DEATHS AND OBITUARIES
DEATHS AND OBITUARIES
OBITUARIES
We regret to announce the passing of the following
OPs and we extend our sympathy to their families
and friends:
Harold (Mick) Allison (35-45) of Pocklington,
26 February 2019, aged 91.
Roger Orton Bickers (47-55) of Glasgow,
14 May 2019, aged 80.
John Francis Booth (55-62) of Egremont,
Cumbria, 7 August 2019, aged 75.
Iain Hamish Butler (52-62) of Leeds,
4 March 2019, aged 74.
John Witham Casson (61-70) of Little Lever,
Bolton, Lancashire, 1 February 2019, aged 67.
John Reginald Coates (31-36) of Exeter,
19 November 2017, aged 97.
James Ashton Lamorock Cottrell (84-91)
of Bedford, 8 March 2019, aged 45.
Michael Robin Cuff (34-43) of Cheltenham,
Gloucestershire, 2017, aged 89.
John Stuart Dunning (35-38) of Bishop
Burton, 21 June 2019, aged 97.
Thomas (Tom) Arthur Eadon (73-84)
of Melton Mowbray, 11 April 2019, aged 69.
Ronald William Heselwood (33-36) of
Orpington, Kent, 24 December 2017, aged 96.
Timothy Richard Hylton (62-67) of Sutton
Coldfield, 13 February 2019, aged 69.
Gerald Kirby (54-62) of Durham,
8 November 2018, aged 75.
Michael (Mike) John Lewis (60-68) of
Cambridge, 21 July 2019, aged 69.
Antony (Tony) John Maltby (Former Staff,
58-68) of Ashford, Kent, 18 May 2019, aged 91.
Peter William Nettleton (49-58) of North
Dalton, 25 July 2019, aged 79.
John Dixon Brearey Nicholson (49-56) of
Burnby, 3 May 2019, aged 78.
John Revely (44-48) of York, 22 August 2018,
aged 85.
Adam Peter Robinson (88-95) of Walkington,
Beverley, 2 September 2019, aged 40.
Mark Antony Scholefield (72-79) of Barmby
Moor, Pocklington, 6 February 2019, aged 57.
Thomas Andrew Simpson (98-05) of
Elvington, 1 July 2019, aged 30.
Francis Geoffrey (Geoff) Coverley Smith
(63-74) of Leeds, 15 June 2019, aged 64.
John Tate-Smith (55-62) of Malton,
27 October 2018, aged 74.
Robert (Bob) Thompson (42-48) of
Settrington, near Malton, 11 December 2018,
aged 88.
Paul Woodhouse (71-75) of Ilkley, 21 January
2019, aged 61.
Erratum: The Old Pocklingtonian, 2017-18 issue,
page 24. G James (Jim) Coates (59-65) should
read G James (Jim) Osborne (59-65). Roger
Coates (61-65) informed us of Jim’s passing.
Many apologies for the error.
26
Harold (Mick) Allison (35-45). For the first three
years of the Second World War the church bells in
Britain were famously silent. Winston Churchill was
well known for reporting the history of the war with
his own name writ large; but for once he was simply
reporting the facts when he comments that he
decided in November 1942 to mark “the end of the
beginning” by having the bells rung throughout the
country after the Battle of El Alamein. So the bells
rang at All Saints, Pocklington – and one 15 year old
bell-ringer was Pocklingtonian Mick Allison.
Mick was born in July 1927 in Pocklington – one year
after the General Strike and two years before the
Wall Street Crash. He lived in the town and attended
the school from 1935 to 1945, alongside other
members of the Allison family. He eventually became
Head of Day Boys and took School Certificate in
1944 (the old equivalent of A levels). He very
much enjoyed the sport at school, playing for the
1st XV rugby team in the second row, and the 1st
XI cricket as wicket-keeper. He also made life-long
friends at school though few have survived him. One
close friend, Harry Campbell (36-44), acted as
best man at Mick’s wedding in 1954, and the two
of them stayed close throughout their lives. Though
it is not always recognised, the school community
was quite diverse in the 1930s, and included
international students from Romania (among other
European countries).The start of the war at the age
of 12 undoubtedly cast a shadow over his school
days – though it brought with it more friendships
when boarding pupils from Hymers were evacuated
to school in Pocklington during the early years of the
war to escape the bombing raids on Hull.
After school, he undertook National Service in
Gibraltar, and subsequently studied French and
Geography at St John’s College, Cambridge.
Returning to Pocklington – where he lived all his life
– he qualified as a chartered accountant, working
throughout his career in York, mostly in offices in
Coppergate (now the site of the Jorvik centre).
He became involved in many aspects of the local
community: as a Rotarian, a mason, as a financial
advisor to the Stewart Trust at Burnby Hall, and as
a longstanding member of the congregation at All
Saints Church where he had rung the bells years
before.
Similarly Mick stayed very much involved with the
school: he took his turn as Chairman of the Old
Pocklingtonian Association from 1975 to 1976 and
was also Treasurer for a number of years. In both
roles, he was a faithful attendee of the various OP
functions, locally, in Manchester, and also at Oxford
or Cambridge. He developed his interest in skiing
after being invited on one of the school ski trips
in the late 1960s run by Reggie Allen. He greatly
valued the friendships he struck up with many of
the school staff of the 1970s, often on the boundary
of a cricket pitch where he used regularly to watch
his two sons David (63-73) and Martin (65-76),
and his nephew Mark Burton (67-74), playing for
the school, or later for the Pocklington Pixies. He
enjoyed meeting many other Pocklingtonians of
younger generations through his sons.
As someone who had played rugby with distinction
both at school and for the Pocklington Town club,
he acted as guest speaker at one of the OP rugby
suppers run in the early 1980s in the old School
House dining room, where he expressed a view in
favour of open rugby played with a degree of flair
rather than formulaically. He was always pleased to
see the way the school continued to flourish from
1945 onwards, despite economic changes, changes
of government and changes of status from a boys’
school to a co-educational school, from a direct-
grant school to an independent one, from a mostly
full-boarding school to one which takes pupils on a
more flexible basis. He had a genuine affection for
the school community.
(Martin Allison, 65-76)
John Francis Booth (54-62) died on 7 August
2019. Although John lived in Cumbria for over fifty
years, he always regarded himself as a Yorkshireman
and loved to return to his native county and
Pocklington School, where he had so many happy
memories (although Cross Country running was not
his favourite!). After Pocklington, John went to Trinity
College, Cambridge to study Classics.
John and his wife Hilary were married for nearly 41
years and lived all their married life in Cumbria. John
was a senior personnel manager at British Nuclear
Fuels Ltd (BNFL) and after retiring, worked endlessly
for the BNFL benevolent fund, where he was also
a trustee.