the Battle of Alamein.

The General was a most distinguished soldier who had fought in both World Wars. In the First, as a young officer, he was wounded three times and won the DSO for bravery; in the Second, he was evacuated from Dunkirk and two years later was specially selected by Montgomery to command XXX corps in the Alamein campaign before succeeding Montgomery as commander of the Eighth Army in Italy, when the latter was summoned home to plan the invasion of Europe.

It so happened that on that Friday when the General was due to speak, I was down to teach the bottom form IV2, both in the last period of the morning and in the afternoon. Whether the Second World War was in our History syllabus I cannot remember but the chance to hear the General, who had played a central role in defeating Rommel’s Afrika Corps, was compelling. Therefore, without telling the Warden, I took the form down to that hard and uncomfortable Science Lecture Theatre, where they sat on the floor looking up at the General who swung his long legs, whilst sitting on the demonstration bench. The Warden was surprised to see us but being the man he was, greeted us with a smile and a wave.

The talk was stunning. This was the experience of history, for as Mr Churchill said, “Before the battle of Alamein we never had a victory” and after it, “we never had a defeat”. It also happened to be the last major battle fought solely by British and Commonwealth forces. So this could be compared to hearing Uxbridge talk about the battle of Waterloo, though Sir Oliver had both his legs. We listened in some awe to someone so central to this key victory. Maybe there is a transcript somewhere of what he said but I can remember him saying that Rommel was very dangerous in attack but not nearly so good in defence. When IV2 and I met in the afternoon - I Montgomery at Radley in 1947, giving a lecture to the corps on how the battle of El Alamein was won. was their form master and they had to a statement have won any approval. It suffer me for both English and History must be remembered that this was the – It was clear that they had enjoyed the era of student riots and very strong antitalk immensely. “What do we do now?” establishment, anti-monarchical feelings. I asked. Silence. “Write to the General to When eventually Monty was allowed to thank him,” I said. Thus early the next leave the stage and the rush was on for week the General received 25 individual the beer, we were ushered into a large letters of thanks – correctly addressed reception room. Monty duly arrived and signed, as you would expect from and we all shook his hand, somewhat a Radleian. He was so delighted that he tongue-tied. He loved every moment of rang up Warden Silk and said that he was it but was preoccupied with some Oxford sending tickets for a box for the Alamein undergraduate, an Old Radleian, with reunion at the Royal Albert Hall. fashionably long hair. The Field Marshal kept saying, “Is there anyone here who can Some weeks later, I drove four boys up to lend the boy half a crown to get his hair London to be greeted by one of Monty’s cut?” He sounded remarkably like a Social aides – the military always manage these Tutor. situations so well. The place was packed and it hummed, beer was stacked ceiling Some fifty years later, I think of how, in high in the corridors, the faces of those the nineteenth century, there must have veterans were bright with anticipation but come a time when there was only one hiding the deep sadness at the memory person left alive who had dined with of mates who never returned home. Wellington at the Waterloo Banquet. So The evening was choreographed so that it is in the twenty first century, there will everything led up to Monty’s arrival on come a time when only one person will be stage. His almost diminutive figure was left alive who saw, let alone met, Monty, at greeted with a roar and a standing ovation. what turned out to be his final appearance He had to wait a long time before he could at the Alamein reunion. The chances must speak. I remember his words clearly: “The be high that that person will be an Old problem with this country is that people Radleian, former member of IV2, who do not know where they stand. I’ll tell you wrote a thank you letter to Lt.General Sir where I stand. Queen and Country.” The Oliver Leese. roaring broke out again as I wondered Richard Morgan where else in the country could such Warden (1991–2000)

Declamations

I was fascinated to read Warden Moule’s piece on the Declamations and how much he enjoys them. But he makes no mention of how they were revived during World War 2 by Warden Wilkes.

