Births, deaths and marriages

Professor Josephine Arendt, Emeritus Professor of Endocrinology, passed away on Monday 4 September.

Professor Arendt was instrumental in founding the specialisms in Sleep and Chronobiology here at the University of Surrey that are world-renowned today.

Below are a few words from Professor Debra Skene, who considered Professor Arendt a mentor and a friend for almost 40 years:

It is with great sadness that we report the sudden and unexpected death of Josephine Arendt on 4th September 2023. Jo joined the University of Surrey in 1977, established the Centre for Chronobiology at Surrey, and continued making an academic contribution as Emeritus Professor.

Jo was internationally recognised for her enormous contribution to the field of melatonin, circadian rhythms, and sleep, with over 280 publications. She pioneered immunotechnology for the detection and measurement of melatonin and its metabolites, their circadian and seasonal response to light, and their use to characterise circadian responses particularly in conditions such as jet lag and shift work. She first described the chronobiotic properties of melatonin in relation to sleep and the circadian system and initiated its use for circadian rhythm-related sleep disorders such as jet lag and non-24-hour sleep disorder of the blind. She characterised the importance of light and melatonin in humans, pursuing research in this area particularly in polar regions.

Frustrated by a lack of funding for research, in 1988 Jo founded a company, Stockgrand Ltd (10% university-owned), to exploit her radioimmunoassay expertise, with all profits supporting research and many PhD studentships. This technology helped research worldwide, and today measurement of melatonin is considered to be the most reliable biomarker of circadian clock timing.

Despite being overlooked by the male-dominated UK Royal Society and Academy of Medical Sciences, Jo achieved many honours: Fellow of the Royal College of Pathology, Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, Medal of St Goran’s Hospital (Karolinska Institute), Medal of Justus von Liebig University (Giessen), Ernst and Berta Scharrer Medal (University of Frankfurt), European Biological Rhythms Society Johannes Ariens Kappers Medal, and Doctor honoris causa (Medical University of Lodz, 2007). She was a founding member of the European Biological Rhythms Society (previously the European Pineal Study Group, the European Pineal Society, then the European Pineal and Biological Rhythms Society) and of the Society for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms. She served as President of The European Pineal Society (1987-1990), President of the Gordon Research Conference on Pineal Cell Biology (1998-2000), and a Board Member at Large for the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms.

Jo was a true European. She collaborated with many European laboratories, supporting Eastern European colleagues pre-1989 and mentoring many European early-career researchers. She was a Francophile, fluent in French, and a lover of French wine and food.

I was fortunate to be Jo’s first postdoctoral researcher in 1984, and for the past 39 years, I have had the privilege to have her as a mentor, colleague, and friend. She was my guiding star! Her kindness and generosity, both academically and socially, were much appreciated by many colleagues. She had a warm, caring nature, and her joie de vivre was infectious.

To get a flavour of Jo’s intelligence and personality, listen to these clips from the History of Modern Biomedicine and the Physiological Society.

The field has lost one of its shining stars. Surrey can be proud of a woman in science.

Anthony Donald Keedwell (known as Donald Keedwell, or “Don”) passed away peacefully in Kingston hospital on 6 August 2023 due to frailty of old age. He was 95.

Donald was a significant figure in the world of mathematics. He was particularly well known for his classic text, “Latin Squares and their Applications”, which was internationally recognised, and which he updated in 2015.

Born in New Malden, Surrey, he continued to live in the area until his death, having inherited his home from his parents. He joined the faculty of mathematics at Surrey University in 1952, which was initially based at Battersea College. He achieved his doctorate on Projective Planes in 1963, and when his office relocated to Guildford, he bought a second home there.

Conscious of the need to nurture new talent, he organised an annual conference for Sixth Formers with a talent in mathematics. After retiring from his position as Senior Lecturer in 1993, he continued to publish papers as a Senior Research Fellow, supervising PhD students, and speaking at international conferences.

He was an active member of a number of societies, including the London Intervarsity Club, the Ramblers Association, the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society, The National Trust The Campaign to Protect Rural England and the Mathematics Association.

He loved ballet, opera, contemporary musicals, art exhibitions, tennis and rambling. He also organised and led barn dances. Prior to his most recent decline in his health, he was a remarkably fit, indomitable and independent for a man of his age, and much loved by all who knew him, including those who nursed him in his final weeks.

Socially, Don was always very honest and straightforward, which could sometimes be a surprise to those who didn’t know him! He was, however, extremely kind, with a wonderful sense of humour, and infectious laugh. He was always genuinely interested in what was going on in your life. A humble and quietly charitable man, he bought a home for a friend in need, who lived there until his death. He leaves a significant proportion of his estate to a number of deserving charities. He never married but he had a close relationship with his niece and nephews, who visited and cared for him during his final months, while respecting his fiercely independent nature. They will miss him dearly.

After a six year battle with Alzheimer’s disease, Susan Gay Walton (née Hoar) died suddenly at home in West Byfleet, Surrey, on November 10^th 2022.

