In memory

18 August 1932 – 9 July 2024

My father, Edward Derbyshire, was born on the 18th of August, 1932, to Kathleen (‘Katie’) Derbyshire (nee Wall) and Edward Derbyshire, at 10, Canterbury Street, Garston, Liverpool, the son of a domestic worker and dock labourer. In later years, Edward Junior recounted how he would walk on his own to the local Catholic primary school, Holy Trinity, navigating the web of backstreets. It showed a determination that became the hallmark of Edward’s life.

Any sense of normality was first interrupted when Edward, aged six, fell ill during a diphtheria outbreak in Liverpool, an issue that was debated in Parliament at the time. Edward spent five months in hospital before being allowed to return home. 

After the outbreak of the Second World War, Edward, his elder sister Margaret, and his mother were relocated to North Wales, whilst Edward Senior worked in the aircraft factory established near Speke Hall. Edward told how they would watch the German bombers flying over the mountains of North Wales to drop their munitions on the docks and other industrial sites in Merseyside. 69 out of 144 berths at the docks were put out of action, with nearly 3,000 casualties. The roof of the Anglican cathedral was pierced and stained glass windows damaged during the May 1941 Blitz.

Following the end of the war, Edward’s parents made a decision that was to have a major impact on their lives. Edward Senior decided to emigrate to the United States, ahead of the rest of the family, where he was to find work as an engineer, whilst Katie was to move south to Stone in Staffordshire with the children. Edward gained a place at Alleyne’s Grammar School in the days when such schools were more effective tools of social mobility. This was another vital piece of the jigsaw in Edward’s progress into adult life, as he gained a place at the newly formed University College of North Staffordshire (UCNS; later Keele University) to study English Literature and Geography in his foundation year, before majoring in Geography, with a subsidiary in Geology. 

Come 1950, Katie began work in the newly opened ‘factory in a garden’ at the Wedgwood site at Barlaston, hand painting porcelain plates. Edward Senior had established a new life in Baltimore, Maryland, and the marriage was not to last. Katie was to follow her former husband to the United States a few years later, where she worked her way across the continent to California, becoming a companion to the actor Mary Livingstone, wife of the comedian Jack Benny, amongst others.
  

Edward as a foundation year student, UCNS, 1950

Deferring his National Service, a decision which Edward wrote ‘might not have served me optimally,’ he began his studies at UCNS in 1950, driven there by his brother-in-law, and admitting to some nerves about what lay ahead. A resident in the not-so-salubrious quarters of Nissan Horwood Hut 3, with five other male undergraduates, he described being ‘both abandoned and as free as a bird’. Soon, Edward was fully immersed in the joys of student life: playing in the first ever 1st XI Soccer match versus Birmingham University; founding the men’s, and later women’s, table tennis teams (earning the nickname ‘All Balls’); and helping backstage at a production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, where he constructed a bridge over a lake. In 1952, Edward was elected President of the Geographical Association, having the distinction of being the only British undergraduate to attend the XVIIth International Geographical Congress in Washington DC in August 1952, at the age of almost 20. 

It was at UCNS that Edward met my mother, Maryon Lloyd, his ‘soulmate,’ who was also studying Geography with English Literature, and roots were firmly planted in the soil of the North Staffordshire hills. Keele was to remain crucial to the newlywed couple’s lives, and that of their three children and one grandchild, and helped to define the next few decades. Not only was this where love had sprung, but it was also a place where many friendships and academic links were made.

Once he had graduated from Keele in the first tranche of finalists in 1954, and after gaining a Diploma in Education (and deciding not to teach young people), Edward resumed his National Service, teaching English and Geography to ‘squaddies’ before ending up at the ‘plum posting’ at NATO Headquarters at Fontainebleau, south of Paris, where he was based for 18 months. 
   

Edward teaching ‘squaddies’, 1955

Released early by the Army, Edward then accepted the offer of a postgraduate scholarship at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where he planned to continue his studies towards an MSc. Maryon graduated from Keele in 1955 and, before the move to Canada, Edward and Maryon were married on June 2nd, 1956, at St John’s Church in Buckhurst Hill, Essex. The couple returned to Canada for the next few years, with Maryon working at the Arctic Institute of North America for a year to help support Edward’s unfunded year of thesis writing. Training first as a weatherman with the Canadian Meteorological Service, Edward then spent a year at the meteorological station in Schefferville, near Knob Lake, in central Labrador, with Maryon, where he recorded a minimum winter temperature of minus 47.5°F. They both recounted the wonders (and terrors) of being surrounded by forest, lakes, snow and, as he recalled, wolves.
  

Edward and Maryon on their wedding day, 1956

In 1958, the couple returned to UCNS, and Edward became a Demonstrator in Geography, moving with my mother into the now-demolished Gateside Cottage, where they adopted a tortoiseshell farm kitten called ‘Oedipus’ (a play on words). Their eldest son, Edmund, was born in Stoke General Hospital in January, 1959. Edward’s MSc thesis, entitled, ‘Fluvial erosion in central Quebec-Labrador,’ was completed in May 1959, and awarded by McGill the following year.
Life continued apace as the young family moved in 1960 to Australia, where Edward assumed an appointment in Sydney as a Lecturer at the University of New South Wales, in Newcastle, a post he described as being offered ‘under a false premise.’ Disappointed by this appointment, Edward ‘fell on his feet’ in 1962, moved to 44 Evelina Road in Toorak, adopted a Siamese cat called ‘Mrs Siddons’, subsequently having the pleasure of working as the first full-time lecturer in the Geography Department of Monash University in Melbourne, establishing the subject as a full and integral part of the university offer, and leading the new department in the fields of geomorphology and climatology. His initial research interests included studies of the geomorphology and glaciations of Tasmania and the Antarctic continent. Recalling Edward, one student at the time, Ken Marriott, wrote that, ‘Eddie was always very approachable…but he didn’t suffer fools lightly,’ though he and his fellow undergraduate Howard Brown were nonetheless inspired to be ‘turned into geographers.’ 

Edward and Maryon returned briefly to the UK for a sabbatical, during which their second son, also named Edward, was born, in April 1965 in Hereford General Hospital. Here they learnt that Mrs Siddons, in a final dramatic act, had been squashed by a motorcar. Edward visited Spain at this time, researching the cordilleras in the Meseta of Castille. Returning to Australia, Edward continued to work as a Senior Lecturer at Monash. In 1966, he was invited by the United States Geological Society (work for which he was in 1974 awarded the Antarctic Service Medal) to contribute to research into the cirque forms and moraines in the dry valley area to the west of the McMurdo Sound, on the southern tip of the Ross Peninsula. Back in Melbourne, Edward continued to work towards his PhD at Monash, whilst collaborating with academics at the 1964-founded Macquarie University in New South Wales, being awarded his doctorate in 1968 for a thesis entitled, ‘Glacial Geomorphology and Climate of the Mountains of Western Tasmania, with special reference to the Northwest Centre.’ 

In the meantime, the family of four had returned to the UK in January 1967, with Edward taking up an appointment as Lecturer until 1970, then Senior Lecturer until 1974, before becoming Reader, in the Department of Geography at his alma mater, now Keele University. This was followed by the birth of the couple’s third son, Dominic, at the Newcastle-under-Lyme Maternity Unit, in November 1968. 

