Obituaries
David Martin Le Vay (1951-60) 15.08.1941 – 08.12.2010
Royal Artillery Officer, and soon saw active service in Korea. While in Korea, he was taken prisoner, but he escaped and rejoined his regiment. He was then seriously wounded, breaking his back and fracturing his skull, and after time in a field hospital and a permanent hospital in Japan, he was repatriated to the UK on a Danish hospital ship, arriving home as a young man in his early twenties, having had a difficult war. He convalesced at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight and eventually recovered sufficiently to play rugby, which was a lifelong passion, at Blackheath and Beckenham rugby clubs. While convalescing, he met Hazel Mockford and they married in February 1960 and produced two children, Jennifer and James. In 1956, Richard joined the British Bank of the Middle East, which was a merchant bank that was part of HSBC. Shortly after his banking career started, oil was found in the Middle East and banking moved to a new, higher level as economic development started apace. In 1968 he had a sabbatical year in Lebanon, where he attended the Middle Eastern Centre for Arabic Studies (MECAS). He was often the most senior bank employee or manager of any company in a country and therefore had an important communications role to play at times, especially as a he spoke fluent Arabic and was a specialist in Middle Eastern countries. His subsequent career saw him work in 15 different Middle Eastern countries, plus Hong Kong and India, where he mixed with a wide variety of people including ambassadors, billionaires, princes and emirs. His expatriate career spanned from living in Dubai in 1960, where there was no electricity and few facilities, to Hong Kong in 1985, where they literally had all mod cons. Richard retired in 1985 and he and Hazel returned to England, first to the New Forest and then to Moreton, near Dorchester, where he took up ‘pottering’. Richard was so good at this that he was once mistaken for an odd job man at his own home by a man who was working there, and who accused him of poaching his clients. His great passions, apart from his family, were his life-long love of rugby and cricket. He was a churchwarden at Moreton and played a role in numerous charities, including CRUSE, the bereavement charity. They moved to live in Coombe Bissett, just outside Salisbury, in 1993. In February 2013 he was diagnosed with cancer, which caused his death on 7 July at Salisbury Hospice with his family at his side. His funeral on 17 July in Coombe Bissett was held in the presence of his family, friends and acquaintances, a large congregation that illustrated the extent of his life and achievements. His son, James, contributed this obituary.
Martin Le Vay was the eldest son of two successful medical consultants and had four brothers who all also came to the College and remained close to him. He came to the College from the Prep and was in Sidney. On leaving Dulwich,
he went straight to Pembroke College, Oxford, with an Exhibition scholarship to read Classics. After graduating, he worked initially in a lawyer’s office in Farnham, Surrey, got married and had two daughters. But the marriage broke up and he eventually settled back in Oxford. Martin’s sharp and analytical mind combined well with a quiet and quizzical sense of humour. He enjoyed company in small groups, playing bridge with casual panache and engaging in a frequent flutter on the horses. Sadly, his life was affected by periods of ill health and he remained in Oxford for the rest of his troubled life, sustained by music, books, family and friends. He wrote poetry with classical clarity and humour, and was generally to be found with a cigarette and a mug of coffee. Despite his health problems, which he faced with fortitude and a wry smile, he was always good company, being kind and considerate to those around him. One of the last major family events in Oxford was the wedding of his solicitor niece at Keble College, where she had studied. Lung cancer finally defeated him but he was not alone, being well cared for in the Churchill Hospital and by his brothers and their families. His reconciliation in later years with his daughter, Rachel, and her daughter gave him much needed comfort. Dirk FitzHugh (53- 59) contributed an obituary to the Pembroke College equivalent of the Yearbook in 2010-11 on which this obituary is based.
Richard Arthur Lough (1947-48) 22.11.1931 – 07.07.2013
Richard Lough was born in West Wickham, the youngest of three children to Arthur and Muriel Lough. He grew up and went to school in West Wickham until his father, who worked for the Admiralty, was posted to Bath. The family moved to Keynsham
and Richard attended Bristol Grammar School. The family returned to London and West Wickham just before Richard left school, and he transferred from Bristol Grammar School to Dulwich College for just one academic year, and was in Grenville. He was vocally gifted and while at school, he sang with the choirs at West Wickham and Keynsham parish churches, and also sang at Bath Abbey. After leaving Dulwich, he was soon called up for National Service. He joined the Army, was commissioned as a
H Geoffrey Lynfield (1934-35) 08.02.1918 – 12.03.2013
H G Lynfield was born Herbert Gustav Lilienfeld in Frankfurt, Germany, during the First World War, and was the son of Sidney, a German doctor and surgeon. He came to Dulwich briefly from Goethe Gymnasium
69
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker