Commentariat

Times Obituaries

Richard Rhys, who became the 9th Baron Dynevor in 1962, was a patron of the
arts and he made a considerable contribution to cultural life, especially in
Wales. A friend of his, the Welsh writer Emyr Humphreys, described him as “a
left-over from another age of intellectual patronage. He was quite
uncommercial.”

Sir Curtis Keeble

Sir Basil Kelly was the last Attorney General of Northern Ireland. He served
before the imposition in 1972 of direct rule from Westminster, after which
Attorneys General of England and Wales filled the office.

Mathematician, linguist and classical scholar, John Clemow was a natural
choice for the Technical Staff during the Second World War and he solved a
problem with the 6-pounder anti-tank gun that General Bernard Montgomery had
complained “could not hit a barn door”. Later, his expertise on guided
weapons took him to the US and then into British industry.

The US scientist and engineer Arthur Kantrowitz had an unusually wideranging
career involving aeronautics, space and biomedical engineering.

One of the most enthralling events at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne
was the women’s marathon. With a mile to go, the Kenyan Hellen Cherono
Koskei challenged the defending champion, Kerryn McCann, whose exploits as
an international runner, while being a mother, had inspired many fellow
Australians.

Few rugby league players were as intimidating as Vince Karalius, a legendary
loose forward for St Helens, Widnes and Great Britain, who revelled in the
nickname “Wild Bull of the Pampas” after the Argentine boxer Luis Ángel
Firpo, who in 1923 knocked Jack Dempsey, the heavyweight champion, out of
the ring.

Illustrators are prone to the indignity of being regarded as the secondary
partners in books. Margery Gill, shortly before her death, was sent a
reprint of her illustrated version of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The
Little Princess with the pictures attributed to Margery Hill. It was a
poor recognition of the distinctive qualities of her illustrative style. She
had done few illustrations in the past 20 years, but her much-reprinted
artwork for many children’s books is instantly recognisable to the
experienced eye.

Douglas Keen presided as editorial director and creative force over Ladybird
Books. One of the greatest postwar successes in British publishing, the
series was a valuable aid to children in learning to read and informed them
on every aspect of life in a simple and pleasing format of words and colour
illustrations contained in a pocket-sized hardback.

The Anglican Diocese of Derby has had seven bishops, and all of them have
combined a moderate theology with profound humanity and care for people.
Some of them were distinguished academics. Jonathan Bailey will be
remembered as someone who really cared for people, listened to them, and was
at ease in any social context.

Professor Angeliki E. Laiou was a distinguished historian who pioneered the
study of the social and economic history of the Byzantine Empire — the
medieval successor to the Roman Empire in the East.

Curtis Keeble

Van Johnson was a prolific film actor of the 1940s and 1950s whose boyish good
looks earned him the sobriquet “the non-singing Sinatra”.

Not many British guitar players took lessons from the Rev Blind Gary Davis,
the legendary “Harlem street singer” whose style influenced the Grateful
Dead, Bob Dylan and Wizz Jones.

Ewen Balfour was a much respected public relations executive who held several
high-profile positions with national authorities before becoming a senior
private sector consultant with Brunswick Group. During his time at the Royal
Opera House (ROH) he had to cope with a litany of problems that came with
its closure in the late 1980s. He also worked for the British Museum and the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO).

For most viewers, directors of television comedy are little more than a name
flashing past on the end credits. Bob Spiers, however, deserves to be
remembered as one of the best in the field, bringing to the job a special
creativity that greatly enhanced a string of landmark shows.

Kathy Staff became played to perfection the role of Nora Batty — a fearsome
battleaxe with trademark wrinkled stockings in the long-running and
much-loved television sitcom Last of the Summer Wine. Few episodes were
complete without Nora emerging on to her thoroughly well-scrubbed doorstep,
curlers in hair, armed with a broomstick, ready to shoo away the amorous
advances of Compo the unshaven ribald played by Bill Owen.

John Ringham, actor, was born on February 10, 1928. He died on October 20,
2008, aged 80

Avery Cardinal Dulles was one of the greatest thinkers in the modern Roman
Catholic church and perhaps its most distinguished representative in the
United States. The first American Jesuit to be named a cardinal, and for his
last two decades a professor at Fordham University, New York, he was
acknowledged to be the dean of American Catholic theologians.

Nina Foch played Gene Kelly’s benefactor and Leslie Caron’s romantic rival in An
American in Paris (1951), she pulled the infant Moses from the
bullrushes in The Ten Commandments (1956), and she was a skilled and
manipulative player on the political scene in Spartacus (1960).

Bettie Page was an American pin-up girl who took the art of the provocative
pose to new heights, or possibly depths depending on one’s capacity to be
scandalised, in the 1950s. In an age when such images were in their infancy,
she posed in bikinis, leopard skins, skimpy see-through underwear, corsets
and stockings; she brandished whips and was tied up in sadomasochistic
poses; and as often as not she was photographed wearing nothing more than a
pair of high heels.

Tassos Papadopoulos was a shrewd British-trained barrister who became Cyprus’s
youngest ever minister nearly half a century ago. He made it to the top in
politics late in life when he became President in early 2003.

Sir Curtis Keeble was Ambassador to the Soviet Union for four difficult years
between 1978 and 1982. He went to Moscow at the end of a long Diplomatic
Service career, distinguished in particular by his work as Britain’s first
ambassador to East Germany and then in London as the deputy under-Secretary
of state responsible for the service’s administration. Yet he did not look
or sound the part that he played so well. His face was homely, he took pride
in his simple origins, his voice rose frequently to the falsetto. He was an
odd figure in the regalia of the GCMG with which his services were marked
when he retired in 1982.

After a turbulent time in the Second World War, Jimmy James entered the Civil
Service. He was private secretary to the Chancellor of the Duchy of
Lancaster, then returned to the Home Office Police Department. In retirement
he was chief executive of the Distressed Gentlefolks Aid Association.

Nicholas Terry was a classic example of the self-effacing architect; someone
who believed wholeheartedly in collaborative working rather than the cult of
the individual superstar. After furthering his career internationally, he
rose to become head of Britain’s biggest firm of multi-discipline
architects, engineers and designers, BDP. As a meticulous designer himself,
he was heavily involved in two of the largest and highest-profile recent
cultural projects in London: the rebuilding and refurbishment of the Royal
Opera House in Covent Garden (in collaboration with the architects Dixon
Jones), and the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington. Equally adept at office and
retail buildings and interior design, Terry was one of architecture’s quiet
organisers and progressives.