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ST EDWARD’S
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The following obituary has
been taken from
The Church
Times
;
The Rt Revd John Waller,
who died on 3rd September,
aged 91, epitomises that
group of people who served
in the Second Word War,
and found a vocation to the
priesthood to care for people
and renew the Church. Born
into a clergy family going back
three generations (his father
was Provost of Chelmsford
from 1949 to 1951), he was
educated at St Edward’s School,
Oxford, and joined the RNVR in
1942, a time in his life he rarely
talked about. From Peterhouse,
Cambridge, he moved to Wells
Theological College, where his
tutors included John Robinson
and Kenneth Skelton. After a
two-year curacy in Hillingdon,
he moved to the diocese of
Bath and Wells, where he
both served a second curacy,
and, in 1955, pioneered work
in the Conventional District
of Bourneville. As Rector
of Yarlington, he was also
Diocesan Youth Officer, when
youth work was a key area of
growth in the Church. From
there, he was recruited to work
at the Church of England Youth
Council. In 1967, motivated
by a strong sense of justice
and mission, he was invited
to develop clergy training in
youth work for the Church of
the Province of South Africa.
Eight days before he was to
leave, the apartheid government
refused to give him a visa. (He
remained committed to South
Africa and was chairman of
the Zululand and Swaziland
Association for 16 years.)
Stranded, he was rescued
by the Bishop of Rochester,
David Day, who offered him
a pioneering post in initiating
the Strood Team Ministry. In
1979, Bishop of Lichfield invited
John to be Bishop of Stafford.
He worked creatively with his
archdeacon, John Delight, who
was a convinced Evangelical;
they respected each other. In
1987, he became Assistant
Bishop in his old diocese of
Bath and Wells, where he
served as an incumbent for two
further years, until retirement
in 1989. In 1951, he married
Pamela Peregrine, who survives
him. They had five children.
Susan, who predeceased him,
was seriously ill from birth and
Liz was ordained priest in 1994
(thus extending the clerical
generation to five). Pamela
shared fully in his ministry, and
John also shared in hers. They
retired to Salisbury, where they
entered fully into parish and
cathedral life. In 2013, they
moved to St Barnabas’s College,
Lingfield, where he was able
to sustain his devotional and
pastoral life.
WILLIAMS
– On 4th June
2015, Kenneth Mark Williams
(G, 1958-1963), aged 70,
brother of Simon Williams (G,
1959-1964), step-brother of
Raymond Irving-Bell (B, 1958-
1961) and half-brother to Colin
Irving-Bell (B, 1966-1970) and
David Irving-Bell (B, 1968-1973).
The following obituary has
kindly been provided by David
Wethey (E, 1957-1962);
Mark Williams who died
aged 70 in June 2015 after a
brief but devastating illness was
at Teddies from 1958-1963.
He was President of the SES
Society in 2003. At Teddies,
he was scrum half in the 1st
XV, and surprisingly for such a
talented player, Captain only of
the 2nd XI. He also appeared in
a number of school plays. The
broadcaster Jon Snow, some
years below him, remembers
Mark as a brilliant sportsman
and a caring prefect – they
became good friends in later
years. Mark lived a rich and
varied life as naval officer,
diplomat, cricket and charity
administrator, and sporting
bon
viveur
. He was born in Ryde, Isle
of Wight on 31st December
1944 to Kenneth Williams and
Elizabeth (later Irving-Bell). His
father was a naval officer and
his mother in the WRNS (her
father was also in the Navy). He
was their eldest son and one
of five brothers (one full, and
the others from his mother’s
second marriage). All were at
Teddies.
He served in the Royal Navy
after leaving school until 1974.
He won a scholarship to the
British Royal Naval College,
Dartmouth, where he was made
Senior Sub-Lieutenant in his final
term, and represented BRNC
at rugby and cricket. After
Dartmouth, he served on the
following ships: HMS Victorious,
HMS Woolaston, HMS Fearless,
HMS Beachampton (First
Lieutenant) and HMS Sirius
(Navigating Officer). In the
early days he saw action during
the Konfrontasi stand-off with
Indonesia. He was serving on
Fearless in 1968 when it was
the venue for talks between
Harold Wilson and Ian Smith
over the future of Rhodesia, his
first interaction with a country
in which he had a long-lasting
interest - both in its politics and
cricket. He played scrum half
for the Navy, and also cricket
on a couple of occasions. He
left the Navy in 1974 to join the
FCO, and during his 25 years of
service managed to serve in four
cricketing countries (Malaysia,
Barbados, Zimbabwe and India),
underlying his considerable
powers of persuasion. The
writer remembers his time in
Kuala Lumpur (1976-1979) with
affection: wonderful parties and
some memorable partnerships
for the Selangor Club. When
Mark was in Bridgetown (1981-
1985) he again played a lot
of cricket. Norman Marshall
(Roy’s brother who played a
single test for the West Indies)
speaking privately to the writer
in the Bridgetown Club, said,
“Mark was a fine batsman,
but sometimes a little late
on the stroke!” In Barbados,
Mark also discovered a new
career as a cricket writer -
including writing a number
of sections on West Indian
cricket history for the
Barclays
World of Cricket
, and articles
for the
Caribbean Cricketer
and
The Cricketer
amongst
others. For the FCO he played
a role in the restoration of
constitutional government in
Grenada following the US led
intervention in 1983. Mark had
been on Lord Carrington’s
team during the successful
Lancaster House negotiations
in 1979 leading to the
independence of Zimbabwe,
so he had excellent contacts
which stood him in good
stead when he was stationed
in Harare from 1988-1992. A
highlight was his organisation
of the famous Commonwealth
Cricket Challenge match
(24th Oct 1991 during the
CHOGM meeting) for charity,
persuading John Major, Bob
Hawke and the Prime Minister
of Pakistan (amongst others)
to play alongside Zimbabwean
cricketers like Graeme Hick.
Amongst other things he had
to find cricket whites for John
Major from a friend’s son. He
was in Delhi from 1994-1998,
where he developed a close
friendship with Ranjitsinghi’s
grandson, the Jam Saheb of
Jamnagar. This provided the
inspiration for an exhibition he
created called ‘Ties that Bind’
for a major Indo-British trade
show, coinciding with the State
Mark Williams
O B I T U A R I E S