St Edward's Rhubarb Issue 5

ST EDWARD’S r h u b a r b

39

Edmund Hall, Oxford, and the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, where he completed a degree in Chinese. He knew Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese and Vietnamese in their written forms, and also spoke Italian. A warm, affectionate and gentle man, a brilliant strategist and a natural leader, Brian received his knighthood, of which he was immensely proud, in 1980. His romantic idealism, which ensured his total loyalty to GCHQ, also helps to explain his four marriages and his conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1995. Brian’s eldest daughter, Anne, died in 2012. He is survived by his first wife, Elizabeth Christopher, with whom he had four children, by his fourth wife, Mary, by his children Dominic, Cathy and Helen, and by 10 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

late in life as an art historian, applying his longstanding love of Italy and his encyclopedic knowledge of renaissance Italian art to the writing of books and regular book reviews for the Art Newspaper . His work on Filippo Baldinucci’s Notizie , based on Vasari’s Lives of the Artists , led to his publication in 2005 of Philip Pouncey’s index of Baldinucci’s biographies. This labour of love made him a familiar presence in the Warburg Institute library in London. After he and Mary moved to Oxford in 2010, Brian continued to work in the university’s Sackler Library on a biography of Baldinucci, which he completed shortly before he died. The only child of an Anglican vicar, Collett Tovey, and his wife, Catherine (née Maynard), Brian was born in London in 1926 and educated at St Edward’s School, Oxford, St

and the Pyrethrum Company in Nakuru. After leaving Kenya in 1968, Geoffrey re-joined ICI again and worked for their Management Services division in Wilmslow, where he was an early pioneer of ‘encounter’ groups, and a disciple of Meredith Belvin. These were the early years of a sea change in British management practice and style. He retired early in 1985 to live in Devon, and became an ardent supporter of country life, with over 30 years in the Devon branch of CPRE, and more than 20 as a parish councillor. His private passions were his garden, shooting and reading. He died peacefully at home on 20th May, and leaves behind his wife Mary, sons Michael and David and four grandsons. TOVEY – On 23rd December 2015, Sir Brian Tovey (D, 1938- 1944). The following obituary is written by his daughter, Helen, taken from The Guardian . My father, Sir Brian Tovey, a former director of GCHQ, who has died aged 89, had a flair for languages that led directly to his recruitment in 1950 by the recently formed Government Communications Centre in Cheltenham. He worked there until 1983, serving as director for the final five years. On retiring from GCHQ, Brian embarked on a second career as a company director, in partnership with his wife, Mary (née Lane), whom he met in Cheltenham in 1979 and married in 1989. Together they provided political consultancy services to a number of organisations and co-founded the Learning Skills Foundation and the charity Learning Skills Research, which support the application of neuroscientific research to education methods, for the benefit of teachers and students alike. Powered by his energy and intellectual engagement, Brian developed a third career

this year presented it to the School for auction where it made the splendid sum of £337.50 for the Bursary Fund. Among the clothes chosen for Simon’s burial was a pair of rhubarb pants! SUMMERSON – On 23rd February 2016, William Michael Summerson (B, 1964-1969), after a long illness. He leaves behind wife Anne, and children Nicholas, Kim and Jessica. SWORDER – On 20th May 2015, Geoffrey Norman Sworder (E, 1943-1947), father of Michael Sworder (E, 1971-1976) and David Sworder (E, 1972-1977). The following obituary has kindly been provided by Geoffrey’s son Michael; My father came to St Edward’s in 1943 from Connaught House School. He had ‘escaped’ internment by the Japanese as he had had to return to England for treatment for osteomyelitis, but his father was not so lucky. As a result of the treatment, Geoffrey had a calliper on his leg and was bullied at school, and the war years at St Edward’s were not easy for him. Why he sent David and me there we never really understood! He then attended St Catherine’s College, Oxford, to read Chemistry. He led a quiet life at the college (as far as we know!), apart from his great love of rowing and the not insignificant achievement of 6 bumps in the Summer Eights of 1949. A re-enactment of this was celebrated every 10 years until the last one in 2009, where five surviving members of the original crew turned out for a paddle over the old course. A dinner the night before in College slowed matters down even further! He continued to support the St Catherine’s College Boat Club for the rest of his life. He left St Catherine’s in 1951 to join ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries) at their heavy chemical plant in Northwich, with subsequent postings to Magadi in Kenya

O B I T U A R I E S

Brian Tovey