Commentariat

Times Obituaries

Paul Shanahan was at the heart of reforms in global agricultural trade law and
policy over the past four decades. These included the crucial Uruguay Round
trade negotiations, whose successful conclusion led to the establishment of
the World Trade Organisation that proved to be a catalyst in the growth of
global agricultural trade.

Commissioned into the Scots Guards in the war, Jamie Stuart-Menteth lost both
legs above the knee while with the 24th Guards Brigade at Anzio. He later
made a successful career with ICI, becoming managing director of the alkali
and paints division, and devoted much of his considerable energies to the
cause of servicemen who had lost their limbs through the British Limbless
Ex-Servicemen’s Association (Blesma).

At different times in a varied and what he regarded as an often amusing life,
Robbie Leith-MacGregor wore the uniform of all three Services. He had hoped
to follow his stepfather into the Royal Navy but, while at Pangbourne, it
was decided he was unlikely to reach the standard in mathematics, so he went
to Sandhurst instead. He won his DFC with the Royal Air Force and his
Military Cross with the Army in separate wars.

Though he knew more about book publishing than most people in the business,
Fred Newman was never himself an insider. Instead, as the creator of Publishing
News and the British Book Awards, otherwise known as the Nibbies, he
thought of himself as a close observer of the scene, one who could spot the
trends ahead of others in the trade. Often he was right.

Miles Richmond was a painter in an expressionistic manner between the
representational and the abstract. Early in his career he came under the
influence of the painter David Bomberg and was a member of his Borough
Group. Like Bomberg, he spent many years in Ronda, Andalusia, teaching and
painting, before returning to the northeast of England.

Richard Hickox was one of the most talented, successful and popular conductors
of his generation with boundless energy and a gift for inspiring the
musicians he worked with to produce often brilliant performances.

Juan Camilo Mouriño, was a rising star in Mexican politics, and a key figure
in the government’s war on organised crime. He was a close friend of
President Felipe Calderón, and his death will be a severe blow to the
government’s campaign to break the growing power of ruthless
drug-trafficking gangs.

Professor Norman Barry occupied a unique place in the rediscovery, resurgence
and refinement of classical liberal theory both in the United Kingdom and
worldwide. He also played a leading part in the intellectual development of
the University of Buckingham, and in the establishment and expansion of
political studies there.

Andrew Rowe was the left-leaning Conservative MP for Faversham and Mid Kent
who championed the rights of the under-privileged and challenged Margaret
Thatcher over racism in the party. Rowe had an independent spirit out of
keeping with the Tory leadership during his 18 years in Parliament from 1983
to 2001.

Maurice Stonefrost

For Alfred Hitchcock the mid-1950s were an exceptionally successful and
productive time, with four films completed in barely three years. It was no
coincidence that all four had screenplays by a young writer from radio, John
Michael Hayes.

James Skinner

The karate master Hidetaka Nishiyama was instrumental in popularising his
martial art in the West, particularly in the US.

The theatre director and actor Nicolas Bataille was never really a star in
France — he was perhaps better known in Japan, at least for a while — but
his place in the history books is assured. His career, which spanned more
than six decades, is synonymous with La Cantatrice chauve (The
Bald Primadonna, or Soprano), the Eugène Ionesco play that he
premiered in May 1950, and of which his production has enjoyed an unbroken
run in the Théâtre de la Huchette from February 1957 to the present day.

Guy Peellaert achieved fame as an artist who embraced the attitudes and
methods of the Pop Art movement, surrealism and psychedelia. He created
iconic images of rock’n’roll stars of the 1960s and 1970s, most famously
David Bowie and the Rolling Stones. His art was exhibited in Paris, New
York, London, Tokyo, Cuba, Brazil and Italy.

Alan Hazeldine was a conductor and pianist who become the mainstay of the
North London Chorus for more than 20 years and then founded the Corinthian
Chamber Orchestra of which he was the guiding spirit for the rest of his
life.

Edgar Holloway was a key figure of the Etching Revival of the 1920s and 1930s,
an extraordinary period in the history of British printmaking. His etchings
and drawings provide a visual autobiography of his long career, his family
and friends and his travels around Britain, Europe and the US.

Carl Keith was a research chemist who invented, with his colleague John J.
Mooney, the three-way catalytic converter. This device has been responsible
for the large reduction of atmospheric pollution since the mid-1970s when it
was incorporated into motor vehicles of all kinds as well as static machines
with engines, such as generators.

George Bishop was a leading nuclear physicist and science administrator.
Having been the Kelvin Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of
Glasgow, he was director of the Department of Natural and Physical Sciences
at the European Commission’s Joint Research Council (NRC) at Ispra, Italy.

Adrian Kantrowitz was a distinguished cardiac surgeon who helped to usher in a
new era in the transplantation of human organs. In addition to performing
the first heart transplant on a baby — it was also the first heart
transplant done in the US — he developed devices to prolong the life of
patients with heart failure.

Best known for the meticulous fairness he brought to his courtroom, Bob
Lymbery was a gentleman judge in the truest English tradition. The
understated, calculated and respectful manner in which he presided was
appreciated by all who appeared before him and encapsulated by a letter he
received from a defendant he had sentenced to 22 years’ imprisonment,
thanking him for the manner in which he had conducted the trial.

Julius Neave

For some 60 years Clive Barnes was one of the best-known and mostadmired
critics of dance and drama on both sides of the Atlantic. And since he was
determined not to retire, his death leaves newspapers and magazines in
Manhattan, London and Italy bereft of a valued regular contributor.

Nigel Plews

Trevor Goodwin was one of the foremost biochemists of his generation and a
powerful force in university education for nearly 50 years.