window without even lifting his head off the pillow.
as a Technical/engineering marketing consultant. In 1966, he moved on to a similar role at Alcoa, which took him to mainland Europe, America and Australia. During this time, he moved with his wife, Jane, and their four young children from Warwickshire to Malvern and then to London, first Battersea before taking root in Streatham, not far from where Trew had grown up in Tooting. He became a member of Streatham Rotary Club and supported their work for many years. After fifteen years with Alcoa, he was offered good redundancy terms and took the opportunity to start his own PR company advertising inter-company technical innovations and materials. He ran his successful company for thirteen years before finally retiring at the age of 69. On retirement, he was keen to continue his academic interests, so he embarked on an undergraduate course with the Open University. In 2001 he was awarded a first class BA (Hons) in Humanities, and subsequently enrolled on a Masters Course as well. With encouragement from his tutors, this soon turned into a longitudinal PhD research project which lasted ten years. He was awarded a PhD in 2010 at the age of 85, and was pleased to note that he was the oldest recipient of an OU PhD that year. His PhD thesis was published and is now held at the British Library. During this time, he continued to contribute to the local community by volunteering for the Meals on Wheels service in Croydon. Dr Trew Pledger continued to find great pleasure in reading and research, and particularly enjoyed tackling the daily cryptic crossword in The Times, as well as discussing current social and political affairs with family and friends. Sadly, he was diagnosed with a brain tumour in October 2015 and passed away a
couple of months after celebrating his ninetieth birthday. He is survived by his wife Jane, four children and by five grandsons. His daughter, Rebecca Kelsey contributed this obituary and photograph. James Eric Anthony Rich [1942-47] 15.02.1929 – 11.11.2014
John described his life in the medical profession as “the best of lives”; he reached the top of his profession, dedicating the greater part of his life to others, he remained sharp and fit throughout his retirement, and died in his sleep aged eighty-eight. He is survived by his second wife Paulette, a son, Mark, and two daughters, Jane and Katie by his first wife Kate, eight grandchildren and a great grandson. This obituary is based on one submitted by John’s children to Plarr’s Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons. Trew Richard Stretton Pledger [1937-42] 19.12.1925 – 14.02.2016 Trew Pledger was the son of a dairy foreman, who came to Dulwich with a scholarship from Franciscan Road (LCC) Primary School in Tooting, and was in Grenville. When he left Dulwich, he joined the Royal Engineers Cadet Force. Aged 19 he was called up to do National Service in the Royal Engineers, and while there he qualified as a Mechanical Engineer. He served for two years, but spent most of that time teaching other soldiers to read and write. He spent much of his spare time pursuing his photography hobby, winning some awards for photographs submitted to competitions. After being discharged from National Service, he first worked for an American oil company surveying desert regions of the Middle East for potential oil sites. While in countries such as Iraq, Morocco and Lebanon, he also built up a large collection of photographs of life in the deserts. After his return to England, he moved to Alcan working
James Rich, but known as
Tony at school, and “Bob” to his family, was born in Camberwell.
His father Eric was a qualified doctor and dentist. Bob’s early education was at Mary Datchelor Kindergarten and at Dulwich Prep. Then the family lived on Denmark Hill, where Eric taught the whole family how to shoot. This proved very useful especially when Bob came home with the occasional rabbit for his mother to cook. By the time the Second World War started, the family were in Sudbury, Suffolk, and Bob went to Sudbury Grammar School from 1939 to 1942. From there he went back to Dulwich, to the College, where he was in Grenville and boarded in Blew House. He was always keen to invent new things, usually for capital gain to supplement his pocket money, and he once made a small cart for the family’s very small dog to take his sister’s dolls for rides. After she was given a very small electric iron for Christmas, to iron her dolls’ clothes, the iron went missing, to be found again after it had been to Blew House for a term to be hired out at 3d a time for boys to iron their ties. While at the College, he took part in everything. He boxed, was a Fives player until a bomb wrecked the courts, and played rugby. He was in the Blew House XV in 1945 and in the school’s 3rd XV in 1946/47. Bob had become a very good shot while
86
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online