Anthony Duncan Rutt (School 1949–50) died on 28 November 2021, aged 86. After leaving the College Anthony worked for the Grosvenor Chater paper business. Both his father, Duncan Harold Rutt (School 1920–24) and his uncle, Alfred Hugh Rutt (School 1917–20), attended the College. Richard Frederick George Shaw (Gonville 1939–41) died on 14 Feb- ruary 2009, aged 84. We have only recently become aware of his death. After College, he had a career as an agricultural contractor and drainage consultant. Adrian Michael Harwood Smart (Gonville 1949–54) died on 12 January 2024, aged 88. Adrian wrote his own obituary: At the College he was a school prefect and senior under officer in the CCF. He was the winner of the Andrew Downes Public Speaking Prize and the Chater French Prize. He was in the 1st IV that won the Public Schools Fours (setting a new course record) at Marlow Regatta in 1954 and won his cross-country running strings. [A report on the Marlow Regatta is on page 111.] After leaving the College he undertook his national service, being commissioned into the Royal Artillery and serving with 26 Field Regiment. Following national service he joined Slaughter and May, the leading firm of City solicitors, as an articled clerk, qualifying in 1961 and becoming a partner in 1969. He remained with the firm until his retire - ment in 1993 working with, amongst others, Tim Freshwater (School 1958–63) and Michael Carpenter (School 1956–61). He specialised in advising banks financing large-scale natural resource projects. He travelled extensively and in 1974 set up Slaughter and May’s office in Hong Kong. After retirement he became a trustee of the Royal Alexandra & Albert School, a voluntary aided school in Reigate, Surrey, with a reputation for giving disadvantaged children a fresh start in life. Shortly after his arrival the school was placed in special measures and he was elected chairman of the trustees with a brief to put matters right. Six years later the school was adjudged the most improved school in Surrey. Adrian is survived by his widow Sara, children Anthony and Amanda, and grandchildren. Tim Freshwater writes: Adrian was one of the most respected partners of his era at Slaugh- ter and May. He was a pioneer in the evolution of the firm’s financing practice, heading the team acting for Morgan Guaranty for some years and acting on a number of the largest funding projects for the develop- ment of the North Sea oil fields. He took up a new challenge as the founding partner in the firm’s office in Hong Kong, which was the first local office of a London-based firm and which celebrated its 50th anniversary this year.
his rugby skills as: ‘A grand tackler who gets through a tremendous amount of work. He is fast and has a good eye for an opening. His handling and passing are much improved but still remain his weakest points. He led his team well and had much to do with their success.’ Michael was also fives captain in 1943 and captain of squash in 1944. In 2006, Michael contributed to the archives his memories of his time at the
College and Radley. He recalled that a group of boys were walking down to the Chapel in Eastbourne during the wartime blackout when one of them ‘suddenly disappeared. We went back and found him climbing out of the gutter. He had walked into a lamp post he had not seen. He was alright but shaken’.
Alan Marshall Roberts (Gonville 1946–51) died on 12 August 2024, aged 90. While serving in the 3rd battalion Nigerian Regiment in West Africa, Alan contracted tubercular meningitis which led to an almost complete loss of hearing. His friend for many years, Ian Archer, told us: Alan quickly decided not to rely on sign language but to learn lip reading instead. He became extremely profi - cient at this, especially with the help of his sister Janine and his lovely wife
Anne. His voice was very clear, and he would always insist on making speeches at special occasions. He was present at the diamond wedding of my parents, but they failed to ask him to speak. However, he col- lared the person filming the event and secretly added his speech to the film at the end. Alan was musical before he was deaf and after this disaster he would dance with girls and by watching the beat, danced very well, they thinking he could hear. This he did as he got older, too. He also remembered some songs of his youth. [An example of Alan’s musical ability was that he played the silver bugle in the College CCF band.] Alan never forgot his disability and those of others, wearing a badge labelled ‘DEAF’ but he never was one to moan about it. Indeed he, assisted by Anne, did so much for the deaf. He worked tirelessly for more use of subtitles, and he was given a special seat in the front row of his local theatre with a script so he could keep pace with the plot. He chaired the local deaf charity, Bromley Chain, which was instru- mental in setting up Deaf Access, where he was a trustee for many years. He also hired steamboats on the River Thames and through tel- evision invited any deaf people who wanted to come to meet others on these boats, his voyages leaving from Westminster Pier. On one of these occasions, at his request, my wife and I joined them to help organise the event. I was amazed how so many of those who could lip read were able to communicate so easily with each other despite the noise of the engines. Then, with the help of his MP, he also welcomed deaf people to the House of Commons. For all this wonderful work he was awarded the British Empire Medal. Alan had a challenging job as a printer and was very artistic making some lovely pictures in marquetry, some of which we saw in his house shortly before his death. Like his mother, Alan was a superb gardener competing and winning at local flower shows. Alan was one of the bravest and happiest people I have ever known. He was an example to all of us, especially when we have setbacks in so many of our lives. The world is clearly a sadder place without the irrepressible Alan Roberts to inspire us and cheer us all up. David Blake adds: In recent years Alan came to a number of College reunions and annual dinners, often making new friends with other guests, and always being entertaining and up-beat in his outlook. He is pictured here at the London dinner at the Waldorf Hilton in 2019.
Harold Edward Snoad (Reeves 1949–51) died on 2 June 2024, aged 88. Harold was a producer, director and writer of some of the most well-known comedy series of the 1970s to the 1990s on British tel- evision and was nominated for several BAFTA awards. As well as performing in drama pro- ductions at the College, Harold also worked backstage at the Devonshire Park
Theatre during the holidays. On leaving school, he trained at Florence Moore Theatre Studios in Brighton. After two years of national service with the RAF, during which time he staged productions, he moved to its Brighton recruiting centre, after which he joined the BBC as a floor assistant in 1957. Some 12 years later, by then a producer and director, he directed his first episode of the TV comedy series Dad’s Army (written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft). The programme was set during the Second World War and featured the members of a Home Guard unit. At the time, he was one of the youngest directors working in television. Later, together with actor and writer Michael Knowles, he wrote the scripts for a radio-based version of Dad’s Army which ran from 1974 to 1976.
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