Find an obituary or death notice on this page, you are warmly welcomed to leave a message below, share your memories and celebrate the lives of those former pupils and staff we have sadly lost this year. If you would like to share an obituary or death notice, please contact us at:
E: development@kingsmac.co.uk 
T: 01625260000

Captain John Russell Turner (1945)
Passed away in January 2020, aged 89. Captain John was a regular contributer to the School's Bursary Fund and often wrote in to us with his reminiscences. You can find his most recent correspondence about the School during the Second World War here. 

Reminiscences

Tom North (Staff: 1981-2009)
Passed away in January 2020. He had been suffering from Dementia for some time. Tom joined the Maths department, having initially taken a degree in Maths/Statistics at Bath University, and immediately demonstrated himself to be an effective and conscientious teacher of the subject. When the school opened the Girls’ Division in 1992, he moved there from Cumberland Street, and positively thrived, becoming a very active and valued member of the steadily growing staff based at Fence Ave. In addition to his teaching role, Tom played many roles outside the classroom, including in charge of the canteen, the Fence Ave House System, and Maths Challenges, he also ran cricket and hockey sides, not to mention having a crucial responsibility for the Maths Entrance Exams.

Brian Williams (1947)
Passed away aged 89 in January 2020.

Keith Shawcross (1959)
Passed away aged 78 in January 2020 and was a supporter of the school's Bursary Fund.

Tony Iddon (1952) 
Passed away in January 2020, aged 83. He was the son of former Lancs. and England cricketer Jack Iddon, who was an all-rounder for Lancs for 22 years, and captain-elect when he died in a car accident in 1946. Tony was originally a boarder at King’s around the end of the Second World War, and after he left, enjoyed a business career in the Stockport area running a lubricants business. He was also a good club golfer, but he was best known as a trad jazz musician. He was a clarinettist, and leader of The Red River Jazzmen for over 50 years; they were very well known and very popular on the Manchester scene for many years - ‘one of the best trad jazz bands in the country in the 1960s’, according to one of the many tributes posted online on Tony’s death. The current band played ‘Roll me up and smoke me when I die’ at Tony’s funeral!

Michael Dorey (1951)
Passed away in Janaury 2020.

Henry Critchley (1944)
Passed away in February 2020, aged 91. He enjoyed attending the Over 60s lunches in recent years. 

Dr Edward Cockayne (1958)
Passed away aged 80, in May 2020. You can read his full obituary here. 

Edward Cockayne Obituary

Ian Taylor (1974)
Passed away aged 64 in June 2020 after a period of serious illness. The obituaries in national media demonstrated what a fascinating life Ian had led: ‘a reputation for swashbuckling deals’ and ‘a founding father of the modern commodity trading industry’ commented the FT. Said the CEO of Glencore: ‘one of the last of the pioneers who helped transform the oil trading industry’; and the Daily Telegraph: ‘an iconic figure, and one who was not afraid to go where others wouldn’t.’ You can read Ian's full obituary here.

Ian Taylor Obituary 

Eric Cliffe (1951)
Passed away in June 2020, aged 87. He left King’s to do two years national service with the Royal Artillery, and then took up a place to read Natural Sciences at Jesus College, Cambridge. From there, he went to the ‘other place,’ taking a DPhil at Oxford., before then enjoying an extremely successful career with Boots, based in Nottingham. He was credited with the development of the drug Ibuprofen, and progressed right through the company to eventually becoming Managing Director. Along the way he collected many honours, including becoming a fellow of the Royal Society of both Biology and Chemistry, and the Institute of Directors. After retirement, he did service on several boards, including that of Nottingham Trent University.

John Pleeth (1958)
Passed away in June 2020, aged 79. He was very well-known and well-respected in the locality, particularly through his roles as a magistrate, Scout master and in Round Table. From King’s, after a period working in the automotive industry, John spent the rest of his working life from 1968 with ICI/Astra Zeneca.

Graham Pike (1965)
Passed away in June 2020. He won the school’s prize for mathematics in his time at King’s and was also given an award by Sir Bernard Lovell. A very enthusiastic mathematician, he worked as a senior programmer for, amongst others, the European Space Agency, BAE Systems and the Nuclear Power Group.

Ernest Hague (1957) 
Passed away aged 82 in July 2020.

Richard Pearson (1952)
Passed away in August 2020 aged 86.

Paul Worsley (1963)
Passed away in August, 2020, in Te Aroha, New Zealand. He had gone direct to work locally on a farm after leaving school. Said friend from their schooldays Bob Bracegirdle, Paul was very much ‘his own man’. In 1967, he suddenly decided to go out to New Zealand to work on a dairy farm there, and there he stayed for the rest of his life. After completing a degree in Agricultural Science at Massey University, he worked for the New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture first as a dairy advisory officer, but then taking many other roles including as a technical trainer for the multinational DeLaval Company - when Paul eventually retired, the company actually named their training building after him. But he also carried on farming, with a colleague, taking to rearing calves, not to mention growing tobacco in a large vegetable garden area which he claimed made cigars ‘better than Cuban’!

Basil Dean (1935)
Passed away in September 2020, aged 96. He left King’s in 1942 to go to Liverpool University, where he took a degree in Physics with Maths and Wireless. Degree courses had been reduced to just two years because of the war, so it was in 1944 that he joined the services, in his case at the Admiralty, where he worked on the development of radar. Then, largely in order to get demobbed quickly, he opted to teach and soon discovered that he loved it! He taught first at Woodhouse Grove, then Thetford GS, and finally for 34 years as Head of Science at King’s School, Peterborough. Basil was also a very keen musician, playing the organ both at his schools and for many years at his local church. He had been a benefactor of the school during the period since he retired. 

NB Basil’s brother, Keith DEAN (1939) who was 3 years older, also attended King’s. On leaving school, he joined the RAF and trained as a pilot, but sadly was killed in a crash in June 1940. Keith had been planning to join the ministry and thence to do missionary work.

Michael Horrobin (1951)
Passed away aged 86 in October 2020. He enjoyed coming to the Over 60s lunch in recent years.

David Farrand (1978)
Passed away in November 2020 aged 60.

Jeanette Murphy (Staff)
Passed away in November 2020. Her passing was unexpected and sudden. Her family said their mum always loved her time at King’s. One former pupil described her as ‘the undoubted queen of the up-sell’.

Richard Starkie (Staff:1967-1993)
Passed away in November 2020, aged 76. A native of Rochdale, after taking a degree in French at Liverpool University, and gaining a PGCE at Hull, Richard joined the French department at King’s in 1967. You can read Richard's full obituary here.

Richard Starkie Obituary 

Ian Hammond (1959)
Passed away in December 2020, aged 78.

David Smith (Staff: 1977-2004)
Passed away in December 2020. David, or DOS as he was generally referred to, came to King’s from KES Birmingham, to succeed Norman Blakeley, who had been the school’s bursar for many years until his retirement. He immediately slotted in as an important member of the senior management team at the school, as well as fulfilling his responsibilities as Clerk to the Governors. In addition to the everyday duties of his role, which he carried out with unfailing politeness and efficiency, as well as demonstrating a quiet sense of humour, he also had a major involvement in as least three major innovations which were all very significant in the school becoming what it is today. He was responsible for introducing the school’s first computerised systems for maintaining parental records, he was heavily involved in finalising the school’s transition from its traditional relationship with Cheshire LEA into a truly independent school, and he also led the negotiations for the acquisition of the Fence Avenue site and then for its complete refurbishment as the site of the Girls’ and Junior Divisions. Thus, David’s vision, his attention to detail and his financial acumen were all of huge importance at a crucial stage in the school’s development.