Obituaries of Clare Members

Former Fellow

Duncan Robinson

Duncan was born in Kidsgrove, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, the only child of a school teacher who was a war widow, and grew up mostly on his uncle’s farm. He attended King Edward VI School in Macclesfield from 1951 to 1962, and was awarded a Minor Scholarship to read English at Clare College, Cambridge. Upon graduation he was given a Mellon Fellowship to spend two years at Yale University, where he switched fields to study the History of Art. In 1967 he returned to Cambridge as a research student, having married his American wife Elizabeth (Lisa). In 1969 he was appointed as the Assistant Keeper of Paintings and Drawings at the Fitzwilliam Museum and was subsequently appointed Keeper in 1976-81. In 1974 he was elected to a Fellowship and College Lectureship at Clare, and in 1981 returned to Yale as the Director of the Yale Center for British Art and CEO of the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London. In 1995 he returned to the UK to take up the Directorship of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and became a professorial fellow of Clare until 2002, when he was appointed as the thirty-fifth Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge.  He served concurrently as Master and Museum Director until 2007, when he stepped down from the museum in order to devote the last five years of his active career to Magdalene.

Duncan was awarded a CBE in 2008, and served as a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Cambridgeshire, and as a Trustee of the Royal Collection. He also chaired the Trustees of The Prince’s Drawing School (now The Royal Drawing School) from 2007-13. During his Mastership of Magdalene he helped plan and raise money for a new College Library which opened officially in July 2022.

Duncan died on Friday, 2 December 2022, at the age of 79.

 

1938

Alfred ‘Sinclair’ Road

 1942

Alan Swindells

 1943

Thomas ‘Gordon’ Atkinson

John T D B Collins

 1945

Roger D Sawtell

Roger Sawtell, who has died aged 95 of lung cancer caused by workplace exposure to asbestos, was an expert on employee-owned business models.

Born in Sheffield in 1927, the middle of three children, he was sent to school in Wales by his parents Horace Sawtell and Barbara (nee Leslie) to avoid the bombing of World War II. He won scholarships to Bedford School and Cambridge University where he studied mechanical sciences. He was aware that without such scholarships his parents would have struggled to pay for his education, and his life may have turned out very differently.

He left Cambridge in 1948 and worked as an engineer at English Electric Ltd in Rugby and then Spear & Jackson Ltd in Sheffield. After 16 years at Spear & Jackson he was offered the role of managing director. However, he turned this down and instead, influenced by the church’s Industrial Mission to the steel industry, began to search for a more just business structure.

A meeting with economist E.F. Schumacher and his philosophy of ‘small is beautiful’ was deeply influential and helped shape the rest of his working life. In 1968 he joined Trylon Ltd, an employee-owned company in Northamptonshire, making fibreglass canoes and through the 1970s he served as chair of Industrial Common Ownership Movement, now Co-operatives UK. Then in 1980, with a group of friends, he opened Daily Bread Co-operative, a wholefood shop in Northampton, owned and run by its workers. Roger’s impact on the co-operative movement was formally recognised in 2019 when Co- operatives UK awarded him their inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 1957, Roger married Susan (nee Flint) and they had four children. Susan shared his religious beliefs and a commitment to co-operation and community. Together they co-founded a Christian housing community in Northampton. Roger published books on employee-owned business practice and living in a Christian community. Through their seventies and eighties, he and Susan went regularly to Amorgos to walk and swim on this Greek island. On Amorgos, as in all aspects of his life, Roger made many friends, always finding time to listen to and support others from all walks of life.

He is survived by his wife Susan, three of his children and eight grandchildren.

 1946

John W Glen

John Robertson

 1947

John Atkins

 1949

Peter ‘R K’ Fender

Hugh Lewis

 1950

David Allen

Donald Stevenson Blair

John W Blanchard

 Jack F Flatau

Jack Flatau was a devoted husband, father, and family man, who carried with him a quiet passion for life and learning which led him from the family business of manufacturing and retail to computer programming and data analysis, ultimately leading to his pursuit of teaching.

After Cambridge Jack launched his career as a trainee in the family shoe firm, working in a north London factory which produced women’s shoes. Jack moved into management and planning, and later moved to roles at the Metropolitan Boroughs, Chrysler UK, Beecham Group, and Caribonum, a business services group where he contributed to early computing advancements to develop growth.

The evolving expertise in computer systems and data analysis led to challenges and resistance to change, which led to Jack’s decision in 1970 to enter teaching at what was then a London polytechnic (now university) as a senior lecturer in the department of management. Teaching became a source of joy and fulfilment for Jack, who dedicated himself to nurturing students and imparting knowledge. He valued education, inspiring countless undergraduates over the years, and he later enrolled as a tutor at the Open University teaching creative management, a challenging course which he enjoyed immensely.

His groundbreaking achievement was the university’s microcomputer centre, a new training hub in the developing field of desktop computing in business, which Jack developed with entrepreneurial flair attracting acclaim across the country. As the director of the university’s Microcomputing Advisory Centre, he embraced the potential of this technological revolution, and recognized the transformative power of desktop computing, foreseeing the ability to reshape the world of information technology.

During a rapidly-changing business landscape, Jack was appointed as a non-executive director of the national clothes chain store Etam in 1971, where his insight into management transitions and his light-touch contributions endeared him to colleagues. His tenure at Etam saw many changes in the retail sector over the years, and he remained on the board leading to the eventual merger into Sir Philip Green's Arcadia group.

