Page 22 - OM Newsletter - Issue 44 - 2020

OM OBITUARIES
1940s
Baynton William Gordon (3.38-42) Head of House. School Prefect. William joined the RAF at Lord’s cricket ground on 1 March 1943. He sailed to the US then to Africa to start his flying training in Rhodesia and was awarded his RAF wings in May 1944. He remained there as an instructor until VJ Day. He went on to the Central Flying School at Little Rissington, where he taught new flying instructors how to teach; his logbook reads like a catalogue of aircraft: Lancaster, Spitfire, Mosquito, Meteor, Sea Fury to name a few. He was chosen to join the exam wing traveling the world assessing RAF pilots and instructors. After a spell at 87 Sqn at Wahn, Germany, in April 1957 he took charge of Queen’s University Air Squadron in Belfast, and his last RAF posting was RAF White Waltham. He left the RAF in 1968 and joined BEA (as it was then) and was promoted to Captain a couple of years before retiring aged 55. But he carried on flying: for the next seven years he flew the UAE Ambassador’s executive jet based at Heathrow. As a young man he played tennis, squash and fives and in later life had a passion for boats, both sailing and motor. He married Jean in 1949 and had three children, Julia, Jonathan and Susan. Jonathan (3.66-71) followed him into the RAF as a pilot and Susan as an Air Traffic Controller. Jean died in 1976 and a few years later he married Margaret. They lived in Winnersh, Medstead and latterly in Chipping Norton. Died 5 February 2020, aged 95.
Coates Neville Gordon (SH.41-45) School Prefect. Cricket XXII. Shooting. In the post- war period, Neville joined the Royal Navy as an officer on a tank landing ship and served in the Mediterranean ‘clearing up the mess’, as he put it. On leaving the Navy, he turned down a place to study history at Cambridge in order to help his father out at the family firm in Bolton. The firm was in the ‘making up
business’, part of the ‘rag trade’ and made two ranges of dresses each year that were sold at ladies’ outfitters all over the country. He took over the firm at the age of 27 years following the untimely death of his father and ran it successfully for 40 years, past its centenary in 1979, selling it as a going concern on his retirement in the early 1990s. His interests were many and varied: from the environment and history, exemplified by his long involvement with Bolton Civic Trust, to sporting, including as a young man, tennis, cricket and football and later on, sailing, golf and fell-walking with squash a particular favourite throughout. He also enjoyed quieter pastimes including reading, art, theatre and particularly, bridge. Neville valued friends and friendship very highly and was a committed family man. He was married to Sheila from 1953 until her death just a year prior to his and is survived by three children, six grand- children and one great grandchild. Died 3 June 2020, aged 93.
Gould John Walter (7.41-46) House Prefect. After leaving school John completed National Service before joining the family shipping business. After a varied career he qualified as a teacher and taught drama until health
problems forced his early retirement. He was happily married to Cynthia for 53 years. They had two children, Simon (7.70-75) and Caroline, and five grandchildren. Died 28 February 2020, aged 91.
Gregory (9.37-41) Gregory Marcar William. On leaving Malvern, and seeing the bombed remains of Coventry, Greg immediately signed up to the Army. After Officer Training in the Royal Engineers, he was sent to Cambridge for grounding in first-year Engineering. In November 1942 he received the King’s Commission as a Second Lieutenant attached to the Indian Army Bombay Sappers & Miners. He joined the parachute squadron and learnt Urdu. He trained Indian volunteers, served in the North West Frontier territory, Changla Gali and in Burma. Greg returned to the UK in February 1946 and married Ursula Bromley during his Christmas leave. In May 1947, he was awarded a Regular Commission and went to Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge to finish his degree, graduating in summer 1949. After further service during the Malaysian emergency, between 1952 to 1955 he was Adjutant of 108 Welsh Field Engineer Regiment and from 1955 to 1957, he was on the Technical Staff Officer Course at Shrivenham, and then a Major Instructor at the Royal Armoured School of Tank Technology; he wrote technical manuals specialising in engineering drawing, metallurgy, armour plate and nuclear warfare. He retired from the army in July 1959 but remained in the Civil Defence where he was involved in the building of nuclear bunkers. He taught thermodynamics and stress analysis at the Rugby College of Engineering. His extra-curricular work included writing a stress analysis design programme for an Elliot 803B computer to improve mining equipment and design input for English Electric on diesel engines and steam turbines for power stations, the railways and the Navy. He wrote a technical course for the army captain to major promotion exam and marked GCE ‘A’ level technical drawing for London University. Through Civil Defence, he also held a provisional wartime job at the underground regional seat of government at Kinver Edge. On the amalgamation of Rugby College and others to form Coventry Polytechnic, Greg became a Principal Lecturer and administered timetabling. He kept his hand in by teaching Jaguar trainees in the evenings. When he retired at the end of August 1988, he was offered an honorary doctorate. Greg spent the first years of his retirement at Frinton-on-Sea, where he refurbished a dilapidated house and became a keen vegetable gardener. His three children and six grandchildren became regular holiday visitors. He remained physically active, played bridge and enjoyed beer well into his nineties. When his health deteriorated, he and Ursula, his wife, moved to a bungalow in Dedham, Essex. At the age of 94, he went blind and entered a local care home, Mistley Manor, where he died on Wednesday 26 August 2020, aged 97.
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