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34 St Edward’s rhuba rb
V a l e t e
John attended Manor House
Preparatory School, Horsham
and then boarded at St Edward’s
from 1943 to 1947.
He was a House Prefect at
Segar’s House, and Captain of
Cricket and Swimming. He played
cricket for the 1st XI 1944-1947
and also played 3rd XV rugby.
I also went to St Edward’s
and remember him telling me
the following: The toilets did not
have doors. You swam naked
in the outdoor pool. A boy was
punished for turning up in trunks.
A bad report in History led to
him and Richard Whittington (G,
1943-1947) (later Birmingham’s
coroner) cramming selected past
paper topics. Their favoured
topics all came up in “O” levels
and they both got top grades
much to the surprise (and
disgust) of their teacher.
National service in the
RAF was followed by reading
Mechanical Engineering at
Clare College, Cambridge.
The advice to me from this
period concerned sharing a flat
and cooking duties. When
asked to cook – do so.... do it
badly so that you will never be
asked again!
He continued to play
cricket at Clare. He had played
cricket with his brother for
years claiming Derek wanted
to bat so he became good at
bowling. Derek followed him
to St Edward’s and Clare. His
love of cricket is displayed by a
meticulously kept record of all
bowling and batting 1948-1968.
He was graduate trainee
at Rolls Royce Aero Engine
Division between 1952
and1954. He then worked at
the Guided Weapons Division,
of Vickers Armstrong and BAC
at Brooklands. He was group
leader and manager working on
the Vigilant anti-tank missiles
and TSR2. The latter was a
fighter jet which was scrapped
due to governmental finance
issues. He was made redundant
because of this in 1966 but the
TSR2 was always the work of
which he was most proud.
He met Sheila at a party, and
they married on 1st January
1955 despite her spending much
of their courting watching him
play cricket.
They had three children
Nick (1959), Sara (1961) and
Pip (1963).
The family moved from
Weybridge to Bournemouth in
1966 where he was technical
manager for the traffic light
division of Plessey. In 1968 he
got a job as Head of Technology
Services for GKN Screws and
Fasteners division in Smethwick.
They moved to Solihull which
was much more to Sheila’s liking
than Smethwick.
Between 1977 and 1983 he
worked as a project manager for
GKN projects concerning cold
storage and chickens in Iraq.
He then worked for British
Aerospace, Kingston, on a
project in Iraq, I suspect, on the
back of his previous contracting
experience there. He explained
to me once that this experience
largely consisted of knowing the
likely cost of bribes!
After he retired in 1988 he
threw himself into Olton Golf
Club. He was B Team Captain
1991-1993 and after this
continued to organise working
parties and play an active role
within the club.
I suspect John never really
appreciated how much he relied
on Sheila until she died in 1999.
He had half his colon
removed for cancer in 1979. In
2002 the remaining half of his
colon twisted, leaked and had
to be removed. When I first
visited him in Queen Elizabeth
Hospital, Birmingham, a few
days after surgery the first thing
he expressed was concern over
the Olton Golf Club B Team
captains. He asked me to run
the database and make sure
everything proceeded as it should
do. It was typical. If he said he
would do something he would,
whatever circumstance he found
himself in. Grim determination
and a sense of duty.
Sadly Pip died in 2003 after
a long-term eating disorder and
latterly heroin addiction. The
last few months of her life were
extremely difficult for John as he
tried to steer her to a better path.
Despite saving his life he never
forgave the QE hospital for,
as he saw it, giving him MRSA.
He joined the MRSA support
group and visited the Houses of
Parliament with them. He also
took up the Equitable Life cause
writing to and visiting local and
national politicians with letters
detailing the monetary losses he
felt he had suffered at their hands
including fiendishly complicated
spreadsheets and calculations.
In November 2013 he fell into
a bunker and fractured some ribs
spending a month in hospital. I
feared his Christmas message
saying “I enjoy defeating my
geriatric health problems” was
wildly inaccurate. He continued
to deteriorate generally and
was admitted with pneumonia
in February 2014. He was
discharged with a care package
and was only coping due to his
grim determination. He was re-
admitted a month later and sadly
died on 28th March 2014.
MARPLE – On 7th January
2015, David Rodney Marple
(F, 1948-52), after a long illness
in the South of France. He was
the brother of Robert Marple
(F, 1944-1949). He attended
London University from 1953-
1954. RM 1954-1955, MN
1956-1957, was a Steel Broker
from 1959-1988 and had lived in
France since 1988.
McCARTNEY – In January
2014, Raymond LS McCartney
(E, 1938-1940). He attended
Rashtriya Indian Military College,
Dehra Dun, from 1941-1942,
and was a Major in the Gurkha
Rifles from 1942-1946. He
worked at CF Anderson & Sons,
London from 1947-1989, and
was Associate Director and
General Manager from 1980-
1989, before retiring in 1989.
John Lattey
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