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PETER REGINALD CLAYTON (R67 -61) died on 18th August 2023. He always enjoyed keeping up with all the news about his old school.

Peter was married to Lynette Clayton for 53 years. They had three children, Joanne, Clare and Ruth, and two Grandsons, Flynn and Brennan. His brother,  Roger Clayton also attended Framlingham.

After leaving school Peter tried a number of jobs,and finished up working for Shell for some time. Eventually, having unfortunately being made redundant, he decided he would like to run a pub. Peter and Lynette were lucky enough to be given the tenancy of the beautiful Shepherd-Neame Plough Inn, in Brabourne Lees, and moved in in 1979.

Peter was heavily involved in village life. He was on the Parish Council for 35 years and Chairman for 9.  He had been a member of the Village Hall Committee, the Playing Field Association and the Village Fete Committee.  He operated the PA for the village fete for many years.  He organised a number of quizzes which were a lot of fun and raised sizeable amounts of money for lots of local causes. He also operated the sound system for the village pantos and The Pilgrims Hospice events.

He was a lifelong supporter and member of the RNLI and the Royal British Legion and really loved the Poppy Day collections. He was always so friendly and readily persuaded  people to part with their money.

In recent years Peter and a great friend of his put together a number of talks, set to music from various eras. These were very successful. The received bookings up to a year in advance for these talks which brought together interesting facts and music, alongside their sense of humour and fun. Peter loved doing these and spent hours going through his music collections to find the perfect music accompaniment to the words.

Peter loved his family enormously and liked nothing more than to be surrounded by members of that family.

KEITH CHARLES OAKLEY (K1945-50) died aged 89, on 9th September 2023 in St. Elizabeth Hospice, Ipswich.  He was husband to Pamela and father of Philip, Elizabeth, Roger and Jennifer.

This news was originally passed on by his daughter, Elizabeth, who had many happy memories of growing up on Lime Tree Farm, Badingham. The funeral was held on Thursday 5th October at St Peters Church Henley. Sadly Elizabeth, too, passed away in February 2024. The obituary is contributed by Keith’s son, Philip.

Keith attended Framlingham College between 1945 – 1950, doing General Studies.  After leaving the College he worked on a local farm before doing a farming apprenticeship near Boscastle in Cornwall.  He did his National Service in Germany with the Royal Army Service Corps between 1953-56.  He married Pamela Lay in 1961, having met her whilst in the Ipswich YMCA Amateur Operatic Society. They had four children. Always a hands-on, independent and practical man, he built his first home, a bungalow, in Ufford.   He later bought a farm in Badingham, breeding pigs. He also ran a caravan site. He involved himself with village life, from serving on the parish council to helping organise village events.  In 1978 he sold the farm and moved his family to Henley. He then worked for John Grose until retirement in 1999.  He loved the outdoors and being active: from gardening to caravan holidays across Europe, which often involved walking in the hills and mountains.

During retirement he enjoyed travel and visited many counties around the world, including New Zealand, Australia, India and Canada. In his later years he suffered kidney problems, but this did not stop him travelling, armed with his portable dialysis machine.  After catching Covid in 2021 his health and independence deteriorated until his kidneys finally failed him. His family will miss him.

Philip also sent us two pictures from those distant years, which may be of historical interest, particularly the picture of the Junior House, with DD Kittermaster, shortly before the move to Brandeston Hall.

David Edwin Hkio (R58-63) died on 10 August 2023 at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridgeshire.  We were notified by his wife Elizabeth.

Guy Stillingfleet Brooke-Smith (S41-44) – he passed away on 28 June 2023 aged 94 years, sourrounded by his 2 daughters and his daughter-in-law.  His death happened very suddenly but he had been battling for 2 months to get fit again after a chest infection and a bladder infection.

His youngest daughter Joanne Brooke-Smith sent the following “Dad was very proud to have been a scholar at Framlingham College, from 1941 to 1944. He was the only child out of 8 to be able to attend such a wonderful school. He left to attend the Mercantile Marine Service association School ship “Conway”  from 1944 to 1946 following his Father Louis and then brothers John and Francis foot step.  Then from 1946-1949 he was at sea service working for as a midshipman doing various duties for Ellerman and Bucknall Steam ship then also served 6 months as midshipman R.N.R in Malta in fleet Auxilliary and deputising as sub Lieutenant.

Then in 1949 in London he applied and was recruited as a trooper (Mounted policeman) with the British South African Police and was sent to Salisbury, Rhodesia where he was trained and was stationed at various district stations to carry out normal Police work. He left the police force in 1956 but still remained a Police reservist from 1956 to 1980 when he left the country.

After he left the force in 1956 he worked in the agriculture industry selling Agri equipment until 1980 where he immigrated to Canada with his family. Arriving in Toronto Canada working as a technical consultant for just under a year before finding another job on Vancouver Island BC Canada and moving the family across Canada where we lived on Vancouver Island in Nanaimo, Errington and Parksville. Due to tough economic conditions they decided to immigrate to South Africa in 1982 and in Johannesburg he retrained as a financial advisor for SA Perm Bank where he had an outstanding service record with his clients. He retired in 1990 and did an Realty Estate course and some other private work from home before they moved to their home in Hoekwil, Wilderness Western Cape 15km from George where they spent many happy years in retirement.

Margaret his wife in 2009 was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and the eldest son offered them the cottage on his farm as life was becoming difficult for him looking after and running the property so in March 2013 they moved up to Limpopo to live on Andrew’s farm but in the meantime Andrew had been offered a job in the Philippine’s farming pineapples which he accepted. Guys wife past in 2016 and he survived her for 7 years, keeping himself very busy on the property cutting grass and maintenance. He had all his children visiting him from time to time and I the youngest Joanne was working on game reserves so I returned every 6 weeks for 2 week break before giving up work at the end of February 2022 to come and help clean, cook, garden and eventually when he required help himself but it was only in the last few weeks he required the most help.