During the 1980s Jack embarked on a remarkable journey with his beloved wife Susan, to develop a thriving bakery and coffee shop that became a well-known feature of their hometown in Wimbledon

The success of the shop burgeoned, supplying prestigious establishments including Harrods, the Royal household and the Dorchester Hotel, a testament to Jack's unwavering support for Susan’s venture.

Outside business, Jack enjoyed life's pleasures. A keen sailor and an enthusiastic reader, he delved into languages, taking Italian classes, and bridge courses, building friendships well into their retirement. He is survived by his wife of 66 years, Susan, their four children and six grandchildren.

 David H Smiley

David Haward Smellie (later Smiley) was born in British Guiana, now Guyana in 1930. His childhood was spent in tropical humidity, with boy-scout escapades in and on the muddy waters of the mighty Demerara River. There were holidays in Tobago, and boarding school in Barbados, before an adventurous and perilous cross-Atlantic voyage to England via New York during World War II.

David attended Malvern College and later Clare College. He read Engineering at Cambridge where he joined the University Air Squadron and learnt to fly Chipmunks. Perhaps his penchant for risky aerial stunts wisely led David to turn down the offer of test-pilot for Rolls Royce.

After six years at Bristol Aircraft, some of which was concurrent with Cambridge, David worked at BISRA, Hawker Siddeley where he met his Australian wife Joan, and IBM in London. With three small children they emigrated to Sydney in 1967. Here he was employed in the nascent Computer Programming Department of the Postmaster General. He was later appointed Senior Lecturer at the Institute (now University) of Technology. Completing a Master’s Degree in Information Systems, he lectured in Computer Science at the University of East Asia in Macau for an extended contract, where he once delighted the local academics with a fair rendering of a Chinese opera aria.

David loved the outdoor life in Australia, and became a keen surfer. His celebration of the Australian landscape made a bushwalker and camper of him, and he took his family on many camping trips to beaches on the east coast of Australia.

A student of life and a lover of art and music kept David busy before and after retirement. He painted, sang in acapella choirs, learned to cook authentic Asian food, and read and wrote extensively.

His passion for human rights, the distribution of aid to the Third World, and his concern for the threats to peace and global stability may have emerged from David’s childhood experiences, as well as his international travel. On his retirement David published and lectured on the ways in which rent seeking had an impact on development, the environment and conflict resolution.

After demonstrating a computer model of the socio-economic effects of third-world land reform, he was appointed Research Associate at the School of Economic and Financial Studies, Macquarie University. His monograph Third World Intervention - a New Analysis was published in 1999. Crumbling Foundations, How Faulty Institutions Create World Poverty (2010) is as relevant today as it was over a decade ago.

Towards the end of his life David assembled his memoirs and travel diaries. Succinct and witty, they are punctuated with profound reflections on the human condition and the pursuit of truth, goodness and beauty. They illustrate a man of good character imbued with great optimism and a sense of gratitude. David leaves behind a loving family – his brother Tim, his wife Joan, four children and eleven grandchildren.

Ian M L Turnball

 1951

Anthony ‘Tony’ L Canham

Tony Canham, who died in May 2023, was born in 1931 and lived his childhood in Marlborough. He attended Dauntseys School where he was Head Boy and became the first in his family to go to university, passing his Cambridge entrance exam by meeting the senior tutor at the Athenaeum Club in London and catching a rugby ball which was thrown at him as he walked in the door. Or so he always said.

He was a talented rugby player and represented the South of England vs the All Blacks in 1953 while still at college before going on to play for the University, Rosslyn Park and, most notably, Northampton Saints.

Having joined Baker Perkins, a bakery & confectionery engineering firm, after his national service, he stayed with them for the whole of his career, ending up running the Bakery division before enjoying a full and happy retirement in Stamford with his wife, Valerie, before her death in 2010.

His ties with Cambridge remained strong with a son, Gavin (Clare 1985), and 2 granddaughters, Rebecca (Trinity 2004) and Hayley (Queens 2020), attending the University and giving him an excuse to reacquaint himself with the Eagle.

 Richard Holmes

Richard Holmes was born in Udimore and went up to Clare College, Cambridge University in 1951 to read Classics, later changing to English Literature.

He had many great stories of his time at Cambridge, made lifelong friends and proudly hung his oar from the May 1952 Bumps on the wall. He started his working career at the British Aeroplane Company, based in Bristol where, amongst other things, he learnt to fly. He returned to Clare to do a PGCSE before teaching at Shrewsbury School. There he was persuaded by a colleague to go to Africa and teach in a mission school in Mzpanza, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), which he did for three years. Following the independence of Zambia, he returned to Europe on a boat up the East Coast of Africa to Venice. During the voyage he achieve two great accomplishments: he finished reading War and Peace and he met his future wife Matty, who had been teaching in Cape Town and was also returning to Europe.

On his return to the UK, Richard took a teaching post at Clifton College, Bristol, where he remained until his retirement in 1991. He taught English and Latin in the Upper School, before finally finding his home teaching science, with an emphasis on biology and the environment, in the Prep School. After retiring, he returned to his birthplace of Udimore, near Rye in East Sussex. He was well known and respected in the locality, taking an active role in nature conservation. At various times he took the chair of several voluntary organisations, amongst them the Friends of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, the Rother Environmental Group and the Marsh Link Action Group. He led the campaign for an improved railway service when the Ashford to Hastings line still had slam door carriages and the campaign to protect the Brede Valley with its Site of Special Scientific Interest from devastation that would have been caused by being part of the South Coast Link Road. Richard demonstrated great commitment to environmental causes and had the patience and courtesy that helped win the day.

