The Library and Archives

Claverdon, where he was secretary for fifteen years and helped introduce and encourage a junior team, which led to his receiving an award at Lords for services to cricket.

Iain was a very enthusiastic and nationally well-known lepidopterist, with an extensive collection of butterflies and moths. He specialised in micro-moths and was always accompanied by his moth trap whenever travelling. A few years ago Iain collected one that was previously unknown and has since been given the name of Reidii. A further aspect of his life that was important to him was gardening. He always maintained a well-stocked garden and his forte was the growing of giant pumpkins, which invariably won the top prize in his local annual produce shows and which he auctioned in ‘Guess the Weight’ for charity.

Despite being a bit of a dinosaur (he would have nothing to do with computers), Iain was always great company and was the life and soul of his local pub in Rugby. He died on 21 August 2020.

Iain’s friend Alistair Barr (SE 1958) and Iain’s family

The Reverend Canon Ian Ainsworth-Smith MBE (1961)

Ian Ainsworth-Smith read Theology at Selwyn from 1961 to 1964. He always spoke very happily of his time at the College and stayed in touch with John Sweet and his family for many years. During the Covid lockdown he particularly enjoyed the Zoom lectures from Selwyn. It was while he was treasurer of the Cambridge University Gilbert and Sullivan Society that he met Jean, who was also a member. They married in 1965.

Ian trained for ordination at Westcott House and, after training, served two curacies, the first in the diocese of London and the second in the diocese of Southwark. He trained for hospital chaplaincy at Massachusetts General Hospital in the USA. Ian was appointed senior chaplain of St George’s Hospital, London, in 1973, where he served for thirty-three years until he retired.

In addition to his work with hospital staff and patients, Ian supervised many multidisciplinary students on placement in the hospital. He also trained as a psychotherapist and had a particular interest in people with eating disorders, and families who had experienced stillbirth and miscarriage. He also taught medical ethics in the Hospital Medical School and chaired several research ethics committees. The book Letting Go: Caring for the Dying and Bereaved (London: SPCK, 1982), which he co-wrote with Peter Speck, is still to be found on many recommended reading lists and led to many speaking engagements. He was appointed an honorary canon of Southwark Cathedral in 1995 and was awarded an MBE by the Queen in 2006 for services to the National Health Service.

Ian and Jean retired to Milverton in Somerset in 2006, where Ian became involved with village life. Having lived in ‘tied’ accommodation in London, they had already bought the Milverton house. Ian became chair of the Milverton Parish Council and chair of the Milverton & Fitzhead Society, in addition to being vice-chair of the Cambridge Society of Somerset and a member of the Bath and Wells Clerical Society. He was the Bishop’s Adviser on Healthcare Chaplaincy for the diocese of Bath and Wells and described himself as a ‘jobbing vicar’, helping out in local parishes. He was a guest lecturer and chaplain on cruise ships, and he and Jean travelled the world, visiting every continent, including Antarctica, by ship. They were often invited to give talks to local groups about their travels. He and Jean have identical twin sons and four grandchildren.

Ian died very suddenly in March 2021. Although his funeral was held during lockdown and only thirty mourners could attend in Milverton Church, over one hundred people stood out in the churchyard, socially distanced, where the service was relayed. As the hearse drove through the village on Ian’s final journey, the people of the village came out onto their doorsteps to wish him farewell. He died a month before his eightieth birthday.

Jean Ainsworth-Smith (Ian’s widow)

The Reverend Peter Lee (1962)

Peter Kenneth Lee came up to Selwyn in 1962 to read Classics, but switched to Theology after Part I. His headmaster described him as a ‘delightful and whimsical personality’. This, combined with a certain physical clumsiness, often got him into scrapes. A failure to locate his return ticket north immediately in his jacket pocket once resulted in his suitcase accidentally spilling open before the office door of a rather bemused captain of industry. Peter’s father, the vicar of Horsforth near Leeds, also gave lectures in Theology at the University of Leeds, and theology and education were likewise Peter’s main interests as a clergyman. Before going to Cuddesdon in 1967, he spent a year in Wolverhampton, teaching at a junior school and helping to run a hostel for ex-offenders.

He was ordained in 1969 and served as curate in east Leeds at Manston, part of a major housing estate at Crossgates, the first of his three crosses, as he used to joke. He then moved to Bingley in 1972, where he was responsible for the daughter church of St Aidan’s, Crossflatts, as well as being chaplain to the Bingley College of Education. He then spent thirteen years as vicar of St James, Cross Roads with Lees, across the valley from Haworth. A train enthusiast, he was delighted to have the terminus and yard of the restored Worth Valley Railway in his parish. He served for many years on the Bradford Diocesan Board of Education, and subsequently on that of Durham. In 1990 he become vicar of St Peter’s, Bishop Auckland, being at the same time a tutor for the North East Ordination Course and, later, for the North East Institute of Theological Studies. The same year he married Diana, an administrative officer in Hackney, and they adopted a son, Kyle.

