NEWS ITEMS
Mrs. Marie McLaren, widow of the late Mr. Mac reaches her century on Friday 13th August, 2004 and I have sent birthday greetings on behalf of 'Shene Grammar Schoolboys Everywhere'
DR...... 9th August, 2004
The following reply has been received from Mrs. McLaren:
"Dear David,
Robert Vaughan has given me your address. I am taking advantage of my daugher's computer to thank you for your beautiful card, together with all the old boys' congratulations. How clever of you to find those very appropriate pansies...! I had no idea of the existence of your society so your card was a very pleasurable surprise.
I am not completely out of touch. Peter Coggins lived opposite me for many years and Walford Stone is coming to visit me in the the near future. He is a good friend.
I am so happy that more than fifty years later my dear husband is still remembered. Teacher, scouter, wartime caterer and someone always willing to take on extra duties, he was devoted to his profession. His attitude in life was to put the welfare of other people before his own. Such people are not very often to be found.
I received two unexpected and very kind letters as a result of your efforts. I can acknowledge the one from Robert Vaughan, mentioned above, but not that from Richard Simms. He spoke about a school trip to Paris that my husband had organized and his letter revived some very pleasant memories. I should be grateful if you could give me his address.
Thank you for the trouble you have taken to make my birthday a very special one. I shall treasure your card.
Yours very sincerely.
Marie McLaren"
A note from Robin McLaren received on 16th August,2006...................
What a surprise. I found the news item which I guessed had something to do with my Honorary Fellowship of Royal Holloway, awarded because I was Chairman of the College Council for 5 years till 2004. I couldn't manage to locate the photo though.
You might want to know that my mother celebrated her 102nd birthday last Sunday. Sadly she had to do so in hospital where she is receiving rehabilitation treatment following an operation.
Having never been in hospital in her life before she is not greatly enjoying the experience, but the family are hopeful that she will eventually get back on her feet again and (though less certainly) be able to return to her home.
Note from David Richardson..............I visited Mrs McLaren for an hour on 16th January, 2008 and found her in exceptional form looking forward to her 104th birthday. Her memory is wonderful and although her hearing is slightly impaired I could only be impressed by the fact that she is able to read without spectacles, something that I haven't been able to achieve since my late forties.........!! She has a very enquiring mind and is a person of letters who surrounds herself with a battery of reference books which she uses to the full. A remarkable lady.....................
The above photograph and the following article appeared in the Richmond and Twickenham Times on August 10th 2007. Many thanks to Ray Argent for providing them............DR
SECRETS TO LONG LIFE REVEALED
'At almost 103-years-old, one inspirational borough resident’s tips for long life are certainly worth hearing.
Marie McLaren, who has lived through two world wars, celebrates her 103rd birthday on Monday at Twickenham’s Lynde House care home. And according to Marie, longevity is all about the simpler things in life.
“It’s having good health, doing what you enjoy, in moderation, and having lots of hobbies,” she said.
Unusually for women at the time, Marie was educated at University College, London. Her long life saw her employed at the BBC in. the 1930s, first as a secretary then producing French and German programmes for schools
Marie came to live in the borough after her marriage in 1929 to husband Robert, a teacher, with whom she shared a home in Barnes.
During World War II, Marie was evacuated to East Grinstead where she lived with her children, Jenny, Elizabeth and Robert — the latter became Ambassador to China during negotiations over the future of Hong Kong and was subsequently knighted. Marie said: “I am proud of my children and what they have all achieved and also of having a son who achieved such distinction.” The family moved to East Sheen after the war, where Marie lived doing her own shopping and banking up until November of last year. She was soon a well-known resident, volunteering in the Missing Person’s charity shop until she was well into her 90s.
With nine grandchildren and ten great grandchildren, Marie penned her memoirs ‘Four Score and More - The Story of a Life in 2004’, to pass the details of her life and times down the family tree.
And, according to Lynde House administrator, Victoria Hodges, Marie is a true inspiration.'
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Dick Strevens............ 4th March, 2006.........The long history of the School is a splendid piece of work and I read it with a great deal of interest. It reinforces my considered opinion that HH Shephard laid very firm foundations for his pupils. What a great scholar and Christian gentleman he was. We all owe him a very great deal
I can recall a prayer that he used regularly at assembly that included the wish that 'we should be kept free from pride, vanity, boasting and forwardness'. This was followed by 'and give us the air that......'
I'd be glad to hear from any Old Boy who can refresh my memory.
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Listen in to John Carey on Radio 4 tomorrow, Tuesday 30th November, 2004 at 3.45pm. John was at Shene appx. 1944-50.
The Photo Gallery now includes a cutting from Saturday's Daily Telegraph Radio and Television guide and this explains all
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Editor's Note: A lot of people were interested in this and have written to me. A few samples......
Derek Corless................................Thank you for details of the re-union and for the advice of John Carey's talk on language. I was in St Mary's Barnes church choir with him back in 1952-3, he had a way with words even then, I remember some puns that were worse than mine.
Ray Theodoulou.............................. I think John Carey was at Shene rather later than you mention. I recall that he took my year 1952-58 on our first cross country run in the Park. We were small boys...second year perhaps. I remember the occasion well because I came in first but only because he stopped the runners half way round to ensure that nobody had got lost. I suspect that I must have had an advantage when the race restarted because I never came anywhere near winning such a race again. When we were coming out of those dreadful showers Carey asked who had arrived at the winning post first and I proudly raised my hand. Our Latin teacher told me that John was the only pupil he had ever taught who never forgot anything he was told. He also wrote poetry for the school magazine in the style of TS Elliot. Clearly a most remarkable man.
Mike Collett...........................................................Unfortunately, we were out, and I missed it! Carey (John) sat behind me in our last year at Shene and we were all asked to submit a poem or an essay for the school magazine by Mr. Bryant the English Master. Mine and Carey's were selected! I can still remember mine but not his!
I remember him saying to me (obviously highly envious of my undoubted literary talent) that my poem did not 'scan'. I couldn't understand his, because it was blank verse. I like a poem that rhymes, don't you?' It was called 'End of the Drought" and began with:-
"Splashes appear and widen in the pools caused by the pre-descended rain,
while ducks waddle joyfully across the yard"
... and so it went on in the same pulsating, gripping manner. Makes yer weep, dunnit? I only wrote a poem because it was quicker than writing an essay"
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'The Definitive Guide To Sports Betting'........................................Jeremy Chapman has contributed 600 words to the golf chapter of this book which is out for the Christmas 2004 market. There are sections on Cricket and every other sport, even bowls..... Cost £15 plus postage............
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'Through The Apartheid Keyhole'.................................written by Vaughan Stone is an autobiographical account of his adventures during 6 years in South Africa. Obtainable from independent bookshops (Vaughan says you will need to be persistent with them) by quoting the Publisher's details or, of course, directly from the Publisher:
Maoildearg, Editor, David Green, 47, Rue du Pont Lottin, 62100 Calais, France
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Hugh Riley..................................a letter written to David Richardson 7th September, 2005 by Mrs. Riley in response to the Reunion 2005 invitation
"I regret to say that Hugh is now in Sheltered Housing and unable to drive. He is unable to take public transport after suffering a stroke following a heart operation in July 2003. He is fairly mobile but has great difficulty with speech also writing sentences. He did have a lot of speech therapy and has achieved a great deal in 2 years but opinion is that he will always have problems making himself understood and he also has problems with the written word."
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Vaughan Stone "Life At Large" is my first book of poems - a mixture of South African
satire from way back, nature verse and gently Christian themes running
through; also some fun poems. Available from independent booksellers, price
£4.99. ISBN: 0-9551 431-0-1 . Also available from me direct.
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A note from David Richardson on 16th May, 2006.........Mark Stimpson (m.stimpson@btinternet.com) the Treasurer of Shene Old Grammarians Football Club was recently in touch.
He told me about their own website www.sogfc.org. which now has a link that takes it back to our own site www.sheneob.co.uk
The Football Club is apparently the only surviving component of the old Association and membership is open to all comers.
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John Hopkins......................They still appear to play in Old Gold shirts with quite a similar badge also. A much more practical badge than in our day when I seem to remember mine was attached by poppers so that it could be removed before washing.
I recall the change from white to Old Gold, I was on the committee and may have been Club Captain I am not sure. This relative new and young intake was trying to salvage the club playing fortunes, after relegation from what I think was the Senior Division to the Intermediate. Players used to turn up wearing any old shirt that could loosely be described as white. So we thought we should try to look like a team even if we found it difficult to play like one. We were heavily influenced by the team of the moment - Wolverhampton Wanderers hence the colour which seems to have stuck. We were reasonably successful thanks mainly to not so much the strip but a certain evergreen Sid Walpole who swapped his centre half role for centre forward for a while.
Robin McLaren (now Sir) of the 1940s................ Robin recently received an accolade, with others, at Royal Holloway College, Egham. You can see a photograph of the occasion in Familiar Faces Part 5 on the Photo Gallery.
William Birtles of the 1960s.............Shene Grammar School pops up readily on a Web search and enabled the Editor to locate the following details on William which tells of his eminence in his profession. Yet another example of Shene Old Boys 'enriching the time to come'
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His Hon Judge William Birtles
Year of Call Nov 1970 |
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Profile
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Specialisation: Barrister specialising in environmental, planning and local government law. Has had considerable experience in both civil and criminal aspects of pollution claims including land contamination (arising from oil, toxic waste and industrial waste disposal), water (e.g. Barry Docks, Cardiff), air (particularly industrial smells) and noise.
Major inquiries include the Sizewell B Nuclear Power Station Inquiry (1984-86), the Westminster Council District Audit Inquiry (1994-5) and various inquiries for local authorities including the London Borough of Greenwich and Sailsbury District Council.
Also specialises in employment law, individual employment law (esp. discrimination and trade union law) and professional negligence.
Recent cases include:
Speciality Care plc v Pachela and another [1996] IRLR 248
Wallace v C.A. Roofing Services [1996] IRLR 435
R v Rochdale MBC ex parte Brown [1997] Env. R 100
R v Derbyshire CC ex parte Woods [1997] JPL 958
R v Somerset CC ex parte Dixon [1997] JPL 1030
Ind. v The Plant Hire Company (Stroud) Limited [1998] Env. L.R.D15
Housing Corporation v Bejard [1999] ICR 123
R v North Yorkshire County Council ex parte Brown [1999] 1 All ER 969 (HL). |
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Qualifications
Shene County Grammar School; King's College, London (LLB 1967, LLM 1968); Harvard Law School (LLM 1971); New York University Law School (Robert Marshall Fellow 1971-1972).
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Reverend Professor David Alfred Martin BSc, PhD of the 1940s..................David was honoured by the British Academy in 2007 when he became a Senior Fellow. David is an honorary assistant priest at Guildford Cathedral.
Bernie Doeser of the 1960s appeared on TV's Mastermind during October, 2007 and this is the correspondence between David Richardson and Bernie.............
Bernie,
'I saw the show and thought you were up against some really tough cookies without getting some rough questions yourself. The time element is obviously crucial and being in the spotlight must have been quite an examination for you................'
........but congratulations are obviously due for being on the show in the first place.'
'Thank you David,
It was the most nerve wracking experience of my life. I had to keep thinking, they’re not going to execute me if I don’t win.
I also knew the answers to three questions I passed on, but under the conditions I couldn’t quite get the answer out.
Anyway, I was glad I had a go, but would not do it again, nor would I recommend
it.'
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Dennis Chisman, ex Science Master at Shene has recently told of his current health situation and his note to friends and colleagues is copied here.
Absolutely no correspondence should be undertaken with Dennis, please........at his express wish.
DR 27.3.08
Dear Friends and Colleagues
I apologise for contacting you in this impersonal way, but there are so many names in my address book that it would be difficult to contact everyone by telephone or letter. And, to be selective would be invidious.
I am sorry to say that following many tests and scans during the last few weeks I have been diagnosed with oesophageal cancer. This is obviously not good news but after 80 years of almost perfect health - no major illnesses, no replacement joints, no high blood pressure, still my own teeth and my hearing unimpaired - I guess I have been very lucky compared with many of my friends and colleagues.
The consultants suggest that surgery is a realistic option even for someone of my age (80 is certainly borderline) because of my basic fitness, physically and mentally. It is, of course, a major operation with some risks during and after the operation. Recovery would be at least 6 months, possibly longer. Before this, though, I have to undergo a course of chemotherapy (9 weeks) followed by a 6 week recovery period, so any operation is 3 or 4 months down the line.
I know that your reaction to this news would be the same as mine i.e. a wish to send messages of sympathy and support. Please don't do this. I don't want to be overwhelmed. Suffice for me to know that I have shared this information with you and to sense your sympathy. Later, perhaps, we can be in touch by telephone or e-mail. I will not be far away.
I am always an optimist so, perhaps, "Uncle Dennis" and/or "Dennis the Menace" will bounce back in due course. Watch this space.
Thank you for spending time reading this dreary and unnecessarily long account of my problems. And good wishes to everyone.
Yours
Dennis
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WE WILL REMEMBER THEM
Taken from the School Magazine of 1947
On Thursday evening, November 13th, 1947, in the main corridor of the school, at the close of a Service of Remembrance, there was unveiled the plaque which records the names of seventy-five of our Old Boys who died on service in the war of 1939-1946. Over two hundred parents and friends were present at the ceremony. Prefects of the school and representatives of the senior forms also attended. Flowers, brought by the boys of the school helped to illuminate the improvised dais at the balcony end of the hall.
The service was conducted by an Old Boy, the Rev. F. C. Watson; Mr. Giles, Vice-Chairman of the Old Boys’ Association, read passages from the Wisdom of Solomon as a Lesson and Mr. W. R. D. Martin, secretary of the Association, read out the names on the memorial. The unveiling was done by Mr. W. G. Hale Pearce, Chairman of the Association. The hymn, ‘O, Valiant Hearts’ was sung, with the assistance of a small choir, to the piano accompaniment of Mr. D. A. Martin. Finally, the Last Post,” sounded by a bugler from Kingston Barracks, echoed its message of Hope through the corridors of the school and in the hearts of all those who had gathered to do honour to the memory of old comrades.
It was difficult for us of the school, during the service, to realise that the boys whose names are on that plaque were gone from us. We remember them at their lessons and in their games. We have little knowledge of how they fared in the world for which we helped to prepare them. But we know they faced their duty resolutely and we know they died that the rest of us might live in freedom. Let us therefore remember them as long as the bronze plaques glow softly and the graven names remind us that these men were and are our own special Old Boys. May the boys now at the school and those who, in days to come, throng the corridor, always recall why those plaques are there and resolve that when the moment of trial comes, as it does in the lives of all of us, they too may choose the Truth and the Right.
ROLL OF HONOUR
SHENE OLD BOYS LOST IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR
R. J. S. Ackary
P. B. Ashby
G. C. Ayres
R. J. Ayres
A. J. Baker
G. G. Barker
J. F. Bigg-Wither
A. L. W. Bond
E. A. Brace
C. V. Brasseur
S. H. Bunch
R. E. Burgess
J. C. Cantle
M. G. Capel
R. T. Chinery
A. L. Clipson
R. G. Cole
G. L. Collins
D. M. A. Connelly
B. E. Coppin
D. G. Corbett
J. V. Cowtan
R. W. Cox
M. E. Cumber
L. A. Day
N. W. Dorling
J. A. Dutton
J. D. Dye
W. L. Dymond
A. F. Etherington
V. Eyton-Jones
S. J. C. Groom
D. A. Harsum
K. G. Harvey
R. Heathfield
R. Herbert
P. A. Hill
K. Hoad
H. J. Huben
G. R. Humphries
D. W. G. Jones
0. A. L. Jones
H. J. Kelly
L. G. Kelly
V. S. Lacey
L. A. Leddington
J. H. Lingwood
J. G. B. Macfarlane
S. H. Mansbridge
H. W. Matthews
E. G. Meaton
R. A. S. Mitchell
P. H. Moller
R. W. Morgan
R. H. Morgan
H. J. Naldrett
A. J. Oakley
K. B. Parker
D. M. Penny
H. F. J. Perry
K. D. Port
J. A. Raper
R. D. C. Rich
J. W. J. Roney
B. B. Shipton
H. Slingsby
D. J. Slaughter
R. C. J. Southey
J. B. Sowerby
P. J. Stuart
F. G. R. Thomas
W. F. J. Thomson
G. A. R. Undrell
C. G. D. Walter
A. M. White
D. R. Wilson
IN MEMORIAM.....We regret the passing of the following Old Boys:
DEREK SMITH June 2001
REG. JOHNSON September, 2002
PAUL HANCOCK 2002
Professor Paul Lewis Hancock (1937-1998) was Professor of Neotectonics at the University of Bristol and an international authority on active fault zones and earthquake movements. He had been on the staff of the department for 30 years when he died from cancer, in 1998, at the age of 61.