I was half through my time at Radley (1942-6) when John Wilkes introduced ‘Projects’ and involved writing an original piece of research, and the other ‘Declamations’. My research on the life of St Francis of Assisi was based in my family’s friendship with the young Society of St Francis, which was an Anglican movement to reintroduce Franciscan life into the Church of England, which was based at Hillfield in Dorset that I used to visit from my home in Crewkerne. My Project was examined by Fr Charles Neate, the chaplain of Eastborne, and led to my being appointed to the Upper Sixth Form. It also led me in 1955 to being received into the Catholic Church (again partly due to Charles Neate’s influence), and I am of

two new activities. One was called Declamations into the 21st century: The 2018 finals being livestreamed on the College website. Jake Cheetham (2002) reprised his Declamation in the theatre at Epidaurus on a school trip to Greece in 2006. course delighted that Radley is now open to Catholic families.

My elder brother David, who sadly died of meningitis in 1932, was taught classics by Paul Foster who later became a Dominican friar and influenced a number of his pupils to ‘cross the Rubicon’, one of whom became Head Master of Ampleforth. Another joined the London Oratory, and another was the outstanding cricketer and Senior Prefect Hugh Dinwiddy, whom I got to know well in his old age. I recall entering Declamations several times with contributions in both French and English without ever winning a prize. The first French piece was from Corneille’s play Horace, which 17th Century drama was made famous by Lord Macaulay in The Lays of Ancient Rome. A later one was from Daudet’s Lettres de Mon Moulin called ‘Le Cure de Cucugnan’ in which he describes his descent into hell in search of his deceased parishioners. The English pieces I recall (and can still repeat!) were Milton’s description of the Fall of Adam and Eve in Paradise Lost which begins “Queen of this universe, do not believe these rigid threats of death.” This was set for the fifth forms. Another that I chose with the help of Mrs Dussek was the dying speech of John of Gaunt (from Richard II) which began “Methinks I am a prophet new inspired...” and goes on to a panegyric in praise of England “this precious stone set in a silver sea...this blessed plot, this earth, this realm. This England.”

Yes, Declamations was and still is a valuable activity.

Martin Blake (1942)

Mr. Wilkes was an ardent believer in the duty of public schools to share their benefits with others less fortunate, and well before the Fleming Report was issued secured the support of the Berkshire Education Committee for a scheme of free places for boys from elementary schools. After some show of reluctance by local headmasters, the new ‘Decimal’ system was started in 1942, and has since operated with complete success, fourteen free places having been filled to date. Another agricultural class was started in 1940, this time based on the Labs and not on a neighbouring farm. Later on ‘Declamations’ were revived, with notable success; and a system of ‘Projects,’ generally theses on self-chosen subjects, was introduced, to encourage boys to carry out a piece of work in their own time and in their own manner. It was stated in the last chapter that Warden Ferguson’s period in work was the period of the ordinary boy; this was emphatically the period of the scholar.

An extract from AK Boyd’s, History of Radley (p356)

Radley Mariners

GB Athletes

Ollie Wynne-Griffith (2007), Tom George (2008) and Charlie Elwes (2010) spent 2020 continuing to train throughout lockdown towards the Tokyo Olympic Games, currently rescheduled for 2021. All three were named provisionally to race in the VIII for the Summer Games before they were postponed. Ollie finished second at Olympic trials in the pair with Olympic Champion Moe Sbihi. Charlie and Tom finished fifth together.

Here, Ollie talks through some of the trials of lockdown training.

“In the first day of lockdown, I did 32km on the machine and a weights circuit in my kitchen. This was quarantine training at its finest. It was primitive and riddled with imperfections; exactly the way I like it.”

“I am still hacking away on the rowing machine in a perpetual state of sadomasochism in an empty shed. It’s mentally testing but part of me relishes this type of training even more.” Not only that but this was an indoor record set in his parents’

“There are a thousand excuses to back off but I know that the time we have now is an opportunity to train harder and smarter than our competitors around the world. The athletes who deal with this period the best will be the ones who thrive next summer. As a team, we have gotten to grips with functioning remotely extremely quickly. I am in daily contact with our strength & conditioning coach, our physiologist as well as the chief coach and all of our data is being collated into a stack of excel spreadsheets. Without doubt, the diligence and willingness to adapt from our support staff has made the isolation training more bearable. I won’t sugarcoat it though, it is tough logging miles and miles of solo training outside of the team environment.”

