The Trusty Servant 141, June 2026 | Page 11

No. 141 The Trusty Servant of vapour filled the room, and the noise brought the senior Chemistry technician running. Mr Ball took one look at the room, and its don, rolled his eyes and walked away.

With the support of Jill, and with the assistance of our matron, Frances Thomas, he ran a house in which I felt at home. We sang alongside each other in Chapel Choir. I did some book-binding under his guidance. We often chatted about choral music at lunch. He came to support us all in sports, music and drama, and if you were summoned to his study, you were most likely to be shown his latest purchase of a piece of apothecary’ s paraphernalia, or a newly acquired antique tome before he got to the matter in hand. Just before he retired and moved to St Keverne, I called in on him and Jill. His enormous collection had to be pared down, and he gave me a

DMMS’ s plaque on display in Science School.

large wooden pestle and mortar. Peering over his glasses, he advised me not to use it for culinary purposes as he could not verify what else had been ground in it.

David Smith 1939-2025( CoRo, 65-01; HoDo G, 73-88)

Stephen Shuttleworth( G, 71-75; CoRo, 11-21) reflects on the useful life of David Smith:

David was born in Colchester in 1939, the younger of two children. He distinguished himself at Colchester Royal Grammar School, particularly in the Sciences. When looking through his books recently, I found two chemistry textbooks with prize bookplates inside, signed by his headmaster. From there, he went to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he read Natural Science, specialising in Chemistry in his final year. Unable to find a suitable supervisor for a PhD in his chosen field of study, he moved to Imperial College and completed a doctorate there.

He arrived in Winchester in 1965, where he taught full-time until retiring in 2001. He then continued part-time until 2009. He was a member of an active Science Department, in which he taught mostly Chemistry. He made the subject very interesting and his teaching was often accompanied by amusing anecdotes. There used to be a column in one of the school magazines, called ex ore magistorum, in which boys picked up on sayings – both deliberate and accidental- of their dons. David was explaining the difference between two types of hydrocarbon, the alkanes and alkenes. When asked to define an alkene, he replied‘ hey diddle diddle, there’ s a double bond in the middle.’ This must have worked, as David’ s sets always achieved high exam grades.

In late 1972, David was appointed housemaster of Phil’ s. Up until that time, he was, with Henry Thompson, one of two house tutors in Trant’ s, under the benevolent eye of Hubert Doggart, where his nickname was‘ two-shave Dave’! Phil’ s was a popular house and many colleagues entrusted their sons to his care. Unlike some housemasters, David was not a stern disciplinarian, but appealed to people’ s sense of decency and consideration for others. David was always assisted by excellent tutors. Two of them, Michael Nevin and Rob Wyke, must have benefited from David’ s guidance, as they both went on to become fine housemasters in their turn.

In his time, music flourished in the house. There were boys who sang in choirs and played in school ensembles, many of whom went on to become professional musicians. A great feature were the house concerts, which happened a couple of times a year. Sometimes they were held in his drawing room, with the grand piano as the focal point. I remember providing the first item once, a short piece by Schumann. On other occasions, if the choir or orchestra were involved, they would be in Grubbing Hall. Music was a large part of David’ s life at Winchester College. He sang bass in Michla choir for many years and was one of its founder members in 1966, as well as playing double bass in the school orchestra.

On one occasion, Alfred Brendel was present at School Concert, having come to hear his Philite son Adrian play a‘ cello concerto, and, to David’ s delight, congratulated him on his conducting of the Second Orchestra piece which preceded the concerto. For many years, he would go with a

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