Paul Hancock was born in London in 1937 and educated at Sheen Grammar School and then Durham University, where he graduated with a first-class honours degree in Geology in 1959. He remained at Durham to carry out his doctoral research, on the structure of the Orielton anticline in Pembrokeshire, completing his PhD in 1962. Research and teaching appointments at Cambridge, Nottingham and Strathclyde were to follow before he came to Bristol in 1968. He remained at Bristol for the rest of his life, being actively involved in both research and teaching in the department. He supervised more than 20 research students and, for over 20 years, was coordinator of the Joint School in Archaeology and Geology. He was promoted to Reader in 1981 and appointed to a personal chair in 1995.
Hancock's research work took him all over the world, from Spain to Argentina, China to Turkey, and from Greece to Nevada, USA. He was always an exponent of the classical traditions of field geological study. Lengthy and personal observation of the rocks in situ, and detailed recording on paper and by means of photographs, together with step-by-step mapping of the terrain, were essential for a proper understanding of what was going on. Hancock's research interests in these diverse regions included classical structural geology, in particular the study of brittle microtectonics (the use of faults to identify past stress conditions in the Earth's crust) and regional structure (major thrusts of rock masses to produce mountain ranges). He later moved increasingly into the field of neotectonics, the study of faulting and folding in action, both in the present day, and in the archaeological past.
The combination of geology and archaeology became a particularly fruitful field for Hancock in the 1990s. He showed, by observation and experiment, the nature of the earthquakes that had destroyed so many classical Greek temples. He also showed how the combination of archaeology and geology allowed the history of earthquakes in an active region to be reconstructed precisely, and then to be used as a means of calculating current and future risk.
Hancock's academic activity was reflected in a distinguished publication list, including 65 scientific articles, and ten edited books. In 1978, he launched the Journal of Structural Geology, which has since become the leading international journal in the field; from 1992 until his death, he was chairman of the International Commission on Tectonics (sponsored by UNESCO).
Those who knew Paul were aware that his sometimes stern expression hid a dry sense of humour and a kind heart. He will be remembered with affection by his colleagues and former students. In 2001, Journal of Structural Geology 23, 2&3 were devoted to the memory of Paul Lewis Hancock: Editor-in-Chief, 1979–1985; Founding Editor, 1986–1998.
The Hancock Memorial Prize is awarded annually to the best final-year MSci student, and the Hancock Occasional Prize has been set up to reward outstanding performance in Archaeology/Geology.
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SID WALPOLE April, 2003
JOHN SIBUN June, 2003
TONY REYNER July, 2003
DAVID HANNELL, October, 2003
BERNARD HURDLE, October, 2003
JOHN CRUDDACE, 2003
JOHN POWRIE 2003
HYWEL MADOC-JONES, January, 2004
Hywel Madoc-Jones, M.D., Secretary/Treasurer of the Massachusetts Medical
Society, died on Wednesday 14th January, 2004 after a brief illness. He was 65 years old.
A member of the Medical Society for 23 years, Dr. Madoc-Jones was a
radiation oncologist practicing at Norfolk Radiation Oncology Associates in
Norfolk. He also practised at Caritas Norwood Hospital Southwood Campus,
Caritas St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Boston, and other hospitals in the
Boston area.
Born in Cardiff, Wales, Dr. Madoc-Jones initially trained as a cancer
researcher in London. He subsequently taught radiobiology at the Washington
University School of Medicine and earned his M.D. with honours at the
Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago in 1973. He moved
to Boston in 1980 to lead the Radiation Oncology Department at Tufts
University School of Medicine.
Dr. Madoc-Jones joined the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1981 and was a
member of the Society's House of Delegates and numerous committees before
his election as Secretary/Treasurer in 2000. He was re-elected to the
position twice. He also served two terms as President of the Suffolk
District Medical Society from 1997-1999.
MMS President Thomas E. Sullivan, M.D., said, "Hywel Madoc-Jones was a true
gentleman and a Massachusetts Medical Society activist. He was vocal about
his concerns for the profession, for the Society and for the best in patient
care. He contributed selflessly to the leadership of the Society and often
reminded us of our mission and the need to use our resources wisely to carry
out our mission. His example and his counsel will be both missed and
remembered by his fellow officers and many friends and colleagues."
Dr. Madoc-Jones' funeral will be held Saturday (Jan. 17) at noon at the St.
John the Evangelist Church, Wellesley. There will be a private burial
service in Louisiana. His family requests that in lieu of flowers donations
be made in his memory to the Dr. Hywel Madoc-Jones Fund, c/o Development
Office at Tufts-New England Medical Center, 750 Washington St., Boston
02111.