During the period that followed, Edward continued to lead fieldtrips, notably to Norway and Iceland (once dropping his beloved Leica camera in an Arctic lake). It was in 1970 that Edward was invited by Geoffrey Boulton of the School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia (UEA), to join a six-week expedition to Iceland’s small but dynamic ice sheet. Here, and back at Keele, Edward continued to hone his research into glaciology and glacial deposits, and, as he wrote, promote ‘the societal relevance of [that] science in solving real-life problems affecting us all.’ This mantra was one which was to develop throughout Edward’s career and motivate his cooperation with colleagues and institutions worldwide. 

A sabbatical year followed in 1975-1976, during which time Edward lectured once again at Monash University, and, for a longer period, Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand, whilst continuing his glaciological and earth science research.

Though Edward was based for 18 years at Keele as an established academic, years he described as ‘the happiest of my life,’ many other opportunities opened up. In 1977, Edward first visited China, one year after the fall of the Gang of Four and Chairman Mao’s death, as a member of the UK Royal Society’s delegation of geomorphologists. The links first forged with academics at the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) were to play a seminal role in the later development of Edward’s research work and international profile. It was at this time that Edward became fascinated by aeolian soil particles deposited as loess, kickstarting what was later described by Professor Slobodan Markovic as a ‘scientific revolution, one which, led by Edward and his eminent Chinese colleague Professor Liu Dongsheng, ‘verified Chinese loess as the most important continental record of changes in Quaternary palaeoenvironments.’ Visiting at the same time as a delegation from the Australian Academy of Sciences (AAS), Edward also forged a relationship with a leading soil scientist, Professor Jim Bowler, both of them determined to develop an understanding of the loess landscape. An invitation followed to spend six months at the CAS Institute of Glaciology in Lanzhou, Gansu Province, in 1980, offered by the legendary Chinese glaciologist, Professor Shi Yafeng. It was here, at Lanzhou University, that Edward led a three month course for international scientists in glacial geomorphology and sedimentology. This period undoubtedly reshaped Edward’s career and provided impetus for his pioneering scientific research into soils. It was seminal in forming important friendships, too, such as with Professors Wang Jingtai (about whom he later wrote a poem and obituary), Li Jijun and Ding Zhongli, later a Vice Premier of China.
 

Edward on a field excursion in China, 1980

After Edward’s family flew home from China in 1980, he travelled to Islamabad and joined the International Karakoram Project in the upper Hunza Valley in Pakistan. This collaboration with scientists in a politically sensitive and geomorphologically unstable region of the world proved one of Edward’s great maxims: that no one should have to surrender their right to an education, with open mindedness being the prime ingredient. In this spirit, Edward grew a much-loved beard, which he kept until his death. Edward’s work in the field of soil mechanics, whether at the Kielder Reservoir on the North Tyne River, the Yellow River in China’s northwest frontier region, the precipitous valleys of the Karakoram, or the oil-gas platforms in the North Sea, had a bifold focus: debate, collaboration and innovation based upon international cooperation between scientists from across a broad spectrum of disciplines; and real-life solutions for people, often the poorest, whose lives were threatened by huge movements of soil deposits and the Earth’s crust. This was work that also brought Edward into the field of Quaternary research into palaeoclimates and the evolution of climate change, areas he early on describes as being of ‘huge societal significance.’ Indeed, his work in this climatically crucial region of the world – the Tibetan Plateau often being referred to as ‘The Third Pole’ – allowed Edward to make one of his seminal contributions to geoscience in understanding the extent of the palaeoglacial ice cover over Tibet. This was a busy time for Edward, and as his research interests accumulated, he was honoured to receive the Beck Award of the Royal Geographical Society of London ‘for contributions to glacial geomorphology and research in China’ in 1982.

In 1985, Edward left Keele University for the last time, a decision he wrote later was ‘difficult to understand.’ Indeed, he had been awarded his own Chair at Keele in 1984 as Professor of Geomorphology, but had, overall, felt unappreciated. Nonetheless, after taking up the Professorship and leadership of the Geography Department of Leicester University, Edward continued to explore ways forward in research, despite inheriting a department that had become somewhat ossified. His mission was to modernise the department, an almost Herculean task. Frustratingly, this period also included the loss of the Soil Mechanics Laboratory at Leicester in 1989 when the Department of Civil Engineering was closed. However, Edward had already persuaded the European Union to fund eight years of research into the huge and largely undocumented landslides of western China, for which he later earned the Varnes Medal of the International Consortium on Landslides, awarded to him by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) in 2012. Joint and fruitful research with the Department of Geology at Leicester also allowed for further important scientific analysis of the glacial sediments of the Karakoram, and the loess plateau of Tibet. Research collaboration with Professor Ian Smalley at Leicester and Dr Tom Dijkstra at the University of Loughborough brought further academic papers and European-Chinese collaboration.

The move from Keele also brought the reward of a much-loved townhouse in Brighton, a colourful four-storey bolthole on the southern English riviera filled with a lifetime of memorabilia that was much appreciated by Edward and Maryon. This was followed some years later by a move to a spacious apartment in Hove, and finally, in the late 2000s, to a part of an old mansion house in the somewhat unlikely setting of Bognor Regis.

Back to 1990 it was, of course, typical of Edward to see an opportunity to ‘retire’ from formal academia, aged just 59, as an opening to further international collaboration and supervision of doctoral students. He mentioned being happy that he ‘had the freedom to run my own life; to teach if I wished and/or take on full-time research.’ Approached by Professor Jim Rose, the Director of Quaternary Research in the Department of Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London, Edward, as Emeritus Professor, entered into a decade of work he said included ‘without doubt the happiest and most rewarding teaching of my life.’ It was here that Edward contributed to the MSc in Quaternary Science and supervised and worked with two post-doctoral students who became adoptive members of his personal, and worldwide Quaternary, family, helping with the delivery of a course on sedimentology: Professors Lewis Owen and Meng Xingmin. 
 

Edward (far right, sitting) in Pakistan, 1995

Furthermore, this period of overlap (1987-1991) saw Edward, as the UK’s national correspondent, join only 16 scientists involved with the International Geological Correlation Programme (IGCP) 252, a joint venture between UNESCO and IUGS on the ‘Past and Future Evolution of Deserts.’ This was combined with Edward’s membership of the Royal Geographical Society’s Earth Resources Committee, which in turn led to his becoming a member of the External Relations Committee of the Geological Society of London. Busy as ever, this was accompanied by an invitation by IUGS to chair its Committee for Research Directions, a thinktank charged with promoting international geoscience research initiatives.
Elected as the Secretary-General of the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA) for 1991-1995 at the annual Congress in Beijing, China, Edward used this opportunity to develop internationally based Quaternary research initiatives with likeminded scientists from across the globe, including in China, Australia, Europe, North America, South America, and India, notably with Professor A.K. Singhvi, whom he encouraged and supported in a mission to establish INQUA within the important Indian subcontinental academic hemisphere. At the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Edward was able to chat on several occasions to the paramount leader of China, Deng Xiaoping, about climate change and its societal impacts. In 1992, the government of Gansu Province in China made Edward an ‘exemplary foreign expert.’  The following year, 1993, brought a collaboration with An Zhisheng and A.K. Singhvi, through IGCP 349, on ‘Desert Margins and Palaeomonsoons since 135ky: 1993-1997’, resulting in a co-editing with A.K.Singhvi of a book entitled, ‘Methods for Paleoenvironmental Research in Drylands.’ During this part of the 1990s, Edward also found the time to contribute to the IUGS’s Commission on Environmental Management as a member of the Medical Geology Working Group. In 1995, he was coopted on to the Scientific Board of the IGCP), prior to being elevated to its Chair for five years (1996-2001), the longest term yet served by an IGCP chairperson. It was also at this time that Edward attended four of UNESCO’s biennial General Conferences, working with the UK’s Permanent Delegation.
1995 was important for another reason: a spin-off from the main loess project initiated at Leicester was a meeting in Loughborough to discuss loess and other collapsing soils. Support from NATO also enabled other leading scholars to attend, with the outcome being a book edited by Edward, Dijkstra and Smalley, entitled ‘Genesis and Properties of Collapsing Soils.’ Further research in 1997 brought insights into the correlation between climate and desertification, highlighted by a submission to ‘Earth Science.’

