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Bernie Doeser

Bernie Doeser of the 1960s appeared on TV's Mastermind during October, 2007 and this is the correspondence between David Richardson and Bernie.............

Bernie,

'I saw the show and thought you were up against some really tough cookies without getting some rough questions yourself.   The time element is obviously crucial and being in the spotlight must have been quite an examination for you................'

........but congratulations are obviously due for being on the show in the first place.'

'Thank you David,
It was the most nerve wracking experience of my life. I had to keep thinking, they’re not going to execute me if I don’t win.
I also knew the answers to three questions I passed on, but under the conditions I couldn’t quite get the answer out.

Anyway, I was glad I had a go, but would not do it again, nor would I recommend
it.'

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM

Taken from the School Magazine of 1947

On Thursday evening, November 13th, 1947, in the main corridor of the school, at the close of a Service of Remembrance, there was unveiled the plaque which records the names of seventy-five of our Old Boys who died on service in the war of 1939-1946. Over two hundred parents and friends were present at the ceremony. Prefects of the school and representatives of the senior forms also attended. Flowers, brought by the boys of the school helped to illuminate the improvised dais at the balcony end of the hall.

The service was conducted by an Old Boy, the Rev. F. C. Watson; Mr. Giles, Vice-Chairman of the Old Boys’ Association, read passages from the Wisdom of Solomon as a Lesson and Mr. W. R. D. Martin, secretary of the Association, read out the names on the memorial. The unveiling was done by Mr. W. G. Hale Pearce, Chairman of the Association. The hymn, ‘O, Valiant Hearts’ was sung, with the assistance of a small choir, to the piano accompaniment of Mr. D. A. Martin. Finally, the Last Post,” sounded by a bugler from Kingston Barracks, echoed its message of Hope through the corridors of the school and in the hearts of all those who had gathered to do honour to the memory of old comrades.

It was difficult for us of the school, during the service, to realise that the boys whose names are on that plaque were gone from us. We remember them at their lessons and in their games. We have little knowledge of how they fared in the world for which we helped to prepare them. But we know they faced their duty resolutely and we know they died that the rest of us might live in freedom. Let us therefore remember them as long as the bronze plaques glow softly and the graven names remind us that these men were and are our own special Old Boys. May the boys now at the school and those who, in days to come, throng the corridor, always recall why those plaques are there and resolve that when the moment of trial comes, as it does in the lives of all of us, they too may choose the Truth and the Right.

ROLL OF HONOUR

SHENE OLD BOYS LOST IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR

R. J. S. Ackary
P. B. Ashby
G. C. Ayres
R. J. Ayres
A. J. Baker
G. G. Barker
J. F. Bigg-Wither
 A. L. W. Bond
E. A. Brace
C. V. Brasseur
S. H. Bunch
R. E. Burgess
J. C. Cantle
M. G. Capel
R. T. Chinery
A. L. Clipson
R. G. Cole
G. L. Collins
D. M. A. Connelly
B. E. Coppin
 D. G. Corbett
J. V. Cowtan
R. W. Cox
M. E. Cumber
L. A. Day
N. W. Dorling
J. A. Dutton
J. D. Dye
W. L. Dymond
A. F. Etherington
V. Eyton-Jones
S. J. C. Groom
D. A. Harsum
K. G. Harvey
R. Heathfield
R. Herbert
P. A. Hill
K. Hoad
H. J. Huben
G. R. Humphries
D. W. G. Jones
0. A. L. Jones
H. J. Kelly
L. G. Kelly
V. S. Lacey
 L. A. Leddington
J. H. Lingwood
J. G. B. Macfarlane
S. H. Mansbridge
H. W. Matthews
E. G. Meaton
R. A. S. Mitchell
P. H. Moller
R. W. Morgan
R. H. Morgan
H. J. Naldrett
A. J. Oakley
K. B. Parker
D. M. Penny
H. E. J. Perry
K.D.Port
J. A. Raper
R. D. C. Rich
J. W. J. Roney
B. B. Shipton
H. Slingsby
D. J. Slaughter
R. C. J. Southey
J. B. Sowerby
P. J. Stuart
F. G. R. Thomas
W. F. J. Thomson
G. A. R. Undrell
C. G. D. Walter
A. M. White
D. R. Wilson

PAUL HANCOCK, 1937 - 1998


Professor Paul Lewis Hancock was Professor of Neotectonics at the University of Bristol and an international authority on active fault zones and earthquake movements. He had been on the staff of the department for 30 years when he died from cancer, in 1998, at the age of 61.

