Alleyn Club Newsletter 2014

Obituaries

Graham Erskine Venn (1964-72) 22.03.1954 – 29.09.2013 Graham Venn came to Dulwich from St Pauls Cray Primary School in Bromley and was in Spenser. While at the College, he was on the Science side and was a school prefect. After

At the end of the war he met Liz, a Wren, on a troopship returning from Mombasa, Kenya, and they married shortly afterwards, on 7 September 1946 at St Mary Abbotts in West Kensington. Owen continued his Naval career, which included service on HMS Ark Royal IV and later at RNAS Yeovilton as Secretary to the Flag Officer Flying Training. While at Yeovilton, a routine helicopter flight with the Admiral to perform the annual inspection of Stowe School CCF became unexpectedly dramatic when the engine failed. The close proximity of a nearby field beside the A303 ensured a safe ‘crash’ landing, after which they continued their journey using a fixed wing aircraft and completed the inspection, albeit somewhat late. His final overseas posting was to Norway in 1960, to the NATO Headquarters in Oslo (CINCNORTH) as Secretary to the Commander in Chief (1961 to 1963). During this time he was part of the NATO task force that was shadowing the Russian Navy in the lead up to the Cuban missile crisis. He retired from the Royal Navy in 1966 and embarked upon a second career, working in London in the Overseas Relations section of the Electricity Supply Industry for 20 years. Here he was responsible for liaison and organising meetings and conferences for various electricity supply companies around the world. He was a keen rifle and pistol shot, represented the Royal Navy at shooting, and was a regular at Bisley meets. In one of his last competitions, he helped the OAs win the Founder’s Day Match, outscoring his son, Michael (67-72), who was captain of the College VIII. After his second retirement in 1986, he enjoyed gardening, photography, listening to music and continued to travel widely with Liz for many years. They celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary in September 2006 but sadly Liz died three weeks later. He is survived by his son, Michael, and daughter, Susan. Owen wrote his own obituary, which was updated by Michael. the family lived locally in SE21. David came to the College from Oakfield Prep School in Dulwich and was in Marlowe. After leaving the College, he did two years of National Service, one of which was in Malaya. At the end of National Service, he joined Prudential Assurance in London, but had enjoyed life in the tropics so much during his time in Malaya that, after two years in London, he managed to be posted as Deputy Manager to Prudential in Singapore. While in Singapore, he met Virginia Elizabeth Beatrix Moffat, known as Lisbie, and they married in 1964. In 1969, David and Lisbie moved with their two young children, David Way (1944-48) 25.02.1931 – 25.09.2013 David Way was the son of George Frederick Way, a depot manager at the Ministry of Food, and

leaving Dulwich, he went to the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, part of the University of London, graduating as a doctor (MB BS) in 1977. Graham initially became a house surgeon at Middlesex Hospital before a succession of registrar posts at different hospitals in Middlesex while acquiring the FRCS qualification and training in cardiothoracic surgery. He obtained further post-graduate experience in specialised mitral valve repair under the tuition of Professor Alain Carpentier at the Hopital Broussais in Paris. He was appointed as Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeon at Guy’s and St Thomas’s Hospital, London, in 1989, where he was Director of Cardiothoracic Services from 1993 to 1996. He also headed the Department of Cardiac Surgical Research in the Rayne Institute at St Thomas’s Hospital, was a past Hunterian Professor of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, a recent Past President of the Cardiothoracic Section of the Royal Society of Medicine, and he acted as an expert witness for medico-legal matters. Graham married a Middlesex Hospital Medical School classmate, Catherine Milton, in London in 1979, and together they had two sons, James and Jonathan. Catherine retired early in 2001 with progressive ill-health, but her health deteriorated further, the marriage ended in 2002, and she died of hepatic failure with concomitant breast carcinoma in August 2003. In May 2013, he retired from active surgical practice at Guy’s and St Thomas’s hospitals to concentrate briefly on his new role as Chief Medical Officer for the HCA Hospital Group in central London, but he died only a few months later, in September 2013, from myeloma, a cancer arising from plasma cells in the blood. Lieutenant Commander Owen Wade was born in Herne Hill and came to the College from the Prep. While at the College, he was in Spenser, joined the CCF, was a prefect and was captain of shooting in his final year. He was also a keen rugby player and an accomplished pianist. He left Dulwich in 1939 just before the start of the Second World War and joined the Royal Navy, serving for a mere 27 years in total. His first sea mission, in 1940, was to join the British Atlantic fleet that was shadowing the German heavy cruiser, the Graf Spee, which was subsequently scuttled in Montevideo harbour in Uruguay. After this most of his war service was spent in the Eastern fleet, where he was Mentioned in Despatches. Owen Ernest John Wade (1935-39) 11.07.1921 – 06.11.2012

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