St Edward's Rhubarb Issue 5_web (2)

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33 ST EDWARD’S r hubarb
and Sunday mornings on both
Radios 1 and 2. Like Derek
McCulloch (“Uncle Mac”) on
Children’s Favourites (1954-67),
the much-loved programme
it replaced, Ed Stewart
made Junior Choice his own,
commanding an enormous
audience of some 16 million
listeners a week. The format
mixed pop favourites with
comedy and novelty numbers,
among them Benny Hill’s Ernie
(The Fastest Milkman in the
West), Clive Dunn’s Grandad
and Max Bygraves’s You’re a
Pink Toothbrush. Among his
on-air trademarks were a short
clip of a young Cockney lad
saying “’Ello darling!” followed
by a brief burst of laughter,
and Stewart’s cheerful sign-off
“By-ee!” He was the first radio
disc jockey to play a request
on the air for royalty, after he
and a group of other radio
personalities took afternoon
tea with Princess Margaret
in the BBC governors’ dining
room in 1968. The record
chosen was Alan Price’s Don’t
Stop The Carnival, which
Stewart dedicated to the
princess’s daughter, Sarah, on
her fourth birthday. The Queen
Mother had told him she never
missed Junior Choice while
taking her Sunday morning
bath, and to mark her 80th
birthday he played for her Car
67 by the group Driver 67,
about a minicab driver who
had been asked to pick up a
fare but had refused because
she had jilted him. Princess
Margaret, who telephoned him
at home with this surprising
request, explained that her
mother had chosen it because
“she thinks it such a touching
story about real human life”.
By then, Stewart had left
Junior Choice to present a daily
afternoon show on Radio 2.
In 1981 he made unwelcome
headlines when he accidentally
read out the names of four
soldiers serving in Northern
Ireland who, he said, had asked
an encounter with a leading
beauty queen thrown in, but
turned it down. On television
he became a regular host
on Top of the Pops and a
presenter on the children’s
series Crackerjack . In 1980
Stewart moved to Radio 2,
presenting Family Favourites
and the weekday afternoon
programme. He moved to
the commercial radio station
Radio Mercury (now Mercury
FM), but was fired in 1990
after being told that they could
no longer afford him. Stewart
rejoined the BBC the following
year, presenting a Saturday
afternoon show on Radio 2
before being reinstated on
weekday afternoons. After
eight successful years in his
old slot, he was fired again,
this time on the grounds that
he was old-fashioned and
out-of-date. As a consolation
prize, he was given a two-hour
show on Sunday afternoons.
Post-millennium he returned to
the network every Christmas
until 2014 to present a special
edition of Junior Choice. “I still
play the old favourites,” he
explained, “because those
who were kids then are now
parents and they want their
kids to know what they were
listening to all those years ago.
They’ll say: ‘Do you remember
playing this song for my little
Johnnie? Well, he’s now 40
…’ So it’s lovely to have
that reaction to the show.”
Ed Stewart married Chiara
Henney in 1974. The marriage
was later dissolved and he is
survived by their two children.
MALCOLM – In October
2014, Anthony John Alexander
Malcolm (E, 1957-1962).
Anthony attended King’s
London from 1963 to 1967.
MANDEVILLE – On 16th
July 2015, Paul Nicholas
Mandeville (F, 1970-1974). Paul
attended Pembroke College,
Oxford, from 1975 to 1979.
McKEE – On 18th August
2015, Kenneth James McKee
(G, 1935-1937), aged 94.
The following has been
provided by Lauchlan T Munro;
Though in his later years
he suffered from advanced
dementia, until the very end
Ken retained fond memories of
his time at St Edward’s. He was
honoured to receive a birthday
card from the Warden each
December and showed great
enthusiasm whenever the OSE
news arrived. Ken was buried
wearing his OSE tie.
MOORE – On 23rd February
2016, Major Richard Moore
(C, 1947-1951), son of Reginald
Moore (E, 1903-1909).
The following obituary has
been taken from The Telegraph;
Major Richard Moore,
who has died aged 82, was
the Senior Military Knight of
Windsor; during his time there
he amassed a substantial dossier
of material on Military Knights
past and present and made a
significant contribution to their
history, both published and
unpublished. Keenly interested
in history, and assisted by
his wife, Jenny, he was the
author of the recent study,
The Military Knights of Windsor
1348-2011, with a foreword by
Lord Carrington commending
“the meticulous production
of this excellent work”. He
was also instrumental in
compiling the handsome
Book of Remembrance on
the Military Knights, displayed
to hear Danny Boy. Stewart
was mortified when he realised
that they were four of the five
soldiers murdered by the IRA
the previous week in an attack
in South Armagh. The BBC
said Stewart had mistaken a
memo warning that the names
should not be inadvertently
read out for a record request
slip, and described the error as
“unforgivable”. Both Stewart
and the BBC apologised to
the soldiers’ families. Often
described as a gentle teddy
bear of a man, with a self-
effacing manner, Stewart failed
to conform to type as a disc-
jockey, and cheerfully admitted
to a lack of self-assertion and
financial acumen. The son of a
Treasury solicitor, he was born
Edward Stewart Mainwaring
in Exmouth, Devon, on 23rd
April 1941. Brought up in
Wimbledon and educated at St
Edward’s School, Oxford, he
excelled at music and sport (he
was a lifelong Everton football
fan) and played double bass in
youth orchestras and sang in
choirs. Arriving in Hong Kong
as bass player with a jazz group
in 1961, he found the planned
tour had been cancelled,
and talked his way into a job
on a local radio station, first
as a sports commentator,
then as an announcer, film
critic and, finally, as a disc
jockey. Four years later he
returned to Britain and in July
1965 became a DJ on the
pirate station Radio London,
changing his name from Eddie
Mainwaring to Ed Stewart.
From a rusting minesweeper
anchored in the North Sea,
he moved to the new BBC
pop network Radio 1 in 1967,
presenting Happening Sunday
and What’s New before taking
over the weekend morning
Junior Choice show in 1968. In
his autobiography Out of the
Stewpot (2005) he claimed
he was offered a bribe to
play a particular record on
the show, with a promise of
Kenneth McKee
O B I T U A R I E S