As reported on the MMS Website and provided by Alan Treherne
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DOUGLAS GODWIN, January, 2004
PHILLIP HARES, 2004
CLIFF ADAMS, June, 2004
BERTIE DUCK 2004
PETER JEFFERIES 2005
TOM REID 2005
Rev. IVAN DOWNS 2005
Dick Strevens recalls that Ivan had left the School by the time Dick arrived in September 1946 and he was to meet him later at a School scout expedition to the Lake District. Ivan was a regular worshipper at All Saints, East Sheen. Dick has provided the following regarding Ivan's career in the ministry via Crockford's Clerical Directory and his death notice in the Church Times.
1965. attended Chichester Theological College
1966. appointed Deacon
1967. ordained Priest
1966-70. Assistant Curate, Corbridge with Hallow
1970-74. Assistant Curate, Christchurch, Tyneside
1974-79. Vicar, Walker
1979-89. Vicar, Dudley
1990-91. Vicar, Weetslade until retirement
1991. Given permission to officiate
Deceased 1st March, 2005
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PAUL GARDINER, September, 2005
PERCY KUNZLI, October, 2005
CHRIS WICKS, December, 2005
RICHARD (DICK) BOND January, 2006
An extract from Mrs. Tina Bond's note to David Richardson: 'I'm sorry to have to tell you that my husband, R.J. ( Dick ) Bond died 23rd January 2006. He died at home in Fareham, Hants after being diagnosed with cancer nine months previously.
I'm not quite sure when he started at the school as things were rather
unsettled over the war years but he left in 1948 to begin an apprenticeship at the R.A.E. His love of cricket & football was greatly encouraged at the school & he continued to follow those sports through into further education with avid spectating in later life'
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JOHN WYMER, February, 2006
Friends and colleagues paid tribute to the internationally renowned Suffolk archaeologist. Dr John Wymer, who lived in Bildeston, Suffolk was an expert on the Palaeolithic period, otherwise known as the 'Old Stone Age', and died on February 10, aged 77, at Southampton Hospital following a short illness.
Footnote: from Peter Cox:.........John was an SOG who lived in the next village to me. I never got round to meeting him but did speak to him on the phone about our Reunions, which he was interested to hear.
Editor's footnote:........As one volunteer out of a hundred at the Kew Bridge Steam Museum I was in conversation with the wife of a Trustee of the Museum at a recent Exhibition opening. The particular study for which John was renowned had also been her own enthusiasm for many years and she was very aware of his standing. A photograph of John, taken from the Daily Telegraph, can be seen at the Photo Gallery in FAMILIAR FACES Part 3.
.....and from Eric Foote......................I have now reached the age when scanning the Obituaries column in the Daily Telegraph can be rewarding and interesting, but also very sad. The latter applies to last Friday's column. I read of the death of John Wymer. He had been a friend of my young brother, Raymond and guest at our home before Raymond went to the U.S.A. The obituary referred to the fact that John had been"...educated at Richmond and East Sheen County School..." and ..."In his spare time, Wymer enjoyed blues and jazz..". In the early 1940's, Raymond and three of his colleagues from R.& E. S. County (John Wymer, Snelling (John?), Padday (?)) gathered at West Park Rd, Kew Gardens, where our family lived. The group took over our front sitting room where we had a baby-grand piano. Their jazz sessions livened up our household, but, thankfully, our neighbours must have been very tolerant or hard of hearing. Raymond was the pianist, and I think that the other instruments played were the clarinet, guitar and drums. The atmosphere was always very, very smoky but generally happy. Raymond managed to buy original jazz and blues records and even had some shipped over from the USA. There were visits to London jazz clubs to hear the UK's best or instrumentalists from other countries. I am glad to say that although the sessions at our home were noisy and very often discordant, I still enjoy blues and traditional jazz!
This obituary appeared in the Daily Telegraph on 3rd March, 2006
JOHN WYMER, who died on February 10 aged 77, was Britain’s foremost authority on early Stone Age settlement and had a major impact on the development of Stone Age studies in Western Europe.
His career as an archaeologist began with the discovery in 1955 of Swanscombe Woman, the fossil remains of a skull of a woman who lived in the Thames Valley around 400,000 BC; they are among the oldest human remains ever discovered in Europe.
Wymer spent 40 years in a variety of investigations of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites which he expanded into a remarkable and comprehensive two-volume study of The Lower Palaeolithic Occupation of Britain.
He also carried out major programmes of research in South Africa, most notably at Klasies River Mouth, west of Port Elizabeth, where a remarkable stratigraphic sequence, more than 25m thick and spanning the entire Middle and Late Stone Age, was discovered. The sample contained more than 250,000 stone tools, as well as animal bones, sea shells and other detritus, but most important, a number of human bones. One of these was 100,000 years old, and was at the time of its discovery the world’s oldest specimen of the truly modern Homo Sapiens.
John James Wymer was born on March 5 1928 and brought up near Kew Gardens in London. Educated at Richmond and East Sheen County School and at Shoreditch Training College he was introduced to the pleasures of the Stone Age by his parents, who took him flint-hunting in gravel pits.
He began his career as a teacher but soon turned to archaeology, and in 1956 was appointed to the staff of Reading Museum, where he continued his search for Palaeolithic implements in the Quarternary sediments of the river Thames. This research soon led to his first monograph, Lower Palaeolithic Archaeology in Britain as represented by the Thames Valley, published in 1968, which catalogued thousands of discoveries and used them as a basis for a chronology of the Lower Palaeolithic period. The volume was illustrated by hundreds of Wymer’s own meticulously-crafted pen-and-ink drawings of hand-axes and other flint tools
In 1965 he was recruited by Professor Ronald Singer of the University of Chicago to direct a series of excavations at sites in South Africa including the Klasies River Mouth. Returning to England in 1968, he went on to carry out excavations at key Palaeolithic sites, including Clacton, Hoxne and Ipswich.
