he moved to France. Toby Fleming died at the age of 92 in a nursing home in France and leaves a daughter and two granddaughters.
where the Colonel of the 3rd (King’s Own) Hussars persuaded him to transfer to his regiment, and he fought the remainder of the war with the Hussars. In Italy, his knee was smashed by the recoil of his tank’s gun and he had to have a glass replacement knee but, in later life, it never seemed to hamper his fiercely competitive performance on tennis and squash courts. At the end of the war, he was posted to Cairo with the Hussars, where he was joined by Sheila and their daughter Caroline (aged three) whom he hadn’t seen before. He then had a variety of overseas postings, mainly in parts of Germany, before a final posting in Manchester commanding the Lancashire Yeomanry. He finally retired from the Army in May 1958 and embarked on a business career with various engineering companies. Tim and Sheila had three daughters, six grandchildren and, at the time of his death, three great-grandchildren. Two of the grandsons went to Sandhurst after university and were commissioned into the Army, following in their grandfather’s footsteps. He was always proud and protective of his family. His daughter, Caroline, has contributed significantly to this obituary. Thomas Lipton’s senior tea taster was a friend of his parents and so when he offered Noble a chance to join Lipton as a tea taster in India, he jumped at the chance. Almost immediately, the Second World War started and Toby, as he was always known, served in the Royal Indian Navy. After the war he resumed travelling throughout Asia in search of the perfect tea leaf. At each tea plantation, he would evaluate the tea on the basis of soil, elevation, rainfall, temperature and quality of management. From 1946, he was based in the United States and was, for many years, the head of Lipton’s Royal Estates subsidiary. He always attended tea tastings wearing a suit and at the end of the ritualistic process he would tell his agents what to buy at auction. By the time he retired in 1983, Lipton supplied no less than half of the American tea market, but this market share has since fallen with the increasing popularity of speciality teas. After retirement, Noble Fearnley Hutchinson Fleming (1932-34) 07.03.1919 – 21.03.2012 Noble Fleming was born in Wales in 1919 and came to Dulwich in 1932 from the Prep. After leaving school, he had been reading books by Rudyard Kipling and developed a love of India. Sir
Colin Frank Fricker (1947-53) 09.04.1936 – 30.04.2012
Colin Fricker came to Dulwich from Downderry School in Bromley. He was proud that he gained entry to the College as part of the ‘Dulwich Experiment’. He was in the Classical Sixth and had happy memories of fierce shove ha’penny contests in the Sixth Form common room. He boxed for the College on one occasion; being tall and light for his height (6’3”), he was in the lightweight division and, with a reach advantage, won easily. Although he was in line for a scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford, to read Classics, for domestic reasons he was unable to take advantage of this. Instead he did his National Service with the RAF at Medmenham from 1954 to 1956 but sadly during that period his mother died. After completing his National Service, Colin got a job with an Insurance firm in London, gained the FCII qualification and later became a Lloyds broker with CE Heath. He was assistant director of CE Heath Home Ltd from 1968 to 1970, when his career changed direction and he was Director of the Association of British Launderers and Cleaners, and leader of the employers’ side of the Laundry Wages Council, both from 1979 to 1984. During that period, he was also a member of the Council of the CBI, and again from 1994 to 1997. He then moved to become the Director General of the British Direct Marketing Association (DMA) from 1985 to 1992, followed by Director of Legal Affairs for the DMA (UK) from 1992 to 2000. While in that latter post, Colin was also Vice Chairman of the Federation of European Direct Marketing Associations in Brussels from 1997 to 2000. There he used his considerable skills to lobby the European Parliament, liaising and negotiating with his European counterparts; on one occasion saving thousands of British jobs by persuading British MEPs to sway a vote. He became a Freeman of the City of London and was a member of the MCC and Lord’s Taverners for many years. He was proud to have been a pupil at Dulwich and followed its news and achievements with interest. Colin married Elizabeth in 1964. Together they had two children, Annabel and Robert, to whom he was devoted, as well as the grandchildren in later years. He followed cricket avidly, with his interest extending to the statistics and history
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