Peter was a frequent contributor to Christian and theological magazines and presented several papers to the quadrennial Oxford International Patristic Congress. He was particularly concerned to explain the Christian message in sermons, notably in his book Preaching Through the Christian Year (London: Mowbray, 1986) and in his challenging Why believe in God? (Oxford: Becket, 1983). In his last book, Authority in the Christian Church (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2006), he lucidly explained the different ways in which the Church over the centuries has transmitted the authority of God by word, action and writing within the apostolic tradition.

He and Diana retired in 2009 to Northallerton, where he could enjoy his passion for hill walking in the Pennines and the Lake District, alongside running a course on

philosophy for the U3A. In June 2017, he suffered a severe stroke, which impeded his walking and his speech, but not his love of reading. He died in June 2020 at Scorton, near Northallerton.

Professor Vivian Nutton (SE 1962, Honorary Fellow)

Tony Allen (1963)

Tony Allen was born in Hove, East Sussex, to Stanley, a solicitor who was for five years secretary of Sussex County Cricket Club, and Peggy (née Wing), who worked as a nurse during the Second World War. Tony came up to Selwyn from Brighton College in 1963 to read Theology. After graduation he went on to Westcott House theological college intending to be ordained, but changed direction and attended the College of Law, in London, qualifying as a solicitor in 1971 with Donne, Mileham and Haddock (now DMH Stallard), based in Brighton. The same year, Tony married Torill Berg-Nillsen, a Norwegian. They had four children, Kim, Emma, Rachel and Henrik.

The Adur Saltings Bridge scheme, in Shoreham-on-Sea, West Sussex, started Tony’s career. In 1971 he acted for the objectors in successfully opposing the local council’s plan to build a bypass along the River Adur, a renowned wetland SSSI. He soon established a reputation as the ‘go to’ planning lawyer in the south-east, attracting clients from across the region. Having become a partner of DMH Stallard in 1975 and qualified as a legal member of the Royal Town Planning Institute in 1978, Tony helped establish one of the country’s first multi-disciplinary planning practices that included planning lawyers and chartered planners. A notable achievement was Brighton’s Jubilee Library at the start of the millennium, which was the centrepiece of a £50 million development in the centre of the city and won awards for design and sustainability. He handled the complex application by Brighton and Hove Albion FC for the development of the Amex Stadium, home to the Seagulls since 2011. Two years after leaving the Goldstone Ground in 1997, the homeless club appointed Tony to handle their planning application for the conversion of Withdean Athletics Stadium. The application succeeded in spite of opposition from residents in the wealthy neighbourhood.

Tony continued as a consultant, with a particular interest in listed buildings, after his retirement as a partner in 2012. His lifelong interest in model ships, of which he had a wonderful collection, continued. Tony died in 2020, aged seventy-six. He is survived by Torill and their children.

Based on an obituary by Martin Allen (Tony’s brother) Stephen Ramsden (1963)

Stephen Martin Ramsden was born in Bolton on 5 June 1945. He was his parents’ only child and was born in the house which they had bought a few years earlier. He attended Bolton School, where he showed much academic promise. He was awarded an Exhibition and came up to Selwyn in 1963 to read History under the guidance of William Brock. Steve was very proud of his roots and one fondly recalls him saying Grace in Hall in impeccable Latin but with a rich Lancashire accent.

After graduating, Steve took up a position in the planning department of Bedfordshire County Council. A couple of years later he moved back to the family home in Bolton and worked in similar posts first with Lancashire County Council and later with Greater Manchester County Council. Following the disbanding of the GMCC in 1986, Steve moved into consultancy work. He worked for a time with the North East Sports Council and then had a lengthy involvement with ICI. There then followed a period of several years during which he was instrumental in arranging a rolling programme of local plan public enquiries on behalf of various local authorities. He continued to be engaged in this kind of work until his eventual retirement.

Away from work, Steve was very much a social animal and had a number of interests. He was a keen and talented cricketer, playing as batsman and wicket-keeper both for his school and also the Selwyn First XI. On his return to Bolton he played at First XI level in the Bolton League and continued to play in a ‘casual’ team until only a few years before he died. In later years he was also very active in the Bolton Quiz League and won its Mastermind competition on a couple of occasions. He was also a keen collector of coins and stamps.

Steve always liked to enjoy life to the full and had a healthy appreciation of the attractions of the dinner table and the wine cellar. His fondness for the latter may possibly have had its origins in the excellent claret generously provided by Dr Brock in his rooms after dinner in Hall.

Steve continued to live in the family home following the deaths of his parents. He never married and his nearest relatives were cousins. He began to have problems with his health a few years ago but remained positive in his outlook on life and lost none of his accustomed cheerfulness. He died on 12 October 2020 in the house in which he had been born and had lived for nearly the whole of his life. The warm tributes that were paid at his funeral showed how very many friends he had in the Bolton area, some of them going back to his school days, and how well-liked and highly regarded he was.

His great loves included the countryside, cricket and having fun. It was therefore very fitting that his funeral service began with part of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, included The Cricketers’ Prayer and ended with The Ying Tong Song. One could imagine him singing along as the curtains closed around his coffin.

Steve was one of a group of us who first met at Selwyn back in 1963 and who have remained friends ever since. We shall remember him with great affection as one who was always good company and fun to be with. We shall miss him.

Derek Wellman (SE 1963) PART FIVE