Born on September 15^th 1936 in Cawnpore, India, Susan relocated with her parents and younger sister to the UK in 1945 and, after attending Northampton High School, moved to London in 1954 to join the Hotel & Catering Department at Battersea Polytechnic (later Battersea College of Advanced Technology). On leaving Battersea in 1957, she held a variety of positions including at the Great Northern hotel in London and, subsequently, as a demonstrator of Kenwood mixers in Harrods, Knightsbridge. It was during her time working in Harrods that she chanced upon one of her former teaching staff from Battersea, who suggested that Susan should consider returning to work within her old department. She subsequently returned to Battersea and joined the staff in 1960 in the capacity of Chief Steward of the Hotel & Catering Department. Relocating to Guildford in the late 1960s (in advance of the completion of the University campus in 1970), Susan continued to work in the department until her retirement in late 2002.

As one of the longest-standing members of the University’s staff at the time, she was appointed an MBE (for services to education) in the new year’s honours list in 2000. And, to mark the 120^th anniversary of the establishment of Battersea, Susan was, together with a number of other Battersea graduates who had received diplomas instead of degrees, awarded an honorary degree at a graduation ceremony held in Guildford Cathedral in 2011. A warm and vivacious individual who loved life and lived it to the full, Susan adored her role at the University. She particularly cherished the relationships that she forged with the many students who passed through the department over the years. As one former student commented “she was a truly remarkable and wonderful lady; a kind and lovely friend who never forgot anybody and who had a true gift for friendship. Surely a light has gone out”.

Susan was married to her husband Michael in 1958 and they would have celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary in May 2023. They had one child, Timothy (also a graduate of the University of Surrey and now a regular guest lecturer and a member of the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management advisory board). Above all else, she was committed to her family and especially devoted to her two grandsons, Henry and Edward, who became the centre of her world after her retirement. Susan is survived by her husband, son and two grandsons.

Frances studied BSc (Hons) Human Biology at the University of Surrey 1974-78 making friendships that sustained a lifetime. Born in 1950 into a farming family, the third generation of Foords at Fair View Farm, Stockbridge, Hampshire Frances’ early education comprised: West Home Preparatory School Andover; Stockbridge Primary School; and Andover Grammar. “Always the good one of the bunch” of school friends on the train along and out the Test Valley, the daily commute gave 11-year-old Frances a taste for travel.

In the early 70s, after working four-years at the University of Southampton, getting her HNC and a fondness for her car, Frances followed the Hippie Trail to Kathmandu and India. She returned to study at Surrey graduating in 1978, becoming a State Registered Nurse at St George’s Hospital London in 1979 and State Certified Midwife at Queen Charlotte’s Hospital in 1980.

Frances B.Sc. honours dissertation led to a job offer from British Medical Research Council Dunn Nutrition Unit (MRC DNU) at the Seasonality Conference 1979 where she was presenting her findings on seasonality of conception. Dunn personnel attending the conference invited Frances to work at their field station in The Gambia, West Africa as principal nurse-midwife and this was the start of twenty-six years’ dedication to the advancement of midwifery in The Gambia.

As well as overseeing the outpatient clinic at MRC DNU field station with 18,000 consultations a year, Frances provided maternal health care to 500 women of childbearing age who lived in Keneba village where the field station was located and two nearby villages: Manduar and Kantong Kunda. Frances got to know the traditional midwives, local mature women with a culture of attending women in labour, delivering babies and consequently having years of practical experience. Frances’ ante-natal, post-natal and family planning services were honed to the needs of the villages and delivered with respect, support and training for traditional midwives. Trust and respect were reciprocated creating the close, collaborative relationship with indigenous village midwives crucial to the effectiveness of a maternal outreach service that Frances organised in collaboration with The Gambia Government Ministry of Health for 22 villages in the wider Kiang West district under the WHO 1987 Safe Motherhood Initiative. This mobile midwifery service reduced maternal mortality five-fold and gained recognition for Frances’ approach to qualified midwives supporting the work of traditional midwives at the 22^nd International Congress of Midwives at Kobe Japan in 1990.

Propriety foremost, Frances worked with a sensibility free from prejudice responding simply to the individual and their needs with compassion and generosity. At the heart of her principled dedication were the women: girls, young wives, mothers, daughters, grandmothers. This meant addressing the politics and traditions of gender inequality and female genital mutilation (FGM) in her own home, in the village compounds, at district, national and international levels, which Frances did relentlessly, modestly and firmly by paying attention to the everyday of women’s lives.

Frances was Secretary for the National Association of Gambian Nurses and Midwives, for thirteen years (1992 to 2004) steering the Association’s membership of the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM); raising money for Gambian nurses to attend ICM Congresses in Canada 1993 and Norway 1996. In 1999 Frances became Honorary Fellow of the West African College of Nursing.

Frances’ retired from MRC in 1998 and worked at The Gambia College School of Nursing and Midwifery and later The University of The Gambia coordinating their reproductive health care course for B.Sc. Nursing. She also practiced as independent midwife in Kombo district; was consultant to many national programmes including: ‘Maternal and Child Health Programme Evaluation’; ‘Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS’; and volunteered at GAMCOTRAP for seven years campaigning against traditional practices disadvantaging women including FGM. Legislation to make FGM illegal in The Gambia was passed in 2015 and GAMCOTRAP continues to empower women through community education. Frances kept busy. In 2002 she joined The Gambia National Orphan and Vulnerable Children (OVC) Taskforce publishing a Situational Analysis Report in 2004 and repeating this work for UNICEF assessing OVC needs in Sierra Leone in 2005.