Mariners Virtual Racing

“So now I find myself, a year out (again), raring for the final run in. Pick whichever proverb that you deem most apt. The past 12 weeks have taught me countless lessons that I will no over set distances on the ergo or on foot. These took place every

doubt exploit as we push towards Tokyo 2020+1.”

Breaking records

Tom has also been training hard during lockdown, so much so that Tom George in training outside his parents’ garage.

garage!

He is the first British athlete to break the 5:40 barrier, recording a time of 5 minutes, 39.6 seconds, an absolutely mammoth achievement. He is currently ranked as the eighth fastest of all time worldwide, with only ten people ever having rowed under 5:40.

“I did have a moment afterwards where I thought about how everything I’ve done so far in my rowing career has been with the goal of winning the Olympics; to achieve something like this makes me actually feel like I’m on the pathway to doing that.”

Radley Mariners took part in multiple lockdown fixtures against Hampton, Dulwich, St. Pauls and St. Edwards.

Each fixture consisted on clocking the fastest cumulative times in May he broke the GB Rowing Team 2km indoor rowing record.

other weekend through May-July. Over 20 Mariners competed throughout these fixtures.

Left: Charlie Elwes and Tom George in the pair at Olympic trials. Right: Ollie Wynne-Griffith training with his pair, Moe Sbihi, before lockdown.

Radley Rangers: 2020 Season Review

Played 6 Won 1 Lost 4 drew 1.

Hurlingham

It was a strange season that was finally allowed to begin when Lockdown 1 ended in mid-July on a scorching day in South West London, the setting for a long day chasing leather for both sides. Only the first few overs with the ball promised an advantage over the side batting first, and Ned Greville Williams (0-32 off 8) and Hugo Eyre (1-52 off 8.4) started well. However, there was no tumble of early wickets that was needed to derail the fair conditions and, whilst there were maidens and wickets, the general theme was the Hurlingham batsmen occupying the crease for a very long time, fast sprints from Rangers collecting the ball from the boundary, and a total of 324 that the impressive Radley batting line felt compelled to chase in fear of its reputation.

In return Marriot began the assault with a fast and fluent 36. But neither he, Hearn (20), Hoddinott (1) nor MartynHemphill (6) really managed to justify the Hurlingham’s vast declaration. At 74-6 it seemed that our only the comfort was to be the tables of six in the Hurlingham’s garden, the Pimms on tap and typical after match celebrations. But Folkestone (78*) and Ned Greville Williams (44) shook off their reputations as lower order batsmen and returned the favour to a very strong Hurlingham bowling attack armed with a Test Match Duke. They scored all around the wicket, and firing the ball to all parts they fearlessly saved the game. Finishing with 242/7, the game was a draw. Needless to say, I would expect they will be fielding their best side in this fixture again next year.

Yorkshire Gentlemen (2-day match)

Credit is due to Mungo Fawcett for getting a decent side together against the odds: the covid travel window had briefly opened, and he was recruiting from an even smaller-than-normal player pool - of those who had neither headed for the beach nor refused to leave home for fear of a second wave. OK, the side wasn’t 100% Old Radleian stock, but pandemics tend to make beggars out of match managers trying to choose a side. The first day went swimmingly: 1) no rain 2) 219 for 7 declared, although the skipper would have been grateful to have known he was on 48 just before he declared, and 3) Col. O’Kelly out for a golden duck (what a contrast to his two unbeaten centuries against us a few years ago!).

When Eadie, the Rangers’ long-standing first slip, reads that he was caught neatly off Purton in the grippers by Biggart, he will undoubtedly acknowledge that if he had been in residence it would have sailed past and probably heralded yet another ton for the Colonel.

