Obituaries A to G
JOHN ASHWORTH
CYRIL BARBER
VALENTINE BEAMAN
KEITH BROWN
Born 26 March 1926 Died 20 April 2007
It was a sad loss to Eastbourne Circle when Keith David Conway Brown died suddenly at the age of 81. A well attended Requiem Mass and Thanksgiving was held at Our Lady of Ransom on the 15th May 2007 to celebrate Keith’s life.
Brought up in the railway town of Swindon his employment with the GWR was interrupted from 1944-9 while he served with the RASC in India and Hong Kong. With the bonus of free railway passes, travel became an absorbing interest and he journeyed extensively all over Europe and beyond.
His sister marrying an academic fuelled his next burning ambition - to read social anthropology at Cambridge. He set about teaching himself Latin, attended Ruskin College and was a member of the 1963 Oxford Expedition to Nubia.
Keith’s persistence finally paid off and in 1964 Peterhouse College was persuaded to accept him as a mature student. He joined the Cambridge Expedition to Komombo in 1965 before graduating in 1967. He then went to Bath University to train as a teacher but his occasional stammer put paid to that so he resumed his career with British Rail. He then met Joan, a widow, at the start of a loving and caring 25years together.
His undergraduate contemporaries remember Keith’s enduring curiosity in matters Catholic from dogmas to indulgences so it was perhaps no surprise that after retiring to Eastbourne with Joan he finally became a Catholic in 1996 and a Catenian later that year. Joan is now in a Care Home visited by her son and grandchildren as well as members of Eastbourne Circle while Keith’s large library of books has been bequeathed to Peterhouse College.
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BILL BRYDEN
William George (Bill) Bryden was born on 13 November 1921 at Willington, Co. Durham, but the family moved a year or two later to Blackhill, near Consett, where he attended St. Mary's Catholic Primary School. He later went to St. Cuthbert's Catholic Grammar School in Newcastle-on-Tyne, where he stayed until he was almost sixteen.
He then joined the Boys' Service in the RAF, and was stationed first at Halton and then at Cosford, but, almost as soon as war was declared, he was drafted to the Middle East, where he served for three and a half years. He served in Egypt, the Sudan, Eritrea, where he was mentioned in despatches and awarded the oak-leaves, for distinguished service, and eventually in Abyssinia, where he saw the Italian Duke of Aosta, resplendent on a white charger, surrender with thousands of men, to a handful of British soldiers.
When he returned from the Middle East in 1944 he married Marjorie. They had known each other since childhood, for although she lived in Lancashire, she used to stay with an uncle every summer holiday, and she went to Mass with the Bryden family, who lived nearby. Marjorie was teaching in Wigan, at the time of her marriage.
On returning from the Middle East, Bill was stationed in Oban, in Scotland, where he had a flying accident, but almost as soon as he recovered he was sent to India for two years. Eventually, he returned to England, and he became an instructor at Cranwell RAF College in Lincolnshire.
He decided to leave the RAF after twelve years, and he got a post in Local Government in the Housing Department, in Sleaford, five miles from Cranwell, where they were living.
The next few years were very busy ones, furthering his career by taking examinations, and moving to higher-grade posts. He took his London Matriculation and he became an Associate of the Royal Institute of Housing, and later a Fellow, and he also passed the examination for the Housing Managers' Certificate of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.
He moved to Middlesbrough, where his son, Peter, was born, to Leighton Buzzard, where his daughter, Mary, was born, and to Andover, Spalding, and then to Eastbourne in 1959, where he was appointed Housing Manager.
They lived in St. Joachim's Parish, in Hampden Park, and he led a very busy life, much of it connected with the church. He joined the Knights of St. Columba, and the Catenians, the latter soon after the Circle was formed. He was President in 1964/65, and after that Secretary for several years. Through the Catenians, he became a founder member of the Catholic Chaplaincy at Sussex University. He was also a member of the Deanery and Diocesan Councils, at the instigation of Father Kevin Scott, the Parish Priest, and President of the Men's Guild at St. Joachim's. He also served on several Welfare Committees in the town, particularly the one for the disabled.
In 1966, when the Cold War was at its height, and the Civil Defence was formed, he was made Chief Rescue Officer for Eastbourne. He left Eastbourne in 1970 to become Housing Manager to Watford Borough Council, and in 1974 he was appointed Director of Housing to Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council, in Greater Manchester. Tameside was very extensive: it consisted of nine towns amalgamated to make one authority, along the banks of the River Tame.
He retired in 1981, and returned to Sussex. For the first four years, he lived in Little Common, but in 1985 he returned to Eastbourne. He had a busy retirement, as he did voluntary work for three Housing Associations, and drove the Community bus in Bexhill. He also took a great interest in his two grandsons, Christopher and Thomas, Peter's sons, who live in Crowhurst. His hobbies include snooker, reading, crosswords, travelling, and making tapestry cushions.