Paul Hancock was born in London in 1937 and educated at Sheen Grammar School and then Durham University, where he graduated with a first-class honours degree in Geology in 1959. He remained at Durham to carry out his doctoral research, on the structure of the Orielton anticline in Pembrokeshire, completing his PhD in 1962. Research and teaching appointments at Cambridge,
Nottingham and Strathclyde were to follow before he came to Bristol in 1968. He remained at Bristol for the rest of his life, being actively involved in both research and teaching in the department. He supervised more than 20 research students and, for over 20 years, was coordinator of the Joint School in Archaeology and Geology. He was promoted to Reader in 1981 and appointed to a personal chair in 1995.

Hancock's research work took him all over the world, from Spain to Argentina, China to Turkey, and from Greece to Nevada, USA. He was always an exponent of the classical traditions of field geological study. Lengthy and personal observation of the rocks in situ, and detailed recording on paper and by means of photographs, together with step-by-step mapping of the terrain, were essential for a proper understanding of what was going on. Hancock's research interests in these diverse regions included classical structural geology, in particular the study of brittle microtectonics (the use of faults to identify past stress conditions in the Earth's crust) and regional structure (major thrusts of rock masses to produce mountain ranges). He later moved increasingly into the field of neotectonics, the study of faulting and folding in action, both in the present day, and in the archaeological past.
The combination of geology and archaeology became a particularly fruitful field for Hancock in the 1990s. He showed, by observation and experiment, the nature of the earthquakes that had destroyed so many classical Greek temples. He also showed how the combination of archaeology and geology allowed the history of earthquakes in an active region to be reconstructed precisely, and then to be used as a means of calculating current and future risk.

Hancock's academic activity was reflected in a distinguished publication list, including 65 scientific articles, and ten edited books. In 1978, he launched the Journal of Structural Geology, which has since become the leading international journal in the field; from 1992 until his death, he was chairman of the International Commission on Tectonics (sponsored by UNESCO).
Those who knew Paul were aware that his sometimes stern expression hid a dry sense of humour and a kind heart. He will be remembered with affection by his colleagues and former students. In 2001, Journal of Structural Geology 23, 2&3 were devoted to the memory of Paul Lewis Hancock: Editor-in-Chief, 1979–1985; Founding Editor, 1986–1998.

The Hancock Memorial Prize is awarded annually to the best final-year MSci student, and the Hancock Occasional Prize has been set up to reward outstanding performance in Archaeology/Geology. 

HYWEL MADOC-JONES, 1939 - 2004

Hywel Madoc-Jones, M.D., Secretary/Treasurer of the Massachusetts Medical
Society, died at the age of 65 on Wednesday 14th January, 2004 after a brief illness.

A member of the Medical Society for 23 years, Dr. Madoc-Jones was a
radiation oncologist practicing at Norfolk Radiation Oncology Associates in
Norfolk. He also practised at Caritas Norwood Hospital Southwood Campus,
Caritas St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Boston, and other hospitals in the
Boston area.

Born in Cardiff, Wales, Dr. Madoc-Jones initially trained as a cancer
researcher in London. He subsequently taught radiobiology at the Washington
University School of Medicine and earned his M.D. with honours at the
Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago in 1973. He moved
to Boston in 1980 to lead the Radiation Oncology Department at Tufts
University School of Medicine.

Dr. Madoc-Jones joined the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1981 and was a
member of the Society's House of Delegates and numerous committees before
his election as Secretary/Treasurer in 2000. He was re-elected to the
position twice. He also served two terms as President of the Suffolk
District Medical Society from 1997-1999.

MMS President Thomas E. Sullivan, M.D., said, "Hywel Madoc-Jones was a true
gentleman and a Massachusetts Medical Society activist. He was vocal about
his concerns for the profession, for the Society and for the best in patient
care. He contributed selflessly to the leadership of the Society and often
reminded us of our mission and the need to use our resources wisely to carry
out our mission. His example and his counsel will be both missed and
remembered by his fellow officers and many friends and colleagues."

Dr. Madoc-Jones' funeral will be held Saturday (Jan. 17) at noon at the St.
John the Evangelist Church, Wellesley. There will be a private burial
service in Louisiana. His family requests that in lieu of flowers donations
be made in his memory to the Dr. Hywel Madoc-Jones Fund, c/o Development
Office at Tufts-New England Medical Center, 750 Washington St., Boston
02111.

