No.128
Simon Alexander Gourlay (K, 1947-52):
died 31.07.2019. Brother of TDG (K,
1942-46) and uncle of ADG (K, 1966-
70) and NTG (K, 1968-72). 2Lt 16/5
Lancers 1954-5; Royal Agricultural
College but left after six weeks. In 1958
started farming at Hill House Farm
on the English/Welsh border, first
rearing beef before turning his hand
to dairying and later free-range egg
production. Vice President NFU 1982,
Deputy President 1984, President 1986-
91. Among the issues he was called to
deal with during his time at the helm
was the 1988 poultry-industry crisis,
sparked by comments by health minister
Edwina Currie about potential risks of
salmonella associated with eating eggs.
A passionate moderniser whose reforms
changed the NFU for the better and
who displayed unwavering commitment
to farmers. Director, Agricultural
Mortgage Corporation from 1991;
Governor, Harper Adams Agricultural
College 1992-99. Knighted 1990. An
environmentalist, he passionately
wanted the UK to remain in the EU. He
was an internationalist, antiwar and an
advocate for alternative energy. Married
(1) Sally Garman (dissolved); (2) Caroline
Mary Clegg, who survives him together
with his four sons. Obituaries in Farmers
Weekly and Guardian
Walter Evelyn Fraser Oakeshott
(F, 47-52): died 16.10.2018. Son of WFO
(Co Ro, 31-38; HM, 46-54). Soccer XI
and VI. National Service with the
13/18 Hussars, with whom he served in
the Malayan Emergency. Scholarship,
Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 2
Lit Hum. He first worked as a trainee
apprentice with Steele Peech and Tozer,
during which time he witnessed the
stoking of blast furnaces at close range
and he handled export contracts for steel
strip for rail and railways. He then went
back to study at the University of East
Anglia, Economics MA 1968. He then
joined the Civil Service as Economics
Adviser, the Department of Trade and
Industry. With the discovery of North
Sea Oil, he was closely involved with the
economics of gas-gathering pipe lines and
the calculation of what speed oil should
or should not be extracted. He then
The Trusty Servant
moved to the Department of Agriculture
and Fisheries at the Scottish Office,
where he advised on harbour extensions
on the Scottish coast and liaised with
fishermen on the preservation of stocks
and the size of trawlers. On retirement,
he became a director of MORI Research
Ltd – concerned with economic strategies
for sea-water fisheries. As a farmer he
regularly produced high-quality malting
barley. He was especially proud of
his three daughters, who were highly
successful in their fields of journalism,
political campaigning and fine art and
photography. Married 1973 Charlotte
Eastwood who survives him with their
three daughters.
Andrew Walter Loraine Paterson
(A, 47-52): 10.2.2019. Father of HALP
(A, 82-86). He played golf at school and
later for OWGS. Trinity College, Oxford
1953-56 2 PPE. After a brief spell as a
teacher he worked for Express Dairies,
rising to become Managing Director
of the South East Division. In 1977 he
decided on a complete change of lifestyle,
setting up his own estate-agency business
in Oxfordshire. He is survived by
Victoria, his wife of 54 years, and their
two sons and two daughters.
Antony Cowburn Whitaker (H, 47-52):
died 26.3.2019. Son of ACW (Co Ro, 42-
69) and father of HWW (K, 76-81) and
SAW (K, 81-86). National Service with
3 rd Carabiniers, with whom he served
in BAOR 1952-54. Magdalen College,
Oxford, 2 Law 1957. He was called to
the Bar by Gray’s Inn 1958, serving as
a barrister 1958-68. He was then legal
adviser, Daily Mirror Newspapers
1968-72 and then for Times Newspapers
1972-2006. When The Sunday Times
wrote about a man who survived being
swallowed by a python he took the case
and wrote, ‘I cannot accept that our
published summary was within miles
of being defamatory with the possible
exception of the python for its unbridled
appetite and greed.’ He successfully
opposed the Cabinet Secretary’s attempt
to prevent The Sunday Times revealing
Richard Crossman’s Diaries. During
a libel trial in Dublin he was supplied
with an armed bodyguard, which he
28
appreciated when one of the witnesses,
a member of the IRA, was later killed.
In 1997 he was appointed OBE for
services to newspapers. Published 2006
The Regicide’s widow about Lady Alice
Lisle, the last woman to be beheaded
in 1685. He was a member of The
Garrick and church warden of St Giles
in the Fields. A legal manager who won
several notable battles for press freedom.
Married (1) 1962 Agnes Rambaut (died
1986) and (2) 1993 Pat Thompson Blair,
who survives him with his three sons
and two daughters.
David James Thouless (Coll, 47-52):
died 6.4.2019. He taught himself to read
and write and counted to 1,000 to see
how far counting went, aged four. 1 st
on 1947 Roll. Duncan and Richardson
Prizes. His termly reports enthused
over his progress in Mathematics, but
were less complimentary about his
untidy presentation and handwriting.
Scholarship, Trinity Hall, College
Cambridge, 1 Natural Science pt 1, 1
Physics pt 2. BA 1955. PhD Theoretical
Physics at Cornel University. Physicist
Lawrence Radiation Laboratory,
Berkeley 1958-59. ICI Research Fellow
Birmingham University 1959-61;
founding Fellow, Churchill College,
Cambridge 1960-65; Professor of
Mathematical Physics, Birmingham
University 1965-77. He then went to the
USA and was Professor of Physics at the
University of Washington 1980-2003.
He won the Maxwell Prize in 1973;
FRS in 1979; Wolf Prize for Physics in
1990; and the London Prize for Low
Temperature Physics 1994. He was
received Ad Portas in absentia in 2011
when Fellows of the Royal Society and
British Academy were honoured. He
won half of the Nobel Prize for Physics
in 2016, for work resulting in an entirely
new understanding of phase transitions,
regarded as one of the 20 th century’s most
important discoveries in the theory of
condensed-matter physics. Although
suffering from dementia he was well
enough to enjoy every moment of the
Nobel week in Stockholm. Publications
include Topological Quantum Numbers
in Nonrelativistic Physics 1998. A Nobel
laureate whose advances in physics were