Rhubarb 2017

ST EDWARD’S r h u b a r b

17

OSE Memories

The following memories of Fran Prichard have been provided by John Glees (F, 1954-1959)

I would just also like to mention Keith Beaver (F, 1955-1960), still a close friend of mine for over 50 years. Mr Prichard and family rented a flat in Summertown, at 5 South Parade, in the same house that belonged to Keith Beaver’s grandmother Mrs Bruce, or Dear Old Mrs Bruce, as we referred to her with much fondness. She was well over 90 at this time, very bent but with all her faculties! Keith’s mother, Marion Bruce, later Beaver, was Old Mrs Bruce’s daughter and Old Mrs Bruce’s son, Mr Bruce, had a very successful undertaking profession in Summertown called ‘Bruce’s The Undertaker’. Old Mrs Bruce was a very dear friend to the whole Prichard family (Pat and Fran had two sons) and they were enormously fond of her and I always felt thereby a closer link to Fran because Mrs Bruce’s grandson Keith was my best friend and protector at St Edward’s. I also had the pleasure of meeting Fran’s daughter, who now lives in America and who came over especially for his memorial service.

Then Mr King again asked how he could help me. I said I needed to borrow some money to complete the house that I was building which was facing the sea on this most beautiful of Caribbean Islands, and he said, ‘Of course, how much?’ He also said he would like to come with me on a site visit to see how the house was progressing which he subsequently did! Mr King said to me that as an old St Edward’s pupil, I could borrow as much as I liked, at minimal interest, and that the loan would be guaranteed by himself. All this thanks to Francis Prichard and recognising his letter written in very characteristic italics! Mr King and I and my mother, who was with me at the time, remained friends for years afterwards. I then told Mr King that when his son came to the School in Oxford, that I would invite him to tea in Woodstock where my parents lived which is only seven miles away from the school. Subsequently, I kept my promise and I collected his son and took him for tea to our house in Woodstock where he met my parents who were still alive then. In later years, I told this story to Fran when visiting St Edward’s at a special Gaudy event and we were standing in beautiful warm sunshine in the Quad and he enjoyed the story about the Barclays Bank manager a lot. He called over to his wife and said ‘Johnnie, tell Pat as well’, which I did. This story is just to let you know how often I think of Francis Prichard who helped me in so many ways. He never looked down on the boys, always treated you as an equal and one could always go to him in trouble and he gave such excellent and well thought-out advice. I attended his very moving and most impressive memorial service at St Edward’s in Chapel two years ago, (every seat taken showing how much he was loved and respected). I wish I had known that he suffered for some years from a debilitating neurological condition and that he was still living on the Woodstock Road in Oxford. Sadly his second wife Pat who also was very charming and very attractive to look at had died some years before Fran as a result of dementia. I recall how well Fran’s son spoke as did Derek Henderson (one of my former form masters whom I could always imitate!).

Francis Prichard was my form master. I have many fond memories of Francis, he was a very kind and thoughtful man, he had a ruddy complexion with always a fresh look to his cheeks, always well dressed and ready to give advice and always with a smiling, very friendly face. In the mid 1970s, more than 40 years ago now, I had decided to build a house overlooking the beach in Barbados. I made an appointment to see the local Bank Manager of Barclays Bank in Bridgetown, Mr King. The moment we entered his enormous manager’s office, his telephone started ringing and he excused himself, and swivelled his chair towards his phone. His call was a very long one. Sitting in front of his desk waiting for his call to finish, I noted a handwritten airmail letter, lying upside down, of course, from where I was sitting, on the opposite side of his desk. When he completed his long call, he swivelled his chair back around, and said ‘Now sir, what can I do for you?’ I said ‘Before I come to that, I would like to tell you something’. ‘Yes’, he said ‘what is it?’ I said to him that I could tell him from whom he had received the handwritten airmail letter lying upside down on his desk, with no signature visible. ‘That sir is impossible’, he replied. I said that letter was written to you by a Mr Francis Prichard, housemaster at St Edward’s School in Oxford, England! Mr King was absolutely amazed. ‘You are correct. How on earth did you know?’ I told Mr King that in 1956 I had been taken out of St Edward’s School for a year because my father had been appointed as a visiting scientific research Professor at The Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Mr Prichard had kindly written me numerous airmail letters in his very characteristic italic script, encouraging me to remember to do my set work to enable me to proceed to the next form up at St Edward’s on my return from America. Mr King was dumbfounded that I had correctly recognised Mr Prichard’s handwriting and he then told me his son was to be a Barclays Bank Scholar at St Edward’s and he was in correspondence with Mr Prichard who was by then Housemaster of Sing’s.

F E A T U R E S

Fran Prichard