The Salopian no. 157 - Winter 2015

80
OLD SALOPIAN NEWS
a solicitor in 1954, he spent the next thirty years as a
conveyancing solicitor for the General Post Office and,
after the split, British Telecom, commuting from Hampstead
Garden Suburb (he could do a first-class impression of a
Northern Line train) and later Colchester. He was respected
as a hard-working and competent colleague.
John Levetus spent his working life as a solicitor in
London before retiring to Oxford. He never married but
had strong ties with family and friends who remember
him with much affection for his courtesy, quiet humour
and remarkable memory.
the company of his brother’s family nearby. He became a
stalwart of the North Oxford Association community centre,
serving on the management committee for more than
twenty years and cheering up dull meetings with apt quotes
from the masters of comic verse, and staffing the reception
desk with characteristic patience and courtesy.
In December 2014, John was admitted to hospital with
problems walking, associated with sarcoma. He moved into
a nursing home but became ill a few weeks later and died
on 9th February 2015.
Retirement at the age of 60 brought John a new lease of life.
He moved to Oxford to enjoy the cultural life of the city and
Henry Oxenham (Ch 1943-47)
A family tribute read at his funeral by his son, Hugh.
My father was born on 13th April 1929 in Northfield, then
a Worcestershire village not yet engulfed by Birmingham.
Both his parents came from Wales, his mother Gwyneth
from the Vale of Clwyd and his father Bert from Aberdare.
His father worked for a firm of Chartered Accountants in
Birmingham. His sister Jane was born two years after him.
At the outset of war he and his sister were evacuated to
north Wales to live with their grandparents to escape the
bombing of Birmingham. With the war still on and reaching
the age of 13, his parents did not want him to return to
Birmingham so he was sent as a boarder to Shrewsbury
School. He enjoyed his time at Shrewsbury for he was a
keen and talented sportsman, playing soccer, cricket and
athletics. He was good enough at soccer to be selected for
Public Schools soccer matches in London.
After school he was called up for National Service in 1948
and commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal
Artillery. He had the good fortune to spend some of the
time stationed in Gibraltar; it was an experience that made
a big impression on him and in later life he would mention
his time there, including hitch-hiking trips through Spain
with friends.
interest with my mother, was their involvement in the
Birmingham Ramblers Association. Almost every week of
the year, for many years, whatever the weather, they would
travel with 50 or so other people by coach to a ramble and
walk ten or twelve miles. He was the treasurer of the group
for many years and led many walks, often recruiting me to
help him carry out the reconnaissance of a new route.
When his wife’s health declined and she had to have full
time nursing care, she went to Horfield Lodge (nursing
home) in Bristol so as to be near my sister Helen. My father
sold the family home and moved to a flat in Bristol. He
had been diagnosed with cancer but he then had a few
good years in Bristol while the cancer was in remission. He
became a volunteer helper at Horfield Lodge and engaged
in various groups and activities with the University of the
Third Age. He continued to pursue his great interest in
history.
When he became more unwell, he too moved into Horfield
Lodge and finally into St Peter’s Hospice. My sisters and I
would like to thank the staff at both places for the great
kindness and care they gave to Henry in his final months.
We believe he could not have been anywhere better.
He had an offer of a place at Clare College, Cambridge
and after National Service he went there to read Economics
in 1949. After University he became an articled clerk in
Birmingham, training to be a Chartered Accountant. He
worked at various clients on audits – I remember him
mentioning the big BSA factory in Small Heath and the
British Rail works in Derby, then making the last the steam
engines.
In 1956 he married my mother Joan and they settled in a
house in Selly Oak, Birmingham. They had three children
in the next few years – first my sister Susan, then me
(Hugh) then my sister Helen. With a family he needed a
less itinerant job, so in 1963 he took a job with a small
manufacturing and civil engineering company at Tipton in
the Black Country. He worked from then on for the same
firm until he retired, not unusual in those days.
In retirement Henry became involved in the Housing
Association movement. Another activity he loved, a shared