Obituaries
John married Gill Kay in 1958 and children Jonnie and Cathy followed. While working in London, John and Gill bought a large Victorian house in Sydenham which they refurbished, largely on a trial and error basis. After retirement, John and Gill moved to Scotland in 2004 and were able to pursue their great love of music, especially opera, with John becoming Chairman of the Friends of Scottish Opera in 2004 and a board member of the opera company itself in 2005, at a time when its fortunes were at a very low ebb. His contribution to Scottish Opera was considerable, giving quality advice and leading from the front. In 1996, he became the first director of the Carnegie Young People’s Initiative, which had been set up by the Carnegie Trust. The initiative, which he led for two years, sought to find ways of overcoming the disengagement of many young people across the UK from civic life by developing and funding various studies and practical ventures. John is survived by Gill, their children Jonnie and Cathy, and his grandchildren, and will be missed by them and by all who were fortunate enough to have known him.
sites, introducing British divers to sites in Florida, the Bahamas, and many others. He was a regular contributor to the BSAC magazine, which was titled ‘Neptune’ initially and more recently ‘Diver’ right up until 2011. He also wrote some thirty books, including the Diver Guide series on wrecks around the British coastline, which are still available today. Kendall was awarded the BSAC’s Colin McLeod Award in 2009 for his contributions to diving publications, and he was elected to the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame in the same year. He enjoyed his retirement at his 18th century cottage in Thurlestone, south Devon, overlooking three much- dived wreck sites, and surrounded by his collection of 800 books and other documents about diving and shipwrecks. He moved into a care home for the last two years of his life and finally succumbed to pneumonia in January 2014, at the age of 86. His wife Penny pre- deceased him by four years, and their son, Kevin, by six years. He is survived by his daughter Joanna and by two grandchildren. This obituary is based on several published obituaries, mainly from diving organisations.
Henry Kendall McDonald (1941-45) 13.11.1927 – 12.01.2014
Kwabena Buahin Mensah (1971-76) 30.09.1958 – 31.12.2014
Kendall McDonald was the son of a journalist and came to the College from the Prep and was in Spenser. He left Dulwich as the Second World War ended, so was not required to fight in the war but was among the first group for post-war National Service,
Kwabena Mensah was the son of an economist, and he came to Dulwich from Skippers Hill Manor Prep School in Mayfield, East Sussex. He was in Raleigh and was a boarder in Bell House. After leaving the College, he joined the BBC and presented
and became a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Armoured Corps. After demobilisation, he turned to journalism, like his father had, and learned his trade on North of England newspapers such as the Northern Echo in Darlington. He then returned to London and ended up becoming a Fleet Street Editor on the one-million- copies-a-night best seller, the London Evening News. His first contact with the underwater world of diving came in 1949, while on holiday in the South of France, when he was taught to snorkel. He quickly moved through spearfishing to scuba diving with an aqualung, and was a diving enthusiast by the mid-1950s. He was a founder member of the British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC) and his membership number was 23. He was active within his own BSAC branch and was a long-time member of the club’s National Diving Committee. He played a key role in organising the second World Congress of Underwater Activities, held in London in 1963. As an influential journalist, he used his communication skills to promote the sport of diving through press, television and radio. He wrote and presented Britain’s first television series about diving, and was one of the first people to dive on the wreck of the Mary Rose in The Solent. He was the BSAC Chairman from 1975 to 1977 and was then appointed an honorary life vice-president of the club. Freed from the responsibilities of being BSAC Chairman, he was able to roam the world more freely exploring the world’s diving
the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme from London for much of the 1980s and 1990s. He was a trailblazing pioneer for African journalists working in international broadcasting organisations. He moved back to Ghana in 2001 to work on film and television projects, and also worked as a correspondent for several news organisations such as Africa Confidential and Bloomberg News. From the launch of the Africa Report in 2005, he was a key part of the editorial team and helped shape their political and economic coverage of Ghana and throughout West Africa. He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of events in Africa and a keen analytical sense of their significance. He was as generous with his journalistic contacts as he was with hospitality in his home city. Kwabena was admitted to the Nyaho Medical Centre in Accra on 30th December after complaining of chest pains and died the following day. He leaves behind his wife Angela and eight year-old daughter Nana-Esi.
Saagar Naresh (2006-12) 06.05.1994 – 16.10.2014 Saagar Naresh came to Dulwich from the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, and
immediately faced the challenge joining in Year 8, of integrating into a group which had already been together for a
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