St Edward's Rhubarb - 2018

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35 ST EDWARD’S r hubarb
V A L E T E
O B I T U A R I E S
BLACK – In the last couple of
years, Ralph Walter Black (F,
1941-1944).
Born 25th March 1927.
Managing Director of his own
advertising agency in Redditch.
MIPA MInstM.
BOGLE – On 19th October
2017, John Wakefield Bogle (B,
1955-1960), aged 75.
Bristol University 1960-
1963 LLB. Partner in local
Solicitors, Area Legal Aid
Board Committee and
Director, Harlow & District
Sports Trust. John was a
regular attendee of the OSE
Cornwall Lunch. He leaves
his widow Ann and children
Paul and Sarah who miss
him greatly.
BOSTON – On 17th January
2017, John Terence Patrick
Boston (C, 1939-1943), known
as Patrick, aged 91. Brother to
John (C, 1942-1947) and Roger
(C, 1945-1949), and uncle to
Jonathan (C, 1974-1979).
Fleet Air Arm – RNVR
1943-1946. Pembroke
Cambridge 1947-1950 BA
Agriculture. Farmer 1950-
1958. Diploma in Education,
Oxon 1959 then Assistant
Headmaster at Rickmansworth
Grammar School, later King’s
College, Budo, Uganda.
BRADSHAW – On 7th
December 2017, Geoffrey
Kenneth Allan Bradshaw (E,
1940-1944), despite his eternal
optimism and positivity, lost
his hard-fought battle against
numerous cancers aged 91.
Geoff enjoyed an
extraordinarily full life stretching
from the rugby pitches and
classrooms of Teddies and
Oxford University, a short
but supercharged stint as an
RAF fighter pilot through a
lengthy career as an insurance
broker and consultant, finally
retiring in 2015. A loving and
supportive father and husband,
his spare time was filled with
ever-present projects involving
all manner of automotive or
aquatic mechanical contraptions
in rebuild and ‘improvement’.
Geoff followed his cousin
Pete Forshaw (E 1930-1933)
to St Edward’s in 1940. By
1944, he was an Apsley House
Prefect, school Sacristan and
member of the 1st XV and
1st VIII. His brothers Philip
(E, 1943-1947) and Tony (E,
1944-1948) joined him in
Apsley followed by cousin
Richard Coley (E, 1950-1954).
On leaving St Edward’s, Geoff
volunteered to join the RAF
having gained a place at Trinity
College, Oxford, for a 6-month
University Short Course. The
Universities had set up Short
Courses during the War to
cater for university-standard
undergraduates who were
entering the Services. While
at Trinity, he won a Half-Blue
as the Oxford University XV
hooker; there were no full Blues
awarded during the War.
Once in the RAF, Geoff
learnt to fly on Tiger Moths
and Harvards before graduating
onto Spitfires as a Fighter
Reconnaissance pilot. Pilot
Officer Bradshaw’s first
operational posting was to
208 Squadron at Ein Shemer,
Palestine. He spent 12 months
patrolling the pre-partition
skies of the soon-to-be Israel in
Mk VC, IX and XVIII Spitfires,
collecting a bullet ‘up my jacksie’
from an unknown belligerent. He
returned to England to qualify as
an Air-Sea Rescue Officer but,
even before his first lecture, he
was posted to Habbaniyah, Iraq,
on the edge of the Syrian Desert
– not much Air-Sea Rescue to
be done there! He joined 249
Squadron, then equipped with
the fearsome Hawker Tempest
fighter-bomber, and conducted
numerous patrols of the oil
pipelines stretching from the
Iraqi oil wells to Haifa.
After the end of his 4-year
Short Service Commission, he
followed his Father’s advice to
become an insurance broker.
As crisis flared on the Korean
Peninsula, Flying Officer
Bradshaw re-mustered into
the RAF and converted onto
Vampire and Meteor jets via
the Griffon-engined Spitfire Mk
22 although he was not called
upon to deploy. Back in his
City suit, he worked for various
insurance companies ending up
as Managing Director of Needler
Heath & Co in 1988. Following
a take-over, he became an
insurance consultant responsible
for his own, predominantly
marine, account until 2015.
Invariably in his well-used
boiler-suit at home, Geoff had
many interests both nautical and
automotive. As a young, proud Geoff Bradshaw