The Salopian no. 160 - Summer 2017

98
OLD SALOPIAN NEWS
Owairaka Athletics Club, the New Lynn Cricket Club, and
became a registered Auckland Soccer Referee. He stopped
playing cricket at the age of 40 but did make a come-back to
play in the Golden Oldies Cricket Festival in 1984.
For 18 years he worked on the scoreboard at Eden Park,
Auckland for major cricket events. When Dick finished playing
cricket, he joined the Blockhouse Bay Tennis Club, served on
the committee, played inter-club tennis, helped organise junior
tennis and worked for some time in the office taking bookings
and doing other organisational jobs. After his retirement from
Alcatel, he joined the Titirangi Golf Club and played three
times a week.
After a cardiac arrest in 2010, his health slowly deteriorated.
Even though he had to stop playing sport, he never lost
interest. He watched it on TV, read about it and had long
discussions with his sports journalist brother, Bob.
Dick was always optimistic. For six years he surprised his
doctors with his mental determination to survive. He lost his
final battle on 24th December 2016.
One final story, related by a cricket mate at his funeral. Dick
was fielding at extra cover and the batsman straight drove a
ball. It’s a long way to the straight boundary from extra cover.
Dick steamed after it but was just unable to cut it off. The very
next ball was just as bad, and the
batsman played exactly the same shot.
Again Dick set off after it, straining
every muscle in a terrific effort but
again was not quite able to prevent
the boundary. The bowler, Denis Pain,
an Auckland lawyer with a great sense
of humour, called out to him, “Try
and stop those ones would you Dick”.
That story typifies Dick. He gave all he
had and never gave in.
Timothy Richards (M 1955-59)
Timothy Richards was born in Birkdale on 11th July 1941.
He first went to Sunnymeade School before his family
moved to Gawsworth, Cheshire in 1948. He entered
Moser’s Hall in 1955 and was placed in the Third Form.
His academic progress was slow but he excelled at rowing
and was a member of the very successful third VIII that
won the Pangboume Regatta, before he left early without
fulfilling his true potential. Private education followed and
Tim blossomed, being offered a place at Trinity College
Dublin and then remarkably was invited by John Kelly, the
Principal of St Edmund Hall, Oxford, to show his mettle.
Tim rose superbly to the Oxford challenge, rowing in the
Torpid Head of the River Crew, receiving his trial VIII
medal and finally narrowly losing in the final of the Ladies
Challenge Plate at Henley with fellow Salopian M.F. Rooker
rowing at 3 in the same crew.
He was Captain of Boats at St Edmund Hall, which was
the University’s pre-eminent rowing college. Finally he
graduated with a Pass Degree having had wonderful days at
Oxford where he was widely recognised driving his silver
Lagonda drop head, always with a pink Leander scarf.
After Oxford he worked for his uncle in the cosmetic world
before leaving to join Odhams Press on the magazine side.
These were happy days and his flat in Eunismore Gardens
was the centre of fun and jollity.
Moving back to his family home, Gawsworth Hall in
Cheshire, he met and married Elizabeth Lumsden and had
two sons, Rupert and Jonathan. After the death of his father,
the polymath Raymond Richards, he and Liz took over the
running of the Hall and its famous Open Air Theatre which
they developed into a much respected institution.
Tim was Past Provincial Grand Master for the Masonic
Province of Cheshire and devoted much time to Masonic
affairs. He was made an Honorary Member of the
Salopian Lodge the week before he died.
Finally he succumbed to cancer, which he fought with
immense bravery and fortitude. He died peacefully at
Gawsworth Hall on 28th November 2016, the home he
had cherished.
Charles Rodier (I 1957-61)
Charles Rodier was born on 20th January 1944. He was the
son of Harold Paillet (I 1925-29), nephew of Mark Fleming
(I 1930-35, killed in action at St Nazaire in 1942) and older
brother of Patrick (SH 1964-68).
Having studied languages at Shrewsbury School, he joined
the French Navy as a short-term posting through school
connections, to teach English to the officers in the naval base
on Porquerolles, and also studied German in the Goethe
Institute in Rothenburg.
Charles subsequently joined EMI in 1964 as a member of the
Secretariat of the International Classical Repertoire Committee.
After leaving to acquire legal qualifications, he rejoined the
company in 1974 as Head of Legal and Business Affairs,
overseeing the contractual arrangements of EMI’s prestigious
roster of classical artists. He safely negotiated the changing
contractual arrangements brought about by the arrival of CD
in 1983 and the acquisition of Virgin Classics in 1992.
Since, in his private life, Charles Rodier was a model of
courtesy and discretion, a born listener who was also a man
of discrimination and unfailing good taste, there can be no
surprise that he enjoyed the trust and, on occasion, the deep
affection of the artists with whom he dealt. Carlos Kleiber, the
conductor, wrote, “You are the nicest, kindest person in the
Music Business. No. That’s wrong. You are the nicest, kindest
person full-stop.”
After leaving EMI, he became an advisor to Testament
Records, where he helped facilitate the publication of many
great past performances.
Charles died on 3rd June 2016 and leaves a widow, Helen,
whom he married in 2015.
John Ross (SH 1934-39)
John Ross was a consultant physician in Hereford. He grew
up in Hampstead, London, the son of Robert Ross and
Gladys Ross (née Hirschland), who were non-practising
Jews of German origin and who had their children baptised
as Anglicans. His father, who had established an import
business, had changed the family name from Rosenheim
when he enlisted in the British Army in 1915. John was
educated at Shrewsbury School and had intended to
read medicine, but switched to zoology after winning
an exhibition in that subject to Corpus Christi College,
Cambridge in 1939.
After enlisting in the Army in 1940, he served as an artillery
officer and then as a staff captain in the Middle East.
Finding the latter post tedious, he volunteered for the
Special Operations Executive in 1944. His activities as an
agent with the Italian resistance in the Dolomites have been