As reported on the MMS Website and provided by Alan Treherne

Rev. IVAN DOWNS, died 1st March 2005

Dick Strevens recalls that Ivan had left the School by the time he arrived in September 1946 and he was to meet him later at a School scout expedition to the Lake District.   Ivan was a regular worshipper at All Saints, East Sheen.   Dick has provided the following regarding Ivan's career in the ministry via  Crockford's Clerical Directory and his death notice in the Church Times.

1965.   attended Chichester Theological College
1966.   appointed Deacon
1967.   ordained Priest
1966-70.   Assistant Curate, Corbridge with Hallow
1970-74.   Assistant Curate, Christchurch, Tyneside
1974-79.   Vicar, Walker
1979-89.   Vicar, Dudley
1990-91.   Vicar, Weetslade until retirement
1991.   Given permission to officiate
Deceased 1st March, 2005

ALAN ROBERT GREGORY, 1929 - 2005

An e-mail dated 10th February, 2011 from Gareth Gregory
I am the son of Alan who was born in 1929 and I believe attended the school for his secondary education. Dad died in June 2005 having suffered from dementia for some time.

After leaving school Dad graduated from Battersea Polytechnic with a degree in engineering. Following his National Service, he joined the Post Office and amongst other things assisted in laying the telephone cables across the Atlantic ending up in Newfoundland!

He later joined the CEGB (now Nuclear Power) and worked in Paternoster Square near St Paul's. The family moved from Larches Avenue to Fetcham in the early 60's. In 1972 we moved to Cheltenham with Dad's job and he became involved in finding alternative energy sources such as wave power and district heating. Towards the end of his career he became more involved in proposals for decommissioning nuclear power stations. He was invited by the IAEA to address various conferences in Vienna and Istanbul as well as travelling on a monthly basis to Brussels.

Following his retirement he and my mother visited lifelong friends in Los Angeles where he suffered a heart attack which triggered vascular dementia.

My mother's recent funeral was attended by Peter Nockolds (I believe to be an old boy) and his mother Margaret (the widow of Fred who may also have been an old boy from the 1940's?).

RICHARD (DICK) BOND, died January, 2006

An extract from Mrs. Tina Bond's note to David Richardson:  'I'm sorry to have to tell you that my husband,  R.J. ( Dick ) Bond died 23rd January 2006 at home in Fareham, Hants after being diagnosed with cancer nine months previously.

I'm not quite sure  when he started at the school as things were rather unsettled over the war years but he left  in 1948  to begin an apprenticeship at the R.A.E.   His love of cricket & football was greatly encouraged at the school & he continued to follow those sports through into further education with avid spectating in later life'

Dr. JOHN WYMER, 1929 - 2006

Friends and colleagues paid tribute to the internationally renowned Suffolk archaeologist.  Dr John Wymer, who lived in Bildeston, Suffolk was an expert on the Palaeolithic period, otherwise known as the 'Old Stone Age', and died on February 10, aged 77, at Southampton Hospital following a short illness.

Footnote:  from Peter Cox:.........John was an SOG who lived in the next village to me. I never got round to meeting him but did speak to him on the phone about our Reunions, which he was interested to hear. 

Editor's footnote:........As one volunteer out of a hundred at the Kew Bridge Steam Museum I was in conversation with the wife of a Trustee of the Museum at a recent Exhibition opening.   The particular study for which John was renowned had also been her own enthusiasm for many years and she was very aware of his standing.   A photograph of John, taken from the Daily Telegraph, can be seen at the Photo Gallery in FAMILIAR FACES Part 3.
.....and from Eric Foote......................I have now reached the age when scanning the Obituaries column in the Daily Telegraph can be rewarding and  interesting, but also very sad. The latter applies to last Friday's column. I read of the death of John Wymer. He had been a friend of my young brother, Raymond and guest at our home before Raymond went to the U.S.A. The obituary referred to the fact that John had been"...educated at Richmond and East Sheen County School..." and ..."In his spare time, Wymer enjoyed blues and jazz..".  In the early 1940's, Raymond and three of his colleagues from R.& E. S. County (John Wymer, Snelling (John?), Padday (?)) gathered at West Park Rd, Kew Gardens, where our family lived. The group took over our front sitting room where we had a baby-grand piano. Their jazz sessions livened up our household, but, thankfully, our neighbours must have been very tolerant or hard of hearing.  Raymond was the pianist, and I think that the other instruments played were the clarinet, guitar and drums. The atmosphere was always very, very smoky but generally happy. Raymond managed to buy original jazz and blues records and even had some shipped over from the USA. There were visits to London jazz clubs to hear the UK's best or instrumentalists from other countries.  I am glad to say that although the sessions at our home were noisy and very often discordant, I still enjoy blues and traditional jazz!