Frances returned to midwifery in the UK at West Middlesex University Hospital in London in 2006, settling in Feltham, an hour’s drive from Stockbridge and close enough to support her parents who were then in their eighties. She helped West Middlesex become the first London hospital to attain Baby Friendly Status and was part of a team of midwives giving one-to-one continuity of care for women having a named midwife. Young midwives partnered together with Frances greatly admired her level of dedication and passion and most of all were “grateful for her constant positivity and enthusiasm in her work, particularly in those few moments when the job was most difficult and demanding for us.” Still wishing to apply her skills and experience in the service of new mothers after retiring from West Middlesex Frances became an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant in 2018.

Frances died 5^th October 2022 in hospital in London three weeks after surgery for ovarian cancer. She leaves a husband Kebba Colley, co-wives Ndye and Hawa, daughter Safi, and stepchildren Lamin, Fatou, Isatou, Alieu, Cira, Rohey and Ma Tida Colley.

It is with great sadness that we have to announce that Surrey Alumni, Gavin Whichello, has passed away after a long illness.

Gavin graduated with a degree in Human and Physical Sciences in 1974. The son of a stevedore in the East End of London, he was the first in his family to attend university and studied under Britain’s first female Professor of Physics, Daphne Jackson. Following graduation, Gavin trained as a computer science teacher and his time as a teacher, coupled with his experiences at university, gave him a passion for helping young people from hard to reach backgrounds get into university.

Following his time in teaching, Gavin had a varied business career in the UK and USA in the technology and training sectors. He was the founder of the UK’s largest PC training company, Training International, which was floated on the stock exchange in 1987 and the co-founder of Winmail, at the time Europe’s leading messaging service. In 2005, he joined logistics company Isotrak as Chief Executive and Investor and in less than a decade increased the value of the company more than 20 fold. In 2006, Gavin acquired Qube Learning and has turned it into one of the top 20 training providers in the UK and a company that provides learning opportunities to literally thousands of people a year, many of them from similar backgrounds to his own.

For almost a decade, Gavin has been one of the University’s most engaged alumni. During this time he has financially supported PhD students and mentored a range of postgraduate and undergraduate students who have ambitions in technology and entrepreneurship. He taught regularly on the Surrey MBA programme and was always happy to share his experience and expertise with students. As a technology innovator himself, Gavin bought live streamed Qube Board Meetings into the MBA programmes giving students an opportunity to understand board level decision making.

Gavin was one of the first members of the Surrey Business School Advisory Board and, through this, contributed greatly to the development of the strategy and education of SBS. He was also instrumental in the creation of the Surrey Innovation and Digital Enterprise Academy (SurreyIDEA) where he was able to combine his passions for entrepreneurship and bringing young people from similar backgrounds to his into university. Through SurreyIDEA, Gavin regularly contributed to workshops and Young Persons University events and was hugely influential in the development of innovative undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. In recognition of his work for the University and Business School, Gavin was made a Visiting Professor in 2017 and, in 2019, was the recipient of the Vice Chancellors Alumni Award for Outstanding Contribution to the University.

Gavin was a loving family man with a wife, Claire, and four children Anna, Mollie, Lucy and Stanley.

Professor Andy Adcroft, Deputy Dean of SBS and Director of SurreyIDEA said “Gavin will be hugely missed in the University. In SurreyIDEA, and with the many students he has mentored and supported, he leaves a lasting legacy that many people will benefit from. Over the years he has a champion of the Business School both inside and outside the University but, most of all, he has been a dear friend.”

There can be few professional audio engineers who have not heard the name of John Borwick. He was, after all, editor and chief author of what is probably the most famous sound recording textbook of all time – Sound Recording Practice – and because John devoted the best part of his career to educating the professional audio engineer.

With a BSc degree in Physics, Maths and Applied Maths from Edinburgh University, John served as a signals officer in the RAF from 1943 to 1947. He then joined the BBC as a studio manager/balance engineer and later ran BBC Radio’s training studio. On leaving the BBC, he became a regular broadcaster, including anchoring the fortnightly Sound programme.

He was instrumental in setting up the BMus (Tonmeister) course in Music and Sound Recording at the University of Surrey and was senior lecturer and course director there for 11 years. He left the Tonmeister course in 1979 when David Pickett took over. David left in 1983, and when the University was unable to appoint a successor, John agreed to return for a further year.

I first met John in 1984 when I was appointed to run the Tonmeister course as his (second) successor. I well remember our first meeting; he seemed quite relaxed and I was very nervous. If only he’d realised how ill-prepared I was, I expect he would have been more nervous than me!

He was Secretary of the Association of Professional Recording Studios for many years and instigated their annual Engineer’s course at Surrey's Music Department. John also contributed much– to the Audio Engineering Society, helping to set up the British Section in 1970, being its first secretary and doing a two-year stint as Vice-President Europe.

