Obituaries
were never seen again despite long searches. The surviving members returned home exhausted, having built an 8ft cairn of stones on which they inscribed the two men’s names with a hammer and a screwdriver. A long-time member of both clubs, he was the President of the Climbers Club in 1968-69 and of the Alpine Club in 1980-82. He also contributed various articles to mountaineering journals. In his professional life, he worked as a surveyor until 1968, when he began a seventeen year spell at the Lands Tribunal and became an authority on rating valuation and appeals. He was a council member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors from 1964 to 1969, High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire in 1967-68 and wrote a book titled The Lands Tribunal: a Practitioner’s Guide in 1982. He also had deep love of music and was an accomplished cellist. He sang with the Madrigal Society and established a 60-piece orchestra near his home in Ivinghoe, Leighton Buzzard. Twice weekly, he travelled to London to play bridge at the Garrick Club, right up until he was already aged 98. He is survived by his wife, Louise, and their three children: daughter Eiluned, who has had a diverse career, and two sons, Tom, another chartered surveyor, and William, a barrister. Obituaries were published in The Times and The Telegraph , on which this obituary is based.
in Europe, and the Ralph Reader gang shows. Latterly he became a Queen’s Scout and then went on to become a Rover Scout with the 16th Royal Eltham. They were serious and regular participants in the Four Inns Walking Competition, for which they trained very hard. Members of this Rover Crew have remained friends for over 50 years, meeting annually for several days of fell walking. After leaving Dulwich, Mike immediately did National Service in the Royal Engineers, which was a prerequisite for taking up a Shell scholarship in the School of Mining at the University of Leeds. He was an exemplary recruit and in training he received a medal for the best man in field engineering. Army service had some benefits in that he spent a great deal of time on the Isle of Wight where most free time was devoted to dinghy sailing. University life in Leeds was yet another situation in which Mike became fully involved. He was a member of the Debating Society and a regular fund raiser on Rag days. As editor of the Leeds Student magazine he had the privilege of interviewing the Rt Hon Hugh Gaitskell, who was then the Labour Party leader. He and a fellow student were front page news in Yorkshire when they queued overnight to win a free car each, and he came away with a 1938 six cylinder Austin 38, but soon had to pass it on because of a lack of funds as a student to be able to run it! After graduation the employment opportunities with Shell Oil were disappointingly non-existent, so a slight change in direction took Mike to mining of metals in Boliden in northern Sweden, where he thoroughly enjoyed working in an international team. He was always a dabbler at languages, but his self-taught proficiency in Swedish and related languages lasted for the rest of his life. Serious family illness caused him to return to the UK and start a career with the National Coal Board. Training in mine management eventually arrived, but for all new mining engineers this had to be preceded by six months at the coal face alongside the regular miners. After four years in the coal industry, prospects for promotion were not good so another slight change of industry saw him move to light engineering in the north-west of England. The late 1960s and the 1970s were very difficult in this industry too, and Mike recognised the need to retrain and undertook a full-time, post-graduate diploma in Marketing. This led to his enjoying being a financial advisor for the latter part of his working life. Mike met and married Pauline in north-west England in the late 1960s and a daughter, Louise, followed in 1972. He was able to retire in his early sixties and have a complete change of lifestyle with a move to rural north Devon. This led to thirteen happy years taking a very active part in many aspects of village life; he was a founder member of both the local walking and gardening clubs, and was able to pursue his passion
Michael Lown Jones (1949-56) 23.06.1938 – 15.01.2014
Michael Jones was born in Bexleyheath and came to Dulwich from Charlton Manor School in Greenwich having obtained a scholarship. He was in Raleigh and started as a boarder in Bell House, which was made possible by support from military
charity, SSAFA, because his father, who was a Japanese POW in WW2, had drowned in transit from Burma to Japan in 1944. He had very fond memories of his time as a boarder, especially the weekend activities, such as Crusaders on a Sunday evening which was led by a young curate, David Sheppard, who later became an England cricketer, Bishop of Liverpool and then a Life Peer. After his mother remarried, Michael moved to the new family home in Mottingham and became a day pupil. While at the College, he learned the trumpet and was very proud of receiving lessons from Bill Overton, who was a visiting teacher and also principal trumpet with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The Scouting Association was very important in his life, firstly as a cub scout and then at the College, as a member of the 25th Camberwell Group (Troop IV). At the Queen’s Coronation in 1953, he was a Scout programme seller and luckily was positioned close to Westminster Abbey. He took part in all the usual scouting activities, such as summer camps, jamborees
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