Versa: Issue Eleven

18 19
Announcements
Deryck Perkins
(OA 1945)
1927 – 2022
Written by his daughter
Alison Madge
Deryck lived his early years
in Mill Hill, then in the late
1930s his family moved to a
flat in Hendon and so whilst
neighbouring children were
evacuated, he spent the war
years travelling by train to St Albans School. Despite bombs
on the railway line, he didn’t remember any occasions on
which he was unable to get to school! In his later years he told
many tales of his inspiring teachers and of various pranks
enacted by his school mates. He credited a school trip to
Rothamsted with igniting his interest in a career in science.
On leaving school in 1945, Deryck went to Imperial College,
gaining a degree in chemistry. Over the next 20 years he also
received PhD and Doctor of Science awards. After a brief
stint at the Medical Research Council in Mill Hill, he joined
St George’s Hospital Medical School, where over his career his
work covered both biochemical research and the teaching of
medical students. He married his wife Jean and they lived in
Mill Hill. They had a son and a daughter.
Shortly after retiring, Deryck and Jean decided to move and
settled on a house in St Albans. Deryck enjoyed his various
visits to the School, including to the Carol Service and the
Community Link Christmas parties. He was delighted when
his two grandsons followed in their grandfather’s footsteps
and joined the School. He felt that St Albans School had given
him a good education and he was proud to be an alumnus.
Stephen Muir (OA 1953)
1936 – 2021
Written by his son Graham Muir
(OA 1981)
Stephen (also known as Steve or
Sam) left the School in 1953 and
started his National Service in
the RAF in December that year
(having previously been awarded
a Flying Scholarship by the CCF RAF section), intent on
pursuing his ambition to become a pilot. He left the RAF
at the end of his mandatory two years as a Flying Officer
and fully-fledged pilot.
Stephen joined BOAC in May 1956, having been funded by
his father, Archibald Muir (OA 1919), to obtain his civil pilot
licence, and remained there (and with its successor British
Airways) until he retired in 1991, having become a Captain
in 1971. He flew jumbos (Boeing 747s) from 1975 until his
retirement as the most senior captain in the jumbo fleet.
OBITUARIES
Stephen’s principal hobby was motorsport, participating as a
driver in and (in later years) an organiser of club motorsport
from 1958 until a few years before his death. In particular, he
was a member of Herts County Auto & Aero Club from 1964
until his death, serving in various committee roles from 1970
until 2016 (including as Chairman from 1988 – 1998).
He was always a keen supporter of the School and was
inordinately proud when his son Graham (OA 1981) and then
his grandson Jonathan (OA 2014) also attended, being
respectively the 10th and 11th members of his family to do so.
Chris Wilkinson, OBE, RA
(OA 1963)
1945 – 2021
Written by Rod Argent (OA 1963)
Chris was a lovely person; kind, helpful and, of course, a
wonderfully talented architect. In spite of extraordinary and
groundbreaking worldwide success, he remained exactly the
same quiet, helpful, considerate and generous person in later
life that I first knew as a close friend so many years ago...
He had a passion for art and architecture from an early
age, and after fruitful apprenticeships developing his
talents with Norman Foster and Richard Rogers and
forming his own company with Jim Eyre, he soon took the
world of architecture by storm with his stunning designs.
WilkinsonEyre’s goal was always to fuse the openly technocentric
with beauty of form and structure, and they soon won
the prestigious Stirling Prize two years in succession (Magna
Science Centre, 2001 and the Millennium Bridge, 2002). Chris
Wilkinson and Jim Eyre continued this approach unabated,
right up to Chris’s death, both in the UK and internationally
with enormous and constantly growing success. Goethe
described music as liquid architecture, and architecture as
frozen music. I believe Chris’s sense of design is described
beautifully in this way. As a man passionate about good
music of all kinds, he brought his wonderfully fluent sense
of line and motion, both essential ingredients in the inherent
structure of music, to all his projects.
Chris lived a successful, full and fulfilled life. He was a fine
abstract painter, who was elected to the Royal Academy
in 2006. He enjoyed a close and very happy family life and
is survived by his wife Diana (née Edmunds) and his two
children Zoe, a creative consultant, and Dominic, an architect.