A sporting YGs declaration 35 runs in arrears should have been followed by a thrilling exhibition of allegro batting to set up the sort of nail-biting finish that encourages past-their-prime cricketers such as yours truly to keep returning North. However, it was not to be. Nobody will know what happened next. Prevented by Covid from staying at QM and indulging in what are always euphemistically known by the YGs as “the activities”, the Rangers headed off to Fawcett Towers for “a quiet barbeque”.

There were none of the usual tell-tale signs in the pavilion the next morning - no strange smells, stains or burns, no doors off their hinges - to provide clues as to the extent of the Rangers’ Saturday night self-abuse. However, the scorebook tells the story concisely: we were bowled out for 86 in 21 overs and beaten by 9 wickets.

Hampshire Hogs

In what was billed as the last game of a covid-shortened season the traditional match managing double act of Henry Mills and Christian “there’s no “S” in my surname, Henry” Hollingworth found new ways to surprise. They, or rather (according to Henry) Henry assembled a side with the usual traditional ingredients: 3 former Radley 1st XI captains; 7 past & present cricketer cup players, 2 of whom had been retired for over 20 years; 8 bowlers including 2 leggies (one unused); 2 keepers (one 6’5” tall. The first surprise was when he donned the gloves and made the purists shudder); and only 2 ringers.

It was a strong side that was only ever going to disappoint. The only question was how. The game started tamely as the Hogs batsmen demonstrated their ‘patience’, to the increasing irritation of the Rangers bowlers. They eventually declared at 220 for 7, but not before providing one of the co-captains with an excuse to leave early (admittedly the x-rays revealed that it was a break). This was the second surprise, because it prevented the other from exercising his usual prerogative of sauntering from the ground an hour or two before the end of play to get home in time for a bath before his dinner party.

The final surprise was the way our starstudded side batted, rattling along at nearly 6 an over but blowing up 40 runs short with fully 20 overs still available. This meant that we seemed to have thrown away our last chance of obtaining just one victory in the Hon Sec’s 30th, final and only win-less season in charge.

Radley

However, Radley continued the theme of It’s Been A Funny Old Year by beginning its cricket season in the Michaelmas term. A last minute decision to allow a rare visit by Outsiders into the campus’ giant bubble permitted the Rangers to squeeze in one more game, the first time RRCC had played RCCC for some years. It was only right that this privilege was granted to the very youngest ORs, and also that the captaincy was granted to Alex Haynes, who would have captained the 2020 Radley 1st XI had there been a season.

Sadly, no spectators were allowed in, so we were unable to witness in person this memorable game, although SHD valiantly kept us abreast of the game’s progress via social media. Led by Betley’s 69 off 49 balls the Rangers batsmen, many of whom are destined for illustrious Cricketer Cup careers, posted 232 all out. A steady procession of wickets shared amongst our bowlers kept the boys out of the game and they fell exactly 100 runs short. It was a pleasing return of this fixture from the Rangers’ perspective, having been on the wrong end of several drubbings from College XIs over the decades.

So we ended the season with the disappointment of only one victory, and we all wish Johnny Wright the very best in turning things round when he steps into the Hon Sec’s well-worn shoes next year.

Rupert Henson & Jonny Wright

OR Golf Society 2019/20

Remember the good old days? We sat within touching distance and now we are penalised if we sit within 2 club lengths, and if you are in the wrong tier you cannot sit at the same table.

GS Won 8 ½ to 1 ½). However, there is cause for great optimism. We did meet this year, for the Society’s Autumn Meeting in

Managers for their support. They make my life so easy. We had full October. We had an excellent day at Royal St George’s. Despite the current issues, the St George’s team welcomed us and fed us wonderfully well. A field of 29 competed in the morning medal and foursomes in the afternoon, after a rather lighter lunch than normal. The committee’s initiative to limit the cost of the meetings to £100 (£35 for under 30’s) has been a success and will be continued in 2021.