Richard was an enthusiastic organic gardener and he and Matty opened their garden once a year to raise funds for charity. Richard was deeply knowledgeable, modest and always interested in people, with a warm-hearted twinkle in his eye. His funeral service took place on February 25 at a packed St Mary’s Church, Udimore, where he was a regular worshipper. He is survived by his wife, Matty, two children and four grandchildren.

 Leonard ‘Peter’ Morgan

 1952

Alan K Bradley

John C Dare

Gordon K Gould

Edward ‘Tim’ Wildon Hoult

 Ian M E Jeffery

Ian Jeffery was born in Woodford Green, Essex in 1932, the son of a Lloyds marine insurance broker.

He attended Bancroft’s School from 1943–1950 and captained the school at rugby, swimming, and athletics, where he held records for 100 yards long jump and triple jump. He was also vice-captain of the cricket team and head of school.

National service followed in the Royal Artillery where he was commissioned and served in the UK and Libya during 1951 and 1952.

In October 1952 he went up to Clare College to study law. Several years after Ian, his sister, Maryan Jeffery, also attended Cambridge at Newnham College.

Ian appeared in the University Athletic side against Oxford in the Long Jump. He never lost to a ‘Dark Blue’ in his event. He finished his time at Clare as President of Cambridge U.A.C in 1955.

After University Ian worked in the Lloyds Insurance Market for Leslie & Godwin all his life, retiring after 36 years in 1991. Together with his father who was also with Leslie & Godwin all his working life, they clocked up 90 years’ service to one company.

Ian met Stella aged 16 and he always said he knew they were meant for each other straight away. Despite having to wait to finish school, National Service and University, they stuck together and were married in May 1956. A couple for 74 years, they had 66 years of marriage.

They had two daughters, Sue in 1958 and Liz in 1961 but this did not interfere with his sport!  Ian played rugby for the Old Bancroftian Rugby Club, Cricket for Woodford Wells CC including captaining 1^st XI from 1961-1964, their centenary year and then played golf at Chigwell Golf Club becoming Club Captain in 1979.

Both daughters married sporty types and duly produced six grandchildren, all with sporting prowess and it was one of his great joys in retirement to support the grandchildren at many of their various fixtures. He was a true gentleman: kind, generous, much respected and loved by many.

 Robert ‘Gordon’ Johnston

Gordon Johnston came up to Clare in October 1952 to read Classics. He took little part in the life of the College, but was an active member of the Officers’ Training Corps, and of the CU Rifle Association. He was chosen as one of two representatives of the Cambridge OTC to march in the Queen’s coronation in June 1953 and awarded a coronation medal.

Johnston graduated in 1955 with First Class honours in Classics and passed the exam for the administrative civil service. He was called up for National Service and commissioned in the Scots Guards in April 1956.

The Civil Service appointed him in 1957 as an Assistant Principal in the Air Ministry, where he was later private secretary to the junior minister. Later moves in the civil service took him to the Ministry of Public Building and works, where he was Principal Private Secretary to three successive ministers.

Johnston then spent two years seconded to Shell, as financial advisor to the chemical companies operating in the Far and Middle East.

Later he was seconded to the Cabinet Office as head of the Civil Contingencies Unit and secretary of the industrial policy committee of the cabinet under both the Heath and Wilson administrations.

He spent 3 years responsible for planning and finance of British Rail before returning to the Department of the Environment where he spent 9 years responsible for providing all forms of civil accommodation for the government, before ultimately serving as managing director, International, responsible for all government accommodation overseas.

On his retirement from the Civil Service in 1993 he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath. He was then selected as executive director of the UK Major Ports Group, representing the interests of the major ports to the British Government and in Brussels. On retirement from this appointment in 1999 he spent 7 years as a lay chairman of complaints’ panels to handle complaints against the NHS.

On retirement from paid employment in 2007 he supported local community activity, as chairman of the Friends of Kennington Park, and secretary of the Lambeth Parks’ Forum.

 John N Powell

 1953

Dennis E Briggs

Dennis was born in Chichester, Sussex, in 1933 and remained an enthusiast for the county all his life. After a 1-year NATO training course in Canada for his National Service, he was commissioned Pilot Officer as a navigator and in 1953 was awarded an Exhibition Scholarship to Clare where he read Natural Sciences. He then carried out a PhD in Biochemistry at the Chester Beatty Institute. After this, he changed his research field and became a scientist at the Brewing Industry Research Foundation laboratories, Nutfield, moving to the British School of Malting and Brewing in the Department of Biochemistry, University of Birmingham where he became a Senior Lecturer, retiring in 2000.

 In 1999 he was awarded the Horace Brown gold medal for services to the malting industry by the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and gave the Horace Brown Memorial Lecture. Dennis taught on the MSc course in Malting and Brewing at Birmingham and with his many PhD and MSc students focused on research on the malting process. He was a journal editor and examiner for the Maltsters’ Association of Great Britain and published many papers in the general field of malting and the malting process. He will be particularly remembered for his work as author and editor of major books in the malting field, including the classic Brewing – Science and Practice and Malts and Malting, both of which have made substantial contributions to the malting and brewing industry.

