the War, injuries sustained in the war prevented his return to playing rugby, but he became a referee with the London Society of Rugby Football Referees for a number of years. Merrick and Peggy moved to Ashtead in 1953, where he continued to referee rugby matches, before becoming a touch judge for the City of London Freemen’s School in Ashtead. In 1958, they adopted a daughter, Frances. Still active in retirement, Merrick helped set up the Conservatory Club in Leatherhead with help from the late David Mitchell Baker. The club was a day centre for people with dementia, was a great success, and still is successful to this day. He enjoyed travelling and went on two cruises to Norway in his late 80s. Sadly Peggy passed away in 2007 after a long illness. At the age of 90, Merrick wrote a book on his military experience as a prisoner of war in WW2, with the kind help of his dear friend and neighbour, Jo Oxley. Apart from being an avid rugby fan, opera was another passion and he enjoyed many visits to the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. He also made many friends in the Bookham Wine Club and at Leatherhead Probus. Merrick moved into Alexander Lodge Residential Home in 2014 and was very happy there. He was well cared for until his health deteriorated to the point when he needed nursing care. Then he moved into Milner House Nursing Home where he received all the nursing care and support he required in the last few weeks of his long life.
Merrick Athelston Kidd [1933-37] 15.11.1919 – 31.01.2017 Merrick Kidd was born at home in Wandsworth
Dr David William Sydney Klee [1938-46] 19.07.1927 – 05.04.2015 David Klee was born in Rochester, Kent as the son
Common and was the younger son of Alwin Kidd, who was
of William Klee, a schoolmaster. The family moved to
a stockjobber in the City. Merrick followed his older brother Keith from the Prep to the College, although Keith was seven years older so their periods at the College did not overlap. At the College, Merrick was in Sidney, was a school prefect for his final two years, became a sergeant in the OTC and played rugby for the 1st XV in his final year at the school. After leaving Dulwich, he worked with his father’s firm on the Stock Exchange for a couple of years before joining the 2nd Battalion of the Rangers, which was the Territorial Army unit of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, in May 1939. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant and transferred to the Durham Light Infantry in February 1940, sailing to France with the British Expeditionary Force in April. He was captured in France and remained a prisoner of war until April 1945. He returned to working with his father’s firm at the Stock Exchange until 1948 before working for Hugh Wood and Co, manufacturers of mining machinery in Gateshead, Tyneside, for one year. He returned to London to join Baring Brothers merchant bank in 1949 as a bank clerk. He worked his way up the bank’s hierarchy and the highlight of his career was his time as a Foreign Exchange Dealer. He retired from the bank in 1979 by which time he was working as the Personnel Manager. When he returned home, he married his fiancée Peggy North from Balham in June 1945. Merrick played rugby for the OAs briefly, straight after leaving the College. After
New Cross in South-east London and David came to Dulwich from Waller Road (LCC) primary school. At the College, he was in Spenser, but left the school in July 1940 at the height of the London Blitz bombing in WW2. He re-entered the school in May 1941 after most of the bombing had subsided, and played 3rd XV rugby for the school in his final year. After leaving Dulwich and following a spell of National Service, David went to Guy’s Hospital to study medicine, graduating MB BS in 1954. He had married his favourite nurse, Gwyneth, in 1953, and after that time they devoted their working lives to being globe-trotting medics, working on almost every continent. David started as a Colonial Medical Officer (MO) in Tanganyika, East Africa from 1956 to 1958, then a School MO in Dudley, Worcestershire, England from 1958 to 1960, followed by working at 2 hospitals in Indonesia for Goodyear Rubber from 1960 to 1963. There was then 7 years as a GP in Ohakuwe, New Zealand from 1964 to 1971, a short stint working in the Emergency Room at a hospital in Pago Pago, American Samoa from 1971 to 1972, then 5 years as a GP in Hanksbury, Canada from 1972 to 1977. Finally, another short stay in 1977 as MO for the townships around Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and for the final 23 years of his career from 1977 to final retirement in 2000 he was a GP and also MO for the copper mines in Queenstown, Tasmania, Australia Despite all this moving around, David and Gwyneth managed to have three
Merrick’s daughter, Frances, contributed significantly to this obituary.
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