The year 1999, when Edward was 67, brought two important turning points in his still developing career. The Loessfest ’99 Conference, organised by Edward, Smalley and Professor Ludwig Zöller in Heidelberg and Bonn to commemorate the 175th anniversary of the naming of ‘loess,’ resulted in further international collaboration, as well as two more edited volumes of research and analysis in 2001: ‘Recent research on loess and paleosols, pure and applied’; and ‘Loess and Paleosols: characterization, chronology and climate.’ The other highlight of Edward’s year in 1999 was his appointment as an Honorary Life Member at INQUA, in acknowledgment of his contributions to Quaternary science. Still on the twin-track approach to loess research projects, Edward, Dijkstra and Meng edited ‘Landslides in the Thick Loess terrain of Northwest China’, the culmination in 2000 of the ‘Loess Landslides in Lanzhou’ project.
  

Edward (far right, sitting) at Loessfest ’99, 1999

Rather than slow down his academic research interests and international collaborations, Edward’s work seemed only to accelerate. In 2001, he was appointed to the Chairmanship of the Science Programme Committee of the proposed United Nations International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE), 2008. Such a role, Edward wrote, included ‘the range of skills expected being well beyond that of chairing committees; the learning curve in diplomacy and politics is as steep as ever.’ Typically, Edward modestly attributed his success in lobbying national delegations at the United Nations (UN) in New York and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the UK to declare 2008 the IYPE at the UN General Assembly of December 2005 to his experience advocating the establishment of departmental programmes and student societies during his foundation year at UCNS. Also during this period, 2000-2004, Edward co-led, with Professors Olle Selinus and Peter Bobrowsky, IGCP 454, focussing on medical geology. Journeys to Europe, working with the likes of Professor Ted Nield at the Geological Society, allowed others to collaborate with Edward, ‘this most dedicated servant.’
In 2004, Edward was awarded the Prix d’excellence pour les sciences de la Terre, by the Organisation mondiale de mineralogy, Monaco. Continuing to visit colleagues in China and beyond, Edward saw no need to end his first ‘retirement.’ After his much-touted second ‘retirement’ in 2010, he continued his work on medical geology, with an emphasis on airborne natural mineral particles. This allowed continued contact with international geoscience institutions, supervision and editing of scientific papers and a chance to act as a series co-editor with Professor Eduardo de Mulder of the legacy volumes that provided state of the art records of the IYPE’s ten major themes. 

Typically, an investment in the 2000s in a property on the southern coast of Gran Canaria did not simply mean the occasional relaxation by the pool, but rather scientific cooperation with researchers such as Dr Inmaculada Menéndez González at the Instituto Oceanografía y Cambio Global in Las Palmas. This was archetypically Edward: as he stated when at UCNS, ‘vacations were generally too long for my taste.’ Summer camping holidays with his family around Europe had, indeed, been sold as breaks, but included in-situ seminars on the glaciations of the Alps or the Dolomites, or the import of Quaternary soil sections exposed by the roadside. Life was work, and work was life, however varied. Indeed, in a paper harking back to his earlier life in North America, Edward’s article ‘Notes on the Social Structure of a Canadian Border Town’, was published in ‘Sociological Review’ in 2011.

Still based in Bognor Regis, Edward sustained a dramatic injury in July when hitting his head on an iron girder of the basement of the property, having delved underground to extract academic papers for his continued research. Bleeding on the brain ensued, as did an air ambulance flight to Southampton Hospital to save his life. A miraculous escape, aided by an excellent team of health professionals, allowed Edward to continue to work. In early 2012, Edward effectively compiled, edited and produced the 40th Anniversary volume for IGCP, providing an historical overview of the outstanding contributions of global scientists to the IUGS-UNESCO IUGS legacy. As recognition of his academic work, Edward was subsequently awarded the James M. Harrison Award and Medal for Outstanding Achievement by the IUGS. His citation supported the view of many colleagues throughout the decades, who were inspired and impressed by Edward’s commitment, rigour and generosity of spirit, as one who ‘exemplifies the voluntary service to the Union most cherished and appreciated by its members.’

In his eightieth year, 2012, Edward was headlined at an international conference in his honour. Called ‘ED@80’, this international gathering of earth scientists at Novi Sad, co-led by Professor Slobodan Markovic, and including field trips to the loess deposits of northern Serbia, was a fitting recognition of Edward’s contribution to the greater understanding of the physical and human significance of loess transportation and deposition.
 

Ed@80, a celebration of Edward’s life and career, 2012

Later in 2012, Edward and Maryon made their final move, this time to Cheltenham, in southwestern England. Edward quickly installed their extensive library in their new home, as well as filing cabinets and shelves inhabited by academic papers and research documents. In his neatly defined and organised study, lined with photographs from around the world, he continued to write and edit scientific papers, in particular co-authoring papers on medical geology and the ‘impact of airborne mineral dust on human health.’ This was a continuation of initial work with thoracic specialists in China and Europe into the quality, composition, distribution and properties of loess and global silt and their profound societal relevance, a parallel project which had resulted in the publication of three co-authored books: ‘Essentials of Medical Geology’ (2005); ‘Pollutants, human health and the environment: a risk based approach’ (2012)’; and ‘Essentials of Medical Geology’ (2013). 

One final move within Cheltenham in 2015, to a smaller house, did not dim Edward’s work ethic, and it was here, in 2017, at the age of 85, that his last paper of more than 200 manuscripts and books, concerning the human health impacts of wind-blown Saharan dust particles, was written. This followed titles such as, ‘Geomorphology and Climate’ (1976), ‘Landslides in the Thick Loess Terrain of North-West China’ (2000) and ‘Geomorphological Processes’ (2013). Contributions to international journals and memoranda of collaboration with geoscientists and others too many to mention lay, meticulously archived, in Edward’s last, sunshine-filled study. At last, now, Edward began to slow down as dementia and a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease started to take their toll. Maryon was, as she had always been, the mainstay of Edward’s work, health and happiness, and life was adjusted to include cruises around the Mediterranean and northward past the Arctic Circle, revisiting old haunts. Language became increasingly sparse, though the twinkle in Edward’s eye remained, as did his occasionally sharp wit. His love of literature, and especially Shakespeare, brought immense comfort; he was thrilled to win an award with a national bookseller for his satirical poem ‘The Duntisbourne Leer,’ based upon a pun around this Gloucestershire village’s name. Edward was always tickled pink by wordplay, and it was therefore fitting that his poems were professionally performed during a tour of regional venues in 2021-2022. Visits to the opera and classical concerts also provided balm. A near fatal meeting with Covid-19 on Christmas Day, 2022 led to Edward’s move into Wentworth Court Care Home, where he continued to delight with the odd incisive remark, an eyebrow-raising rendition of the word ‘Wow!’, endless smiles, and dances with the carers, until his health finally failed.
 