His management of these excavations set new standards for prehistoric archaeology and each excavation was fully published. In 1979-80 Wymer was appointed Senior Research Associate at the University of East Anglia which bore fruit in The Palaeolithic Age (1982) and Palaeolithic Sites in East Anglia (1985).
By the time these appeared in print Wymer had been recruited to dig sites of later periods in Essex and then Norfolk. Although he had bought a house at Bildeston, Suffolk, he moved with his second wife, Mollie, to Great Cressingham in Norfolk and, between 1983 and 1990 worked for the Norfolk Archaeological Unit, investigating many sites at different periods.
From 1991 he began a project to relate every Palaeolithic discovery yet made in Britain to its relevant geological deposit, in order to construct an authoritative survey of the early presence of people in Britain.
The project was enormous, but in only six years Wymer had personally visited almost every site and significant museum collection in the country. The result was a series of detailed reports which could be used by mineral extraction companies and planners to tell them of the potential importance of different Quaternary sediments. In 1998 it was distilled into his two-volume study The Lower Palaeolithic Occupation of Britain.
Wymer was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1963 and of the British Academy in 1996.
In his spare time, Wymer enjoyed blues and jazz, gardening and real ale; he was a supporter of CAMRA and a regular at his local pub where he cut the cheese in his ploughman’s lunch with an ancient flint knife.
John Wymer married first, in 1948, Pauline May. The marriage was dissolved and he married secondly, in l976 Mollie (nee Spurling), who died in 1999 He is survived by two sons and three daughters of his first marriage.
The Guardian, Friday. 10th March, 2006
JOHN JAMES WYMER, archaeologist, born 5th March 5 1928; died 10th February, 2006
Enthusiastic hunter of skulls, stone tools and the roots of history
In the mid-1930s, a dentist found two pieces of the same ancient human skull in the quarries at SwanscomBe, Kent. Twenty years later, John Wymer who has died aged 77, unearthed a new piece of the same skull which had, he said, the ‘consistency of wet soap’ At 400,000 years old, it remains the only pre-Neanderthal skull from Britain. Thus began Wymer’s career pursuing early human history, though he had started as a teenager with his father, a professional artist, who had been searching for palaeolithic flint handaxes in Kent for decades.
Wymer was born and brought up in Richmond, Surrey, and educated at East Sheen County School and Shoreditch Training College. After the Swanscombe find, he became Curator at Reading Museum, having worked as a journalist, a British Rail clerk and a teacher. For 10 years he studied Reading’s handaxe collection and directed excavations at mesolithic hunter-gatherer camps in the Kennet valley. The most important was at Thatcham, where he recovered artefacts and animal bone refuse at a site used by generations of hunters.
His next excavations were in South Africa (1965-68). At thesuggestion of the great palaeontologist Louis Leakey, Ronald Singer, of Chicago University, employed Wymer to direct work at Saldanha Bay and then at Klasies River Mouth, near Port Elizabeth. At a time of apartheid and widespread ignorance of the nation’s history, Singer was seeking to drive back the story of homo sapiens. At the Kiasies caves, Wymer found human fossils up to 110.000 years old with rich deposits of artefacts and animal remains, all indicative of what were then the world’s oldest modern humans.
Singer moved Wymer back to Britain to excavate already well-known palaeolithic sites, including those at Clacton. Essex and Hoxne, Suffolk. Then, after excavating in the 1980s for archaeological consultancies in Essex and Norfolk, in 1990 Wymer began a unique survey of the evidence for the country’s earliest humans. The importance of sites like Swanscombe, Clacton and Hoxne lies in pristine remains preserved in undisturbed geological deposits. Such cases are rare. A 1989 planning application to quarry a hill at Dunbridge. Hampshire, where more than 1.000 handaxes had been found, exposed general ignorance of the greater mass of unstratified tools.
A chastened English Heritage commissioned the Southern Rivers Palaeolithic Survey, with Wymer as project manager. After its successful completion in 1994 came the national English Rivers Palaeolithic Survey, while Cadw, the Welsh Assembly’s historic environment division, conducted a parallel study. Based near Salisbury, Wymer visited almost every known palaeolithic site. His comprehensive reports now inform research, and guide planning and development.
Wymer was efficient at publishing his excavations. Illustrating stone tools is a difficult task that demands proper understanding of the technology. He taught himself to knap flint, and made superb technical drawings. His first publication in Nature was about the Swanscombe find: last December, 50 years later, his drawings of the 700,000 old flint tools from Pakefield, Suffolk, illustrated another Nature contribution.
He was president of the Quaternary Research Association, vice-president of the Prehistoric Society and chair of the Lithic Studies Society. The Geological Society awarded him their Stopes medal. He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the British Academy.
The drier paths of Wymer’s discipline and the rigours of fieldwork were dispensed with much humour. His mother had played piano to silent films, and he became an accomplished and entertaining blues pianist; he also played guitar. His love of real ales was famous. He is survived by three daughters and two sons from his first marriage. His second wife. Mollie, died in 1999.
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DAVID CATFORD, February, 2006
AN EXTRACT FROM THE BARNES AND MORTLAKE HISTORY SOCIETY MAGAZINE
'……..Mike Smith presented to the February meeting the talk prepared by David Catford, as a tribute to a much-appreciated member of the Society who had died just two weeks earlier.
Mike reminded us that David as a real local, having lived all his life in East Sheen, was ideally suited to taking us for a truly nostalgic walk along the Upper Richmond Road West.