This obituary appeared in the Daily Telegraph on 3rd March, 2006
JOHN WYMER, who died on February 10 aged 77, was Britain’s foremost authority on early Stone Age settlement and had a major impact on the development of Stone Age studies inWestern Europe.

His career as an archaeologist began with the discovery in 1955 of Swanscombe Woman, the fossil remains of a skull of a woman who lived in the ThamesValley around 400,000 BC; they are among the oldest human remains ever discovered in Europe.
Wymer spent 40 years in a variety of investigations of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites which he expanded into a remarkable and comprehensive two-volume study of The Lower Palaeolithic Occupation of Britain.

He also carried out major programmes of research in South Africa, most notably at Klasies River Mouth, west of Port Elizabeth, where a remarkable stratigraphic sequence, more than 25m thick and spanning the entire Middle and Late Stone Age, was discovered. The sample contained more than 250,000 stone tools, as well as animal bones, sea shells and other detritus, but most important, a number of human bones. One of these was 100,000 years old, and was at the time of its discovery the world’s oldest specimen of the truly modern Homo Sapiens.

John James Wymer was born on March 5 1928 and brought up near KewGardens in London. Educated at Richmond and EastSheenCountySchool and at ShoreditchTrainingCollege he was introduced to the pleasures of the Stone Age by his parents, who took him flint-hunting in gravel pits.

He began his career as a teacher but soon turned to archaeology, and in 1956 was appointed to the staff of ReadingMuseum, where he continued his search for Palaeolithic implements in the Quarternary sediments of the river Thames. This research soon led to his first monograph, Lower Palaeolithic Archaeology in Britain as represented by the ThamesValley, published in 1968, which catalogued thousands of discoveries and used them as a basis for a chronology of the Lower Palaeolithic period. The volume was illustrated by hundreds of Wymer’s own meticulously-crafted pen-and-ink drawings of hand-axes and other flint tools
In 1965 he was recruited by Professor Ronald Singer of the University of Chicago to direct a series of excavations at sites in South Africa including the Klasies River Mouth. Returning toEngland in 1968, he went on to carry out excavations at key Palaeolithic sites, including Clacton, Hoxne and Ipswich.
His management of these excavations set new standards for prehistoric archaeology and each excavation was fully published. In 1979-80 Wymer was appointed Senior Research Associate at the University of East Anglia which bore fruit in The Palaeolithic Age (1982) and Palaeolithic Sites in East Anglia (1985).
By the time these appeared in print Wymer had been recruited to dig sites of later periods in Essex and then Norfolk. Although he had bought a house at Bildeston, Suffolk, he moved with his second wife, Mollie, to Great Cressingham in Norfolk and, between 1983 and 1990 worked for the Norfolk Archaeological Unit, investigating many sites at different periods.

From 1991 he began a project to relate every Palaeolithic discovery yet made in Britain to its relevant geological deposit, in order to construct an authoritative survey of the early presence of people in Britain.

The project was enormous, but in only six years Wymer had personally visited almost every site and significant museum collection in the country. The result was a series of detailed reports which could be used by mineral extraction companies and planners to tell them of the potential importance of different Quaternary sediments. In 1998 it was distilled into his two-volume study The Lower Palaeolithic Occupation of Britain.
Wymer was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1963 and of the BritishAcademy in 1996.

In his spare time, Wymer enjoyed blues and jazz, gardening and real ale; he was a supporter of CAMRA and a regular at his local pub where he cut the cheese in his ploughman’s lunch with an ancient flint knife.

John Wymer married first, in 1948, Pauline May.  The marriage was dissolved and he married secondly, in l976 Mollie (nee Spurling), who died in 1999 He is survived by two sons and three daughters of his first marriage. 

The Guardian,  Friday. 10th March, 2006
JOHN  JAMES WYMER, archaeologist, born 5th March 5 1928; died 10th February, 2006

Enthusiastic hunter of skulls, stone tools and the roots of history
In the mid-1930s, a dentist found two pieces of the same ancient human skull in the quarries at SwanscomBe, Kent. Twenty years later, John Wymer who has died aged 77, unearthed a new piece of the same skull which had, he said, the ‘consistency of wet soap’ At 400,000 years old, it remains the only pre-Neanderthal skull from Britain. Thus began Wymer’s career pursuing early human history, though he had started as a teenager with his father, a professional artist, who had been searching for palaeolithic flint handaxes in Kent for decades.
Wymer was born and brought up in Richmond, Surrey, and educated at East Sheen County School and Shoreditch Training College. After the Swanscombe find, he became Curator at Reading Museum, having worked as a journalist, a British Rail clerk and a teacher.  For 10 years he studied Reading’s handaxe collection and directed excavations at mesolithic hunter-gatherer camps in the Kennet valley. The most important was at Thatcham, where he recovered artefacts and animal bone refuse at a site used by generations of hunters.