Edward and Maryon at home in Cheltenham, 2024

Professor Edward Derbyshire died on July 9th, 2024, at Wentworth Court, Cheltenham, and is survived by his wife, Maryon. They shared three children, Edmund, Edward and Dominic, nine grandchildren, Lizzie, Emily, Frederick, Isaac, Ralph, Daniel, Jacob, Henry and Beatrice, and two great-grandchildren, Sophie and Martha.
 

Edward, Maryon and sons Edmund, Dominic, and Edward (left to right) at a professional performance of ‘From Age to Age,’ including Edward’s poetry, Syde Manor, 2021

Written by Edward Derbyshire. Cheltenham, July 2024

Not a whit, we defy augury. There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come.
The readiness is all.

William Shakespeare, Hamlet

1936 - 2025

Written by Jeremy Steele: Friday 31 January 2025

Childhood viewpoint of an only just younger brother. (The other two were sister Sandra, and Rory, born in Perth, W.A., after the family moved there in 1938.) 

Michael was born in Adelaide South Australia in 1936, on the anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, 14 October 1066, and one year, eleven months and three weeks before me, both facts which he drummed into me. He was my loved, admired older brother, in whose shadow I grew up. He won prizes at school, was always noticed and shone. In our family he was the eldest son of the eldest son of the eldest son going back numerous generations He was always first, and there were no prizes for coming second. I grew up in his thrall, which never quite went away. 

He was wonderful though, always showing the way, with the ability to impose himself and his knowledge, on me anyway. I can still recite the cases of Latin nouns, learnt from him even before I was exposed to Latin at school. He could recite the names and dates of the kings and queens of England from William the Conqueror, and could probably have given a summary of the lives of each, knowing where each stood in history’s flow of events. He could rattle off the states of America, from a mnemonic learnt from our father. 

I was lost without him, as I found out on the first trip home on my own to Darlington from primary school in East Guildford, when changing trains at Midland Junction. Without Michael’s guidance I got on the wrong train, jumping off when the train paused at signals, and walking the numerous miles home. This was in Perth Western Australia where Michael went on to complete his schooling at Guildford Grammar School. 

By 1952, Father’s health, always precarious, was failing again. Somehow very acute Mother came up with the preposterous notion of moving the whole family to healthier climes, to escape the pollens of the world-renowned biological hotspot that is south-west Western Australia. The place she had chosen was Italy. Italy! We lived in Perth, in those days an national backwater. The plan was that our parents and two younger siblings would travel first, and we two oldest children, for sea-passage ticketing reasons, six months later. Everything had to go. House and furniture were sold, and pet dog passed on to a friend. The rest was packed in crates on which we daubed the word ‘London’. The family then drove east across the Nullabor Plain desert to Adelaide, the ancestral seat of the Steele family where the car too was sold. The final stage was a rail trip to Melbourne to see more family before, as planned, four boarded the Shaw Savill liner Arawa for England, and thence to Italy. Michael and I stayed on in Melbourne. 

It was on the rail journey to Melbourne that Michael looked to see which team he would support in the VFL, the Victorian Football league of the Australian Rules football competition. He soon settled on Richmond, a team having the same colours as Claremont, his team in Perth. Thereafter he followed the Richmond Tigers passionately to the very end, adding West Coast as a second favourite when years later WA joined the expanded national completion. 

In Melbourne Michael and I stayed with an aunt, one of our mother’s five sisters. Michael would go to watch Richmond play, with some of our Cropley cousins. We both had jobs as office boys, 

where he worked in the postal department. He was fascinated by the postcodes then in use in Victoria (in primitive Perth at the time there had been no postcodes—or traffic lights, or electric petrol pumps), and learnt most of them, bestowing one of them, S20 for the town of Moorabbin, on me as a nickname, after innumerable predecessor names. Michael coined nicknames for all sorts of things throughout his life, some being She’s (Sandra), Heed (short for ‘rat-head’), for Rory), the jazz (for the toilet, or lavatory, after the Duke of Plaza Toro (G&S The Gondoliers))— (later ‘the talls’, presumably for ‘toilet’), Strawb (strawberry, for Yvette), Laundromat Steve (for Yvette’s former husband), and RQ (probably for Red Queen, for Sonia). There were endless more. 

Michael was 17, practically grown up, when the two of us eventually boarded the P&O Strathaird in 1954 for Europe, and he relished the fact that I, only 15, was classified as ‘in charge of the master’. We stopped in Colombo and Bombay, and went through the Suez Canal. Michael opted to go on an excursion to the pyramids (I was too scared) while the ship was passing through this waterway. We disembarked at Marseilles in France (where we tried out some schoolboy French), and caught a train to Genoa, being met by the family. Then in the dark through innumerable tunnels to Lerici, the fishing village where they then lived. Three days later Father drove Michael to England to begin his university education, and so he missed the extraordinary Italian experience of the rest of us were to have. 

In late 1954 Michael ended up in Keele, then the new University College of North Staffordshire, where he became president of the Social Committee, and was to make many friends, one notably William Clark, a friendship which continued throughout his life. 

Michael graduated in 1958, with the looming possibility of two years British national service (only three months then being obligatory in Australia). To avoid this he went to Turkey to teach English, where he met Beryl Swift, and her young son Nicholas, and married her in 1962 on returning to England. 

Michael was always fascinated by politics and, settling in London, he began to pursue a career in journalism. He was of the centre-left politically, a supporter of underdogs. He attached himself to the British Liberal party, and eventually obtained a position as lobby correspondent in the House of Commons, occupying what he claimed to be one of the world’s most recognisable office locations, its window being just at the point where the Big Ben tower met the rest of the Palace of Westminster. While in this role he secured contracts to appear regularly on Welsh television to give a Welsh view of happenings in Westminster, and another contract to provide similar insights for the Japanese. He loved the environment of the parliament, meeting or brushing past the great and famous of the day. He became treasurer of the lobby correspondents group, and gained some notoriety for organising annual marathon running events for correspondents and politicians. 

Michael and Beryl had two daughters, Yvette and Jessica, whom he loved dearly, and of whom he was extremely proud. 

Although his identity as an Australian and his enthusiasm for Australian Rules football remained important to him throughout his life, after leaving Australia in 1954 at the age of 17 Michael never returned to Australia to live. As I chose to sail to Sydney with my young family in 1969 and have made my life there, Michael and I—who shared so many life-shaping early experiences with each other exclusively—although we kept in touch, have met on only rare occasions since the 1960s. 

Michael had his share of misfortune. His stepson Nicholas was killed in a motorcycle crash. His first marriage failed. But he was resilient. One early scheme he embarked on was to buy an old Thames barge, the San Riou, big enough to live on; but within weeks it sank. Another scheme was to invest in crates of wine. The most remarkable of his enterprises was a jukebox-hiring business which he set up, and named West Coast Eagles Jukeboxes. He acquired several jukeboxes, naming each after a notable West Coast Eagles footballer, and accumulated an extensive collection of records. He drove these cumbersome instruments in a trailer to hirers’ locations anywhere in south Britain though mostly around London, setting them up and retrieving them the next day. All much easier said than done. 

