Page 130 - OO_2019

1938
Colin Payne (Sc)
died 9th September 2014.
His son, Jeremy, writes: “Colin Plasket Payne passed away peacefully in Somerset West, South Africa, aged 95. His wife, Wendy, preceded him in December 2008, aged 82. They had three children: Veronica, Jeremy and David.
“Colin was born in Cape Town on 5th August 1919. He was the youngest in his family. His brother, Kenneth, who was two years older, was also an Oundelian.
“Colin went to Western Province Preparatory School until the age of 12. He then went to Oundle, joining his brother on the long journey on the mail ship from Cape Town to Southampton. Colin went to School House and was a very talented sportsman. He finished his school life as Head of School House and was awarded full colours in cricket, rugby and athletics. He specialised in hurdles, both low and high, and ran at White ity Stadium in London. He set the School hurdles record for 110 yards, which was never beaten, but was sadly replaced when the distance moved from 110 yards to 100 metres Colin also captained England Schoolboys 2nd X1 at cricket and played schools county rugby on the wing.
“When he finished at Oundle in 1938, he returned to Cape Town, joining Cleghorn & Harris (a well- known department store), where he
rose to Managing Director. His early career was interrupted by World War Two, when he, his brother and good friend Dennis Kell voluntarily signed up to join the Allies in June 1940.
“His group was caught after the fall of Tobruk in 1942 and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp in Italy, where they spent many gruelling months. Unbelievably, one night, when the Italian guards were having a party, a large number of prisoners escaped through the POW camp fence. Colin, Ken and Dennis stuck together, and worked their way deep into the Italian hills near Arezzo, where they hid and built a very basic underground ‘house’ in which they lived for about nine months. They managed to befriend two local peasant families, who fed them in return for help with their farm work.
“Before the end of the war, the trio managed to work their way back from behind enemy lines and joined up with the Allies, who helped them get back to their South African regiment and eventually home by boat.
“Back in Cape Town five years later and aged almost 26, Colin resumed his career at Cleghorns and sport, and married Wendy in 1946.
“My father thoroughly enjoyed his time at Oundle and spoke to us often about it. In his latter years he spent hours reading The Old Oundelian and reminiscing.”
1939
Bill Elsey (C)
died 2nd January 2019.
The following obituary appeared in
The Telegraph:
Charles William Carlton Elsey, always known as Bill, was born on 8th December 1921 at Ayr, where his father was based. Five years later, though, the family moved south, after Captain Elsey took over Highfield, the yard at Malton in North Yorkshire.
Bill was educated at Oundle, where his principal interest was woodwork. He paid little attention to horses and, in any case, his leaving school coincided with the outbreak of war. He joined the RAF, trained as a pilot and found himself ferrying fighters from the Gold Coast to Khartoum and on to Cairo. For this he was mentioned in despatches.
After being demobbed as a Flight Lieutenant, Bill spent a year at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester, but the lure of flying prompted him to train as a commercial pilot. During the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49 he flew aircraft for Freddie Laker. Later, piloting passenger aircraft internationally, he met his first wife, Canadian air stewardess Maryan Peterson, with whom he had four children.
By the early 1950s, however, Captain Elsey was approaching his 70th birthday and it was becoming clear that Bill was expected to take over at Highfield. He abandoned his flying career and, after a brief spell learning the ropes with Sir Noel Murless, he became assistant to his father, taking over the operation in 1961.
He had a successful start, winning the 1961 Queen’s Vase at Ascot with Black King. The following year he took the Ebor Handicap at York with Sostenuto. He would win both these races twice in his career and he went on to send out winners of the Eclipse Stakes, St James’s Palace Stakes, Champagne Stakes, Sun Chariot Stakes, the Lockinge, the Yorkshire Cup and two Lincoln Handicaps.
His first Classic victory came in the
Obituaries
130
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THE OLD OUNDELIAN 2018 –2019