Autumn 2020 Meeting

Simon Peck (71) winner of the ORGS Scratch Cup. Our scratch the society is in excellent health.

cup was presented by Mrs Charles Jeffreys in 1957 following the death of her husband. The cup was a trophy that Charles had won at East Brighton Golf Club in January 1914. Charles Jeffreys was Senior Prefect in 1896 just 9 years after Royal St George’s was founded.

captain Harry Douglass, on his first appearance on a count back from Jo Oram (44 pts) winner of the Veterans. Ollie Meade King (43 pts) won the under 35’s prize following his 49 point win in 2019! The afternoon foursomes for the James Rogers Trophy was won by Archie Stirling and Sam Aldridge (40pts). With so many matches cancelled, it is disappointing to have so few results to report on in 2020, but it did mean an unbeaten year (beating the Radley College team 2 ½ to ½, and Old Haileyburians

Our Hewitt side for 2021 is looking stronger and stronger with good young players with very low handicaps. We had a new look Bernard Darwin team ready to take to the course when the Bernard Darwin committee had to take the decision to cancel this year’s competition. The annual Robin Turner knock out is well supported with enthusiastic reports from matches. I want to thank our captain Harry Douglass, the Committee, and the Match teams for all matches before they were disappointingly cancelled.

The committee’s aim is to put the society in a very strong financial position to allow us to continue to subsidise matches and meetings well into the future. In this way we can encourage more and more Old Radleians to participate in OR golf. Due to everyone’s generous contributions and our treasurer, Adrian West’s guidance, George Foxall (44 pts) won our Stableford trophy presented by our

We can look forward to 2021 with great anticipation. Thank you to those members who have contributed in one way or another to the society in 2020. If you have not played with the society in 2020 please join us in 2021.

Will Bailey

Awards at the Autumn Meeting (clockwise from top left): Simon Peck (1985); George Foxall (1998) and ORGS captain Harry Douglass (1992); Jo Oram (1964); Sam Aldridge (2005) (left) & Archie Stirling (2004).

Rugby

Will Stuart (2009), pictured rear row, fourth from the right, was a member of this year’s Triple Crown and Six Nations-winning England squad, earning his first cap in February. He took part in all four games, coming off the bench on each occasion. He made his first start for England against Georgia in the Autumn Nations Cup in November. Tom West (2009) agreed a contract extension at Wasps earlier this year and played for them against Exeter in the Premiership Rugby Final (above right).

Radleian Society Racing Syndicate - 2020 update

College Oak has had a wonderful year on the racecourse, winning on three occasions, and giving his connections a lot of fun culminating with a lovely win at Ascot last weekend. There promises to be a lot more to come from this progressive youngster.

Having finished runner up on his racecourse debut in a bumper at Fontwell, he reappeared after a summer break to win his bumper (National Hunt Flat race) and was placed in two novice hurdles prior to the Covid pandemic halting life…

After an elongated summer holiday, College Oak has come out this season and continued his progression in fine style. He won a novice hurdle at Uttoxeter on his seasonal reappearance and started handicapping with a workable handicap mark.

We all want Saturday winners, and I was thrilled to see College Oak doing exactly that at Ascot in late October. He needed every yard of the 2m3 to get up on the line, and being out of a sister to a Gold Cup winner, we’ll need to go up in trip in due course. He jumps really well, and will develop into a smashing novice chaser next season, but for now we can exploit our novice hurdle status and as that was a conditional jockeys’ race we’ll not carry a penalty for that win if we run back in a novice hurdle.

I look forward to seeing how College Oak develops over the course of the next year, but he looks a really promising individual and I am thrilled that the Radleian Society have a talented horse on their hands.

Jamie Snowden

College Oak (right) breaks for the front at Ascot.

Obituaries Obituaries

Ronnie Howard (Common Room 1960–1988)

Ronnie Howard was born in September of 1935, the eldest son of Frank and Iris Howard in Ealing, West London. Soon joined by his younger sister, Zona, and then a younger brother, Colin. At the start of the second world war they were evacuated to Henley-on-Thames. Holidays were taken on the Isle of Wight and Ronnie discovered he loved pottering around boats.

