Old Pocklingtonian 2020/2021 | Page 26

DEATHS AND OBITUARIES

DEATHS AND OBITUARIES

We regret to announce the passing of the following OPs and we extend our sympathy to their families and friends :
Martyn Riley Anderson ( 50-55 ) of Barmby Moor , Pocklington , 26 February 2021 , aged 82 .
John Edward Biller ( 48-57 ) of Hebden Bridge , 14 February 2020 , aged 80 .
( John ) Stuart Crossland ( 51-56 ) of Old Coulsdon , Surrey , 18 May 2020 , aged 82 .
Robert B Cundall ( 39-46 ) of Witney Oxfordshire , 10 June 2020 , aged 92 .
David Michael Derbyshire ( 46-57 ) of Pocklington , 19 January 2021 , aged 82 .
John Edward Emms ( 56-66 ) of Huddersfield , 10 May 2021 , aged 72 .
Alex Engler ( 39-44 ) of London , March 2020 , aged 94 .
( Alfred ) Brent Flint ( 47-55 ) of Kilnwick , Driffield ( formerly of Bishop Wilton ), 24 May 2021 , aged 82 .
John Spencer Foxcroft ( 51-61 ) of Ashbourne , Derbyshire , 2 April 2020 , aged 77 .
Donald Gray ( 38-43 ) of Yapham , East Yorkshire , 31 May 2021 , aged 93 .
John Philip Hebden ( 49-55 ) of Market Weighton , East Yorkshire , 25 February 2020 , aged 81 .
Ronald Lyon ( 41-47 ) of Dronfield , North Derbyshire , 13 March 2021 , aged 91 .
Clive Godfrey Mitchell ( 67-72 ) of Gauteng , South Africa , 10 December 2020 aged 67 .
Anthony Roger Murphy ( Former Teaching Staff , 53-58 ) of Ceredigion , 28 December 2019 .
John Nicholson ( 46-53 ) of Bishop Burton , Beverley , 2019 , 3 May 2019 , aged 82 .
Rachel Nightingale ( née Marsland 94-95 ) of Wyalkatchem , Western Australia , 5 April 2021 , aged 44 .
John Michael Norris ( 49-57 ) of Harrogate , North Yorkshire , 20 May 2021 , aged 82 .
Cyril Marc Nye ( 53-60 ) of Shrewsbury , 17 February 2020 , aged 76 .
David Michael Oglesby ( 42-49 ) of Melbourne , York , 26 February 2020 , aged 88 .
Michael E Richardson ( 52-57 ) of Corbridge , Northumberland , 19 September 2020 , aged 81 .
David Rowland ( 49-66 ) of Wilberfoss , York , March 2020 , aged 82 .
( Thomas ) Richard Shepherd ( 64-70 ) of Bridlington , 5 June 2021 , aged 68 .
John Russell Storey ( 43-50 ) of Gosport , Hampshire , 30 January 2020 , aged 85 .
Canon Dr Michael Peter Wadsworth ( 54-61 ) of Cambridgeshire , 2 April 2021 , aged 77 .
OBITUARIES
Professor Robert B Cundall ( 39-46 ) died in June 2020 aged 92 , took up the chair of chemistry at the University of Salford in 1975 , and he formed a new Department of Biochemistry there in 1980 . In 1985 he moved to the MRC Radiobiology Unit at Harwell , Oxfordshire , where he collaborated in work on energy migration in DNA until his retirement in 1992 .
Over the course of his career , Bob worked with research students , postdocs and collaborators in the UK and overseas on a wide range of topics , including photochemistry and radiation chemistry , free radicals , explosives , the kinetics of polymerisation and pyrolysis and fluorescence spectroscopy . He published 164 scientific papers .
Born in Barmby Moor , East Yorkshire , Bob was the only child of Edward Cundall , a seed merchant , and his wife , Clara ( née Deighton ). He was educated at Pocklington School , winning the Sixth Form Prize for science and an open bursary in science at St Andrews University , where he obtained his first degree ( 1950 ) and then a PhD in chemistry ( 1954 ). There he met Margaret Strachan , whom he married in 1952 ; they had two sons , John and Ted .
He began his working life with ICI ’ s Nobel division in Ayrshire , which manufactured explosives , before taking up a research fellowship at the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa in 1953 , then returning to the UK for a brief period as a Brotherton research fellow at the University of Leeds .
In 1956 Bob was appointed lecturer , subsequently reader , in physical chemistry at the University of Nottingham , where , except for a six-month sabbatical as visiting professor at the University of Kansas , he stayed until 1975 . He lectured in thermodynamics and researched into photochemistry and radiation chemistry with a group of PhD students and postdoctoral fellows .
He collaborated with Manchester , Sheffield and Leeds Universities , Christie hospital in Manchester and the Cancer Research Campaign laboratory at Mt Vernon Hospital in Middlesex ( where he studied the degrading effects of ionising radiation on biochemical systems including amino acids and proteins ). From 1972 until 1985 he was coeditor of the journal Progress in Reaction Kinetics . In the mid-1960s he also took over Colonel Brian Shaw ’ s famous lectures on explosives , which he gave at the Royal Institution in London in 1972 .
Margaret died in 2004 . In 2006 Bob married Betty Rouse ( née Scarborough ) and they lived happily in retirement in Oxfordshire . He continued to follow the cricket , especially the fortunes of his beloved Yorkshire , and could recall seeing Donald Bradman bat at Headingley . In retirement he took up woodwork and made toys for his grandchildren . He liked nothing better than sitting down with old colleagues and friends over a tot or two of fine Scotch whisky to reminisce .
Betty died in 2019 . Bob is survived by his two sons , his grandchildren , Lucy and William , and a great-grandson , Lamayan .
( Ted Cundall )
David Michael Derbyshire ( 46-57 ) was born on 9 December 1938 in Burnby Lane , Pocklington to John Howard Derbyshire OBE ( Physics Schoolmaster , 1936-1978 ) and Hilda . He started at Pocklington School in 1946 and moved into Dolman House in 1951 , along with brothers Christopher ( 45-55 ), Andrew ( 55- 65 ) and sister Alison , when his father became Housemaster . He thoroughly enjoyed his schooldays , becoming 2nd Prefect and Head of Day Boys in 1957 and excelling both academically , under the guidance of Tom Pay , “ Boomer ” Pearson and his father and also on the sporting fields , playing both Rugby and Tennis for the 1st Teams .
On leaving Pocklington he enrolled at St . Johns College Cambridge , on a scholarship to study Mechanical Sciences . It was during these years that he met Sandra Richardson from Barmby Moor , whom he later married in 1963 .
Upon graduating from Cambridge in 1961 he started work with Cleveland Bridge & Engineering
26