His next excavations were in South Africa (1965-68).  At thesuggestion of the great palaeontologist Louis Leakey, Ronald Singer, of Chicago University, employed Wymer to direct work at Saldanha Bay and then at Klasies River Mouth, near Port Elizabeth. At a time of apartheid and widespread ignorance of the nation’s history, Singer was seeking to drive back the story of homo sapiens. At the Kiasies caves, Wymer found human fossils up to 110.000 years old with rich deposits of artefacts and animal remains, all indicative of what were then the world’s oldest modern humans.

Singer moved Wymer back to Britain to excavate already well-known palaeolithic sites, including those at Clacton. Essex and Hoxne, Suffolk. Then, after excavating in the 1980s for archaeological consultancies in Essex and Norfolk, in 1990 Wymer began a unique survey of the evidence for the country’s earliest humans. The importance of sites like Swanscombe, Clacton and Hoxne lies in pristine remains preserved in undisturbed geological deposits. Such cases are rare. A 1989 planning application to quarry a hill at Dunbridge. Hampshire, where more than 1.000 handaxes had been found, exposed general ignorance of the greater mass of unstratified tools.
A chastened English Heritage commissioned the Southern Rivers Palaeolithic Survey, with Wymer as project manager. After its successful completion in 1994 came the national English Rivers Palaeolithic Survey, while Cadw, the Welsh Assembly’s historic environment division, conducted a parallel study. Based near Salisbury, Wymer visited almost every known palaeolithic site. His comprehensive reports now inform research, and guide planning and development.

Wymer was efficient at publishing his excavations. Illustrating stone tools is a difficult task that demands proper understanding of the technology. He taught himself to knap flint, and made superb technical drawings. His first publication in Nature was about the Swanscombe find: last December, 50 years later, his drawings of the 700,000 old flint tools from Pakefield, Suffolk, illustrated another Nature contribution.

He was president of the Quaternary Research Association, vice-president of the Prehistoric Society and chair of the Lithic Studies Society. The Geological Society awarded him their Stopes medal. He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the British Academy.
The drier paths of Wymer’s discipline and the rigours of fieldwork were dispensed with much humour. His mother had played piano to silent films, and he became an accomplished and entertaining blues pianist; he also played guitar. His love of real ales was famous. He is survived by three daughters and two sons from his first marriage. His second wife. Mollie, died in 1999.

DAVID CATFORD, died February 2006

AN EXTRACT FROM THE BARNES AND MORTLAKE HISTORY SOCIETY MAGAZINE

'……..Mike Smith presented to the February 2006 meeting the talk prepared by David Catford, as a tribute to a much-appreciated member of the Society who had died just two weeks earlier.
Mike reminded us that David as a real local, having lived all his life in East Sheen, was ideally suited to taking us for a truly nostalgic walk along the Upper Richmond Road West.
David began at Priests Bridge, directing our imaginary walk to Sheen Lane on the North side, and then from Gilpin Avenue to Sheen Lane again on the South.

We stopped at every shop to hear David’s comments about the shopkeepers and their merchandise, reminding us of the days when we had a multiplicity of small family-owned shops, (grocers, greengrocers, bakers and butchers) before the era of the supermarket and restaurants offering cuisine from every part of the globe.

Only one of these shops serves the same purpose today as it did sixty years ago - the bakery now known as the Parish Bakery - but the Westminster and Midland Banks are still on their old sites, although under new names.

For those who do not know the Upper Richmond Road, there were reminders of what it was like to shop in wartime with long queues, the fiddling to cut out coupons or mark ration books, and the problems facing, for example, the butcher trying to cut a piece of meat to exactly the value of the weekly ration - which was one shilling and twopence at one time (roughly 6p. in today’s coinage).
Do you remember when you could buy sweets for half an old penny? And do you recall those overhead wire systems in the draper’s that catapulted your money and the bill in a metal box to the cashier, and returned your change?

Finally David recalled the Sheen Odeon, one of the 1930’s picture palaces, sadly demolished in 1960, to be replaced by Parkway House.

It was a very special occasion, and in effect a David Catford memorial evening. We shall remember him'