Then school at Shrewsbury and he was given a choice of playing football and cricket or going rowing and there was only going to be one winner, he started his career as a “wet bob.” He was selected for the school first VIII for an unprecedented three years and competed in events around the country. National Service then took him to Germany. The idea of rowing for the army seemed more interesting to Ronnie so he started the British Army of the Rhine Rowing Club and proceeded to “row” his way through his National Service.

Oxford University followed and a degree in Geology. Once again he was drawn to the river, he rowed in the Boat Race in 1957 losing by 2 lengths to Cambridge, this spurred him on, he became President of the Oxford University Boat Club in 1958 but ended up rowing in the second crew, Isis. The following year he was in the Dark Blue boat and as President quashed a mutiny where a number of Americans wanted to oust him and select their own crew, Ronnie had a very clear view of rules and acceptable behaviour, the mutiny was crushed when the President of Cambridge would only communicate with Ronnie, the 1959 Boat Race was then won by Oxford by 6 lengths in a time of 18 minutes and 52 seconds, their fastest time since 1911 and largest margin since 1912.

In 1960 Ronnie spent the year completing his degree at Oxford and was not allowed to competitively row for the university as the previous year’s shenanigans had taken their toll on his academic studies. Ronnie didn’t like the idea of not being on the water and so adopted his mother’s maiden name and put together a crew called Cherwell and rowed as Ronnie Brandon. The Oxford crew won the Boat Race for the second year running and was selected as the Olympic VIII to go to Rome. Ronnie completed the Olympic trials and was selected as a reserve in the Olympic Squad, unfortunately he never got to compete.

His career at Radley College started the same year, immediately taking an interest in coaching rowing as well as teaching Geography, Geology and Maths. He was drawn to the Boat Club and over the next 10 years transformed it. A Boat house was built, new launches were built, new pontoons on the river, a new boatman to maintain everything, new trailers to transport the new eights. He exuded an energy and drive to excel and a calm, resolute determination that if you want to get something done you can. During the 1960’s he coached a plethora of Oxford University and Radley College crews with many of them going on to victories at Henley Royal Regatta and to represent Great Britain. All of them benefitting from Ronnie’s perspective and life lessons. There are no short cuts to bypass dedication and hard work.

I will always remember the parting comment he would say to me as I set out onto a racecourse as a junior oarsman – “Row well, win!”

He was an integral part of the National Schools Regatta which was held along a stretch of the Thames at Pangbourne, unfortunately the river was not wide enough for a full-length course due to an erroneous island. Ronnie’s solution was to remove the island, so with derring do, Ronnie and a number of colleagues embarked on some night time raids. A couple of weeks later the island was submerged below river level, Ronnie then contacted the Thames Conservancy to dredge the river as a matter of urgency to remove this terrible hazard to navigation. This venue lasted until 1973 and Ronnie was then involved in moving the National Schools Regatta to Holme Pierrepont and the newly built National Watersports Centre.

In the mid 60’s he met Margaret, who taught with his sister Zona, and managed to persuade her not to disappear to New Zealand for a third stint and they were married in the spring of 1968. A bouncing baby girl, Anna was born at the start of 1970 and a devilishly handsome, charming son, me, was born in the middle of 1971. He was devoted to all of us and we have many amazing memories of holidays in North Wales and making the most of the facilities at Radley before it became more commercialised. There was a never-ending number of VW campervans that would be filled with crews to the point where the suspension was buckling and then driven to events across Europe. Whenever it was time to get a new one the old trade in would die on the way back to the VW garage. There was an endless stream of students who would turn up to be taught knitting as part of the Wednesday afternoon activities, I recently discovered this was because Margaret would arrive back from work mid-afternoon and offer them all tea. She was a fantastic cook, and here they would tuck into a smorgasbord of homemade biscuits and cakes.

In 1973 he was selected to Umpire the Oxford Cambridge Boat Race. In the odd years Oxford put forward 3 possible umpires and Cambridge select one of them, in the even years it is vice versa. Ronnie umpired the boat race in 1973, 77, 79, 81, 83, 85, and 89, a total of 7 times which was a testament to his character. He would always get nervous before the event as it grew a wider and wider TV audience, if there was ever a football match where the players were accosting the referee he could be heard mumbling about the referee’s decision being final and how it should not be allowed.

