St Edward's Rhubarb Issue 5

ST EDWARD’S r h u b a r b

41

Elizabeth (later Irving-Bell). His father was a naval officer and his mother in the WRNS (her father was also in the Navy). He was their eldest son and one of five brothers (one full, and the others from his mother’s second marriage). All were at Teddies. He served in the Royal Navy after leaving school until 1974. He won a scholarship to the British Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, where he was made Senior Sub-Lieutenant in his final term, and represented BRNC at rugby and cricket. After Dartmouth, he served on the following ships: HMS Victorious, HMS Woolaston, HMS Fearless, HMS Beachampton (First Lieutenant) and HMS Sirius (Navigating Officer). In the early days he saw action during the Konfrontasi stand-off with Indonesia. He was serving on Fearless in 1968 when it was the venue for talks between Harold Wilson and Ian Smith over the future of Rhodesia, his first interaction with a country in which he had a long-lasting interest - both in its politics and cricket. He played scrum half for the Navy, and also cricket on a couple of occasions. He left the Navy in 1974 to join the FCO, and during his 25 years of service managed to serve in four cricketing countries (Malaysia, Barbados, Zimbabwe and India), underlying his considerable powers of persuasion. The writer remembers his time in Kuala Lumpur (1976-1979) with affection: wonderful parties and some memorable partnerships for the Selangor Club. When Mark was in Bridgetown (1981- 1985) he again played a lot of cricket. Norman Marshall (Roy’s brother who played a single test for the West Indies) speaking privately to the writer in the Bridgetown Club, said, “Mark was a fine batsman, but sometimes a little late on the stroke!” In Barbados, Mark also discovered a new

they respected each other. In 1987, he became Assistant Bishop in his old diocese of Bath and Wells, where he served as an incumbent for two further years, until retirement in 1989. In 1951, he married Pamela Peregrine, who survives him. They had five children. Susan, who predeceased him, was seriously ill from birth and Liz was ordained priest in 1994 (thus extending the clerical generation to five). Pamela shared fully in his ministry, and John also shared in hers. They retired to Salisbury, where they entered fully into parish and cathedral life. In 2013, they moved to St Barnabas’s College, Lingfield, where he was able to sustain his devotional and pastoral life. WILLIAMS – On 4th June 2015, Kenneth Mark Williams (G, 1958-1963), aged 70, brother of Simon Williams (G, 1959-1964), step-brother of Raymond Irving-Bell (B, 1958- 1961) and half-brother to Colin Irving-Bell (B, 1966-1970) and David Irving-Bell (B, 1968-1973). The following obituary has kindly been provided by David Wethey (E, 1957-1962); Mark Williams who died aged 70 in June 2015 after a brief but devastating illness was at Teddies from 1958-1963. He was President of the SES Society in 2003. At Teddies, he was scrum half in the 1st XV, and surprisingly for such a talented player, Captain only of the 2nd XI. He also appeared in a number of school plays. The broadcaster Jon Snow, some years below him, remembers Mark as a brilliant sportsman and a caring prefect – they became good friends in later years. Mark lived a rich and varied life as naval officer, diplomat, cricket and charity administrator, and sporting bon viveur . He was born in Ryde, Isle of Wight on 31st December 1944 to Kenneth Williams and

The following obituary has been taken from The Church Times ; The Rt Revd John Waller, who died on 3rd September, aged 91, epitomises that group of people who served in the Second Word War, and found a vocation to the priesthood to care for people and renew the Church. Born into a clergy family going back three generations (his father was Provost of Chelmsford from 1949 to 1951), he was educated at St Edward’s School, Oxford, and joined the RNVR in 1942, a time in his life he rarely talked about. From Peterhouse, Cambridge, he moved to Wells Theological College, where his tutors included John Robinson and Kenneth Skelton. After a two-year curacy in Hillingdon, he moved to the diocese of Bath and Wells, where he both served a second curacy, and, in 1955, pioneered work in the Conventional District Diocesan Youth Officer, when youth work was a key area of growth in the Church. From there, he was recruited to work at the Church of England Youth Council. In 1967, motivated by a strong sense of justice and mission, he was invited to develop clergy training in youth work for the Church of the Province of South Africa. Eight days before he was to leave, the apartheid government refused to give him a visa. (He remained committed to South Africa and was chairman of the Zululand and Swaziland Association for 16 years.) Stranded, he was rescued by the Bishop of Rochester, David Day, who offered him a pioneering post in initiating the Strood Team Ministry. In 1979, Bishop of Lichfield invited John to be Bishop of Stafford. He worked creatively with his archdeacon, John Delight, who was a convinced Evangelical; of Bourneville. As Rector of Yarlington, he was also

O B I T U A R I E S

Mark Williams

career as a cricket writer - including writing a number of sections on West Indian cricket history for the Barclays World of Cricket , and articles for the Caribbean Cricketer and The Cricketer amongst others. For the FCO he played a role in the restoration of constitutional government in Grenada following the US led intervention in 1983. Mark had been on Lord Carrington’s team during the successful Lancaster House negotiations in 1979 leading to the independence of Zimbabwe, so he had excellent contacts which stood him in good stead when he was stationed in Harare from 1988-1992. A highlight was his organisation of the famous Commonwealth Cricket Challenge match (24th Oct 1991 during the CHOGM meeting) for charity, persuading John Major, Bob Hawke and the Prime Minister of Pakistan (amongst others) to play alongside Zimbabwean cricketers like Graeme Hick. Amongst other things he had to find cricket whites for John Major from a friend’s son. He was in Delhi from 1994-1998, where he developed a close friendship with Ranjitsinghi’s grandson, the Jam Saheb of Jamnagar. This provided the inspiration for an exhibition he created called ‘Ties that Bind’ for a major Indo-British trade show, coinciding with the State