Obituaries
During his retirement he continued to work as a consultant in private practice and also maintained his interest in the latest developments in programmable calculators and personal computers. After his death a former friend and colleague, who described him as a quiet, kind genius, arranged for his vast collection of calculators to be sent to the Science Museum. His nephew, Mike, also Douglas Handyside’s son, contributed significantly to this obituary.
life, she took her sons on the number 37 bus to visit the school, but they alighted at the wrong stop and arrived at Dulwich College, believing it to be Alleyn’s. Although she realised her mistake, she saw the great potential of the College and completed formalities, without telling their father. Alex joined as a boarder in Blew House in 1940. At the College he was in Spenser, played 1st XV rugby as scrum-half and 1st XI cricket in both of his last two years, and he was awarded colours in both sports. His name is inscribed four times on the honours boards in the Pavilion, and he was also Captain of Blew House in 1944. When he left Dulwich in 1944, Alex had an ambition to become a teacher but, with the country still at war he was sent to become a coal miner as a ‘Bevin Boy’. Knowledge of coal production proved useful when the war ended and Alex started working for Charringtons, the fuel supply and delivery service. In 1961 Alex was persuaded to join the OCS Group, a company owned by the Goodliffe family, and where he would spend the rest of his working life. He became a director of OCS and of Cannon Hygiene, and particularly enjoyed hosting and entertaining clients at the company’s hospitality suites at major golf championships, tennis at Wimbledon and cricket at The Oval. While at Dulwich, Alex’s friend and 1st XV team-mate, John Goodliffe (39-43), took Alex to his family home for Sunday tea, and introduced him to his younger sister, Joan. After what Alex liked to describe as a whirlwind courtship of 12 years, Alex and Joan were married on 5 September 1953, remaining married for 61 years and having two children, Sarah and Ian. For the OAs Alex became a regular for the 1st XV, playing 197 times between 1945 and 1954, and captaining the side from 1950 to 1952. Always a stalwart of the OA Football Club, he was a committee member from 1948 to 1963, treasurer from 1960 to 1963, and was proud to be President of the Alleyn Club in 1988-89. He captained the Kent rugby team between 1949 and 1953, and led Kent on tour to Italy in 1953, the first English side to do so. He was selected for the London squad to play against Paris and South Africa, and had an England trial and a place as a travelling reserve for the England match against France in Paris in April 1952. He just missed out on full rugby honours for England, but he still devoted much of his life to rugby administration. He served as team secretary, treasurer, chairman of selectors and president of Kent RFU and was elected as the Kent representative on the RFU Committee from 1970 to 1983, afterwards becoming a lifetime Privilege member. He was a hugely popular after dinner speaker who was as happy providing the entertainment at Blackheath, Sidcup or Maidstone rugby club dinners, as he was to once follow Edward Heath at the British Sportsman’s Luncheon in front of 500 guests at the Savoy. His audiences were amused by his tales of his experiences of looking after international rugby touring sides who, in those days,
Kenneth Charles Hart (1949-56) 31.08.1939 – 03.10.2015
Kenneth Hart was the son of a ship owner who lived in Bromley. He came to Dulwich from Greenhayes Prep School,
West Wickham, and was in Spenser. Immediately after leaving Dulwich in 1956 he joined shipbrokers Galbraith, Pembroke & Co. In 1963 he was elected to a Fellowship of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers. At later stages of his career he was employed by other shipping companies: Cunard, P&O and Van Ommeren. He ended his career with a freelance consultancy in shipbroking. He married Annette Fairbrother in 1961. Their son Andrew was born in 1963, with daughter, Jennifer, following in 1965, but Ken separated from Annette and they divorced in 1986. In later years he found companionship with Ms Paddy Marchant and she was to help him through the later illnesses in his life. He was always very much a social person and was a keen member of the Round Table, later the ’41 Club’ and finally, in Eastbourne, Probus. Water and the sea were recurring themes in his life, from his career in shipbroking to his enjoyment of inshore fishing and relaxation on holiday cruises. Ken’s final years were blighted by illness during which he had some periods of relief, and he remained optimistic, ‘taking things as they came’. Ken’s younger brother, Cedric (55-65) contributed significantly to this obituary.
Alexander Cameron Hemming (1940-44) 08.12.1925 – 14.11.2014
Alex’s family moved to Brixton when he was very young to become proprietors of the George Canning public house. After the birth of younger brother, Bryan (44-48), in 1930 their father, a retired professional footballer for
Queen’s Park Rangers, and their mother, Katherine, decided that a pub was no place to bring up children. Katherine arranged enrolment at Alleyn’s School and, in the first of many propitious events in Alex’s
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