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Obituaries 2002
Alistair George Hamlyn
See Newsletter 2003 for further obituary
It was with very great sadness that I heard the news of George Hamlyn's death There is no time to get enough information together for a conventional obituary as this Newsletter is almost ready for the printer, nonetheless I have so many memories of George, I will try to record some of them now, though as George was such an 'all-round' Clayesmorian, there will be many who are likely to feel that this is most inadequate.
When I returned to Clayesmore as a teacher, I believe only two of the boys had been students when I was a pupil. George was one of them: when I left, George had finished his first year. I returned to find him Head-boy! He was the obvious choice as he excelled in so many ways: one of our best academic students, one of our most accomplished sportsmen (I believe he was captain of most of the sporting teams), an enthusiastic chorister, a gifted actor, he was taught the oboe by none other than Sir Harrison Birtwhistle, and a thoroughly decent chap! He was an enthusiastic lover of life, and all the good (and even some of the bad) things on the Clayesmore menu of the day!
I well remember discussing some matter of state with the Headmaster (DPB) and George close to the notice board in the main hall. To everyone's horror, as George pulled his handkerchief out of his pocket, an 'Embassy' token floated down on to DPB's toe-cap. As quick as a flash George lent down to the floor, picked up the token and presented it to DPB - "Oh Sir, you seem to have lost one of your cigarette tokens." As quick as another flash, DPB accepted the token without even a smile, knowing very well that the token was not for his brand!
It was George's mother who put me in an awkward position. She wrote to say that she did not think George, whose oboe lesson always seemed to start the day, was getting his 'full-time'. HB, even though he had recently taken over JDS's first car - the black Ford 'Prefect' (JEL), often found it difficult to get over to Iwerne from Cranborne Chase by 9.00am. I well remember taking HB to one side during 'break' to tell him "Harry. This really won't do". Those were the days!
There was also the time when a 'mini' rally was organised in the lanes of the Iwerne Valley and over the hill. It was late one Saturday evening and some of us were on our way to the 'King John' in Farnham when several 'minis' started to buzz past us. I think it might have been George who suggested that we found a narrow stretch of lane with 'v' shaped embankments on either side and that we should jump out of the car and pretend to change a wheel! This we did two or three times. Each time we generated amazing good will by pretending to be as quick as we could be as the 'rally minis' nervously twitched and revved excitedly behind us. The best moment was when we were returning: we stopped at the Blandford / Shaftesbury road at the top of Fontmell Hill in my grey mini. One of the rally stewards thrust a progress report through the window and wished us good luck!. We joined in the spirit of things and roared off down the hill utterly delighted with our prank!
George enjoyed Capt. G P Aldworth even more than most of us. I will always remember his story of the skipping ropes. GPA was a keen boxer and whenever there was an excuse to get the PT class into a boxing bout, he took it. The boxing ring had to be put together and there were a number of crucial bolts that attached the contraption to the gym floor. The gym floor was made of knotty pine and over the years a number of the 'knots' had dried out and fallen through into the cavern below leaving a number of holes. One reluctant boxer (Mick Taylor) thought he might delay the frightful pastime by dropping one of the essential bolts through the floor while the class was assembling the ring. GPA was not to be out manoeuvred: he removed one of the many skipping ropes from the wall bars and dropped it through the hole in the floor through which the bolt had disappeared. From his nearby CCF office, he collected his powerful army flash light and crawled under the gym to recover the 'essential' bolt. By the time he was under the gym, George and his chums had removed all the remaining skipping ropes from the wall-bars and had dangled them down the other holes in the floor. Quarter of an hour later, an irate GPA returned to his class, looking like a chimney sweep with cobwebs, but with no bolt. There was no boxing for the class but for Mick Taylor - "On with the gloves" and GPA proceeded to knock six bells out of him! Another of the GPA quotes which brought tears to George's eyes was his weight losing tip - "I don't eat bread - only toast". Happy times indeed! George enjoyed (and talking about) life so much that there are dozens of similar stories.
During his last term at Clayesmore, there was a staffing problem in the Physics department. This, and the thought of Clayesmore without George enabled a number of us to persuade the Headmaster (Roy McIsaac by now, I think) to offer George a job as a junior teacher at school during his 'Gap Year' (a euphemism for having another shot at his 'A' levels to enable him to get into the Scottish University of his choice - Edinburgh). This was a wonderful year for all and George's many talents were put to full use. I seem to remember it was during this year that we persuaded George to be the OC Society Games Secretary - he and, a few years later, Mike Langlois were the two most outstanding OC games secretaries the society has had for many years. He was also an enthusiastic Cormorant, in fact at one stage in Cormorant history, it was probably only thanks to George that they kept their heads above water. He was a good cricketer, and he and David Watkins were such genuinely good friends - one can't help smiling at the memories of some of George's 'Latin' stories and of course the story of Watto being catapulted into the air when he said "heave" while they were all erecting the cricket nets near the ha-ha. For many year he returned to Iwerne each summer.
George graduated with an Honours degree in Physics from Edinburgh University.
After university - another way of life that appealed to him immensely - now the
very proud owner of a Ford Anglia (with the reverse sloping back window), - he
joined the Patent Office in 1970 as a patent examiner - a career which spanned
the rest of his life. From then onward our paths went different ways and we lost
touch.
Whether at Clayesmore, University, or at the Patent office, George lived life to
the full in a most hectic fashion, but he always found time to help and support
his mother who had done so much for him in his early life, and his elder brother
Ian, very slightly handicapped, whom he supported through out his life.
I am sure all his OC friends (most of whom would have done a much better job
than me in writing this memoir had there been time to persuade them to do so!)
offer his former wives Pam and Jane, his partner Kathy, and his three children,
Tim (25), Elenour (22), and Jamie (13) our sympathy in their great loss.
Nicholas Zelle
See Newsletter 2003 for further obituary