David began at Priests Bridge, directing our imaginary walk to Sheen Lane on the North side, and then from Gilpin Avenue to Sheen Lane again on the South.
We stopped at every shop to hear David’s comments about the shopkeepers and their merchandise, reminding us of the days when we had a multiplicity of small family-owned shops, (grocers, greengrocers, bakers and butchers) before the era of the supermarket and restaurants offering cuisine from every part of the globe.
Only one of these shops serves the same purpose today as it did sixty years ago - the bakery now known as the Parish Bakery - but the Westminster and Midland Banks are still on their old sites, although under new names.
For those who do not know the Upper Richmond Road, there were reminders of what it was like to shop in wartime with long queues, the fiddling to cut out coupons or mark ration books, and the problems facing, for example, the butcher trying to cut a piece of meat to exactly the value of the weekly ration - which was one shilling and twopence at one time (roughly 6p. in today’s coinage).
Do you remember when you could buy sweets for half an old penny? And do you recall those overhead wire systems in the draper’s that catapulted your money and the bill in a metal box to the cashier, and returned your change?
Finally David recalled the Sheen Odeon, one of the 1930’s picture palaces, sadly demolished in 1960, to be replaced by Parkway House.
It was a very special occasion, and in effect a David Catford memorial evening. We shall remember him'
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MALCOLM KENDRICK (Uncle of Ken Kendrick and Clive Clarke) March, 2006
RONALD WILFRID FRIGGENS (ex-Master at Shene) March, 2006
A tribute from Peter Cox:............
"They say you never forget a good teacher. After my initial years of being petrified of him, I then knew what a good teacher he was, one of the best. I have never forgotten him and it was great to see him, still resplendent in red pullover, at the first Reunion."
from Richard Jones in Australia.....................
"Ron was certainly one of the characters of our time at Shene. I'm sure we will all have our own memories of him - his jokes written into his textbook and his severe facade before a very dry sense of humour. I was not one of the science sixth, so only had a couple of years of his teaching, but I do know he was one teacher I always did my homework for.........."
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GRAHAM MILLS 2006
PETER POWRIE April, 2006
PETER WYMER (brother of John and father of Paul) May, 2006
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MICHAEL MOCKRIDGE June, 2006
After National Service Michael went to Balliol College, Oxford to read Geography and later qualified as a solicitor. His step-father was also a solicitor.
Michael became a partner in the City firm Coward Chance where he specialised in advising large companies and multinationals.
He was a member of St. Peter's and St. John's Church and on the Kensington Deanery Synod. He was also a trustee of the Church Urban Fund and of the Working Men's College and chaired the Management Committee and the Finance and General Purposes Committee.
He lived for many years in East London until he moved to Notting Hill seven years ago.
Michael Mockridge
Pat Healy
Wednesday July 26, 2006
The Guardian
Michael Mockridge, who has died aged 70, was a lawyer with a passion for social causes. His voluntary work improved the lives of young people in the East End of London and brought recognition to the social history of older people in Kensington and Chelsea.
Son of Cyril, a printer, and Rose, Michael was educated at Shene grammar school and Balliol College, Oxford. He met his first wife, the author Penelope Farmer, at Oxford.
After completing national service, Michael followed his flamboyant stepfather "Tiger" Tim Taylor into the law firm Coward Chance in 1959, becoming a partner in 1967. He helped to negotiate the merger with Clifford Turner, to create Clifford Chance, now one of the biggest international law firms in the world. His work included leading the legal team that privatised the water industry on behalf of the then Department of the Environment.
He retired early in 1993 to spend time with his second family and pursue his passionate commitment to social causes through involvement with local and national charities. This passion had been awakened when he and several university friends had run a youth club at Dame Colet House Settlement in east London. Asked many legal questions by the club's young people, they started a legal advice centre. This later became the Stepney Green Law Centre, one of the earliest in Britain.
For many years Michael was executive chair of Dame Colet House, where he met his second wife, Olivia Dix, a charity worker with a particular interest in health. He resigned in the early 1990s after moving to Kensington, because he believed it should be run entirely by local people, but he continued to be involved in East End schemes.
Michael was a trustee of the Mental Health Foundation, the College of Health and the Working Men's College for Men and Women, and an independent chair hearing NHS complaints.
When he moved to Kensington and Chelsea, he became involved in two local charities - History Talk, a local history group which he chaired for several years, and Campden Charities, a grant-making trust with a brief to alleviate poverty in Kensington. For the Church of England he was a trustee of the Church Urban Fund, a member of the review of synodical government and of the local deanery synod and parochial church council.
A modest man, Michael worked hard and unobtrusively, making full use of his legal and negotiating skills and showing infinite courtesy, patience and good humour. His colleagues at History Talk regarded him as "a perfect gent".
His is survived by his wife and their daughter Hannah; by Clare and Thomas, his children from his first marriage; and by three grandchildren.
An e-mail to the Editor from Trevor Griffiths, a Shene contemporary of Michael Mockridge:
Many thanks for your email. Strangely, I was only thinking about Michael Mockridge a few minutes earlier. I had been listening to the Radio Four programme about techniques for developing a good memory, and remembered that once I was understudying Mockridge for a school play and he was off sick so I spent one evening learning the part. (I would tell my tutees about it and my method sometimes when they said how difficult it was to learn chemistry!) The next day, when I was confident I knew the part, I was told by the master in charge (Mr White?) that Mockridge was better and would be back in time for the performance. Thus was my thespian opportunity quenched!
