They left Ghana in 1968 so that their two children could continue their schooling here and he took a maths teaching posts at Sevenoaks School where he remained for the rest of his working life, retiring in 1991 when he became Clerk to the Trustees of the Sevenoaks Almhouses, closely connected to the School. He was actively involved in church life first at St Nicholas, Sevenoaks, where he was a Reader and deputy organist, and after moving to a local village at St Bartholomew, Otford, where he was able to exercise his ministry as a Reader even more effectively. Among other interests and hobbies he was a lifelong fan of cricket, and enjoyed bird watching and walking. A talented singer and composer, he wrote music regularly performed by local choirs and also ran a handbell group. He developed a keen interest in the life of John Firth, who played a significant role in the Reformation, and after extensive research wrote a book, Firth: Scholar and Martyr , published in 2000 and six years later he published Tales from Otford , a book about the history of the village. He proudly called himself ‘a Kings man’ and a few weeks before his death he was in the Kings College buttery, drinking coffee with his daughter, Alison Saunders (who has contributed to this obituary) who attended Homerton College, and his granddaughter, Beth Saunders in her second year at Newnham College – proud indeed to be the first of three generations of ‘light blues’. Anthony Edgar Sale (1944-49) 30.01.31-28.08.11 Tony Sale came to Dulwich from Royal Grammar School at High Wycombe, having already built his first primitive robot, later called George I, out of Meccano aged 12. While at Dulwich as a boarder in Blew House he was in the Air Training Corps, was Captain of Fencing and in the School Shooting team in his final year. Upon leaving he joined the RAF for his national service and became a radar instructor at RAF Debden near Saffron Walden, attaining the rank of Flying Officer. In 1950, aged 19, he built another robot, George V, from parts of a crashed Wellington bomber and powered by motorcycle batteries. It was six feet tall, radio-controlled and could walk, turn its head, move its arms and sit down. After leaving the RAF he became a research assistant to Peter Wright, the future author of Spycatcher, on research into Doppler radar at Marconi’s laboratories at Great Baddow, Essex. He followed Peter to MI5 at the height of the Cold War to specialise in radio interception. He left MI5 in 1963 and led a weapons systems design team at Hunting Engineering in Bedfordshire. In 1968 he formed one of the UK’s first software companies, Alpha Systems, and was also an active member of the British Computer Society. He went on to found two more software companies before becoming an independent
consultant in 1986. In 1989 he joined the Science Museum as a Senior Curator, restoring and curating displays on computing. He established the Computer Conservation Society, which has become a model for similar heritage ventures around the world. In 1991 he learned that Bletchley Park was under threat of redevelopment. With a group of colleagues he started a campaign to save it for the nation, initially funded by him and his wife, Margaret. Eventually, powerful support, including that of the Prime Minister, John Major, was mobilised and a charitable trust formed. Private donations and a Heritage Lottery Fund grant turned it into a major museum and tourist attraction. He decided that the centrepiece of the museum should be a working replica of Colossus, the world’s first operational computer which was used to decipher German ‘Lorenz’ coded messages during the Second World War. He renewed his MI5 security clearance and interviewed the surviving engineers who had built the Colossus, but there was still a lot of guesswork involved. In 1995 the US government released a previously classified technical description of Colossus. The 2,500 valve replica was completed in 2007 and installed in the new National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park. He gave hundreds of lectures describing the project, was a script advisor to films and numerous documentary programmes, and was awarded two honorary doctorates and the Silver Medal of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts. He remained a fixture at the museum up until his final days, greeting the Queen on an official visit in July 2011. He died in Bromham, Bedfordshire and is survived by his wife, three children and seven grandchildren. class degree in 1970. After graduating, he moved to Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, and became a research fellow in 1972. Appointed as a lecturer in the departments of Greek and Latin at University College, London (UCL) in 1973, he remained there for more than 30 years. He was awarded a PhD degree in 1978 for his work on Alexander of Aphrodisias, appointed as a Reader in 1990 and then Professor of Classics in 1994 until his retirement in 2009. He was also a part-time tutor at the Open University for many years. Fully committed to his discipline nationally and internationally, he gained international distinction for his work in ancient philosophy. He was very generous with his time supporting colleagues, and thoroughly dedicated to the care and education of his students. Throughout his career, he was a prolific author, writing many books and editing collections and Robert William Sharples (1960-67) 28.05.49–11.08.10 Professor Bob Sharples came to Dulwich from Marian Vian school in Beckenham. He then went on to Trinity College, Cambridge, to read Classics gaining a first
42 Obituaries
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