He somehow found time to be technical editor/director of Gramophone magazine for 36 years and published many books, from Hi-Fi for Beginners in 1961 via Sound Recording Practice and Microphones: Technology and Technique to the Loudspeaker and Headphone Handbook. Amazon lists 29 titles by him.

In 2012 he was awarded an APRS Sound Fellowship for his services to the audio industry.

Broadcaster, educator, author, journalist, academic, John Borwick will be mourned and missed by generations of Tonmeisters as well as the audio industry at large; he truly was a great man.

It is with sadness we announce the death of Emeritus Professor Otto Pick, who was Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and was Pro Vice-Chancellor from 1979–85.

Professor Otto Pick was born in Prague to a Czech-Jewish family. His father was the well-known German-speaking journalist, writer, translator and critic Otto Pick. Professor Pick began his studies in Prague, where he attended an English high school. After the establishment of the Protectorate in Czechoslovakia on 15 March 1939, he escaped to the Great Britain thanks to the ‘Nicholas Winton train’. In the UK, he graduated from school and continued his education at Oxford University.

In 1943, he joined the Czechoslovak Army in the UK, where he served in various garrisons, and he also participated in the Normandy landings. After the war he returned to his hometown – Prague. There he worked briefly at the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic, and he enrolled at the Faculty of Law at Charles University. After the communists took power in Czechoslovakia, he, as a former member of the Czechoslovak Armoured Brigade in the UK, was forced to emigrate again – this time with his wife Zdeňka – to the UK, where he obtained a position as an editor at the BBC.

He also continued his studies in history at Oxford, where he won a scholarship. After his university studies Pick embarked on an academic career. He started out as an assistant at the London School of Economics, where he completed his postgraduate studies. He moved to the University of Surrey in 1973, where he headed up International Relations in the former Department of Linguistic and International Studies, before becoming dean and pro vice-chancellor.

In 1983, he became the head of the Czechoslovak section of Radio Free Europe in Munich, and afterwards he taught at the University of Munich and also at Johns Hopkins University in Bologna.

He moved back to Prague in 1991, where he contributed to the creation of the Department of Political Science at the Faculty of Philosophy at Charles University. In 1993, Professor Pick became the director of the Institute of International Relations and worked there until 1998 when he became the First Deputy in the office of Jan Kavan at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a focus on the integration of the Czech Republic into NATO.

Later, he achieved a series of successes as an Ambassador at Large with a focus on Czech-German and Czech-Austrian relations. Between 2000 and 2013, he was an adviser to all the Ministers of Foreign Affairs.

He was awarded the Czechoslovak Medal for Valour against the Enemy (1945) and the Federal Cross of Merit for the support and development of democracy and he was appointed as a member of the Order of St Michael and St George (2002) by the Queen.

Bruce Russell, who died on 2 January 2016, was a well-known figure in the British construction industry, particularly abroad.

His father Edward was a civil engineer, working on perfecting tank-launching pads for the D-Day invasion for two years before it took place, just as Bruce was born. Bruce followed Edward into engineering which he never ceased to find fascinating and absorbing. He was educated at Highgate School, and regretted that, in those days, the school did not take engineering seriously, and was biased towards medicine and the law. This did not deter him, and he read civil engineering at the University of Leeds, where he met his beloved wife-to-be Jenny.

After graduating, he immediately started work with Taylor Woodrow, on a cargo tunnel at Heathrow airport, learning a whole new range of swear words, as well as how to work extremely hard. Soon he was on the Danube basin in Romania, working on a huge irrigation project, learning another new language, this one based on Latin and French roots, and also learning to respect the locals’ ability to breakfast on ‘tuica’, a powerful plum brandy.

Mining in Sierra Leone was next, becoming project manager, up in the bush, and turning around a failing project. This time he had to learn respect for the so-called ‘dragons beneath the ground’ and their effect on the men above. He cared deeply for the well-being of his men, and they responded to this.

Dubai, Malaysia and Borneo beckoned and were enjoyed until he decided that his three children should have a settled English education; he could not bear to send them away “to be brought up by someone else” and so the family returned to the United Kingdom.

Bruce still travelled the globe, and recognised throughout the industry for his can-do approach, he rose to become chairman of Taylor Woodrow International and a Main Board director. He gave evidence on behalf of the construction industry to Select Committees about the importance of foreign contracts, went on foreign trade missions, was part of the reconstruction of Kosovo following the break-up of Yugoslavia, and of the development of the Light Rail Transit system in Kuala Lumpur in time for the Commonwealth Games, when he had the pleasure of advising the Queen to “hold on tight” as the train set off on its maiden journey.

Taylor Woodrow effectively bowed out of international construction in 2000, and Bruce took early retirement – and continued to use his practical and relationship skills. He became Emeritus Professor at the University of Surrey, developing a course in construction management, was a major in the Engineering and Logistics Staff Corps, a governor of Highgate School, a trustee of Highgate Cemetery, a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Highgate Literary and Scientific Institution, and the Highgate Newtown Community Centre, as well as giving his time generously to other local charities.

