IN MEMORIAM Robert Fleetwood May 11 th , 1936 – March 5 th 2017
Robert was born in Kent but moved away from there as a baby . His father was in the Royal Navy and Robert and his mother moved around the country following him to his various postings and then , during the War , to avoid bombing . Having been in Belfast and North Wales , his first connexion with Glasgow was towards the end of World War II when he and his mother lived here for about 2 years . Robert attended 3 primary schools in Glasgow , the last being Holmlea where James was a pupil years later . Altogether Robert attended 10 primary schools but , unfortunately , by the time he was due to start secondary school his father had a shore job and was based in Portsmouth for a number of years . Robert went to the Northern Grammar School there followed by Nottingham University where he read English from 1954 to 57 . After that he did his National Service for 2 years in the R . A . S . C .
On leaving the army he studied for a diploma in librarianship at University College , London . It was after this , while applying for his first job , that he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes , a condition with which he coped stoically for the next 57 years . Shortly before his death a consultant in the diabetic clinic asked if he had thought of applying for the medal awarded by the Diabetic Association to people who had been diabetics for more than 50 years . Robert and I both felt that that was not high on our list of priorities at the time !
Robert ’ s first job was in Southwark Public Library in London but after 2 years he returned to Nottingham University as an assistant librarian . I joined him on the staff there 9 years later and we were married in 1974 . James made his appearance in 1976 .
At the end of 1978 we came to Glasgow when Robert was appointed Deputy Librarian at Strathclyde University . It was fortunate that he had already had the experience of living in Glasgow at the end of the War and so was able to assure me that it was a nice place to live ; some friends in Nottingham had asked him if he had “ volunteered ” to go to Glasgow !
One of his duties at Strathclyde was looking after library ’ s finances It was this experience which caused him to be volunteered to become Hon . Treasurer of the Scottish Prayer Book Society on his retirement in 1996 . Foolishly , we let this be known at St . Oswald ’ s with the result that Robert was asked to be Pledge Giving Convener when Bruce Kellie succeeded Ces Wheeler as Treasurer . In due course , when Bruce died , Robert found himself being Treasurer as well . The years when he was dealing with St . Oswald ’ s and the S . P . B . S . were busy , sometimes fraught , to say the least , and he was glad to be able to relinquish the post of Treasurer to the S . P . B . S . in 2010 ( I retired as Secretary of the Society at the same time ).
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