Dennis was keen on travel, small planes, particularly Tiger Moths, and archaeology, especially in Sussex. He leaves a wife (Rosemary) and two stepchildren and their four children.

 John Hardy

John arrived at Clare in Michaelmas term 1953 at the start of what he would recall as among the happiest three years of a long life.

Born and raised in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, he was no stranger to Cambridge, having spent the previous five years down Trumpington Road at The Leys School. Through family ties and an active involvement with both Clare and The Leys, he maintained a close association with the city for many decades afterwards.

John read History and Law but found time amid his studies to enjoy an active social life. He forged lifelong friendships with a number of international students, including John Daniel (South Africa), Jock Mackinnon (Australia) and John Percy (New Zealand).

His room-mate for two of his undergraduate years was Chris Smout, a fellow Historian who would later become Chair of Scottish History at St Andrews University. Chris remembers: ‘The famous Geoffrey Elton was a Fellow of Clare and taught us Tudor history. We had to read our essays on a predetermined topic aloud to him. His technique was to ask us what we had been reading and then to disparage both the books and the scholars, who were often his colleagues in other colleges: he was formidable and not easily pleased.’

In their final year they shared grand upstairs rooms overlooking King’s College Chapel and the river, surely one of the finest views in Cambridge but a long way from bathroom facilities in a dark basement on the opposite corner of Old Court. Chris adds: ‘My lasting memories of John are of laughter, and punting on the river and making toast. He was a good punter, and adept at avoiding the jokers who lurked on the bridges and tried to snatch the poles from the punters as they passed beneath. But when he fell in, the splash was worth it.’

John organised the University’s 1955 Poppy Day Appeal, in those post-war days a major event for town and gown alike. Yellowing newspaper cuttings reveal that he coordinated student door-to-door collections, a procession down King’s Parade and an array of stalls and activities in the Market Place. The result was a huge success, with more than £6,000 – a staggering sum at the time – raised for the Royal British Legion.

On graduation in 1956, he joined the family firm of wool brokers in Bradford, but the dawning of globalisation in the late 1960s persuaded him, correctly, that the industry in England was on its last legs. He retrained mid-career as a chartered surveyor and was a senior partner with Hepper, Watson & Sons in Ilkley until his retirement in 1989.

He enjoyed long and fulfilled retirement, travelling widely – including regular visits to friends made at Clare – and taking pride in the achievements of his family. He died in August 2022 following a short illness, and is survived by his wife Anne, who shares equally happy memories of Clare, sons James and Mark and five grandchildren. Fittingly, with permission of the College, his ashes were scattered on the Cam from the Fellows’ Garden by Clare Bridge.

 Dennis ‘Nicholas’ Herbert, Lord Hemingford

A large wooden oar hung from various hooks and wires in the homes we lived in was an ever present reminder of our father’s time at Clare College. He had gained his oar as a successful number 6 in the Cambridge Bumps of 1954. His sporting ‘prowess’ was his route to take a place at Cambridge University.

The Master of Clare was an acquaintance of his prep school headmaster who recommended Dad for Cambridge because of his excellent high jump – he held the school record. Dad was invited to Clare for a chat over a glass of sherry and, after successfully completing a written test, he was in.

His time at Clare was happy; always keen to point out the window of his rooms as we drove along the Backs, his writing career blossomed into journalism after his English degree and he became a supporter of Clare in his later years, donating to causes and taking part in reunions where he met other alumni.

Dad’s early life in Africa was the source of many stories throughout our childhoods and continued with those from his journalistic career; highlights included covering the assassination of JFK, walking over the bridge at Selma interviewing Martin Luther King and the Cuban missile crisis.

He moved to Beirut as The Times Middle East correspondent covering the Six Day War in 1967 and the withdrawal of British troops from Aden later that year. In 1970 he was offered the editorship of The Cambridge Evening News and then moved to Westminster Press in 1974 as Editorial Director, managing the groups’ many regional editors. This role included the hiring and firing of employees; he maintained that being captain of his school cricket and rowing teams stood him in good stead for this uncomfortable job. From 1992 -1995 he took on the role of Deputy Chief Executive.

As chair of The Guild of British Editors in the early 1980s he championed journalistic integrity and advocated press freedom with what his colleagues described as “old school honesty and integrity”.

In retirement, he enjoyed time as Regional Chair of the National Trust (East Anglia) and also served on the Trust’s Executive Committee.

In 1982, he succeeded his father, a hereditary peer, becoming 3rd Baron Hemingford of Watford using his maiden speech in the House of Lords to speak against water company privatisation.

Dad met my mother, Jennifer (nee Bailey), at a New Year’s Eve party and they married in 1958. They had a long and happy marriage until her death in 2018. He had cared for her over a long illness of 10 years.

He found happiness again, falling in love with Jill Paton Walsh, the novelist. They married in September 2020 but, sadly, Jill died only three weeks later. He stoically bore the pain and sadness of both deaths and continued to live independently with help from family, friends and a dedicated team of carers until his last day.

At his funeral the final connection to Clare was made with Siegfried Sassoon’s poem ‘Idyll’ used as a tribute to his tutelage and friendship with the war poet.

He is survived by me, my sisters Libby and Alice, brother Chris and twelve grandchildren.

Philip A D Thornley

 1955

Donald M McLean

John M Porritt

 Robin Scoones

Robin Scoones was brought up in north Norfolk and went to school at Gresham’s in Holt. After a period of National Service in Hong Kong, he went on to study Geography at Clare College from 1955 to 1958. He was an enthusiastic hockey player and was a regular member of the college team.

