Obituary

DENIS NORWOOD 1909-13-18

It will bring great sadness to many generations of Old Peterites both among his contemporaries at School and among the many whom he taught between 1922 and 1930 to hear of the death of Denis Norwood on 7th May, 1969.

He was in St. Olave's from 1909 until 1913 when he moved up to St. Peter's. He left in 1918 to go to an Officer's Cadet Training Unit, where he was when the war ended. From 1919 to 1922 he was at Hertford College, Oxford and then came back to be a master at St. Peter's where he virtually founded the Geography Department. In 1930 he left to become a Geography Specialist and Head of the Department at King Edward's School, Birmingham and subsequently became Head Master of Stand Grammar School and later of Kirkham School. In 1959 he retired from Kirkham and went to live in Lytham where he found plenty to occupy himself as a Justice of the Peace and as Governor of a Girls' School.

Denis and I were contemporaries at St. Peter's, at Oxford and on the staff at St. Peter's, and I have always regarded him as one of my closest and oldest friends. I was his "best man" at his wedding in the Isle of Man, and a very entertaining experience it was. Perhaps I and most of his friends will remember him best for his never-failing cheerfulness and his bubbling sense of fun and mischief. Many too will remember his imperturbable bowling of "wily lobs" in cricket matches and his devoted "fathering" of the 2nd XI cricket for many seasons. He was a House Tutor in the School House and Housemaster of the Dayboys for three years and many Old Peterites from both houses will remember with gratitude the kindly and understanding help that "Dickie" was always so willing to give them.

He was a dedicated Old Peterite and never missed an O.P. function if he could possibly avoid doing so. He was a regular attender at dinners all over the country and at Commemoration. Many present Peterites will recall seeing his caravan parked by the boathouse in the past few years. Last year, when another caravan turned up, he typically appointed himself "Warden of the Caravan Site"!

To my mind Denis Norwood was essentially a good teacher, a good man and a good friend, whose death will leave a sad gap in ranks of Old Peterites.

All those Who knew him will, I am sure, wish to extend the deepest sympathy to his wife, Eileen, and to his sons, David, Michael and Pat.

K.H.R.

M. L. X. KAMBU 1923-1925

The death was announced in Bangkok on 12th April of M. L. Xujati Kambu at the age of 64. Born in 1905, after receiving his primary and secondary education in Thailand, he came to St. Peter's for two years in 1923 and went on to the City and Guilds Engineer College of London 2