OBITUARIES most challenging students ; he was respected and well-liked and had a calm yet commanding presence around school . He was highly professional and at the same time loyal and supportive to colleagues , showing care for each individual . He had an almost obsessive attention to detail and was an expert planner and organiser . For several years , he oversaw all external and internal examination arrangements . His organisation and meticulous planning never failed – nothing could , and nothing did go wrong !
Brian retired from Teaching in July 1996 . He continued his interest in reading anything to do with aviation , even writing to aviation specialists in 1999 to correct them on Engine Thrust vs Speed Conversion graphs he had calculated . He also maintained an active interest in Kingston High School , giving a speech at the closing of the school around 2013 in which he reflected on his many happy memories there .
Unfortunately , Brian was diagnosed with Alzheimer ’ s and Dementia in 2018 but still enjoyed reliving his Pocklington memories on a visit to the School shortly afterwards with his daughter Carol .
( Carol Grimsey )
Richard Smith ( 61-66 ) grew up in Lincoln , attending the Dolphin Prep School in Newark and then Pocklington School .
Richard was a keen sportsman and became a member of the athletics team . He also made the 1st XV rugby and the squash team in his last year at Pocklington and was made tennis captain for the 1965-1966 academic year . From the age of nine , his passion was for the game of golf . His competitiveness was such a feature of his character and seemed to define so much of what he went on to do . He felt that he was lucky to have found a career in investment banking , where he could work independently and be measured against others on his performance as an individual .
Richard left Pocklington in 1966 and went to work for the Midland Bank ( now HSBC ) in Lincoln for two years .
In 1968 he moved to London , where he worked for Harris and Partners , a Canadian stockbroker . While in their employment , he went to Canada for a year to sit the Canadian Stock Exchange Examination .
Richard was married in 1971 and had three children .
In 1973 , his fund management career began when he moved to Triumph Fund Managers where , although only in his mid-late twenties , he was given responsibility for several unit trusts .
In 1975 , he joined Lazard Asset Management , where he was put in charge of two North American investment trusts , adding two UK trusts in 1981 . He was promoted to Director in charge of North American Investments in 1983 , a position that he held until he was made redundant in 1988 , when Lazard decided to run their American investments exclusively from the US .
Lazard made the decision to re-employ him as a UK Small Caps specialist shortly afterwards , promoting him to Director of total UK funds in 1998 , a position that he held until he was head hunted in 2002 and left Lazard for Invesco Perpetual in Henley-on- Thames to run their Small Caps division .
Richard was diagnosed with Parkinson ’ s disease at the age of 56 . He dealt with this bad news with great dignity . He never showed any signs of self-pity that one might expect following a diagnosis at a relatively young age . His determined and competitive nature enabled him to keep going until he retired in 2012 . He passed away on 4 February 2021 .
He was a proud and generous man , whose honesty , integrity and competitiveness pushed him hard to be a high achiever in every aspect of his life and overcome its difficulties and challenges .
( Andrea Smith )
David Stather ( 49-52 ) joined the Junior School in Michaelmas 1949 and left the Senior School in Summer 1957 .
After gaining two years ’ experience in the legal department of the British Transport Commission in York , he was articled to a firm of solicitors in Beverley from 1959 to 1964 . He was admitted a solicitor in 1965 , having qualified , with distinction in Company Law , in August 1964 .
For the next six years , he was employed in private practice , mainly in the fields of advocacy , crime , civil litigation , and divorce . From 1970 to 1988 , David was employed by the Law Society in legal aid administration at its Northern Area Office in Newcastle , reaching the grade of Deputy Area Director ( acting Area Director in 1987 ). Here he was heavily involved in multi-party actions and three judicial reviews . From 1988 until 1996 , he was senior solicitor with the Legal Aid Board , based in Newcastle .
David took early retirement in 1996 , and a different – very fruitful – phase of his life began . He was now able to pursue his hobbies of local historical research , antiquarian book collecting ( and reading ), and gardening . His interest in local history went back a long way – to when as a Fourth former he published , in collaboration with Geoffrey Cox ( 51- 59 ), ‘ A History of Market Weighton and District ’, based on original research .
His research now centred on aspects of the history of Pocklington School , and in this context , he translated ( with the assistance of Keith Walls , 49-57 ) its foundation charter and other foundation documents . He also contributed to the Quincentenary publication ‘ Pocklington School . A Celebration of 500 Years ’, and to Brian Fenwick- Smith ’ s ( 43-54 ) publication ‘ The Foundation Documents of Pocklington School , Yorkshire ’ ( 2014 ).
Among other subjects researched by David – too numerous to list here – were ‘ Pocklingtonians and Catholic Politics in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth ’, the endowment of the Guild Grammar School and of the refounded Free Grammar School at Pocklington , and a comparative study of the foundation statutes of St Paul ’ s School , London , and those of Pocklington School . He was also instrumental in gaining public recognition for the Elizabethan Catholic martyr William Anlaby ( d . 1597 ) as an alumnus of the School .
The results of David ’ s various research projects are to be found in the School ’ s archives – together with a number of items carefully preserved from his schooldays which provide a tangible and visual link with its past .
David Stather was a meticulous scholar of the old school ( in more senses than one ) who was content to devote himself to the past in comparative obscurity – many aspects of the modern world left him distinctly unimpressed – a past which he served supremely well , particularly as a major benefactor of the School in this particular form of service to it . ( Geoffrey Cox , 51-59 )
Aged seven , David lost his father in a railway accident . David was immensely proud of his father , a D-Day survivor who was a desert rat with the eighth army serving extensively abroad including the battle of El Alamein and the landings in Sicily . At nine , David entered the Junior School at Pocklington . From school he went on to a distinguished career in the law , and the influence of the law marked his whole life . On retirement , his social life centred round old friendships from his schooldays celebrated by genial gatherings in York with Geoff Kelly , Mike Gawtrey , John Dykes , Norman Wood and Keith Walls . He also maintained , through lengthy letters and phone conversations , close ties with his oldest friend , long in Greece , Geoffrey Cox . David read widely in the history , literature , and law of the 16th to the 19th centuries , largely based on his remarkable book collection . It was a pleasure to collaborate with him on the Ripon Charter of 1604 and later the early documents of Pocklington School . All his friends valued and admired his fair-minded and decent approach to life .
( Keith Walls , 49-57 )
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