Michael was always keen on sports. He would make a point of attending a day in any Ashes England-Australia test series; and for many years would travel to Australia in the years Olympic Games were held so he could enjoy them the better by hearing parochial Australian commentary on the media rather than the commensurately biassed British coverage in England. 

On one such trip Michael married Sonia, on our back lawn in Sydney, surrounded by gum trees, on 3 September 1992. They shared a colourful life together which I would see occasional glimpses of. 

Throughout his life, right from primary school, Michael kept a diary, handwritten of course. When he eventually decided to copy it out, by dictating it onto his computer, he discovered that many of the people who featured in it were recorded by nicknames that after multiple decades he had forgotten. 

Michael was keenly interested in people and his family was very dear to him. His direct and enquiring manner often led those whom he met for the first time to feel they were being interviewed. He loved movies, and history. He was intrigued by war memorials, noting the much greater numbers of fatalities in the first world war than in the second.  

He was well read, and would often go to the literary festival in Hay-on-Wye. And he had an amazing memory. He learnt dates. He could unhesitatingly tell you some fact, or several, in connection with any date in the year, whether a battle, triumph, disaster, or a family member’s birthday or anniversary. Curiously though, I discovered when I visited England last year to see him for what turned out to be the last time, he had never been to the site of the Battle of Hastings associated with his own birthday, until we detoured there together on a trip to Hastings to see Jessica. 

Michael would no doubt have found fault with this summary. So, in closing, why not hear authentically from him, himself, quoting from an email he wrote in June 2023: 

“The Hay literary festival is an event that takes place in Hay on Wye in east Wales in late May and early June each year. Hay is a town renowned for its second hand book shops, and the Wye is a river on the English Welsh border. 

I have two daughters – Yvette and Jessica. Yvette is a dedicated attender of the Hay festival and Jess goes quite often as do I. My wife Sonia is cool towards Hay but sometimes comes to keep me company as she did this year, not least because Yvette, born on May 26 1963, was having a birthday party in Hay to celebrate being 60. 

I am not a particularly religious individual but I do believe in God. I think it is much more interesting to consider that there is a God and some sort of spiritual afterlife. However, particularly since reading Julian (the apostate) by Gore Vidal some years ago I have not been able to accept the divinity of Jesus Christ. Of course I accept that like Oliver Cromwell, Julius Caesar and Abraham Lincoln, he was a very significant mortal. 

I pray to God briefly before going to sleep, and mention in my prayer 8 individuals who are closest to me. The remarkable thing about the Hay Festival is that seven of those eight individuals were present when Sonia and I were at the festival [including] my first wife Beryl, who now calls herself Emily. 

The one person in my praying octet who was not at Hay is a fine boy who turned 16 the day before yesterday and who is the son of Sonia's daughter by her first husband. This lad is called Sullivan, and I have known him very well from the moment he was born. Because, at that time, he had two living grandfathers, I did not want him to be calling me ‘step grandad’, … for reasons that are a different story I told his parents that I wanted Sullivan to call me ‘Cicero’, after the great Roman democrat and republican. They cooperated fully, so their son mostly calls me ‘Cic’ for short. He Is a serious competitive motorbike rider and has been since the age of 6. 

He and his parents used to live very close to us and we would see a lot of Sullivan. Unfortunately, from my point of view, they decided to leave South East London and go and live in Silverstone, which at a rough guess I would say is about us far from London as Mildenhall. Silverstone is the headquarters of motorbike riding in Britain. Sullivan goes to the school associated with it, and he's doing very well. He did not come to Hay but still features in my nightly prayers. 

The other seven in those prayers and were at Hay were Sonia and the two above-mentioned daughters, together with Eve, aged 22, who is Jessica's daughter, and both Yvette’s sons. They are Danny, aged 33, who now lives in British Columbia, of all places. He went to [that] side of North America because he met a girl from BC when both were working in a place near Hay .… 

Danny, who is very close to his mother, comes over here reasonably often and is by chance a very good cook, though that is not his profession. He has just been taken on as a trainee paramedic. He was in charge of all the food arrangements at his mother's 60th birthday party in Hay the other day, and did very well. 

His younger brother, my grandson as well, has just been signed on as the third doctor in my immediate family. His mother Yvette, who went to Aberdeen University, became a GP Connor, [this grandson], married Arialym, a very nice Kazakh woman whom he met at Newcastle University, where they were both students. Connor did engineering and has now got a PhD in it . 

His aunt Jessica is also a PhD, and I went to Leicester a few months ago for her graduation ceremony for that. Connor and Arialym got married in Kiev about six months before the loathsome Putin tried and failed to capture it.” 

Michael, I always called him Michael, died on 17 January 2025, aged 88, 25 years after our father, who died on 11 January 2000, aged 91. I shall miss this elder-brother dominant figure in my life, and already do.

Keith Philip Johnson

Pictured: Keith and Pauline

When Her Majesty The Queen opened the University College of North Staffordshire in 1951 she spoke of acts of courage and imagination, and that those early students would have a special responsibility to endow the university with 'a tradition which will enrich it long after you have gone'.  

Arriving from North London just a few years later Keele soon became Keith’s home. He spoke fondly of those early years and boarding in the campus’s nissen huts. His fondest and most cherished memory was when his eyes met those of a young woman in the refectory of Keele Hall. Pauline Yardley was a local girl and had begun her studies at Keele the year before he arrived. By then, Pauline knew ‘the ropes’ and was an established student. Of course she knew a good thing when she saw one and in 1957 they were married at St John The Baptist Church in Keele Village. After leaving Keele they had a short stint living back in London before returning to the Potteries to set up home, raising three children along the way. Keith enjoyed a successful career in industry and became Sales & Marketing Director of Doulton Sanitaryware in Stoke. After many years in an ever-changing industrial world he moved on to pastures new, going on to work for a marketing company who were coincidentally based on the early phase of the Science Park at Keele. With such fond memories of his early life on campus it was like coming home for Keith!

Pictured: Keith and Pauline on their wedding day in 1957

He kept in touch with a number of ‘pals’ from his days at Keele, including the late Brian Stokes. His son often remembers him going for a ‘jar’ with Brian, either at The Sneyd in Keele village or at the KPA bar. Brian’s passing was a real loss for him; they were great pals with great stories to tell.

Old age and heart issues took their toll on Keith. His dedication and care of his dear beloved wife who had suffered with dementia for some time finally became too much for him. Pauline moved into a nursing home during the summer of 2024. Keith passed away peacefully in hospital just before Christmas, with dignity and his family around him. His family feel blessed that his pioneering spirit will continue to live on and enrich Keele University for generations to come. It’s a legacy that Keith deserves to be very proud of.   

1948 - 2024

Philip Kendrew was born in Manchester on 28 September 1948, the younger of two boys. Football was the family ritual: regular trips to both Manchester United and Manchester City’s home games laid the foundation for a lifelong love of the Beautiful Game for both brothers. He attended Shrewsbury Public School and retained many memories and lessons from his boarding school experience. At Keele, Philip studied French and German, developing a particular love for German language, literature and poetry, and spending a year in Stuttgart. He graduated in 1971.   

