Rhubarb 2017

ST EDWARD’S r h u b a r b

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to 1954. He went on to the University of Nottingham and the Northwestern University Illinois, becoming a lecturer in Chemical Engineering in 1958 at the University of Birmingham. Martin was an author on thermodynamics and retired in 1987. DURNFORD – On 24th December 2015, Rev John Durnford, (A, 1944-1948), brother of Peter Durnford (A, 1948-1952). John studied at the University of Cambridge from 1950 to 1953, becoming a priest in 1956. He was a Curate in Selby from 1956 to 1958, Newland from 1958 to 1962, and Umtali, Mashonaland from 1962 to 1964. He was Rector at Mazoe Valley from 1964 to

1976, Vicar at Hebden Bridge from 1976 to1984, and Rector at Blanchland until 1994, when he retired. EVANS – In 2015, John Lloyd Evans (C, 1937 – 1939) died 2015. Father of Martin Evans (C, 1972-1977). John was in the RAF from 1942 to 1946, latterly as a Flying Officer. He then became a Motor and Agricultural Engineer in Carmarthen. GAMON – On 16th April 2016, Hugh Gamon (C, 1935- 1940). The following obituary has been taken from The Telegraph : Hugh Gamon, who has died aged 95, was awarded an immediate MC at Monte Grande in December 1944

sponsored the prize, saying that it exploited Caribbean workers, and announced that he would split his winnings with the Black Panthers.) In 1974, when his critical influence was probably at its height in Britain, he left London for Paris and then Geneva. He later decided to leave cities altogether, moving to a remote peasant community, Quincy, in the French Alps, where he lived with his wife, Beverly Bancroft, who died in 2013, and their son, Yves. (Besides his son, he is survived by another son, Jacob, and a daughter, Katya, from a previous marriage.) In the Alps, where he learned to raise cattle, he wrote a trilogy of unconventional books called Into Their Labors - cominglings of short story, poetry and essay - examining the migration of peasants away from their traditions and into cities. Despite his many forays into hard-to-classify forms of writing, he returned again and again to the essay, the bedrock of his reputation, whose underlying theme was almost always the impossibility of disentangling the aesthetic from the moral. BEST – On 6th March 2015, Andrew D’Ewes Best (C, 1944- 1947), in Teignmouth. BUNN – In 2016, Robert Bunn (B, 1939-1943). Robert studied at King’s College London from 1943 to 1950, and worked as a medical practitioner in Cambridge. CARDEW -On 13th February 2016, Martin Cardew (E, 1941-1945), brother of Hugh Cardew (E, 1938-1941). Martin joined the RAF in 1945, before attending the University of Bristol from 1948

when the Allies were fighting their way up Italy after landing at Anzio; later as a legal expert he helped to steer the Channel Tunnel Bill through Parliament. The Germans were counter- attacking in considerable strength, resulting in all voice communications being cut off to the forward battalions. Lieutenant Gamon, as a young officer in the Royal Signals, was instructed to repair the radio lines. As dusk fell on 12th December, he went forward into the fire zone without cover for nine hours, harassed by mortar and small arms fire, and laid a completely new line. His citation praised his energy and enthusiasm, without regard to his own safety. Billeted in a hotel in Florence, he inadvertently took a pillow with him from the hotel; after the war he posted this back to the hotel, receiving an effusive Hugh Wynell Gamon was born in Hartley Wintney, Berkshire, on 31 March 1921. His father was a judge in York; an eccentric uncle drew cartoons for Punch . Young Hugh had volunteered for military service while still a pupil at St Edward’s School, Oxford. At school, he joined the Home Guard and while on night duty reported unusual activity on the other side of the Thames. In the half-light this was ascribed to cows – as dawn rose it became apparent that it was a major Army encampment on Port Meadow to accommodate survivors from Dunkirk. He was commissioned in 1941. Gamon was demobbed in 1947 after service in Palestine. He took a delayed degree in Jurisprudence at Exeter College, Oxford, getting a starred First. There he met June Temple, who was reading History at LMH; they later married. letter of thanks from the manager for his courtesy.

V A L E T E O B I T U A R I E S

Hugh Gamon