Bill did not enjoy good health in recent years. He had to undergo a number of operations and suffered badly with arthritis. He bore it all with fortitude and invariably put on a cheerful face. He was cared for by a devoted and loving Marjorie and only spent the last few months of his life in a nursing home.
Bill died on May 24th 2005.
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BOB CLARKE
Robert
(Bob) Clarke by Brother Kevan Regan Bob was
born in Burwell, Cambridgeshire on the 3rd November
1923. He
lived at and was educated in, Mildenhall, Cambridgeshire. At the
earliest date possible he joined the Merchant Navy to support the war efforts
of the country. He was a radio officer throughout the war. His ship was
torpedoed and sank off the American coast. Eventually, he and some of the other
crew that survived were rescued by the American navy and put ashore at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He was assigned to a new ship. Towards
the end of the war he was again torpedoed near the Great Barrier Reef, off the Australian coast. This
time the ship did not sink and it was able to limp into Brisbane for repairs. Whilst the ship was in
dry dock the end of hostilities was announced. On his
return to England he joined the Estate Management
Department in Cambridge and commenced his studies,
qualifying later as a quantity surveyor. It was at this time that he met Peggy,
who worked for the Ministry of Agriculture which had relocated to Cambridge for the war years. Bob was not a
Catholic at the time and used to argue about religion in general and
Catholicism in particular with Peggy. On one occasion Peggy visited her dying
aunt, who was a nun, at her convent in Bury St Edmunds and shared her thoughts
with her. Her aunt told her not to worry as Bob was a good man and that she
would pray for him. On the first anniversary of her aunt’s death, Bob revealed
that he had been secretly taking instructions in the faith and had decided to
become a catholic. They were married soon after, in Cambridge in 1950. After marriage, Bob took up an appointment
with Cecil Baker and Partners, surveyors and moved to Eastbourne in 1950. He stayed with this firm
throughout his professional life, becoming a partner in due course. Bob quickly
fully committed himself to the Church and on his arrival in Eastbourne he was asked if he could help out
by being an altar server as they were a bit short-handed. He agreed, with the
proviso that this was to be a temporary arrangement until they recruited more
servers. He was later asked by the parish priest to take over as MC. This he
did, again on a temporary basis. In 2000 he wrote a wonderful article for the
Parish magazine entitled, “Fifty years of memories serving on the altar of Our
Lady of Ransom”! He
continued this work until just before his death, even planning his radiotherapy
sessions in Oxford so as to avoid his altar
commitments. He said that he felt privileged to serve at mass and help the
priests, who had given so much to bring the Holy Mass to us each day. He took
pride in training the altar servers, several of whom moved on to seminaries. He
meticulously planned each Mass and ensured that “it was done well”. Bob was a devoted family man. He had three
children, Paul, Jane and John and enjoyed taking the children, when they were
young, on summer camping holidays on the Continent. He loved fell walking in
Peggy’s Cumbria and was a keen follower of cricket
and rugby union. He took great interest in and derived much pleasure from his
grandchildren. He was particularly pleased when his youngest granddaughter was
received into the Guild of St Stephen. He lost Peggy, his wife of over fifty
years, in 2003. He gave selflessly of his personal and
professional time. He provided professional advice throughout the Diocese.
Locally he was involved in the control of the building of new churches and
schools in Eastbourne. This aspect of his service was
recognised by the awarding of a Papal Knighthood, becoming a Knight Commander
of the order of St Gregory in 1970. His requiem
Mass at Our Lady of Ransom was fittingly impressive with a full congregation,
ten priests and two deacons on the altar plus a personal letter of tribute from
the Bishop. Indeed, “it was done well”. Patrick O’Donovan writes: I first met Bob fifty years ago
when I moved to Eastbourne. We joined with Dick Eager and Don Ashford to found the It is
difficult to be succinct about such a friend of the fleeting fifty years, but
when at a Vatican Conference, there over the entrance to the Papal apartments
is a gold inscription (a variant of Benedict 1st edict of 504) “SERVANDUS SERVEI”. Servant of
the servants – that was Bob.