Soon after graduation, Philip was offered a position with the European Commission in Brussels, to train as an interpreter. Britain had recently started the process of joining the growing European economic union, and the Brussels-based institutions were keen to recruit Britons with language skills to support the new member state’s participation. Following some years working as an interpreter, traveling on missions around Europe and beyond, he transitioned to working in the administration of the European Commission’s interpretation service - ensuring that meetings were sufficiently staffed in Brussels or abroad, that interpreters were recruited as new member states joined the European Union, and overseeing the operations of the service. He retired in 2010.  

In Brussels he met and married Christiane; they had two children. The family lived in the Flemish suburbs of Brussels, where Philip developed a great love for, and considerable expertise in gardening. He also became fluent in Dutch, adding to his language skill set. Following their divorce in the early 2000s, he moved back to Brussels, and later remarried. He took great joy in traveling - from leisurely summer trips around Europe, in particular to France and Italy, and further afield to South East Asia, the South Pacific and the United States. He loved good food and wine, classical music and opera, and remained an avid reader of literature, poetry and non-fiction throughout his life. He retained his connection with the UK through the family’s shared passion for football, and he stayed devoted to Manchester City regardless of the club’s fortunes. Such was his enthusiasm for his interests and passions, he managed to transfer many of them to his friends, colleagues and his children.   

Philip passed away on 25 November 2024 after a long illness, in Brussels. He is greatly missed by his wife Hannah, his brother Geoff, his children Stefan and Sarah and their mother Christiane, his stepchildren Simon and Astrid, and his many friends and colleagues. 

John Lanning Davnall
1948 – 2023

John Davnall (“Dav”) was born in April 1948 in Birkenhead, of which he was rather proud, but while he was still quite young the family moved to West Cumberland where his father worked for the Atomic Energy Authority. Like most Lake District dwellers, he developed a love of hill walking that never left him. 

After education at Millom School where he was Head Boy, and a gap year working at the Atomic Energy Authority, he came to the University of Keele in 1967 to read Chemistry and Economics. He quickly became involved in student politics, joining three of the Party Societies until being told this was against Student Union regulations – he settled for the (then) Liberal Party. 

From September 1969 to February 1971 he edited Concourse, the student newspaper. It was a time when much was happening, both murky and zany, at Keele, so there were plenty of contributors, students and staff, to fill the pages. He forever lamented his “Biggest Missed Scoop Ever”: an edition was rolling off the press far away in Ripley, while the “Nude Sunbathing Incident” happened in 1970. Even if the story could have been phoned through, it would have been too late to be included. 

After graduating in 1971 and spending six months as Student Union Secretary, Dav became an Administrative Assistant in the Department of Management Sciences at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST). Shortly before this, he had married Sarah (Norman, 1970), and they moved to the Manchester outskirts where they have remained. Dav retained his Keele link by becoming the Alumni Representative on the Keele Council for a number of years. 

After about seven years at UMIST, Dav retrained as a Chemistry teacher and took up a post at Hadfield School near Glossop. He stayed there until he and Sarah started a family in 1987, at which point he became the family carer while Sarah continued to work. 

Over the next twenty years he worked part-time at a number of teaching-related activities, starting with research into management in education, supervised by his old department, for which UMIST awarded him a Masters Degree in 1991. 

His last job, for several years, was a as a peripatetic home tutor In which role, he covered almost every subject from the sciences and maths to latin and drama, made possible by the breadth of his interests and engagement with life. 

On retirement, he and Sarah moved to a house with a large sloping garden which he spent the next few years reconstructing to their liking. He also renewed his interest in mathematics and its applications, joining the Manchester Statistical Society, and obsessively built a vast carefully researched family tree.

A love of hill-walking persisted throughout his life. He loved his home area, the Lake District, but even more the Cuillin Mountains on the Isle of Skye. The family holidayed there every other year, and he knew, and had climbed, every part of the ridge. His other life-long pleasure was music, especially classical music, and by the end of his life he and Sarah were patrons of most of the major music organisations in Manchester, resulting in frequent and greatly enjoyed concert-going.

He died very suddenly and rapidly of a brain stem haemorrhage in November 2023. It was a terrible shock for family and friends alike. The only good thing about such a swift death was that it allowed his wish to be fulfilled to bequeath his body to the University of Manchester Medical School for anatomy classes. It is a great comfort to family and friends that he continued to be involved in teaching for a little longer.

Daniel Joseph Keohane
1941-2025

Known in Ireland as Dónal, Dan Keohane was born in 1941 in a village outside the town of Bantry on the southwest of Ireland. Having concluded his education in Ireland, he left for London in 1959 where he spent 10 years working in industry before returning to formal education. Dan secured a place at Ruskin College, Oxford, where he completed a university diploma. He subsequently graduated with a degree in international relations from Sussex University and a master’s degree from Warwick university. In 1977, he secured a position in international relations at Keele university and was subsequently promoted to senior lecturer. He remained there until his retirement. 

A work colleague describes Dan as “very careful, very reliable and very sensible.” Dan loved supervising students and especially enjoyed graduation days – meeting students with their proud parents. Many of Dan’s students have fond memories of him. They describe him as “inspirational”, “gently spoken and thoughtful”, and having a “wicked sense of humour”. A former PhD student said that “three years of research under Dan’s supervision did not just earn me a PhD degree, but also taught me what one cannot find in university books: patience, perseverance, discipline, a type of wisdom that makes one truly the moral and intellectual human that one ought to be”. 

Dan was a respected authority on issues of conflict. An active member of the Labour party, his Labour Party Defence Policy Since 1945 was published in 1993. While the central concern of the monograph is with Labour's defence policy, the book examines many questions about the United Kingdom's defence arrangements and is a study of the wider post-war British as well as the Labour party defence policy. In 1994, Dan co-edited (with A. Danchev) International Perspectives on the Gulf Conflict, 1990-1991. This was followed by his Security in British Politics, 1945-99 published in 2000 by Springer. That book focuses on the attitudes of the Labour, Conservative, and Liberal parties; it analyses how these parties viewed conflicts like Suez, the Falklands, and the Gulf War, their stances on nuclear weapons, and their approaches to Northern Ireland. 

Dan was exceptionally happy at Keele University, where his grandchildren Danielle and Kerstin are currently students. In his retirement he took the opportunity to travel extensively with his wife and also maintained a very strong interest in international affairs. Dan’s funeral took place on 21st May 2025. Our heartfelt condolences to his wife Modesta, his sister Mairéad and the wider Keohane family. 

Iain Robin Simpson
1940-2025

Pictured: Iain and his wife Barbara

We are saddened to share the news of the death of Iain Robin Simpson, who died on 20 April 2025 at New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton, aged 84. 

Iain was born on 31 August 1940 and arrived at Keele in 1958 - then the University College of North Staffordshire - as a Fresher alongside his future wife, Barbara Davies. They began going out together in their first term, married on 10 August 1963 in Shrewsbury, and remained devoted partners for over 61 years.

Pictured: Iain and his wife Barbara

Iain graduated in 1962 and began his career in computing at a time when the field was still in its infancy. He joined Cerebos Salt in London in July of that year, later working for British Oxygen in Swinton, Manchester, and then NCR in Birmingham and Dayton, Ohio. On their return to Stafford, Iain worked for a software firm in Birmingham before setting up his own business in 1983, providing bespoke computer systems for small businesses. Barbara, who had trained in accountancy, supported the business from their home in Doxey. 