In 1959 he got a job as a teacher at Bryanston School in Dorset where he stayed for his whole career before retirement in 1995. At Bryanston he was housemaster, head of geography and continued his passion for hockey and other sports. He married Judy Scoones in 1960 who died in 2020 and they lived with their family in various houses on the school estate for many years, always investing in creating fantastic gardens. They were both involved in pastoral care at Bryanston and looked after generations of boys and later girls at the school. They were both keen travellers and retirement saw them visit many countries across the world.

Robin died on 11 November 2022, aged 87. He and Judy are survived by three sons, Ian, Simon and Tim, and four grandchildren, one of whom, Jake Cornwall-Scoones (2016), is also an alumnus of Clare. On a very hot day in July 2022, Jake organised a wonderful visit to Clare for Robin and other members of the family, coordinated by the Development Office. The visit sparked many happy memories of times at Cambridge with conversations between grandson and grandfather about how many things had changed – while indeed quite a few had not.

 1956

Roger Chadder
Roger came up to Clare from Dulwich College in 1956, having won a Scholarship. He read Law and Economics and achieved a First in each part of the Tripos.

On leaving Clare, he undertook the Institute of Chartered Accountants’ exams and came first in the country in both the Intermediate and Final exams. He was articled to Peat Marwick (now KPMG) where he spent his entire career. He qualified in 1962, became a Fellow of the Institute in 1972 and a partner in Peats in 1973. He developed a specialism in the field of leasing finance.

None of the above significant achievements was mentioned at a service of thanksgiving for Roger’s life held on 11 September 2023. He was always modest, devoting his energies to encouraging others in progressing their chosen paths. Our thanksgiving was focussed on the man he was, rather than what he achieved.

Roger and Rosemary married in 1961 and they enjoyed a long and happy marriage, living in Wimbledon for nearly 60 years. They had three children, Clare, Philip and Kate, eight grandchildren and Roger was able to enjoy the arrival of his first great-grandchild.

Roger retired from partnership in 1993 and was a consultant for KPMG during the next 5 years. During his retirement, he was generous with his time to such organisations as Royal Philanthropic Society, Monteverdi Society, Royal College of Music (of which he became an Honorary Fellow), Prisoners’ Education Trust and numerous local concerns. He was treasurer of St. Mary’s Parish Church in Wimbledon for 25 years.

Roger had huge enthusiasms; lifelong passions included photography and music.

Roger and Rosemary took up golf in retirement and enjoyed combining golf with travel within the UK and to such places as South Africa, Portugal and the States.

Roger took nothing for granted. He was always grateful for the education he received and the opportunities that that afforded him and was quick to offer assistance and opportunities to those less fortunate.

Towards the end of his life, Roger’s faculties declined. He knew it and was a shining example of acceptance, never expressing complaint nor frustration. He loved to be with Rosemary and to see his family and friends and regularly told us all, in his last few weeks when confined to bed, ‘I’m a lucky man!’ Roger Chadder died very peacefully at home in August 2023, aged 85.

 Simon Currie

Quentin N Fowler

 1957

John ‘Richard’ Harrison

David E G Prain

 1958

Andrew E Theunissen

 1959

Terry D Jenkins

Terry came up to Clare from Blundell's School in 1959, having won a Scholarship. He elected to take Mechanical Sciences and proceeded to a First in 1961. He then switched to Mathematics, doing well at Prelim. to Part II of the Tripos. A fourth year followed, with predictable success. He was a notable chess player.

Upon leaving Clare he undertook to train as an actuary in London.  He qualified as Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in 1967, after passing all of his examinations at the first attempt (an uncommon achievement). In that same year he married and, in 1968, he landed a prestigious appointment with a global insurance company in Hong Kong, against fierce competition. His career then became meteoric and, over the years, he attained the rank of CEO. Typically of Terry, he modestly concealed this fact from everyone who did not need to know!

For a few years his whole family, now numbering five in all, was based in the USA, but the Far East beckoned and they returned thence. During his many years in Hong Kong he allocated some time and effort into mentoring his younger colleagues in the skills and mindset that lead to success. It is significant that many of his acolytes went on to become CEOs themselves. Throughout his career he held the reputation for being a fine fellow to work for and a fine fellow to work with.

In 1991, Terry entered a well-earned retirement during which he played plenty more golf for which he had never before had much time. He also re-married and had three more children. In 1997, Terry and family located to the sunny shores of Sydney, Australia, and he spent his time enjoying the finer things in life. Well done, that man! He then relocated to Hong Kong in 2011. He died in December 2022 after a long illness, aged 81, leaving a widow, six children and eleven grandchildren.

 Bill Salaman

William Herbert Salaman was born on 14 March 1940 in Stansted, Essex, the third of four siblings. His father was a doctor and his mother an educational psychologist. He attended Bedales, a public school in Petersfield, Hampshire, where he was given a French horn. In his words, ‘I just took to it… I loved the instrument from day one and got into the National Youth Orchestra within a couple of years’.

 After leaving school in 1958, Bill went to Cambridge University to read music at Clare College and in 1959 he met Lally Cabot, who was also at the University studying English and art history at Newnham College. They married soon after graduating and would stay together for a further 27 years, having three children: Clare – who very sadly died in 2022 – Rachel, and Anna.

