University College Oxford Record 2020

ROY SELBY
(Harry Mellish Grammar School,
Nottingham) died on 5 November
2019 aged 91. His son David, who
followed him to Univ in 1974
(as did his grandson Jonathan
in 2001), has kindly provided
this tribute:
Roy was born and grew up in
Nottingham. He started at the Henry Mellish
Grammar School aged nine and left in 1946. He
then completed his national service in the RAF.
After basic training, he was posted to Bowes Moor
and initially assigned to dealing with unexploded
munitions. Once it was realised that he was destined
for Univ, he was rapidly transferred to working with,
and eventually training others, on radar.
He read Maths at Univ, although he had a
range of other interests including his commitment
to the university’s Congregational Church society,
playing double bass and mountaineering.
Roy started his working life with Marconi,
continuing his work with radar. Family memories
are vague, but we then believe he taught for a
short time at a school in Nottingham.
After marrying in 1953, Roy and Mary (who
Roy had met while she was at Dorset
House School of Occupational
Therapy in Headington) moved to
York. Roy taught maths at Bootham
School. Later, he worked at Hymer’s
College in Hull. He then had a shift
in career and moved to the local
authority education service in the West
Riding of Yorkshire as maths adviser. After
the reorganisation of local government in the
years following the Redcliffe-Maud report, he
moved to the newly formed City of Bradford
Metropolitan District Council and eventually
became chief education adviser in
North Yorkshire. Roy’s ex-colleagues
have recalled how he was the
sort of boss who achieved loyalty
and challenged things that needed
improving with a quiet smile.
He had a happy retirement living near,
and then in, Thirsk in North Yorkshire. He
and Mary were fully involved in the life of that
community. His interests continued to be broad
and included an ongoing Christian commitment.
He delighted in his family. It was good that he was
able to meet his first great-grandchild at a family
wedding a short time before he died.
Roy always remembered his time at Univ with
great fondness and looked forward to his regular
attendance at gaudies. His well-rehearsed tales
about his scout complaining that his room was
“a bit ashy today” (he stopped smoking his pipe
when we were young children) and of exploits
with his close friend Dennis Armstrong were part
of family mythology. In recent years, his Univ scarf
became an essential accessory every time he was
outside, even when the weather was warm.
We remember Roy as a gentleman and truly
gentle man.
Roy is succeeded by four sons,
twelve grandchildren and three greatgrandchildren.
SIR ROBERT CHRISTIE
STEWART,
KCVO, CBE, TD (Eton) died on 26
September 2019 aged 93. Having
served in the Scots Guards, he read
Agriculture and Forest Science at Univ.
His son David came up to Univ in 1978, as did
his daughter-in-law Lucy in 1980. Sir Robert’s
sons Johnny and David delivered a tribute at his
University College Record | October 2020 63