Obituaries
A keen sailor, Arnie participated in inshore and offshore events in Hong Kong, was a member of the Hong Kong Admiral’s Cup Team in 1979 and completed the notorious Fastnet race that same year. He competed in numerous Sydney to Hobart races in Australia, as well as annual races from Hong Kong to the Philippines. He also had an interest in photography, and this resulted in his travelling to the corners of the earth after his retirement. Arnie seemed destined to be a life-long bachelor but, in 1995, started a relationship with Liz, the divorced former wife of a Maunsell’s work colleague in Hong Kong. They lived together in Mudeford, Dorset, from 1996, and eventually got married nine years later in 2005. Also in 2005, he was diagnosed with throat cancer, and underwent treatment but suffered some long-lasting side effects, but he did not let these stand in his way and he continued to travel. He died suddenly, while on holiday in Abu Dhabi on Christmas Eve, 2012. His widow, Liz, contributed significantly to this obituary.
taught French. John recalled that the fact that litmus changes colour between red and blue, and this counts as learning came as a revelation, and set the course of his career in science. Although a reluctant player of organised team sports, he was otherwise enthusiastic and displayed the keenness that was an expected Dulwich trait. He enjoyed playing fives (the squash courts having been destroyed by the same bomb as the Science Block), became a school prefect and vice-Captain of Grenville. He also helped restore the fortunes of the Photographic Society, kept the Meteorological Society going, and became Company Quarter Master Sergeant (CQMS) and head of the Signals section in the Junior Training Corps (JTC). In the late 1940s, there was no formal careers guidance at the College, but G A (George) Way, the Head of the Science Side, told John that he had heard that Chemical Engineering was an up-and-coming subject and he thought it would suit him. After leaving Dulwich, he opted for eighteen months of National Service before university and joined the Royal Corps of Signals in the Army. He was commissioned and posted to Catterick. As there were no conflicts at the time, John recalled that his most responsible army duty was to stand in for the regimental catering officer while he went on a parachute course. After National Service he applied to university, the first in his family to have considered such a thing. Cambridge was ruled out for his lack of Latin but London had several colleges that offered Chemical Engineering. He gained a place at Battersea Polytechnic (later to become part of the University of Surrey at Guildford), which had one of the leading Chemical Engineering degree courses at the time, studying under Professor S R Tailby and graduating with a second in the days before the University of London sub-divided second class degrees. Chemical engineering projects take approximately five years from first conception, through financial evaluation, process development, plant and engineering design, construction and commissioning to the hand-over of a completed plant. John’s most interesting early project was to re-design the Raschig process for the manufacture of rocket fuel, hydrazine, starting from the plant that had been seized from Germany in reparations after WW2. The new design incorporated the latest chemical engineering concepts, modern equipment and new chemically-resistant construction materials. The specification was sold to an American company, because hydrazine by then was responsible for the bubbles in foam plastics, and he was sent to New York to work with a contractor during the detailed engineering phase. Once the plant had been built, he was sent to Louisiana to lead the start-up team. Years later, he worked in America again, building and commissioning a pyrogallol plant, and found America a stimulating place to work because of
John Dickinson Chapman (1943-48) 10.04.1930 – 16.11.2014
John Chapman came to the College from the Prep during the Second World War, but via a circuitous route. He first moved to Oakfield School, set up in two adjoining houses in Thurlow Park Road for those unwilling to evacuate at the start of the war
by two former DCPS masters, Mr Livingstone and Mr Herman. When France fell, Oakfield School did move well away from London to Newquay, Cornwall. John’s parents were soon offered the use of a ‘cottage in the country’ and he moved again to Berkhamsted School. There was no invasion by Germany so, in due course, the family moved back to London and John sat the entrance exam for Dulwich College, which had itself by then returned from evacuation in Tonbridge. The exam showed that he had insufficient Latin knowledge, but he was given a place in IIIC with D V Knight as the form master and several former Prep boys were in the same class. Everybody was back at Dulwich in time for the Blitz but nobody suggested going away again. While at the College, he joined the choir and sang Treble, run by ‘Guts’ Gayford. John’s mother sent him to ask for piano lessons, but Mr Gayford refused, saying ‘We need violins in the orchestra; you’ll learn the violin. It’s easier than the piano anyway.’ John started learning the violin with a Mr Smith as his first teacher, but some years later the new Head of Music, Stanley Wilson, brought in Cecil Aronowitz, who was heading for a brilliant career as a viola player. Some of the outstanding masters during John’s time at the College and his preparation for School Certificate included Rev. Reggie Fenn, who taught Chemistry and Physics, as well as Scripture, and G G (Horsey) Grange, who
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