Michael Mockridge is yet another of Shene Grammar School's products who has led a productive and honourable life, and I am glad to have known him, and to find out what he did after he left school.
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ALAN CHARLES PEARSON July, 2006
JOE CAIRA September, 2006
TOM TOWNDROW ex East Sheen County School, September, 2006
The following appeared in the Barnes and District History Society magazine:
A remarkable local link with the Dunkirk evacuation was recalled with the death on September 4th, 2006 of Tom Towndrow aged 91. Thomas Austin Towndrow was born at Barnes on October 6th and from East Sheen County School he joined the staff of Barnes Urban District Council. He also enlisted with 1st Mortlake Sea Scouts and was immediately involved in refitting the scouts 'former Naval steam pinnace, the 45-foot Minotaur. He became her skipper and by 1940 was Senior Scout Leader at Mortlake.
When a quarter of a million British troops plus French units sought to evacuate Dunkirk on May 26th of that year the Admiralty called for every seaworthy craft to cross the Channel and help the rescue. Towndrow skippered Minotaur with a Sea Scout crew down the Thames to Southend and then Ramsgate. Placed under Naval control, she took on stores and fuel - and two ratings with .303 rifles and 600 rounds of ammunition to counter German dive-bombers and E-boats.
Minotaur made the initial Channel crossing safely and over the next few days Towndrow piloted her on numerous voyages to the foreshore West of Dunkirk, ferrying exausted soldiers from shallow water out to bigger transports and destroyers as well as towing small boats.
The hard-worked engine began to fade and, with fuel running low, Towndrow decided to embark a final batch of French Troops with the plan of getting them back to England if his gallant craft could manage the distance. A trawler relieved him of his passengers and Minotaur, despite her engine problems, was able to make port having played a part in evacuating 338,000 troops. The Admiralty had believed little better than 45,000 could be saved.
Minotaur was patched up and transferred to coastal patrol while Towndrow was commissioned into the RNVR spending much of the remainder of the War as a liaison officer with the Free French Navy.
One posting was with the submarine La Sultan based at Oran in Algeria and he was awarded the Croix de Guerre for his services which included his part in landing agents in Occupied France.
After the War Towndrow returned to local government settling at Bexley and qualifying as a solicitor. He held posts at Maidenhead and Windsor and finally became Town Clerk at Frome in Somerset.
He retired to Lymington, Hampshire where he was active in the local Sailing Club and the Sea Scouts unit.
Editor's Note: Tom's photograph appears in the Photo Gallery under Familiar Faces, Part 6
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ROY SMITH ex Richmond County School, 2006
MICHAEL PHILLIPS November, 2006
BOB BULLARD ex-teacher February, 2007
ALAN LITTLE 2007
PETER HANDFORD 2007
MARTIN HABGOOD May, 2007
JOHN ROBSON June, 2007
ROB VAUGHAN July, 2007
Alan Morgan...................I was Rob's Vice-Captain when he was School Captain in 1959. He was a great footballer and tried valiantly to encourage me, but when "Plug" Rawlings introduced the oval ball I realised that rugby union/scrum-half was my forte! I recall that Rob was always top in German (a language I never came to terms with). Even at that relatively tender age I accepted that he was too good for me, and most of the others in our year group, at this particular subject - and a few other subjects, I seem to recall......and so it is interesting, but not surprising, that he was living in that country.
Albert John Richardson (Taffy)....... I would not say that I knew Rob well but I always liked meeting him, he was always so friendly and above all knew who I was. We cannot afford to lose too many old boys of his calibre, especially the younger ones
Jeremy Chapman...........Rob was my first cricket captain and also school captain in my second year at school in 1958-59. An absolute cat of a goalkeeper, the best I ever saw at that level, who represented the county, and equally agile as a fielder at cricket. (had to be good at something as he never made more than ten runs and didn't bowl).
A first-class linguist and a most interesting man who always had time for you, a good human being and a good companion, which made him a fine school captain. He was not in my year so, outside the cricket and my support for the football team (both school and county), I never got to know him closely but he is remembered with great affection and admiration. A most tremendous credit to Shene Grammar.
David Wright......... We both lived in Palmerston Road. I remember him mostly because he used to play goalkeeper in the 1st XI, although I didn't know him particularly well. It is very sad to hear of his passing.
David Hackett....................My principal memories of Rob were playing football together for the Old Boys, where he was, of course the goalkeeper whose height would dominate the goal area.
One dark January, Saturday afternoon, Rob conceded an unlikely goal scored by yours truly. It was pouring with rain, we were ankle deep in mud and from somewhere near the halfway line I decided that a pass back to the goalkeeper was safer than trying to turn round in the gluepot and punt the ball upfield. I connected rather well but found, to my dismay, that Rob was propping up a post trying to keep dry, or warm. He had hardly moved before the ball entered the net. Fortunately we won the game........
Ken Waring..........I always will remember Rob’s fearless goal keeping exploits...too fearless sometimes. Rob challenged for a ball under the crossbar, jumped too high and pretty well knocked himself out on the crossbar. I think the match may have been 1st XI v staff.
Peter Flewitt............. Rob's brother, John Vaughan and I were good mates in our latter school days and for a few years after, until he went to work in Germany. Rob, of course, was a few years older than us so he moved in a different social circle, other than after soccer on a Saturday, so I can't really offer any anecdotes other than my memories of an Easter Tour to Germany, meticulously planned and run by him with a bunch of unruly teenage 16-50 year olds such as Bloxham, Harlow and I think Jeffs which he ran in his trademark calm and good humoured manner. I'll leave the real stories to others better placed.............. |