He eventually succumbed to the strains of an enlarged heart, which he had coped with from birth, a fact few friends would have guessed, as they saw him golfing hard, producing enough fruit and vegetables from his garden to make the family self-sufficient, walking the Cornish Coastal path, sailing his dinghy, and supporting his local football team, Arsenal.

He is survived by his wife Jenny, and their three children, Sophie, Pippa and Guy and eight grandchildren.

A personal remembrance by Battersea alumnus Frank Green

The afternoon of 8 December 8 2015, was bright and blustery as about a hundred family and friends met at Aldershot Crematorium to celebrate the life of, and say goodbye to, Ken Berkeley: Chartered Engineer and Fellow of both the Institute of Corrosion and the Institution of Material Minerals and Mining.

I first met Ken when we were Battersea ‘Freshers’. An affable man, full of fun and kindly wit, he loved his ale and had a trim, almost military moustache. All of that stayed with him all his life. He was one of an in-between generation. Some of us had arrived straight from school, others had seen extended military service, a few had been in the war. Ken was one of those in the middle who had left school, done his National Service in the REME and then arrived at Battersea.

He joined the Metallurgy Department and was a candidate for the Institution of Metallurgists: back then many professional institutions were examining, as well as being qualifying, bodies. The Institution and London University had nearly identical syllabi. It wasn’t long before the Met. Department and the Hotel and Caterers moved in to their new, purpose-built, block. With many ladies on the upper floors and lots of chaps below, romances flourished. Ken and Elizabeth met and formed a close and enduring partnership.

Perhaps Ken’s career was determined by one of our lecturers, the corrosion expert Lionel Shriver, who went on to play a major role in the design and development of the protection system for the Thames Barrier. Battersea had a strong entrepreneurial spirit so Ken and a fellow student set off on their own into the corrosion protection business. That initial association did not last, but Ken built his own business and became recognised as a world authority in cathodic protection. His book, aimed at giving practical advice to engineers, surveyors and architects, remains a recommended text.

He became an active member of his local community; as a committed Christian he gave, together with Elizabeth, much time and talent to the Scouting movement.

Ken had had a good student career too. Battersea had no Students’ Union building, but there was the Student Representative Council whose activities served much the same purpose. Our bar was across the road at The Grove pub.

Ken was active in many ways, becoming the President of the SRC during 1954-55. His fondness for his ale was one of the drivers behind his part in creating the Met. Department’s 53 Club. This was essentially for maintaining a contact network after we had left. Ken always saw it as a drinking club too; one of its rules was that if you were caught not wearing your 53 tie on a Thursday, you bought drinks all round. It lasted until 2003, and we saw it off with a great farewell dinner at the old Kew Bridge Pumping Station.

The last time I saw Ken and Elizabeth was at a recent Battersea Lunch at the University. Though frail, he was still dapper and witty and still thought of the 53 Club in its drinking mode. I understand that even when being taken to hospital, he asked his paramedics if he could drop off for a pint!

The Grove often had jazz in an upstairs room, another of Ken’s delights, so it was no surprise that good jazz was playing as we entered the chapel and as we left we got The Saints loud and clear. Ken abides as being “among that number”.

John was born in Sutton on 22 November 1948 when he joined his sister Eileen to complete the family of William and Alice Harding.

He was educated at St Joseph's College, a specialist College for Mathematics, in Upper Norwood. John proved to be a brilliant scholar and achieved A-level scores exceeding those required for Oxbridge. However, he chose to enter Imperial College London, world-famous for its engineering and science, and opted to study civil engineering.

His application and innate intelligence led him to graduate at the top of his class of very bright contemporaries with a First Class Honours degree. He proceeded as a postgraduate student in advanced structural engineering and specialised in the strength of steel plates such as those used to construct bridges and marine structures.

Around this time, there was an intensive programme of research on steel box girders underway in the Structural Engineering Laboratories of Imperial College. This was as a result of the collapse of a series of box girder bridges during construction, resulting in the deaths of many construction workers.

The first of these was The Milford Haven Bridge in South Wales and this tragedy was followed by the collapse of bridges of similar construction at Yarra in Australia and Koblenz in Germany in 1971.

Public concern at this loss of life was at such a peak that Government grants poured into Imperial College, funding research to find the causes of these failures and prevent future collapses. John's research slotted neatly into this programme and he went on to produce ground-breaking results that contributed significantly to the output of Imperial's team.

Following John's stellar performance as a researcher, I invited him to join me as a co-editor of The Journal of Constructional Steel Research in 1980. As with every other task undertaken by John, he proved to be superbly efficient as an editor and continued to co-edit that journal for some 35 years.

Of course, it was not just me who recognised John's talents and, although appointed as a Lecturer at Imperial in an attempt to retain him on our staff, he was inevitably lured by the offer of a Professorial Chair to The University of Surrey in 1985 at the relatively young age of 37.

In 1991 he was promoted to a senior management position as Pro Vice-Chancellor. At this level, he undertook a series of roles including student welfare, staff development, and external academic relationships.