By the mid 1970s the Howard family lived in a house owned by Radley College. Ronnie and Margaret decided that they ought to purchase a home so they could get on the property ladder, all the family holidays had been taken on Anglesey in North Wales. However, at the time, English owned properties in that area seemed to be burning down with monotonous regularity. So, Margaret persuaded Ronnie to have a look down in Cornwall, this included a trip to the Roseland and they instantly fell in love with the magnificent area and the opportunity to indulge in some of the best sailing waters in the world. A sailing fleet inevitably followed, starting with a Mirror dinghy that he built himself, then a Wayfarer, every few years he managed to justify getting something bigger, Margaret was never very excited about the idea of camping at sea, preferring to head to the beach where we would meet up for a picnic. Ronnie loved Gilbert and Sullivan and had memorised a huge amount of their work, we would have family trips down to the Minack Theatre to watch Pirates of Penzance. He also loved eggs and every time boiled eggs were on the menu we were treated to a rendition of a few lines of “I am so Proud” as the top of the egg would come off!

“Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock, from a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!”

Ronnie moved to St Mawes full time in 1988 after Margaret’s untimely death and his retirement from Radley, and he adopted the role of both Mum and Dad to Anna and I. He had a go at everything even if it was new to him, the menus were eclectic. Sometimes we were treated to peaches and gravy, sometimes sweet and sour mince, but he tried and we loved him for it!

He threw himself into the newly formed Roseland Gig Club. He immediately started applying his coaching techniques to the traditional rowers and became one of the first chairman of the club. He loved coaching these crews although his confusion of the “pasty stroke” took some time to understand. He was surprised to learn that this was because the handle was pulled “passed the body” and hence “passed he” in the local dialect. Along with Brenda Pye, who was Commodore of the sailing club at the time, they negotiated an affiliation between the two clubs that still exists today. Steve Redgrave, who, at that time was a double Olympic gold medallist, was persuaded to make the trip down to Cornwall to launch the Rhos, the second Gig in the club and then at the 150th anniversary of Henley Royal Regatta he organised a trip for a number of Gigs to have a demonstration race down the course. That year Steve Redgrave was competing in the Silver Goblets for Leander and in one race wore a Roseland Gig Club “Rhos” singlet.

The most important lesson that Ronnie imparted during every training session at the Gig Club was to “make it fun”, a mantra they stand by today which has helped make the Roseland Gig Club one of the most successful in Cornwall.

His sailing boats were now increasing in size, and he would often go on trips up and down the coast with Anna, myself, Zona or Colin. Whoever he could persuade really, and if no one was available he would go on his own or cruise in company with some of his contemporaries, Mike Ifould, Brian Roberts, Brian Wheeldon and Mike Beaman to name but a few. He loved these trips, the sailing and keeping his vessel ship shape. Ronnie inevitably became involved with St Mawes Sailing Club. His various roles were Sailing Secretary, Rear Commodore (Sailing) and Club Secretary. However, his most notable achievement was the development of the club handbook. Traditionally it had always been a list of members with a short letter by the Commodore, Ronnie with the help of Richard Baylis, who managed the advertising, instigated details from each class with history and annual reports, photographs, notable trips that members had undertaken. The modern handbook had been born and with it a level of quality that is unsurpassed across Cornwall. Ronnie also enjoyed watching the racing on the water and became a regular committee boat for championships with his trusty Vancouver 28, Chunky, and Ron Medlyn as Race Officer, the two Rons.

In 2008 Evie was born and he was instantly smitten with his first Grandchild, he would spoil her as much as he could and was forever being chastised by either Sarah or me for feeding her ‘cough sweets’ which were, in reality, wine gums. Evie would feign a cough; Grandad would immediately offer out the treats! Evie loved getting him to put up her favourite flag which he did whenever she asked.