After Cambridge, Bill obtained a teacher training qualification in London, but chose to become a professional musician instead, first with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford and then as principal horn with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

With his family growing, Bill then moved into education, taking a job as a secondary school music teacher in Dorset. In 1976, the family moved to Cardiff, where Bill served as a lecturer in music education at the University of Wales for 12 years. He then became a schools inspector and assessor. Throughout his career, he wrote many widely used practical and academic music books.

Music took up a lot of Bill’s spare time as well as professionally. In addition to his published classroom music, he composed numerous pieces for private use, including horn studies, cantatas, parlour songs and pieces for wind ensemble. He was the conductor of the Dorset Youth Orchestra and the South Glamorgan Youth Wind Band. He also used to give demonstrations in schools with a big box of blown instruments, including an antelope horn and a hosepipe, to the fascination of the pupils. And for many years, he was an examiner for the Associated Board grade exams. This took him all over the country, and to Malaysia and Singapore for several months one summer.

Bill was immensely energetic and creative, designing and making a wide range of things throughout his life. He was taught pottery by the esteemed potter and his good friend Richard Batterham. He invented a new recorder, designed and made several items of furniture, and was an excellent cook. He became a published children’s book author at the age of 81, providing the words for ‘Air Miles’, a unique collaboration with his friends the authors and illustrators Helen Oxenbury and, posthumously, John Burningham.

In later years, Bill continued to play the horn as an amateur, especially with the City of Cambridge Symphony Orchestra for eleven years, and was Chairman of the orchestra’s committee for some time. For many years he researched and wrote the CCSO’s programme notes, providing an informative – often humorous – analysis of each work performed in each concert.

Bill died peacefully at his home in Cambridge on 17 January 2023, aged 82.

 Nicholas Tresilian

1960

Brian Rowson

Sent to Tonbridge School, Brian soon showed himself to be a bright pupil and a fine sportsman. His family believe that his willingness to challenge authority also developed during this time.

He arrived at Clare in the 1960 matriculation year. He loved his time at Clare and made lifelong friendships while there. His own accounts of his time at Cambridge tended to present a picture of rounds of golf in the morning, some tennis in the afternoon and bridge, one of his passions, in the evenings. His ability was such that all these distractions, enthusiastically pursued, did not hinder his ability to get a good degree.

After graduation he secured a teaching post at Grenville College in Devon, becoming a bearded, pipe smoking, sports-jacketed teacher. That proved to be a short post and even golf and bridge with James Rowland were insufficient to keep him in Devon. He returned to London, there to teach at the College of Law. There he was also able to devote time to playing the piano. Always a fine pianist, he derived great happiness from music all through his life.

In London two significant events occurred. He decided to take a tenant in his home, Jill Garfit, a nurse and a Cambridge girl. They were married in 1974. He also became a solicitor in 1975. News that he was a solicitor reached the ears of James Rowland, who persuaded Brian to return to Devon to join the old, well rooted practice of Peter Peter & Wright in Holsworthy. That practice, including pro bono work, was an important part of the community, focused on serving the community, not upon making vast sums of money. Brian was an ideal choice for the practice, being a man motivated by service, not by money. He proved to be a good lawyer and a good solicitor. The mainstay of the Bideford office, he inspired respect and affection in clients, staff and partners until his retirement in 2012. His high standards never prevented him from supporting and encouraging others. His intellect and his wide-ranging skills were always clothed with endearing modesty.

Over the years Brian assimilated the atmosphere and life of Devon. Golf and bridge continued to feature, as did his music. He acquired a home with an outbuilding large enough to house another his passions, his model railway system. The family became used to the washing line being festooned with drying teabags – necessary for making hills for the model railway.

Although willing to embrace new ventures, one or two eluded him. His career as a surfer proved to be short lived when his wetsuit let in water. He returned to the shop to find out what was wrong. There it was pointed out that he had managed to wear his wetsuit back to front, the zip being on the back, and that had made all the difference. He resisted the march of the Internet for a long time and never really mastered it. However, nothing diluted his enthusiasm for life.

He died at home on 28 June 2023, surrounded by his close family, to whom he was devoted. He leaves his wife Jill and his three sons.

 1961

David Albon

David was determined to succeed in a professional career, entirely by self-funding. He gained a scholarship, age 11, to Culford School, Bury St Edmunds, and subsequently a place at Clare College, where he was one of only two geographers, taking Part 1 geography (two years) and Part 2 economics (one year).

David continued his postgraduate studies at Nottingham University, earning a Master’s degree in Town Planning. He was invited by the Head of the Planning School, Professor Dix, to join him on the United Nations Physical Planning Mission for periods in 1967 to 1968, to prepare the first master plan for Cyprus.

In 1964 while completing his studies, he started his career as a Graduate Trainee in the Planning Department of the former West Suffolk County Council. His employment continued with the reorganised St Edmundsbury Borough Council, where he swiftly went up the ranks to become Head of Planning. David became Director of Technical Services in the early 1980s. He was instrumental in major landowning decisions, such as the purchase and establishment of country parks at the villages of Clare, Brandon, West Stow, and Nowton Park in Bury St Edmunds.

David was a force to reckon with, resisting in the 1970s several large-scale brutalist town centre redevelopments. He reigned supreme at the monthly Planning Meetings, with very few occasions when his authoritative advice was not followed by the committee. But probably his best successes were in influencing small scale planning applications, to retain the historic integrity of Bury St Edmunds. A Clare friend said: ‘One quite remarkable aspect of David's personality was his deeply felt attachment to Suffolk and his home town.’