The couple retired together in 2004 and remained active in family and local life. They had three daughters, all now married, as well as five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. One granddaughter, Jasmine Lord, is currently studying Mathematics at Keele, continuing the family’s connection with the university. Iain and Barbara often reflected on how much had changed since their own student days - though were pleased to see that Walter Moberley Hall still stood. 

Iain contracted pneumonia in late 2024 and, after a period of declining health, died from urosepsis and frailty. He is deeply missed by Barbara and their extended family. 

Barbara graduated from Keele in 1962 with a degree in English and History and a Diploma in Education. 

Dr Stan Beckensall MBE
Class of 1954

Stan is pictured in the middle

"Stan Beckensall sadly passed away on 1 October 2025, aged 93, in Hexham, Northumberland. Part of the university’s Founding Class of 1950-1954, Stan graduated with a First Class BA (Hons) in History, English and Education. He led a full and rich life as a dedicated family man, educationalist, historian, archaeologist, playwright and poet. After teaching stints in Sussex and Malta, he settled in Northumberland in 1966, where he developed strong interests in ancient rock art and place-names, publishing books about them in the 1970s and 1980s.

After retirement as Head Teacher of Rothbury Middle School, in 1989, Stan expanded his research interests. More books followed on ancient rock art and place-names, but he also included in his repertoire books on various aspects of Northumberland’s archaeology, history and landscapes, Hexham, and poetry. In all, he published about 40 books.

He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Newcastle University in 2004 for his contribution to rock art studies and an MBE, in 2017, for a ‘Lifetime of voluntary work of recording, safeguarding and sharing information on pre-historic rock-art and local history in Britain.’

He is survived by Jane, his wife of 69 years, four children, Sonia, Sylvia, Julian and Rachel, seven grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

He was much loved and respected in Hexham and around Northumberland and is going to greatly missed by his family, friends and all who knew him."

Written by Dr Aron Mazel

View a video of Stan from our Pioneers Reunion in 2024 on this web page.

Hedley George Martin

Hedley Martin passed away on July 16, 2024, at the age of 93. He will be remembered for his intellect, humour, and diverse passions that spanned academia, the workshop and the stage.  

His love for the theatre began early at Keele University, where he was a driving force in the Drama Society, directing and acting in many productions. He often reminisced about his memorable turn as the comic Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night.  

After Keele, his academic pursuits led him to Trinity College, Cambridge, for his doctorate. This time was paused for National Service in the Navy at Abbotsinch in Scotland, where he met his wife-to-be, Sheila Rutherford, a Wren at the time. They married in 1959.  

After completing his PhD, Hedley dedicated his career to teaching, serving as the Head of Mathematics at Staffordshire University in Stafford until his retirement.  

Away from the university, his curiosity found new avenues. He became an expert antique clock repairer in his spare time; many friends and family still cherish a clock ticking away today because of his meticulous work. Influenced by Sheila, he also became an avid Scottish dancer, and they enjoyed many happy holidays dancing abroad with friends.  

Hedley leaves behind his three children, David, Jonathan, and Kathryn. He was very proud when two of his grandsons, Danny and Louie, followed in his academic footsteps and went on to study at Cambridge.  

Hedley lived a life rich in learning, laughter, and lasting impact.

Christopher Brookes Oliver
(Physics & Maths, Class of 1957)

15 November 1934 – 22 June 2025

Chris was born in Solihull and spent much of the first few years of his life in hospital, having been born with club feet. During the war, when bombing began on Coventry and Solihull, his mother took her three children to Ilfracombe, in Devon, where they stayed, until the aircraft factory in Solihull, where his father was working, was bombed. The family then spent the remaining years of the war in Yorkshire, where the aircraft factory moved to. 

On their return to Solihull in 1945, Chris returned to primary school and went on to Grammar school and then to the ‘new’ University at Keele, one of the fourth-year pioneers, intake in 1953. 

Chris met his wife Marina in their first week at Keele University and married in 1958. They spent the next 70 years together, celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary in August 2023, a few weeks before Marina’s death. Chris and one of his daughters, Cindy, attended the pioneers celebrations for the 75th anniversary of Keele in April 2024, which he enjoyed very much. 

He started his working life at the English Electric Company in Stafford, doing research on thin magnetic films. In 1960 he moved to the General Electric Company in Wembley and then to Mullard in Southampton as a Senior Development Engineer, where he was involved in the development of transistors and integrated circuits.  

During his spare time, he studied to gain his Institute of Personnel Management Diploma in Management Studies, and he became a Personnel Officer in 1974 at Mullard in Southampton, moving to London in 1978 to take up a Personnel Manager position at Mullard (Philips Electronics). 

There, he managed a department providing personnel and training services to 1,100 staff. He introduced PCs to the department, helping staff to become comfortable with this new technology. He was always learning, writing databases to replace spreadsheets to improve productivity, learning about other software packages and training people to use them. 

In 1985 Chris celebrated 25 years of working with GEC/Mullard/Philips and retired in 1990 aged 55. 

He was busy during his retirement, spending a lot of time gardening, doing DIY and developed a love for painting. He also became a councillor with High Wycombe Council. He started his own consultancy business offering support to managers setting up databases and embracing new technology. 

He and Marina loved travelling and enjoyed visiting many places around the world, including Madeira, which became their winter home for 12 years. 

Chris had a deep-seated Christian faith and spent many hours studying the scriptures. He wrote summaries of his understanding of the readings for every Sunday in each of the three Liturgical years and published them as ebooks. 

Marina published 85 fiction and non-fiction books and Chris supported her in various ways, including using his technical skills to create a website to promote her books and keeping up with the digital age by creating ebooks of both her and his books. 

Chris and Marina have four children, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. 

For more about Chris’ books, see www.chris-oliver.net and Marina’s www.marina-oliver.net 

Vernon James Smith
15th July 1944 - 12th August 2025

Vernon Smith grew up in in Southend-on-Sea. He attended Keele University from October 1962 to June 1966, graduating in Physics and Maths , along with a Diploma in Education. It was at Keele that he met his future wife, Carol Hancock and they were married at Keele Chapel on 27th July 1968. 

Spending his career in education, Vernon taught Science at Adams Grammar School, Newport, Shropshire for 7 years, and Garibaldi Comprehensive School, Forest Town, Mansfield for 24 years. He retired early at the age of 53, after which he invested in property. 

Vernon’s Christian faith was central to his life, and he was deeply involved in community and faith-based initiatives, including being a Gideon, and the trustee of a Christian Bookshop. He was active in the Christian Union at both school and university.  

Vernon had a love of travel and exploration, including caravan trips across England, Scotland, and Wales; Jamaica; Austria for winter sports; Zambia for voluntary work with St. John’s Church in Mansfield; the Channel Islands and France – once by sailing a small boat; a church exchange in Germany; and travelling in Southern USA states. 

Vernon and his wife had one daughter, Catherine, born in 1970. He was a proud grandfather to six grandchildren and a great-grandfather to one.  

His legacy lives on through his family, his students, and the many lives he touched with his kindness, wisdom, and unwavering faith. 