Father Edmund
(Ed) Worthy (OA
1964)
1947 – 2022
Written by Barry
Mackenzie (OA
1965)
Ed Worthy was at St Albans School between September 1958
and July 1964. He lived most of his life in Harpenden and spent
many years as an Accounts Manager for Prudential. In 1997, he
was ordained as a Catholic priest and spent his first few years
after ordination at St Joseph’s in Luton.
He spent his final years of active ministry at Our Lady of the
Sacred Heart in Wellingborough, but he was forced to retire in
2015 through disability following leg disease and amputation.
Ed made numerous friends for life and was especially kind and
supportive to his sister-in-law Ann and her family following the
death of his younger brother Henry a few years ago.
Adrian Tominey
(OA Rugby President
2007 – 2010)
1948 – 2022
Written by Rory Davis, Old
Albanian RFC Chairman
The Old Albanian Rugby Club is
greatly saddened to announce the
passing of Adrian Tominey, who
held the position of Club President
with honour and great ability.
He will be very much missed by all at the OAs who knew him
and by many more of the rugby fraternity nationwide who
met him during his committee years.
He was an Old Boy of Finchley Grammar School. A local
St Albans lad, he was a dentist of some standing within the
community and in recent years with the onset of retirement
he and wife Lynette set up a happy home in Yorkshire at
OA LODGE
Charity begins at the Lodge
John Williams, Assistant Secretary
At the beginning of the year, the Masonic Charitable
Foundation (MCF) launched a fundraising appeal
on behalf of Freemasonry to tackle the growing
humanitarian and refugee situation in Ukraine. The MCF
reacted within days of the invasion with a grant of £50,000 to
the British Red Cross. The MCF and the United Grand Lodge
of England (UGLE) then launched an appeal which now
stands at more than £1.1 million.
The MCF can help with a range of financial, family, health
and care needs. Since its foundation six years ago, the MCF
has awarded grants on behalf of Freemasonry amounting to
more than £110 million, comprising more than 18,000 grants
to individuals in need and more than 3,700 grants to charities.
This is only possible thanks to the generosity of Freemasons,
their families and friends.
A ‘meridian’ Lodge meeting was held on Saturday 10
September. The meeting commenced with the brethren
which many of his erstwhile colleagues and comrades were
made more than welcome when opportunity arose.
He will be remembered for a fine intelligence, a stunning
command of the language, a fierce loyalty to those close to
him and a sense of humour which had to be experienced
to be appreciated. He was known to light up the darkest
of occasions with hilarity bordering on the Pythonesque,
including impossible non sequiturs and an all-pervading grasp
of the ludicrous. When his thoughts seemed to be heading in a
particular direction, they might suddenly lurch off at a tangent
which only served to increase the comedy for all concerned.
He is survived by Lynette, and their daughter Eve and son
Joel, to whom our sad best wishes are offered.
Aamer Nawid
(OA 1995)
1977 – 2022
Written by James Mote
(OA 1995)
It is with great sadness that
we announce the tragic
passing of Aamer Nawid,
who attended the School
from 1988 to 1995. Aamer
was much loved, with
friendships spanning across many year groups. He was a keen
sportsman who represented the school at both football and
rugby. His sudden passing on 6 May was a shock to all and he
will be sorely missed. Our thoughts are with his family and all
who knew him. RIP.
standing in silence in memory of
the late Queen. Since the previous
Lodge meeting, one of the Lodge’s
honorary members had died at the
age of 88. Bro Eric Preece had been
the Lodge caterer and chef. After
a short eulogy by W Bro Dickie
Davison, the brethren stood for a
short time in fond memory of Eric.
DICK KNIFTON – DEPUTY
PROVINCIAL GRAND MASTER
AND OA LODGE CHARITY
STEWARD
The Master of the Lodge, W Bro John Sanderson, then passed
Bro Joshua Varghese to the Second Degree, Bro Joshua having
been initiated into the Lodge on Saturday 8 January 2022.
There followed the presentation of a Grand Lodge Certificate
to Bro Adam Blackie by the Lodge Secretary, and reports
from both the Almoner and the Charity Steward. The next
Lodge meeting will be held at Ashwell House on Saturday 14
January 2023.