Rhubarb Issue 2

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22 I s s u e 2 : A P r i l 2 0 1 2
ALEXANDER –
On 25th January
2012, Dr. Frederick
John Alfred
Alexander at the
great age of 103 years.
Former Head of
Modern Languages
until his retirement
in 1969, after 28 years’
service. Graduating from St Catherine’s College
Oxford and The University of Vienna, he
arrived at the beginning of the Second World
War after a short spell at Radley, gradually
settling into his teaching life in Oxford and
becoming an increasingly powerful force at the
School and one of the most intellectually able
of his time. His teaching was much appreciated
by generations of Modern Linguists. He was
very much more than a classroom teacher
and his cultural and literary interests were
wide and cosmopolitan. For years he ran a
highly successful Arts Society and many will
recall motor trips when he drove with little
awareness of other motorists, more intent on
the discussion at hand. Also for many years he
was responsible for the school timetable ‘out
of which he wove a wonderful confusion every
July, to be resolved by remote control alchemy
from abroad during holidays’! Remembered
with affection by colleagues and pupils alike
for the crazy logic of his thinking recalled in
a score of ‘half-delighted, half exasperated
quotations’, he was a great character and a fine
school master. Dearly loved husband of Mary
he left one son, two grandchildren and one
great grandchild.
spell in Germany. After this, he
read medicine at Trinity College,
Oxford. In 1952, he won the
University Champion Pairs and
he rowed twice in The University
Boat Race, in 1953 and 1955; in
1954, while secretary of the boat
club, he contracted glandular
fever and had to drop out.
After Oxford, Marshall moved
to St Thomas’s Hospital, London,
and then Wolverhampton where he trained
in midwifery and paediatrics. He was then
offered an assistantship at a GP practice in
Brewood, Staffordshire. In 1961 he was invited
to join his father’s practice in Pershore and
spent the rest of his career as a GP in the
town, becoming senior partner in 1977, finally
hanging up his stethoscope in 1991. During
the 1980s he became the GP representative on
the health authority’s District Management
Team, and his involvement in medical affairs
continued after retirement with the nursing
homes inspectorate.
He led an extremely full
and active life. He spent hours
researching local history …and
was an authority on the history
of the Pershore area, and was
always responding to requests
for information about the town,
its past and people’s ancestors.
Among his many projects, was
a book on the history of Pershore,
prepared to mark the town’s millennium
celebrations in 1972, and subsequently
developed by co-authoring a more
comprehensive Book of Pershore, published
in 1980. Reading was another passion, and he
built up a large collection of books. People
coming to the house would invariably be
drawn to browse his library would always
find something to interest them. He took
great pleasure in seeing people go off with
borrowed books under their arm, and he
would “stock up” with appropriate books
when a friend or relative expressed interest in
a particular subject.
And there was always music, including
the love of opera developed whilst a student
at Oxford, family chamber music ensembles,
and a lifetime of choral music; he was a
stalwart of Pershore Abbey choir until very
shortly before he died.
He is fondly remembered and much
missed by his wife Janet, four children and
many other family and friends – he gave us
all so much wisdom, inspiration and love.”
WOODHOUSE – On 14th April 2011.
Geoffrey Leslie Whitaker Woodhouse
(B, 1941–1945), aged 83. Brother of Raymond
(B, 1939–1942). RM 1945.
Having lived and worked for many years
in Hong Kong, he lived for some years in
the UK and then retired to France. He was
also a great sportsman. He is survived by his
widow Mrs Gillian Woodhouse and his two
daughters and three grandchildren.
Obituaries Former Common Room
DRAKE – On 23rd
September 2011, The
Reverend John Paul
Drake at the age
of 92 years. A Late
Scholar at Queens’
College, Oxford
he was the second
School Chaplain
to be appointed to
succeed Robert Holtby and served the school
for 11 years between 1958 and 1969. A fine
scholar and a ‘genuinely holy man’ he rose
to the challenge with an easy confidence,
behind rather a shy exterior, because he
was assured in his faith and values. Popular
and approachable, his pastoral skills being
based on a stable and happy family life.
Remembered for his thoughtfulness for other
people and his involvement in many spheres
of school activity, including constant ferrying
to and fro in his Volkswagen and partaking
in end of term Common Room shows.
He left to become the Vicar of Stewkley in
Buckinghamshire where he remained for
seven years, becoming intimately involved in
the successful fight against a third London
Airport which would have meant the
possible demolition of his church. He later
moved on to five further parishes before his
retirement in 1985. His wife Rosemary pre-
deceased him by three years and he left two
children and four grandchildren.
TAWNEY – On 25th
October 2011 David
Archer Tawney, at the
age of 80, formerly
Head of Science at the
school. Appointed in
1959 by Warden Fisher
to succeed Freddie
Yorke in the Physics
Department, he was a
Scholar from Pembroke College, Cambridge and
this scholarship shone through in all his works.
Responsible for many ambitious projects, mostly
very successful, his enthusiasm for science
teaching was infectious. A serious man, he did
not always find traditional public school life
to his taste but nonetheless threw himself into
it. A separate interest was the transformation
for staging a spate of Common Room shows
with the help of his wife Jill. The couple were
a lively presence in the collegial society of the
day and were appreciated as such. Intolerant of
anything second rate, his enthusiasm and drive
eventually took him to Keele University in 1967
as a Lecturer in the Department of Education
responsible for training future teachers. Nine
years later he was appointed Director of the
Consortium of Local Education Authorities for
the Provision of Science Services (CLEAPSS),
which advised teachers how to equip their
laboratories.
He retired in 1996 but continued as a
consultant for CLEAPSS as well as taking a keen
interest in photography and travelling to London
regularly to see the opera. His health began to
falter even in middle age and he eventually died
of heart failure after a hip operation.
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D John Wilson
rhubarb