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DENNIS CULLEN
Dennis was born in Croydon in 1921, son of Senior Met Detective Thomas Patrick Cullen and Clara Cullen (who was at the relief of Mafeking!). He was educated in Croyden then Thomas moved to Brighton and Dennis attended Brighton Xaviarian College. His father was one of the founders of the Police Federation and a leader of the Police Strike of 1919, as a Police Constable he also took part in the infamous Sydney Street Siege. Tom Cullen was awarded but declined the CBE in 1956. Tom Cullen died in the early 1960s, At the age of 15 he won the national Mathematics prize. He joined Barclays Bank in the late 1930s, and enlisted as a part-time volunteer in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve based at Royal Alfred in Hove. When war came he went for Officer training with the RNVR. He served in a variety of ships including the Algerine Ocean Going Minesweeper HMS Acute (1,102 tonnage). He commnader a Motor launch and took part in the West African Campaign, Battle of the Atlantic and Operation Torch. After the war he rejoined Barclays Bank, although remained in the RNVR until 1965, leaving as a Lt Commander. He married Colette Mary Larner, who father worked in Barclays DCO (International) in 1953. They had two children: Fiona (1957) who now runs a language school in Hastings, and Desmond (1960) who is the webmaster of this site and has been a member of Eastbourne Circle since 1987.
Dennis worked in a variety of positions before reaching the level of manager in 1960. He was manager of branches in Eastbourne, Hailsham, & Brighton before taking over as general manager of 63 Terminus Road Eastbourne. He was elected to the new Eastbourne Borough Council in 1973, and became leader of the council in 1976, a post which his father as Alderman Tom Cullen held in the 1930s in Brighton. He was also an active trade unionist with the Banking and Fnance Union. In 1983 he was chosen to be the centenary Mayor of the Borough (& the first catholic mayor), he then took early retirement from the Bank. He kept very busy and was the chairman of the St Winifrid's Hospice and trustee of many other organisations.
Dennis Cullen died in Janurary 1995, and was accorded a state funeral in recognition of his services to the Borough of Eastbourne and the Country. He was the first Catholic mayor of Eastbourne and although he never held office in the Circle, he was an keen member of Eastbourne Catenian Circle.
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PETER DURRANT
Peter was born in Ealing in 1916. His father fought in the First World War and was a victim of gassing at the battle of the Somme. He never completely recovered from this and died whilst Peter was very young. The family then moved to Bournemouth where Peter was educated. His best friend was Dudley Archer (a deceased brother of Eastbourne Circle) and they were both altar servers for many years. Although Peter will be well remembered as a quiet and private person he did appear in several amateur theatrical productions in the Bournemouth area during his youth.
At the outbreak of War Peter volunteered to join the RAF. He was
posted to Egypt, then later moved to Italy and finally to Greece where they entered as German troops left. Whilst in Italy he had the opportunity to meet the Pope. His posting to Greece was to be the start of a lifelong love for that country, particularly Athens, its people and its language. He was awarded a medal for Outstanding Services by the Greek Air Force. At the end of the war he volunteered to stay on with the RAF in Greece.
After returning to England he gained an appointment at Lombard Banking in central London. No doubt his foreign language skills, being fluent in Spanish and Greek with a working knowledge of others, helped him to progress to become manager of the Deposit Accounts department dealing with foreign clients. He worked with the bank for 31 years until his retirement. Whilst at the bank he met Jo and after a three year courtship they were married in 1960 at St Monica’s church Palmers Green. They originally lived at Southgate in North London and then moved to Bishop Stortford. They had three children, Tim, Karen and Sally. He introduced his children to Athens and made several return trips over the years.
He was completely at ease in Athens and was just as happy to sit at a roadside café and converse with the locals, with whom he became a celebrity, as he was to explore the city’s antiquities. Peter was an active member of the Knights of St Columba for 40 years having held several offices including that of Grand Knight. He always had a love of languages, be they English or foreign. Over the years he would send pithy letters and cards to friends and family, which were renowned for their wit. Recipients regarded them as very special and many are kept to this day. He often told Jo that he would love to retire by the sea in Cornwall and write short stories. On retirement he decided against Cornwall and moved to be by then sea at Eastbourne.
It was a complete surprise at his daughter Karen’s wedding to David Rand, he met Raymond Rand’s friend Dudley Archer who was Peter’s best friend from his youth in Bournemouth. They had lost touch and at first they did not recognise each other after over 50 years but the renewed friendship blossomed. Both Raymond and Dudley were members of Eastbourne Circle and they invited Peter to join the Catenians, which he did, in 1987. Peter pursued a very active retirement, enjoying family life with his six grandchildren, researching for his short stories, collecting interesting cuttings for future use and undertaking Open University BA Honours degree. He has been published many times in books of
short stories and magazines. Indeed he continues to be published after his death.
His writing style was unique. There was usually a twist in the tail and a display of his waspish, almost Pythonesque, sense of humour. This allowed him to tackle serious subjects but from the most unusual of angles to amuse and yet be thought provoking for his readers. For his 90th birthday he, with Jo and several members of the family, made his final visit to Athens and died four days after his return.
May they rest in peace