University College Oxford Record 2020

and enjoyed eating with the taxi drivers.
He was lucky enough to meet Herbert
R. (Herb) Kohl who had a Henry Fellowship
in 1958-9. Herb introduced Colin to whisky
and curry, and they later corresponded about
Gödel and his theorem. Colin also enjoyed his
meetings with Jill Butler, a contemporary and
wife of Robin Butler. Patrick Hanks, another
contemporary, recalls that one of Colin’s tutors
commented that if only he could devote his
intellectual energy to constructing something
original, instead of drawing attention to errors
in other people’s work, he would be one of the
great mathematicians of our era.
While at Oxford, Colin was an active member
of the Territorial Army, and also a member of
CND. Not very sporty, he enjoyed some gentle
sculling on the river, and joined the university
yacht club. Patrick recalls Colin’s character as
quiet and unpretentious, with a profound and
undemonstrative concern for social justice.
His career was not very complicated. His
early interest in computing was sparked during
a holiday job with ICI, and he witnessed its early
developments, in the days when one computer
filled a whole room. He joined GEC, where he
was much impressed by the thorough training
and good career path given to its employees.
After a short stint at Imperial College, he joined
SCICON in 1968, where he remained until his
retirement in 2000. His colleagues described him
as a really nice guy, extremely bright but still a
man of the people, always scrupulously honest
and principled, and unfailingly good natured.
On his retirement Colin worked with Imogen
on a small rights and licensing software system for
publishers. Colin pursued his interest in railway
signalling, another way of exercising his analytical
brain, with all the complex configurations of
junctions and heavy traffic.
Colin and Imogen spent many happy days and
holidays sailing, latterly at Farmoor near Oxford.
They survived married life for 52 years, celebrating
their golden wedding with a lively Jamaican party,
with plenty of music and rum punch.
THE VERY REV. FATHER LEO
CHAMBERLAIN OSB
(formerly George Ford Chamberlain)
(Ampleforth) died on 23 November 2019 aged
79. Having read History at Univ, where his father
Noel had come up in 1913, George returned to
Ampleforth as a novice, taking the name of Leo. He
taught at the school and became its headmaster
from 1993-2003. From 2004-7 he was Master of
St Benet’s Hall, Oxford, and was then appointed
parish priest of St John’s, Easingwold.
George/Leo had a great gift for friendship, and,
rather than providing official tributes, we instead
offer memories generously provided by his
brother Richard and three lifelong Univ friends,
Sir David Edward (1953), Alun Evans (1958), and
Sir David Miers (1957):
Richard Chamberlain: “Much of the
correspondence I received following my brother’s
death recalled his kindness and evidenced his
extensive and deep friendships. Many started at
Univ and he himself is on record as referring to
his time there as a ‘liberating experience of friends
and study’. His achievement as Headmaster of
Ampleforth was pivotal and in the homily his
successor gave at the funeral he referred to ‘a
renewed school brought to heel and enabled to
flourish in the 1990s’”.
Alun Evans: “The undergraduates of 1958 were
divided between those who had come straight
from school and those who had done National
Service. George was in the former category and
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