Clare College gave David the opportunity to meet students of similar outlook and establish friendships, many of which he rekindled as part of his 70th birthday project – to acknowledge the 70 people who had influenced his life – to meet up, and latterly, be involved in regular Zoom sessions.

David retired in December 1995, and was able to pursue fully his eclectic passions of environment, botany and gardening. He made many trips around the UK and farther afield, often to seek out rare wild flowers. Joining the Long Distance Walking Association brought out the doggedness he exhibited throughout his life, undertaking countless 26, 50 and 100-mile challenge walks. He also tried his hand – very successfully – at sculpting, completing four bronzes.

In 2016 he was diagnosed with Mesothelioma. Major ground-breaking surgery and David’s determination enabled him to continue with his active lifestyle for a further 6 years, including making a trip of a lifetime to Tristan da Cunha in 2018. He died on 10 September 2022.

A Clare friend wrote: ‘How we shall all miss his gentle courtesy and profound understanding about the world, natural and human. How much our rekindled student friendship meant to me, as I know it did to him.’ And another friend: ‘I envied his understanding, his ability to ignore conventional thinking and elaborate his own ideas, on anything.’

 Reginald ‘Les’ Hender

 1962

Raymond ‘Alistair’ Channing

1963

Robert R Key

Simon Robert Key (known as Rob) was born in Plymouth on 21 April 1945. He attended Salisbury Cathedral School and on his tenth birthday was taken to the see the Cathedral Librarian who told him he was going to remember this moment for the rest of his life as she placed the Magna Carta onto his outstretched hands.

Later in that same year he was in a group of boys on Swanage beach when one found what was thought to be a tin of spam and tried to open it with a metal shoehorn. After a few fruitless minutes, Rob and a friend walked off. Seconds later there was an explosion. It was not spam; it was an anti-personnel mine and five boys were dead.Rob and his friend were blown across the beach and into the sea. As a colleague wrote following his death ‘For the rest of his life, he had to justify why he had been spared. Parliament and public service were his answer.’

Rob followed his brother Tim to Clare as a Choral Exhibitioner in 1962, reading first Geography before switching to Economics and adding a Dip.Ed. He married Susan Irvine at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Perth in July 1968.

After Clare he taught, first at Loretto and from 1969 at Harrow. He sang in the Saltarello, the Thomas Tallis Singers and the Monteverdi Choir as well as the Chorus of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, featuring in the soundtrack to the film Amadeus.

In 1974, following strikes and the three-day week, he became active in politics and in 1979 contested the safe Labour seat of Holborn and St. Pancras South for the Conservatives. In 1983 he became MP for Salisbury and in 1984 became PPS to Ted Heath and found Ted his last home, Arundells, in Salisbury’s Cathedral Close. In 1989 he became PPS to Chris Patten and was promoted to junior minister at the Department of the Environment. He then moved as a founder minister to the new Department of National Heritage where he shepherded the National Lottery Bill through the Commons – an enterprise which has since donated over £45 billion to good causes. His final ministerial position was as Minister for Roads and Traffic where he was known throughout the department as the ‘Colossus of Roads’.

A devoted constituency MP, Rob retired before the 2010 election but found plenty to do, becoming a trustee of Trussell Trust, Salisbury Chairman of Magna Carta 800 in charge of celebrations in 2015, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a Freeman of the City of Salisbury.

For many years he was a steward in Salisbury Cathedral, then a Lay Canon and active in the Diocesan House of Laity and in the General Synod where he was an early supporter of women priests.

Once retired he lectured on politics and history on board Cunard cruises which allowed him and Sue to explore new parts of the world. He died on 3rd February 2023.

 Antony W Miles

Anthony Warren Miles was born in Wimbledon on 6 May 1944, the son of Arthur Frederick Miles and Valletta Beryl Miles. Anthony spent his early years in Derbyshire, after which his family moved to Sevenoaks, Kent.

Anthony attended Sevenoaks School, where he was Head Boy, and then went on to Clare College, Cambridge. There he obtained his undergraduate degree in English and served as College Student President. After Cambridge he attended Yale University on a Mellon Fellowship, where he earned an M.A. in American Studies, was a member of St. Anthony Hall, and met and married Landra. After two years back in Europe, Anthony returned to the United States to earn an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Anthony worked for twenty-nine years at the Boston Consulting Group, first in Boston, then in Menlo Park, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Since 1970 Anthony and his wife Landra have lived in San Francisco, where he was active in Troop Fourteen and on the boards of the San Francisco Symphony, St. Luke's Hospital, the Presidio Golf Club, CPMC, and the Brotherton Fund.
Anthony died on 16 March 2023 and is survived by his wife of 55 years, Landra, his two sons Marcus (Heather) Miles of San Francisco and Aidan (Kirsten) Miles of Lake Tahoe, and Anthony's beloved granddaughters, Adabel and Elora. He is survived, in addition, by his brother John Miles and his sister Penelope Goulden, both living in England.

 1964

Simon Clarke
Simon Clarke was a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Warwick, whose research interests ranged from the origins of modern sociology to conditions in post-Soviet Russia. A full obituary was published in The Guardian on 24 March 2023.

 Michael Potter

 1965

Frank L Wiswall

1966

David R Leeming

The family and friends of David Leeming have generously established the David Leeming Bursary, to be awarded to an undergraduate reading Engineering at Clare to enable them to pursue their studies without financial worries.

