The Norman T. Crombie Prize

Copies may be obtained from Miss A. O'B. Owen, 5 Bradmore Road, Oxford, or from the Editors of " The Peterite."

The following additional candidates are to be congratulated on obtaining their School Certificates in the Oxford and Cambridge Examination, December, 1937 :Bower, R., Harding, J. T., Hobson, H. A. S., Robson, C. M., Shepherd, G. E., Whitney, E. W. (with Matriculation exemption). This makes a final total of 36 successful candidates in 1937 out of 39 entries.

Mr. Ian Crombie, son of the late Norman T. Crombie, has endowed the School with a fund from which an annual prize will be awarded " to the boy amongst those leaving who, in the opinion of the Headmaster, has had the greatest influence for good in the School."

It is unnecessary for us to dwell on the merits of a gift which must surely come to be the most coveted of the prizes available to Peterites, but we commend to the School the following account of the achievements of the O.P. to whose memory this prize is dedicated.

Mr. Cromloie held a high place for many years among the advocates practising in police courts and county courts in York and the smaller towns in the surrounding area. Often he was called upon to appear in cases much further afield.

Although he was a man of considerable eloquence and a highly skilled pleader, he was none the less a painstaking lawyer who never neglected a minor detail in his case and who was always prepared to devote the greatest number of hours possible to preparation and to research where necessary. It was often said by people in the legal profession that if Mr. Crombie had been called to the Bar instead of remaining a solicitor he would have become one of the most famous advocates in the country. • He undertook much work under the poor persons' rules and took many cases into court on behalf of people who could not afford to pay lawyers' fees.

He was :a Notary Public, of which there were only three in York. , -.At the York Employment Exchange he served 22

as chairman of the Court of Referees. Among the Secretaryships which he held were those of the John Allan Charity and the Winterscale Charity.

Deeply interested in the Merchant Adventurers' Company, one of York's two surviving medieval trade guilds, he was for some years its secretary. He was a keen member of York Rotary Club and was at one time chairman of its Fellowship Committee. A very witty man, he was an ideal after-dinner speaker. He was a keen horticulturist who gave the Grand Yorkshire Flower Show and Gala devoted service for many years. Latterly he was chairman of the Committee.

Mr. Crombie lived at Haverford, Clifton Scope, a beautiful house overlooking the Ouse, and regularly attended Clifton Church, which he served as churchwarden for many years.

In his youth he was a keen Rugby Union player who got his game for York. When the York Rugby League club, the professional successor to the York Rugby Union club of his day, reached the cup final at Wembley in 1931, he went to the match and had with him his old amber and black jersey. He also) played hockey for York for some years. Rowing and cycling were other sports which interested him.

As a tribute to the life of Mr. Crombie and as a pointer to the prize commemorating it, we cannot do better than quote the words of Mr. J. F. Glew, the Presiding Magistrate at York City Police Court, at the time of Mr. Crombie's death.

Mr. Glew said they met under a cloud. They had lost from their midst one of their most prominent advocates who practised in that court. Those who had been associated with Mr. Crombie in that court and in other spheres had always recognised his genial temperament, his kindly disposition and his desire to do everything he possibly could for those around him.

No matter with whom he was dealing, whether it was his opponents or those whom he represented, Mr. Crombie's one desire was to play the game, to be fair and honest, and to try to ascertain the truth.

Mr. Crombie was a great personality. The many and varied activities with which he associated himself were probably known to all in court.

In connection with the Gala and in Masonic work, Mr. Crombie took a very active part, and those associated with 23