James David Jones
Class of 1961
1939 - 2025

James David Jones, known as “David” or “Dave” (1939 - 2025) was born into a North Staffordshire mining family on 19 March 1939. He grew up in Little Chell, Stoke-on-Trent, which as luck would have it connected him to a bus route on High Lane where his future high school was located. David attended the Stanfield Technical High School, where in the 6th-form he excelled in Mathematics. He and two of his school classmates, from different Jones families, qualified to attend the then new Keele University (at the time University College of North Staffordshire) in 1957, each following different areas of science study.  

David graduated with B.A. Honours in Mathematics and Physics in 1961 from the about to become University of Keele. Looking back, it seems amazing that staff members at Keele took such an interest in the futures of their students. In David’s case a maths professor from Keele accompanied by the Headmaster of the West Bromwich Grammar School visited David’s home for a meeting including David’s parents. Out of that meeting David was offered a maths teachers position at West Bromwich Grammar School, which he took up immediately following graduation. By way of analogy, my Chemistry mentor at Keele obtained a grant from the Harrison Memorial Fund, Stoke-on-Trent Education Committee for me to do graduate studies for a higher degree.   

David took up his teaching position at West Bromwich Grammar in time for the beginning of the school term in 1961. His long-term girl-friend Pauline “Jean” Seaman had secured a transfer for her own work and had moved earlier to Birmingham. They stayed in separate boarding houses until their marriage in July 1962 and moved into their newly completed house at Great Barr in October that year. David and Jean had three daughters, twins Karen and Jacqueline born in 1963, and Deborah born in 1965, Deborah married Colin McIntyre and presented David and Jean with a much-loved grand-daughter Sarah in 1995.  

David remained at West Bromwich Grammar (which later became the Menzies High School) as a mathematics teacher until 1971. Throughout David’s youth he was a keen football (soccer) and cricket player (we played on the same football team as teenagers at Stanfield Technical High School), David continued with these pursuits at Keele University in representative teams. His family tells me he also took up Rugby at Keele. It should not be too surprising that once David started teaching he dropped rugby but continued to play football and cricket in the teacher’s teams for many years, and importantly he coached the football teams at West Bromwich Grammar.  

In 1971 David took up the position as Head of Mathematics at the Handsworth Comprehensive School also maintaining his role as coach of their football teams and playing football and cricket in the teacher’s teams until his “so- called” retirement in 1989. However, David’s work ethic also led him to teaching at more than one school, and so he took on teaching maths at the Handsworth Girls School a couple of days a week as well at the Comprehensive.   

David’s initial 1989 retirement did not quite go according to plan and within two weeks he was approached to do a couple of days teaching maths at Aldridge Girls School and some supply teaching at his old stomping ground, by then renamed as the Menzies High School. Teaching at Aldridge Girls School turned into a full-time role, but 4 years later in 1993 he finally retired. David had established a career as a mathematics teacher of excellence, appreciated by all his students for his wisdom and capability, and respected by his peers.  

Another passion David had picked up at Keele was playing “Bridge”, a “hobby” he maintained until very recently. He was a member of the Sutton Coldfield Bridge Club, which he represented in many competitions, and where he also taught new starters.   

David was introduced to “Golf” by one of his older early pupils and it was not long before he was hooked. This reversed his earlier view that “golf ruined a good walk”. He actively played golf up to the day of his surgery in May 2025. David’s select spot for his dedicated walking was the “Peak District”, where the family established a static caravan and he, his wife Jean, and granddaughter Sarah spent a lot of time, with David and Sarah taking off on long walks, leaving Grandmom trailing behind.  

He died in a Birmingham hospital on 17 June 2025 following complications after surgery for kidney cancer, which had been detected in December 2024. His parting with friends and family was held at his golf club, just sorry I could not be there.  

I particularly want to thank David’s daughter Deborah and his wife Jean for providing me with more details of his teaching life than I could have ever known, and at the time of their bereavement.

Written by Dr Alan J Jones, BA(Hons), MSc, PhD, FRACI C Chem. 

Timothy Doyle

Sadly, Timothy Doyle, Emeritus Professor of Politics and International Relations in the School of Social Sciences, passed away in Adelaide on Thursday 9th October, after a long illness.

Tim was a prolific and internationally-recognised scholar in the study of international environmental political economy. He served as Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of Adelaide in Australia. He was a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Australia-Asia-Pacific Institute (AAPI), Curtin University, Western Australia. Additionally, he was the former Chair of the Indian Ocean Rim Association Academic Group and the Chief Editor of the Journal of the Indian Ocean Region.  

Tim’s remarkable academic contributions will not, however, be his only legacy to the world. His personality was a mosaic of contradictions. He was a charismatic, pragmatic, principled dreamer. He was a mischief-maker, a problem-solver, and a mentor to countless emerging academics. These qualities made him an excellent teacher as well as a wonderful collaborator, capable of building and maintaining networks of scholars from around the globe. Those who worked with Tim quickly became his friends; Tim collected friends. His passionate love of life, curiosity, and sense of humour meant that, at the time of his death, his collection was vast.  

Tim lived many lives at once. He was a political activist, environmentalist, and human rights campaigner. He supported the Collingwood Aussie Rules Football Club throughout his life and firmly believed in the superiority of the Australian cricket team. A farmer, sailor, and singer, he also wrote two novels, one of which was published this year. His final years were spent in Adelaide, in the loving company of his wife, children, and grandchildren. However, his favourite place on earth was his farm in Second Valley, where he watched the sea while replanting native species of pre-colonial flora and tending to his sacred olive trees.  

Tim was always very proud of his Irish roots, so it is fitting to say goodbye with the words Go Raibh Suaimhneas Síoraí Air — Eternal Rest be Upon Him. He is deeply missed by all of us whose lives had the fortune to encounter him. 

Written by former colleague, Barry Ryan 

Julian Comer
English and French, Class of 1971
7th July 1947 – 16th August 2024

Julian Comer died peacefully on 16 August 2024. Though unwell for some time, nothing stopped him from engaging deeply with his world of books and music, keeping in touch with his Keele friends, and above all, remaining devoted to his family – enriching it in countless ways that were uniquely his. 

Just before leaving Bristol Cathedral School, Julian attended a retreat at Lee Abbey with a group of young Christians. It affirmed his sense of belonging – to the world around him and to God – and led to a year’s VSO placement in Cameroon, teaching English at the French-speaking School of Lebamba. His memories of that time stayed forever vivid. 

Julian’s years at Keele were among his most treasured memories. He lived first in the Hawthorns and later, in his final year, in the coveted ‘O’ Block. These years forged a life-long circle of friends, one of whom he married in 1973. 

A keen performer, Julian was a key member of the Keele Drama Group between 1967 and 1970. Some may recall – as he often did – a spirited performance of The Knight of the Burning Pestle when news broke backstage that Keele had triumphed on University Challenge. The cast deftly wove the news into the dialogue, to the audience’s delight.

A defining influence on Julian throughout his life was a love of literature and the English language. He learned to use his voice to breathe life into the spoken word, whether it be from the lectern or the pulpit in Church, the stage, or simply across the dining table.

After graduating from Keele, Julian began his career in sales and marketing, which later took him to Sydney, Australia. Though his work did not always bring the depth he sought, his fulfilment came through family, faith, and enduring friendships.

Julian is deeply missed by his wife, Anthea, his sons, James and Jeremy, and his many friends and loved ones.

Written by Anthea Comer (née Hickman)
Biology and Geography, Class of 1971