Obituaries
bilingual in English and Spanish, fluent in French, very competent in German which he had hardly used since school, and not bad at Italian which he had never studied at all! His lasting regret though was never getting to grips with Polish. Alistair’s sensitive understanding of language led him, after retirement, to translate two remarkable poems by Antonio Machado and Federico Garcia Lorca, both of which were then published by The English Association. He also made several trips to Spain during his retirement; having been to Andalucia so often on school trips he preferred to rediscover Castilian Spain which he had known as a young man, and he enjoyed discovering regions of France he had not experienced before. Sadly, he had to have an operation for cancer in January 2014. Although initially successful, the subsequent chemotherapy did not cure him and he died peacefully in a hospice in Ipswich in July. Another retired member of the staff, Fergus Jamieson, contributed this obituary.
the food industry. His family supported him through his long and courageous battle with prostate cancer. There were several published obituaries, on which this version is based. Alistair Slabczynski (Hon Staff Member: 1980-2002) 07.02.1949 – 20.07.2014
Alistair Slabczynski was the son of a Scottish mother and a Polish father; his father came to England at the outbreak of the Second World War. He was an artist and art historian who was employed by the Tate Gallery as a picture restorer, and it
was largely from his father that Alistair acquired his appreciation not only of art, but also literature, music, good food and wine. He was educated at Brentwood School in Essex, studying French and German to O level, continuing these two languages to A level while also starting Spanish from scratch in the sixth form. He then made Spanish his main subject at university, at King’s College, London, spending one year in Pamplona as part of his degree course. After graduation and a year spent in Canada, he worked as a language teacher in state schools in East London before joining the College staff in 1980 to be head of the newly created Spanish department. Alistair was a gifted and fluent linguist and an inspirational teacher of the language that he loved so much, bringing a deep knowledge of Spanish culture to his A level classes. Spanish soon became a popular subject at O level, later GCSE, and he led by example in teaching and getting the best out of pupils of all abilities, in French as well as in Spanish. Trips to Spain soon became part of the programme, and the GCSE year visit to Jerez de la Frontera was a regular calendar event. Many former students will remember being introduced to flamenco dancing and other aspects of Andalucian life, while also improving their examination chances. He was a boarding house tutor, firstly in Orchard for eight years, before another two years in Ivyholme, giving him ample opportunity to demonstrate his passionate concern for the well-being of those in his charge. His sympathetic approach soon won him respect and he remained in contact with several students after they had left the school and even into his own retirement. He never owned a house in London, but commuted at weekends, first to Wickham Bishops in Essex, and latterly to Middleton in Suffolk, where he had bought a late Tudor cottage with a large garden which gave him much pleasure. Alistair wore his culture lightly but there was no doubting its depth; an evening’s conversation with him would cover many topics, from Greek and Roman civilisation to current events in British and European politics, touching on almost anything in between. He loved nothing more than to launch into a foreign language at any opportunity. He was effectively
Frederick Edward Stevens (1925-31) 23.05.1912 – 11.09.2014
Freddie Stevens was born in Islington, London in 1912, less than six weeks after the sinking of RMS Titanic, as the eldest of six children. Music was soon important in his life; he was a choirboy at St Stephen Walbrook in the City of London, and was
soon learning piano, harmony, counterpoint and the organ. He started playing organ at Christ Church, Woburn Square, in Bloomsbury becoming assistant organist as a teenager. He attended Lawn Lane Elementary School (London County Council (LCC)), in Vauxhall, and was granted a scholarship to the London Academy of Music by the LCC. He was later awarded a free place at Dulwich College, where he was in Grenville. After leaving Dulwich, he went to St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, as an Organ Scholar, but also to study Modern and Medieval Languages. While at Cambridge, he was a member of the Shirley Society, the College’s Literary Society, and the oldest one in Cambridge. In 1931, soon after arriving in Cambridge, he gave a recital of piano works by Beethoven, Chopin and J S Bach. Although he coxed the second college boat while at St Catherine’s, he seemed thoroughly disinterested in sport for the rest of his life. He also, once, cut his hand on the way to play the organ at King’s College, Cambridge, and recalled the difficulties of simultaneously trying to re-bandage his hand while pulling out the stops of the famous organ. The friendships he made at Cambridge were significant and he maintained the most important of these throughout his life. From 1935 to 1939, he was Director of Music and an assistant master of modern languages at Giggleswick School, near Settle, North Yorkshire. With war looming,
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