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The Old Ratclifan 2014 | Introductionhe Old Ratclifan 2014 | Obituaries The Old Ratclifan 2014 | IntroductionThe Old Ratclifan 2014 | Obituaries T David Gee Richard Francis Cunningham OBE, KCSG Old Ratcliffian 1970 - 1974 Old Ratcliffian 1940 - 1948 October 11th 1956 - February 11th 2014 April 10th 1930 - February 19th 2014 David was at Ratcliffe between 1970 and 1974, where when suffering from dementia. Sadly, a recurrence of his History was a special interest, and he subsequently own disease was diagnosed in late 2013. Typically, he Our parents, Richard and Mary Cunningham, had five children. developed a considerable knowledge of the Second World bore this uncomplainingly, dying only eight months after his Four boys – Anthony, Richard, Christopher (usually called Kit) War. After leaving the College, he followed his family into mother. He is survived by his elder brother, Jeremy (71), and myself, the youngest (and I am some six years younger Public Service and joined the Ministry of Defence, working and his father. than Richard). They also had a girl – my sister Mildred, who, on various projects at sites in and around Bath and Bristol. May he rest in peace. I am glad to say, is here with us today. Richard was their In spite of his contracting cancer in 2005, he lovingly second child and second son, born on April 10th 1930. helped his father nurse his mother through her last years Jeremy Gee (71) I have few memories of him before I was 11, because all four boys were sent to boarding school – first to the prep school, Grace Dieu, and then on to Ratcliffe. When I joined Grace Dieu in 1942, Richard had already gone on to Ratcliffe. When I arrived at Ratcliffe in 1947, he was in his second year of Sixth Form and was a very powerful figure (at least to the boys), Chris Tandy because he was a School Prefect. He had his own study and I would go there every day during the mid-morning break to Old Ratcliffian 1996 - 2004 see him, and often Kit (Cunningham) as well. Possibly more Administrative grade of the Civil Service, at first as an Assistant importantly, I would go there to have a slice of bread and jam, November 5th 1985 - August 2nd 2014 as he always had a loaf of bread, which, in those days, we Principal and then a Principal in the Ministry of Education. would hack into thick slices. In 1947, with food rationing still He served as the Private Secretary to Sir Edward Boyle, the It gives me great sadness to write this for the Old very much in force, everybody was perpetually hungry. Parliamentary Secretary, and also to Geoffrey Lloyd, the Ratcliffian. It feels so incredibly unfair that such a Minister of Education, from 1957 to 1959. wonderful person, loved by so many, and with so much Although our father was quite an athlete (family tradition says ahead of him, passed away suddenly over the summer. that, in about 1912, he ran the mile in 4 minutes and 12 It was while he was at the Ministry that we shared another seconds, when the world record was then 4 minutes and 8 holiday together in 1957, travelling by train from London to Our dear school friend, Chris Tandy, tragically lost his seconds), at least two of his four sons, Richard and I, were Paris, Chartres, Madrid, Toledo, Seville, Cordoba, Granada life whilst cycling over London Bridge on the evening of ‘rabbits’ as far as sport was concerned. His forte was academic and Malaga - a journey which lasted four weeks and produced Saturday 2nd August 2014. and intellectual and he achieved excellent exam results, from a huge number of hilarious anecdotes, some unrepeatable. In For those of you who knew Chris, you will remember what was then the School Certificate upwards. He received Spain, we stayed in what were third-class ‘pensione’, where a kind, caring young man with a huge zest for life. He excellent teaching and coaching from a teacher at Ratcliffe the average tariff for full board (that is for bed and breakfast, certainly took me under his wing when I arrived for Sixth - the famous Dr Walter Ullmann, known familiarly as ‘Doc lunch and dinner, including as much wine as you could drink), Form back in 2002. Olly’, who would, later in my time at Cambridge, become the was then 12/6d a day (i.e. 62½ pence in today’s money). Professor of Medieval History. As a result, Richard won a place 1959 would become a year of change for Richard. He got As a member of Chris’s close circle of school friends, a and a College Scholarship at Peterhouse, Cambridge, to read group that had mostly all moved to London to live and to History from 1948, and three years later, emerged with a First married and he changed his job, in that order. Geoffrey Lloyd