In this latter capacity, he established a special relationship with St Mary's, Strawberry Hill, (now St Mary's University) where he served on their Governing Body for several years. Alongside these responsibilities, he also was Head of Civil Engineering from 1997 to 2002.

Basically, if there was a difficult senior job to be done, John was entrusted with it. Throughout, John continued with his research and numerous publications with amazing energy and enthusiasm.

When I arrived at Surrey as Vice-Chancellor in 1994, John had already established a worldwide reputation as a distinguished academic. We became even closer friends and allies in our duties of leading and managing the University. I treasured his advice and company until my retirement in 2005. Three years later, John took early retirement in March 2007 and moved with his family to their lovely home in Shipston-on-Stour.

During the past eight years, John's many interests flourished in a way that was nothing short of astonishing. His passion for photography reached exceptional heights. John joined the local photography club where the club chairman reports that by 2009 he was the most prolific of the members and was winning prizes all over the world for his photography.

But what of John 'the man'? In all senses of the phrase John was a Big Man. So many people have been in touch since the news of his untimely death to express their admiration for John and condolences for his family, that it is possible to assemble some of the virtues attributed repeatedly to him by those who knew him well.

Words and phrases such as gentleman, genuine, honest, fair, patient, good natured, a wonderful boss, loved his students, loved by his students, a family man, occur again and again. All of these resonate loudly with me.

But the John I like to recall was a dear friend with whom I spent many happy hours swapping ideas and planning our next actions together, interspersed with laughter aided by his gentle good humour, over a pint (or maybe two), with me teasing him about his Irish ancestry and him denying any Celtic connections and declaring himself to be a True Blue Brit.

Whatever his ancestry, he was 'one hell of a guy' who has left an indelible mark on so many aspects of life from the educational sector, the engineering profession, the publishing world, the art of photography, the gardening scene and most importantly on his family, friends and admirers across the world.

It is cruel that he has been taken from us so soon, when he had so much more to give. John was married with two daughters. We shall all miss him enormously. May he rest in peace.

Professor Patrick Dowling, 18 May 2015

John Wakely, who has recently died at the age of 96, worked for Battersea and Surrey in various capacities for 45 years. He joined Battersea Polytechnic as its accountant in 1953, becoming the accountant of Battersea College of Technology in 1956 when the status of the institution changed, and then, 10 years later, accountant and deputy secretary (finance) of the University of Surrey from 1966. He retired from this position in 1977 and then served for a further 21 years as part-time ‘Retirement Correspondent’.

John was born and brought up in the London Borough of Fulham. He joined the finance department of Chelsea Polytechnic in 1935 and, apart from war service and a year in the film industry, spent the rest of his career in education. John was a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries & Administrators and his professional skills as an accountant and financial adviser were evident to everyone closely connected with Battersea and Surrey. Ralph West (the Principal of Battersea in the 1950s) and Peter Leggett (Principal of Battersea and subsequently the University’s first vice-chancellor) both readily acknowledged John’s leading contribution to the successful establishment of the University, as did the senior lay members of the Battersea’s Governing Body and Surrey’s first Council (notably Sidney Rich, the chairman whose tenure spanned the transformation of Battersea into the University of Surrey).

John was a key member of the small central administrative team which worked tirelessly to relocate Battersea College of Technology to Guildford as the then new University of Surrey. One can only begin to imagine the amount of work that entailed, without the benefits of modern office technology. Indeed, recalling his time at Battersea and Surrey, John noted that until 1963 all cheques drawn on the institution’s bank account were handwritten and individually signed. It was only then that “after long and careful consideration” the Governing Body agreed to his proposal that a “cheque-writing machine which created a facsimile signature produced by metal dies” should be purchased!

But John was much more than an accountant concerned with estimates, budgets and balancing the books. He was interested in everyone – staff and students alike. For example, when the Battersea Students’ Union was suspended for a few months early in 1959, and had to meet in the bandstand in Battersea Park, John attended the meetings as an ‘interested spectator’. It is probable that he subsequently had a hand (behind the scenes) in resolving whatever crisis had occurred between the Principal, the Governing Body and the Students’ Union. He championed the case (albeit unsuccessfully after a narrow defeat in Council) for a member of the non-academic staff to be included on the Council when the original Charter and Statutes were being drawn up in the mid-1960s. Also, he often called in at the public relations office (then located in a goldfish bowl-type office on the second floor of Senate House) with the latest news of a former Battersea colleague with whom he had been in touch.

It was therefore very appropriate that John should be appointed as the University’s part-time Retirement Correspondent in 1977. He carried out these duties diligently for 21 years thus laying the foundations of what would later become the Surrey Society and, more recently the alumni relations office, which now includes former staff as well as graduates. Again, he did this without the help of modern technology, for example cutting out pieces of news from the University’s weekly Newsletter and monthly Gazette, which a member of the Secretariat team then turned into a quarterly newsletter for retired staff.

On his retirement from full-time responsibilities in 1977, John was awarded the degree of Master of Science honoris causa and he also received a Queen’s Jubilee Medal in acknowledgement of his long service to the University. We extend our condolences to John’s daughter, Helen Faulds, and the rest of the family.

