Page 47 - The Old Ratcliffian 2011

The Old Ratcliffan 2011 | Obituaries Victor (‘Vic’) Casartelli Old Ratcliffian 1941-46 7th January 1929-9th June 2011 My father, Vic, died peacefully in Dad was born in Romily, Cheshire on The James Cook University Hospital, 7th January 1929. He joined Ratcliffe Middlesbrough on Thursday 9th June from Grace Dieu in the summer term 2011 surrounded by his family and of 1941, leaving five years later in following a short illness. 1946. In doing so, he followed his father Joseph Daniel (15) and uncles When we were preparing for his funeral, Harry (18) and Tony (21). we were surprised to hear that he had left precise instructions with his parish Following Ratcliffe and a spell of priest as to the format of the service. National Service, Dad qualified as He specified that his body should a dentist from Newcastle University be received into St Joseph’s Parish (Dunelm) where he met my mother, Church, Stokesley, the night before the Pat. They were married in 1957 service. He requested a Requiem Mass, and settled down to domestic life in Association and, although his the hymns to be sung, the readers at Middlesborough, where both my sister attendance at reunions was scarce, he the service and that his body should Susan and I were born. digested with zest his annual copy of be cremated afterwards. However, his the Ratcliffian. most explicit instruction, written in In the early eighties, Mum and Dad He also maintained links with his alma moved out to the small village of bold and underlined, was that there mater indirectly throughout his life. was to be NO EULOGY! Kirkby-in-Cleveland, nestled at the His elder sister, Joyce, married one of bottom of the Cleveland Hills, just Whilst that may have got me off the outside Stokesley. At this point, his life his contemporaries, Philip Hebbert hook, what I had intended to say, was complete and replete. He could (44). His younger brother, Paul (45) should I have had to speak, was that indulge his love of the countryside eventually became parish priest at Dad was an ordinary man. Rather and wildfowling by game keeping for Sileby and is buried in the graveyard than seeming to damn him with faint and running the local shoot. His faith at Ratcliffe, and I attended both Grace praise, he would wholeheartedly agree led him also to be very involved with Dieu and Ratcliffe. with that description. He was a God- the local parish church of St Joseph’s His last visit to the College was in fearing, ordinary man who hated fuss in Stokesley, where he was a Special September 2010, when we both and nonsense and being the centre of Minister for many years until his death. attended the funeral of Fr Dennis Hare. attention. He would get particularly He often spoke fondly of his time at Dad was very pleased on this visit to frustrated by the ‘canonisation’ of run into his old friend Fr Tony Baxter. the departed by family members Ratcliffe and the friends he made at funerals, thus triggering his last there. His belief in the Catholic faith, He was a wonderful father and friend request. Honouring that wish, I will nurtured at Ratcliffe and at home, and will be missed. therefore attempt to stick to the facts. remained with him for the rest of his life. He was a member of the Mike Casartelli (82) Terence Keogh Old Ratcliffian 1950-54 3rd March 1938-2nd May 2011 required of him without excelling in eye identified the symptoms of any sphere (but see below), and duly multiple sclerosis, that awful came into the family tyre distribution degenerative condition with which business after completing his two years he was to wage a lifelong battle; she of National Service in the army, as was nursed him with love and devotion until then customary. There he displayed an his death. A venture into the garage unsuspected talent for cross-country trade was less successful and, as his running, even representing the Army in condition worsened, he was obliged to inter-service competition. concentrate on survival. My younger brother was born on 3rd He had the inestimable good fortune In this he was remarkably successful, March 1938. He was the third son and to meet and marry Christine Haggett, refusing to submit to the MS or any seventh child of parents generous with a nursing sister from Solihull. They of the manifold medical troubles Christian names who titled him Terence reared three fine sons and he left the attending his weakened state, and Gerald Anthony, but was always known old firm to become Terry Tyres of regularly astounding the medics. In as Terry and is so remembered. Redditch at a time of great flux in all that time, he was never heard to After preparatory study at Grace Dieu, that trade. mutter a word of complaint or self-pity he followed his brothers to Ratcliffe It was in 1969 that Chris’ professional as his condition steadily deteriorated. College, where he did what was He became an object of wonder and Register online at www.ratcliffanassociation.co.uk 47