My father was a good father and man and had a full and varied life and I feel privileged to have had this extra time with him and he will be sorely missed.”

Christopher Eamonn Core (S73-78) – he passed away w/c 26 June 2023 aged 51 years. His daughter (Zoe M08-11) attended the College as well. His son Tom went to Uppingham.

Gary Duce (K71-79) provided the following biography :  He studied geology and worked in the oil industry for many years on oil exploration visiting many interesting countries. On retiring from that work, he opened a model shop in Colchester as he was a very good model maker and had many dioramas for himself and made to order for others. Then in later life his eyesight deteriorated due to his Diabetes so he could not drive but helped out at the local Air Cadet Group in Braintree along with his faithful companion Baxter his dog. He joined the OF Lodge in January 1993, was our Master in 2000 and again in 2011, he obtained provincial rank in first in 2007 then promotions in 2015 and in 2022 to the rank of Past Provincial Sword Bearer. Chris always helped out when he could and was inspiring to some of our newer members. He will be sorely missed.

Andrew Graham Dean (G85-90) – Andy passed away w/c 19 June 2023 aged 51 years. The funeral will be held at Colchester Crematorium on Monday 3rd July 2023 at 1:15 PM.

John David Ingate (R53-58) – he passed away 17 June 2023 aged 80 years. The funeral service is on Saturday 1st July at St Margaret of Antioch Church, Linstead Parva, Halesworth at 11am. Family flowers only please or donations to Halesworth Volunteer Centre.

William Frederick Gordon Shaw (K67-72), son of Colonel George William Shaw, passed peacefully away on 26th April 2023, aged 69. William (Bill) was a former Crown servant (1972 to 1984) and Local Authority Officer (1985 to 2010). He played rugby for Esher/Fylde and Sidcup and was Hon. Secretary of Sidcup Rugby Club, 1985 to 1987.

His wife, Suzanne, has some photos of him in cricket and rugby teams where, helpfully, he had also noted the names of his teammates. He was in Kerrison House, and the photos are
dated 1969 and 1970.

Bill was born in Devizes, Wiltshire in 1953 to parents, George and Sybil Shaw.

Sybil was a trained physiotherapist and George was an officer in the army. This meant that he was posted at various locations around the world and Bill became what is known colloquially as an army brat, moving with the family. They lived in Hong Kong from 1955 to 1958 then moved back to the UK to Devizes, then on to New Eltham, moving again to Salisbury in 1961.

Bill’s sister Jo was born in 1962 and the family then relocated to Glasgow where Bill’s schooling showed a deterioration. His parents took the decision to move him to a boarding prep school at Sompting Abbots in West Sussex where apparently, he thrived. Later I believe, when he was 13, he was transferred to Framlingham College as a boarder. Bill told me many stories about Framlingham as they still had ‘fagging’ which included cleaning older boys’ studies, warming up a toilet seat for seniors, or serving food to the top table. He likened it to the film ‘IF’ which we watched together in later life. He was quite sporty, being an excellent swimmer, and he played in the rugby and cricket teams. Rugby would play a major part in his life in later years. He became a prefect in the senior year, but fagging had been abolished when a new headmaster was appointed with more modern ideas.

When Bill left the College, he worked for an insurance company in Bristol and had a couple of runouts for the Bristol U21s rugby team. It did not take him long to realise that he had made a mistake in his career, and he applied to work for the Crown Agents where he enjoyed his work enormously. At some stage he lived in a shared house in West Drayton, mostly with air stewardesses, one of whom he had a crush on, as he admitted to me. However, this lady went on to have a relationship with a Concorde pilot and Bill could not compete with that. His loss was my gain.

Later, the government of the day reduced the responsibilities of the Crown Agents and Bill found himself unemployed. To his enormous credit he went on a Transport Management course in Blackpool for around six months and passed with flying colours. Not bad for a man who had never learned to drive. I was enormously grateful for his knowledge, as I am known to have no sense of direction, even holding a map upside-down once which seemed to amuse him greatly. Whilst in Blackpool he played for Fylde Rugby club and remained a member for several seasons. He had a few hobbies in philately, aircraft and archaeology; and was a member of the British Museum. Several of our holidays had an archaeological theme, including a memorable visit to Syria just a week before it became a war zone!

In 1976 disaster struck: His dad, George, passed away and Bill went to live with his mum for comfort and support. During this period, he was working for Tower Hamlets Council who decided to ‘rationalise’ their transport section, and Bill found himself in a different position, working as a manager in street management. This job did not give him the same satisfaction, but he had his many rugby matches with Sidcup RFC to compensate. In 1997 he had just given up rugby after being advised by his GP that one more injury to his foot would cause serious problems. Similarly, I had just given up serious club running owing to knee issues. I had not been in a relationship for some time so put out an advertisement (before the internet) and Bill responded, not until after I had met a few frogs! From then on life was happy, wonderful and fun again with this magnificent man. I will love him forever, and now that he has gone there is a black hole where my heart once was. Bless you Bill.

My husband William Frederick Gordon Shaw, son of Colonel George
William Shaw, passed peacefully on 26th April aged 69. This photo was taken on our wedding day 5^th September 2009. Suzanne Shaw.

Benjamin Robin Barringer (G56-61) died on 12th May 2023, aged 80 in Spain. We were notified by his younger brother Bill (G61-65).