Anthony Kelly (known to his friends as ‘Tony’, but invariably addressed in the University as Vice-Chancellor or simply VC) was born in Hillingdon, Middlesex in 1929. By the time he was attracted to Surrey by Lord Robens (then Chancellor of the University) to become the University’s second Vice-Chancellor, he had an international reputation as a scientist with experience in universities, government and industry.

Undergraduate study at the University of Reading, where he obtained two first-class honours BSc degrees – General and Special (Physics) – was followed by a PhD at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1953. He then worked at the University of Illinois and at Birmingham University before spending three years as an Associate Professor of Metallurgy and Materials Science at Northwestern University, Chicago. He returned to Cambridge in 1959 to take up an appointment as a university lecturer and as a Founding Fellow of Churchill College where he was Director of Studies in Natural Sciences until 1967. He then moved to a number of roles in government science for eight years, becoming Deputy Director of the National Physical Laboratory in 1969. He received an ScD from the University of Cambridge in 1968 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1973 at the age of 43.

During the tenure of Professor Kelly’s vice-chancellorship, from 1975-1994, the number of full-time students at Surrey increased from 3,000 to 7,000 with a significant increase in the proportion of postgraduate students. During the 1980s the University developed a large network of associated institutions, awarding Surrey degrees (notably the Roehampton Institute and St Mary’s College, Twickenham, both now universities in their own right) and at that time it became one of the foremost validating universities in the country.

Although Surrey’s annual income rose from £6m to £63m between 1975 and 1994 – a significant real increase – the 1980s were not an easy time to be a vice-chancellor. In the infamous University Grants Committee (UGC) cuts of 1981, Surrey suffered one of the highest reductions in government funding, in spite of being at the forefront of establishing links between higher education and industry. Professor Kelly responded to the situation with characteristic determination, closing a number of academic departments (rather than spreading the pain evenly which would not have been in the long-term interests of the University) and further increasing the University’s income from non-government sources. At this and other times, conversations in the Vice-Chancellor’s office could be challenging but, as Sir Austin Pearce (then a Pro-Chancellor and a former Chairman of British Aerospace) said many years later, when presenting Anthony Kelly for the degree of DUniv honoris causa “when he digs his heels in he is invariably right”.

A notable feature of the University’s strategy in the 1980s was the development of the Surrey Research Park. Anthony Kelly had first conceived the idea during a sabbatical term in Switzerland in 1979 and a small group (including in particular Jerry Leonard, University Treasurer and Leonard Kail, University Secretary) took the development forward. It was at around the same time that Anthony Kelly became the first Chairman of Surrey Satellite Technology. It is fitting that the building at the entrance to the Research Park which accommodates start-up companies is named the Anthony Kelly Technology Centre.

Surrey was one of the first universities to introduce a staff appraisal scheme in response to the 1985 Jarratt Report on the management of higher education and was also one of the first to draw up a strategic plan, long before all universities were required to do so by the Funding Council. Anthony Kelly was a strong advocate of the professional training year which has made a major contribution to Surrey’s consistently high graduate employment record. He had the interests of students at heart and he was meticulous in developing good relationships with the Students’ Union. He was a champion of student sport and could often be found on the Manor Park sports fields on a Saturday afternoon cheering on one of the University’s teams. He encouraged the development of a broader range of subjects in the University – for example the introduction of Dance Studies, a controversial move at the time.

Unusually among vice-chancellors, Professor Kelly continued to make a significant contribution to his own discipline. He was elected to the Fellowship of Engineering (now the Royal Academy of Engineering) in 1979, to the National Academy of Engineering of the USA in 1986 and to the Academia Europaea in 1990. He received many international prizes and awards and honorary doctorates from Birmingham, Reading and Surrey, Hanyan University in South Korea and Navarra University in Spain.

He is regarded by many throughout the world as the “father of composite materials” and received the President’s Award of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2011 in recognition of a lifetime of significant achievement throughout a career spanning more than sixty years. His major book, Strong Solids (first published in 1965, third edition 1986) is still regarded as the seminal work in the field. An international symposium Advanced Materials in the Marketplace (organised by Professor Michael Kelly and Professor Jim Castle) was held at the University in 1994 to mark his retirement. He was Chairman of the Joint Standing Committee on Structural Safety of the Institutions of Civil and Structural Engineering from 1988 to 1998.

At another event held to mark Anthony Kelly’s retirement, HRH The Duke of Kent (Chancellor of the University) commented on his ability, as an experienced yachtsman, to chart a course through choppy waters – an ability which helped to steer the University through a difficult period following the 1981 UGC cuts. At the same event, Professor Graeme Davies (Chief Executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England) proposed a toast to the continued success of the University, concluding: “Professor Kelly has had the vision to set about one of the most difficult tasks in higher education – to change irreversibly the culture of an institution. I believe that during the thirty years since the Robbins Report only two of the former colleges of advanced technology have made it into the top grouping of our best international research universities: Surrey and Bath” - a judgement surely amply borne out in current university league tables.