work, it was hugely upsetting for all of us to be returning to Class Degree. I think he probably enjoyed the social life at retired from Government, although not Parliament, after the Ratcliffe ten years after leaving school to attend the funeral Cambridge, since a lady who was there at the same time told 1959 General Election, and Edward Boyle moved to the of one of our dearest friends, when we should, in fact, have me, many years later, that ‘We all thought he was the most Treasury, so Richard’s job was going to change in any case. been returning for our ten-year reunion. handsome man in Cambridge’. But, at the same time, the Catholic Bishop’s Conference had a problem, since the Secretary of the Catholic Education Despite everyone’s immense sadness, the send-off was After Cambridge, he went to do his National Service and was Council was retiring, and they approached Richard - an offer a rather beautiful one; the church was filled with Chris’ commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Intelligence he willingly accepted. He became the Secretary of the Catholic family and friends giving a bright and fitting tribute to how Corps, posted to Germany and attached to a Signals regiment Education Council on January 1st 1960 and he would remain loved and highly regarded he was throughout his short life. in that post for nearly 32 years, retiring on March 31st 1991, near Munster. Clearly, they must have been monitoring Some hugely heart-warming speeches and poems were involving ministers and high-ranking officials from eighty Russian signals traffic, but to the end of his life, he would when the Catholic Education Council changed its name to the read, and as the service came to a close, we sang one countries. The Going Global Conference works with never reveal what he did, because he was bound by the Official Catholic Education Service. He remained a full-time consultant of Chris’ favourite songs, Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Go Your Own universities in several continents to find solutions to Secrets Act. to them for another two years, until April 1993. Way’. We then lined the school drive and said our final global problems. This year, Chris organised and staged a While he was in Germany, I joined him as a 16 year old for a His contribution to the cause of Catholic Education in the 20th goodbye. conference in Miami, following last year’s event in Dubai. two-week holiday travelling down the Rhine Valley and onto century is widely recognised as very significant. Paul Barber, Chris’s family and friends did him proud that day, I can Chris, we will miss you so, so much. We promise we will Mainz, Frankfurt, Wurzburg and Nuremberg, at a time which the current Director of the Catholic Education Service, has guarantee you that. We made the whole day a celebration. continue like you’d want us to and enjoy our time here for was only seven years after the end of the Second World War. written that he was a legendary figure in Catholic Education, A hog roast, pale ales and big vats of curry were dished however long that is. We promise we will grab life by the At that time, German hotels and inns required all guests to and made an immeasurable contribution to Catholic Education out afterwards in the Square, where we shared stories and horns and live it fully with a smile on our faces, a sense of fill in a detailed form which was delivered to the local police in this country. I do not pretend to understand the development remembered the times we had spent with him. He would gratitude for everything you gave us and the knowledge that station the same day. The form included a box which said of Catholic Education in England and Wales, but I believe that have hated missing out on all the good food and drink the world will always be a little brighter because you were ‘Purpose of Visit’, to which the obvious entry was ‘Tourism’, one of his achievements, working with the Catholic Bishops’ flowing that day! in it. but Richard always insisted on entering ‘Espionage’, and I have Conference and with the Duke of Norfolk in the House of Lords, was to persuade the Government overtime to change Chris was working at the British Council, where he Rest in peace. to tell you that it was never challenged its policy about the capital funding of Catholic schools, from a by anyone. organised the annual Going Global Education Conference situation where Government funded only 15% in 1960 to the Nick Stear (04) After National Service, he joined, in 1953, what was then the Government funding 80% in 1980. This was a very significant 55 54 54 Register o 55 Register online at www.ratclifanassociation.co.uknline at www.ratclifanassociation.co.uk