The Salopian no. 160 - Summer 2017

OLD SALOPIAN NEWS 93
Mike Harding
(DB 1962-67)
Tributes to Mike Harding, former
Honorary Secretary of the Old
Salopian Eton Fives Club from
1979 to 1998, have been pouring
in since his untimely death this
year at the age of 68.
Under his leadership the Club flourished: he enthused fellow
players of all standards with the best ethos of the game and
a tremendous sense of fun. For many, Mike characterised
the very best of alumni sport and the OSEFC fixture card
always had enough Fives for people of all abilities. He was
meticulous in chasing members in their wilderness years (ages
18-25), and always made everyone welcome (usually with a
pint of beer).
In the Eton Fives world, Mike set an example that every Club
Secretary should aspire to and it is difficult to think of any
other club that has been run with the efficiency, willingness
to be accommodating and the sheer joy of the game that
Mike brought to the role. His keenness to support the game
in general, and OS Fives in particular, was unmatched.
Mike will always be remembered for making Fives, first and
foremost, a convivial occasion and ensuring that there was
plenty of socialising afterwards among team members and the
opposition.
Further accolades recall the high esteem in which Mike was
held: “a delightful man”, “a lovely gentleman”, “one of life’s
stars”, “a colossus”, “one whose outlook on life and sport was
so much admired”. Mike was everyone’s friend and his smiling
and cheerful presence always brought a sense of warmth and
happiness to any gathering. It was wonderful to see a wreath
in the shape of a Fives ball at Mike’s funeral; that cannot have
happened often before.
Richard Barber, President of the OSEFC, said, “Mike had no
great pretentions as a Fives player: but he loved the game,
he was a merry soul, a happy encourager of everything to
do with Shrewsbury Fives, especially the young; and as our
Secretary, he was efficient, courteous, firm, hard-working,
omnipresent, always visible, splendid company both on the
court and off it, and a good friend to all. And he is still spoken
of with respect and affection throughout the world of fives as
representing the model of how that supremely important role
of Club Secretary should be carried out.”
Mike was proud to have been born a Shropshire lad and to
have gone to Shrewsbury School. He was probably ahead of
his time in taking a gap year between school and university,
touring through Morocco followed by six months in Canada.
He greatly enjoyed his time at St Andrew’s University,
where he studied biochemistry, although he later became
an accountant. He was articled to Whittingham Riddell in
Shrewsbury and while working for them, auditing at Morgan
Edwards, he met Mel who was working there as Secretary
to the Managing Director. They married in 1980, moved to
London, and were blessed with the birth of Clair in 1982.
Together they forged a strong family life.
Mike worked for Hinds the jewellers in Uxbridge from 1981
until his retirement in 2012, becoming Financial Director.
Needless to say being the friendly person that he was, he
maintained a close liaison with former colleagues, who always
invited him to join them on social occasions. The family
moved from London to Holmer Green in Buckinghamshire
while Mike was working for Hinds. Seven years ago, they
moved back to Shropshire.
Mike was interested in other sports beyond Fives and he
found time to follow football, rugby and rowing. He also had
a love of animals and supported rescue centres.
In recent years, Mike had not enjoyed good health, suffering
from arthritis and heart problems. But he always remained
cheerful and positive, thinking of others before himself. He
will be remembered as a man who lived a full life, taking and
giving in equal measure.
Dr Francesca
Humphreys (1963-2016)
Francesca Humphreys (née
Darvell) was a Shropshire girl.
Her life had an old-fashioned
symmetry. Born in Shropshire,
died in Shropshire. Schooled
in Shrewsbury, Shrewsbury
GP, Shrewsbury School doctor,
governor of the High School
and Packwood, doyenne of
Ridgemount. Married at St
Edith’s, Church Pulverbatch, her funeral in the same church.
In Shrewsbury School Chapel she learned to pay the organ in
her teens and baptised her children in her thirties. Recently,
hundreds remembered her there, too.
Francesca had many circles of friends, from the High School,
Cambridge, medicine and Ridgemount. She loved people and
was an awesome communicator. Her emails to friends in her
final months were brutally frank but never self-pitying. She
was an optimist and a rationalist and although these two sat
uncomfortably together towards the end - as she described
her illness, her wonderful carers and the grimness of her
treatment - she never lost her sense of humour or proportion.
She never hid anything from her children and this surely
explains their courage and fortitude during her final illness.
Francesca was born in Shrewsbury on 20th June 1963. She
was to be the eldest of four daughters of John and Lucy
Darvell. John a respected Shrewsbury dentist on Town Walls,
Lucy a mid-wife at the RSH. This was an awesome tribe,
sometimes referred to in hushed tones as The Sisterhood.
Educated at The Convent and Shrewsbury High, in 1981
Francesca won a place to read Medicine at Queens’ College,
Cambridge. At Cambridge she discovered two life-long loves,
partying and rowing. She threw amazing parties (not least at
Ridgemount) all her life and loved to dance. She was Ladies’
Captain of Boats at Queens’ and trialled for the Lightweights.
Henley was an annual pilgrimage and, always a planner,
she insisted on Henley regalia for her Thanksgiving. Despite
her first diagnosis and major surgery shortly before the 2007
regatta, she was determined to support the Shrewsbury VIII
that year. She was ecstatic at Shrewsbury’s one-foot victory in
the final of the PE and promptly commissioned John Alford
to commemorate the victory in oil. Francesca lives on in the
crowd scene of that work, which hangs now in the Arnold
Ellis Room in Ridgemount.
She had been a very diligent student at school, but these
Cambridge distractions took their toll and she failed
pharmacology once too often, thereby losing her place
at Guy’s.
She always claimed to have spotted a (future) third love
at Cambridge – her husband-to-be – at a drinks party at
Downing. He has no recollection of the encounter. They
met again in London when she was re-taking pharmacology
and he was studying (sic) for the Bar. An early career goal
was paediatric cardiology and she managed to talk her way
into the Royal Brompton Hospital as a researcher. Several
academic papers followed and carry her name. Francesca
married Martin in 1989, by which time he had eschewed the
Middle Temple for the City and she had qualified from King’s
College Hospital. It says a lot about Francesca that, having
married an investment banker, she kept smiling when he
became a schoolmaster.
A spell at Eton led to a job at Shrewsbury and Francesca
followed Martin home. She was not best pleased, but she got
stuck in as she always did and was soon a partner at Mytton