On his retirement from the University, Tony and his wife Christina (who sadly died in 1997) returned to live in Cambridge. He soon became actively involved as a Fellow of Churchill College (having been elected as an Extraordinary Fellow of the college in 1985) and as an Emeritus Professor and Distinguished Research Fellow in the University’s Department of Materials Science and Technology. He became a well-known and respected figure at Churchill, editing the college’s Review for many years. He served as President of the Institution of Materials in 1996-97.

Professor Kelly was for a number of years a Vice-President of the Royal National Institute for the Deaf. He was appointed CBE in 1988 and a Surrey DL in 1993. Although from a devout Roman Catholic background, he did not allow his faith to intrude on his role as the head of a secular institution, while nevertheless encouraging the development of an ecumenical approach to the university chaplaincy. He was appointed a Knight of St Gregory in 1992.

Anthony Kelly died peacefully in his sleep at home on 4 June 2014 at the age of 85. The University extends its sincere condolences to the members of his family, Marie-Clare, Paul, Andrew and Steve.

Jim studied metallurgy at Battersea Polytechnic from 1947–50 and in 1952 became a member of the teaching staff, with a particular interest in welding technology.

The department was in many ways in advance of its time in realising that close relationships with industry to find solutions to practical problems was of great importance to both sides. To achieve this, it would be necessary to call upon the expertise which existed elsewhere in the institution. Jim played a vital role in promoting these aims and the advantages he saw in industrial collaboration.

He was a supporter of interdisciplinary courses, largely because he realised that problems in industry were frequently of an interdisciplinary nature; of a flexible approach and the introduction of an element of general studies and, perhaps most of all, the concept of the sandwich course, not always welcomed by academics.

In 1965, Jim was appointed Industrial Liaison Officer, and in 1969 became Director of the Bureau of Industrial and External Liaison, whose tasks covered short courses, extra-mural contracts and contacts with the University friends. Jim was instrumental in in setting up the Surrey Alumni Society (now Forever Surrey) and integrating Battersea within it.

Upon his retirement in 1984, the University Newsletter said: “It can be seen that Jim has played a significant role in the establishment of a modern vocational university. He has an approach which is stabilised by a happy family relationship and it has always been the case that Jim and Jo have supported University occasions with a sense of belonging and fun.”

At his funeral, Professor Peter Miodowdnik, Head of he Department of Metallurgy from 1982-1988, said: “The links he created included inviting captains of industry to come to see what we were capable of doing and getting them to contribute to the revision of syllabi so that they were more industrially orientated.

“Most importantly, he championed a system of industrial placements for students in their third year, following the system which we had started in the Metallurgy department. This meant that students had a whole year of industrial experience under their belt before completing their final year and gave an industrial context to their academic studies.

“They returned more mature, more confident and more determined to complete their degrees. This gave them a valuable advantage when it came to subsequent employment interviews. Jim’s tireless work in this allowed Surrey to top the league table for percentage employment after graduation year after year.”

Births

Marriages

Deaths

Cookies

Births, deaths and marriages

Births

Surrey - born 2017

Marriages

John Wood and Gemma Harris

Victoria Goody and Joseph Noel

Sylvana Ramirez (MBA, 2013) and James Lee (MBA, 2013)

Hannah Bradley (Psychology BSc, 2012)

Deaths

James Fergus O'Sullivan (1954-2023)

David Anthony Lloyd (1965-2023)

Hari Sutherland (1935-2023)

Professor Josephine Arendt (1941-2023)

Dr A. Donald Keedwell (1928-2023)

Mike Banfield (1935-2023)

Professor Karl Koch (1940-2023)

Jeremy Towner (1933-2023)

Professor Ron Shail (1935-2022)

Susan Walton MBE (1936-2022)

Frances Ann Foord (1950-2022)

Ramji Bhimji Khuti (1933-2021)

David Swift (1955-2020)

Jane Sinclair (1966-2020)

Professor Gavin Whichello

Dr Mark Ladd

Ravishanker (Ravi) Lingotpavanathar (1981-2020)

Terry Douglas Bennett (1933-2020)

Derek (Del) Fawbert (1949–2020)

John Williams (1960–2020)

Christopher Terrel Wyatt (1927-2019)

Dr Mike Clark (1931–2018)

Miles Quest FIH (1937–2018)

Baptist Furtado (1934–2018)

Ronald (Ron) Francis Eatwell

Leo Grattarola (1958–2017)

Jocelyn (Jos) Seager (1961–2017)

John Borwick (1924–2016)

Bill Bellerby MBE (1917–2017)

Professor Ke Jun (Tsun Ko) (1917-2017)

Tom Whittaker (1947–2016)

Nigel Furlonger

Dr Bill Johns (1946–2016)

Philip Byrne (1926–2016)

Susan M Goltsman (1949–2016)

Martin Foltin (1980-2016)

Peter Jacobsen (1948–2016)

Professor Otto Pick (1925-2016)

Bruce Russell (1944–2016)

Kenneth Gordon Charles Berkeley

Professor John E Harding (1948-2015)

Sir John Mason

Sir Harry Hookway (1921-2014)

John Wakely FCIS (1917–2014)

Professor Anthony Kelly (1929–2014)

James (Jim) Moore (1926–2014)