Alleyn Club Newsletter 2014

Obituaries

he returned to studying at the University of Rhodesia and Nyasaland for four years. He graduated with a University of London honours degree in English and a diploma in Education, and immediately took up a teaching post in English at Ellis Robins High School for Boys (‘Esse Quam Videri’) in Mabelreign, Salisbury. A daughter, Sally, and then a son, William, arrived for Stuart and Jill in 1966 and 1967. Stuart was a popular teacher at Ellis Robins, his career at the school culminating in his final position as Head of English in 1981. He dedicated much of his spare time to acting and singing and was chairman of both the Salisbury Phoenix Choir and the Reps Theatre in Salisbury for some years, but his marriage to Jill ended during this time. Having been on active service with the Rhodesian Army Reserve Force for many years, Stuart joined the Rhodesia Army full-time (as a Major) and then moved on to the Zimbabwe Army (as a Lt Colonel), where he managed the final transition from the old army to the new one in the Education Corps. He left Zimbabwe in 1983 and moved to South Africa to resume his teaching career in the private sector. Stuart moved back to England in 1985 and worked for a short while in the property sector, before returning to teaching again with a contract job teaching English as a foreign language in Moscow. On one of his return visits to the UK he met Judy, whom he married in Sydney, Australia, in 1997. He welcomed a return to the sunnier climes of the southern hemisphere and the social life that came with it, as he lived in Sydney itself, then Coffs Harbour and latterly at Nambucca Heads. He passed away peacefully in Sydney at the age of 75 following a battle with cancer. Stuart’s family and friends will fondly remember him for his irrepressible sense of humour, his repertoire of English literature, poetry and jokes, and for his love of classical jazz. He is survived by his elder brother and younger sister, first wife, their son and daughter, five grandchildren and one great grandchild. His son, Will, contributed significantly to this obituary.

the administrative director until 1981, bringing a long line of international musicians to the school, including Igor Stravinsky, Sir Michael Tippett and the Amadeus Quartet. His own singing career was short-lived. After travelling 1,000 miles by train to an audition at an opera house in Graz, Austria, the opera house’s director said to him, ‘Do I understand that you have done music criticism? Then why don’t you stick to it? Goodbye.’ Throughout his long career, John dabbled in broadcasting, starting in 1950 on the BBC’s Sunday morning Music Magazine programme on Radio 3 discussing Stravinsky’s Orpheus. He made his television debut in 1961 presenting a piece on Monitor about the cellist and composer Paul Tortelier. With his relaxed style, detailed subject knowledge and clear passion for music, he was a natural on both radio and television. The Radio 4 panel show My Music was first broadcast in 1967, but when his friend and original panel member David Franklin decided to leave the programme in 1974, John was the obvious choice to replace him and he remained with My Music for 20 years, with some of the later episodes being broadcast on television on BBC Two. In June 2012, he celebrated his 90th birthday by giving a two hour talk at the Aldeburgh Festival on his experiences at the Festival over 60 years. There then followed a programme on Radio 3 called An Evening with John Amis, which included clips of some of the interviews he had done with many of the greatest musicians of our time. (By this time he had conducted 500 such interviews.) He married violinist Olive Zorian in 1948 but they divorced in 1955 with no children and he is survived by his partner for the last six years of his life, Isla Baring. Obituaries appeared in most national newspapers as well as The Scotsman and Classical Source website. This obituary is based on those published obituaries and on Wikipedia’s page about him.

Edward Stuart Barribal (1949-56) 14.09.1937 – 20.12.2012

Stuart Barribal was born in Great Malvern, Worcestershire, but his family soon moved to Essex and he came to Dulwich on a scholarship from Chalkwell Hall School, Westcliff-on-Sea, and was in Spenser. After a difficult first few months settling

Professor John Jack Beeston GM (1927-35) 07.03.1916 – 13.07.2013

John Beeston was one of twin boys born in Peterborough in 1916 to Joseph and Mabel Beeston, who also had two other sons. The family soon moved to London and John came to Dulwich from Torridon Road Primary School in Catford and

into life as a boarder in The Orchard, he truly enjoyed his time at the College, especially when he moved on to Blew boarding House. He left Dulwich with University Entrance qualifications and a great love for English literature and music, and emigrated to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to take up a position as Assistant Registrar to the Water and Town Planning Court in Southern Rhodesia. He enjoyed life in central Africa, met his first wife, Jill, there and they married in 1961, after which

was in Marlowe. After his mother died when he was aged 15, John and his brothers were looked after by his maternal aunt, Dorothy ‘Dolly’ Downie, who eventually married their father, Joseph, in 1946. John was a prefect before leaving the College in 1935 and

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