 1968

William ‘Bill’ P Kirkman

David Plumb

 1969

Christopher Clausen-Sternwald

Having been advised to take the Cambridge entrance examination by a perceptive teacher, Chris always described feeling surprised and delighted when he received the offer of a place to study German and Russian at Clare. Once there he fully embraced the experience, enjoying to the full the range of opportunities offered. He lived for all three years on T staircase in Memorial Court which he apparently enlivened with his enthusiastic piano playing, displaying a wide-ranging musical taste.

After graduating Chris spent a year at Freiburg University.  This proved a significant period in his life as not only did he perfect his spoken German, but also made life-long friends. Family connections meant that he already had some knowledge of Germany, but he developed an abiding love of Freiburg and its surroundings.

The oldest of four children, Chris was born in Chesterfield. The family then settled in Hertfordshire, but when he was fifteen they relocated to Hampshire, where he attended Brockenhurst Grammar School, which had the good fortune to be situated in the beautiful surroundings of the New Forest. The journey to school and cycle trips inculcated a life-long love of the Forest, and during his time as a teacher it became a regular destination for family outings.   

Following his return from Freiburg Chris married Stephanie, whom he had met in his last week at Cambridge, and took up a post as German teacher in a secondary school in Christchurch, Dorset. While at the school Chris experienced a dramatic conversion to Christianity, and he and his family, which by then included three children, moved to the outskirts of Poole to attend Canford Magna Church, where he and his wife had married. During that period another child arrived and the family enjoyed a very happy time as part of the local Christian community, with Chris making a major contribution to the music of the church.

After four years Chris secured a job as a research worker for a Christian organisation based on Tyneside, and he and the family moved to Newcastle upon Tyne, where they were shortly joined by their fifth child. Chris found the work interesting, but when the contract ended was inexorably pulled back towards his beloved German. This resulted in teaching contracts with Newcastle, Northumbria and Teeside Universities, until he was offered employment as a translator for an agency in Northumberland. He eventually left to set up as a freelance translator.

In his later years Chris’s physical health steadily declined and with it his interest in music and literature. He continued to retain his love for the German language, however, and was punctilious with regard to grammar and pronunciation to the very end. His greatest love, however, was for his family, and he always enjoyed seeing his grandchildren, although preferably one at a time! Chris died on 15 September 2022 and is survived by Stephanie, their five children and eight grandchildren, and also a great-grandson, whom he was delighted to meet shortly before his death.

 Ronald D Francis

 1970

William ‘Sayers’ Kyle

1971

Richard Taylor

1975

Christopher ‘Kit’ Hesketh-Hervey

An acclaimed writer, broadcaster and half of the renowned cabaret act Kit and the Widow, Kit Hesketh-Hervey died unexpectedly on 1 February 2023 at the age of 65. The Guardian published a full obituary.

 1993

Richard Cochrane (Engineering)

Richard Cochrane was born in London in 1974. He was a passionate advocate for renewable energy – equal parts inventor, teacher and champion for the natural world. He was determined to make the world a better place for future generations and inspire others to do so too.

Even as a teenager at University College School in London, he was a keen environmentalist and enjoyed inventing and studying design and technology. Richard matriculated at Clare in 1993 to read Engineering where he was admired and loved by all who were fortunate to meet him – a brilliant and eternally positive human who was full of life, humble and caring. Richard worked and played hard while at Clare, designing and flying paragliders, rowing for the men’s first eight, coaching the women’s novice eight, serving as President of the Clare Rock & Trek Society (RATS) and leading climbing trips to the Peak District and several mountaineering expeditions in the French Alps and Corsica.

After a period with Max Fordham engineers in London, he returned to Darwin College, Cambridge, to study, and then teach, a master’s degree programme at the Martin Centre: Sustainable Buildings and Cities. In the mid-2000s Richard co-founded the low carbon building services engineering firm XCO2, and quiet revolution, a company developing and marketing an elegant helical vertical-axis wind turbine he had invented. Seven of these turbines were showcased at the London 2012 Olympics.

Richard had a rare ability to make complex issues accessible to a broad audience as a gifted, dedicated and much-loved teacher. His lifelong vocation was to teach and inspire others. In 2013 he became Director of Education in the Department of Engineering (Renewable Energy) at University of Exeter, where he ensured that his undergraduate and graduate students gained vital hands-on engineering experience in real-life projects to become champions for the future.

He was endlessly generous with his skills and knowledge. He was often to be heard in the national media speaking out on the importance of radical progress in renewable energy and was a galvanising force for positive change at the local level. He worked tirelessly and enthusiastically to inspire and co-ordinate community action to deliver low- cost renewable energy projects, plant hundreds of trees and enhance the protection of local land and marine habitats that he loved.

Richard married Sarah May and had three children, Emily, Tristan and Jamie, creating a beautiful eco home for them in Cornwall. After a divorce and his diagnosis with motor neurone disease, he continued to dedicate himself to his family, his students and the many environmental and community projects he had catalysed.  He fought for four years with remarkable cheerfulness and optimism to maintain his health, latterly buoyed by his happy new relationship with Felicity Notley, a colleague from the university. He was still working until the week before his death.

A devoted father, son, brother and uncle, Richard is survived by his beloved children, his parents and sister, and Felicity.

 1995

Emma L Wolukau-Wanambwa

 2000

Andrew N Buckmaster

 Honorary Member

Anne Brewin