Section:GDN 1J PaGe:11 Edition Date:190807 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 6/8/2019 19:17 cYanmaGentaYellowbla
Wednesday 7 August 2019 The Guardian •
11
David Abraham, former chief
executive, Channel 4, 56 ; Bruce
Dickinson, singer, songwriter and
airline pilot, 61; Greg Chappell,
cricketer, 71; Brian Conley,
entertainer, 58 ; Dominic Cork,
cricketer, 48 ; David Duchovny,
actor, 59 ; Kristin Hersh, musician
and songwriter, 53; Garrison
Keillor, writer, 77 ; Zane Lowe, radio
DJ and presenter, 46; Owen Luder,
architect, 91; Doon Mackichan,
actor and comedian, 57; Sarah
Mackintosh, British ambassador to
Nato, 50; Seema Malhotra, Labour
Co-op MP, 47 ; Lindsay Nicholson,
magazine editor, 63 ; Matthew
Parris, journalist and broadcaster,
70; Alain Robert, urban climber, 57;
Nick Ross, broadcaster, 72; Judith
Rowe, QC, deputy high court judge,
62 ; Alexei Sayle, actor, comedian
and writer, 67 ; Michael Shannon,
actor, 45; Drusilla Sharpling, HM
Inspector of Constabulary and Fire
& Rescue Services, 64; Sir Richard
Sykes, biochemist and chancellor
of Brunel University, 77 ; Charlize
Theron, actor, 44; Jimmy Wales,
co-founder, Wikipedia, 53.The one time I saw the magnifi cent
actor Freddie Jones (obituary, 12
July) in the fl esh came in a one-man
show, staged at The Other Place,
Stratford, in 1991, on the life and
work of the rustic poet John Clare,
who was incarcerated in an asylum
and died there. Freddie was on
stage, alone, for the best part of
two hours, and was spellbinding- a triumph.
Dave Wiltshire
Letter
Freddie JonesAnnouncements
Other
lives
Active trade unionist, committed
communist and peace campaigner for
whom politics took centre stage
My father, George Abendstern,
who has died aged 88, arrived in
Britain with his family in 1938. They
were part of a small community of
German Jewish refugees fl eeing
Nazi persecution who settled in
Rochdale, Lancashire.
George was born in Neumünster,
northern Germany, the elder son
of Hannah (nee Feldman), who
had been a portrait photographer
before her marriage, and Martin
Abendstern, an industrial chemist.
Martin worked for the Jewish
leather manufacturer Adler and
Oppenheimer and when they
established the Lancashire Tanning
Company in Rochdale, he was one of
the employees transferred to the UK,
accompanied by his family.
At 15 George started work as
an apprentice at the engineering
fi rm Mather and Platt in Newton
Heath, Manchester, progressing to
draughtsman and later to technical
author. He recalled being both
overwhelmed and excited by the
atmosphere of the shopfl oor. It was
there that his politics crystallised
and he became an active trade
unionist and committed communist.
In 1952 he married Jacqueline
Shotton, with whom he had two
children, Jeanette and me. Their
marriage ended amicably in 1977
and in 1980 he met Linda Clair, his
partner in life and politics for the
next 39 years. George also became
father to Linda’s two daughters,
Julie and Beverley.
Civil servant passionate about
preserving the unspoilt character of
his home village, Sunbury-on-Thames
My brother, Patrick Curran, who has
died aged 79, was a civil servant who
spent 40 years working his way up in
the Department for Education.
Patrick played a vital part in
establishing the UK’s Public Lending
Right in 1979, reforming the Schools
Council and the secondary schools
examinations system, developing
the landmark Children Act 1989,
helping to create Ofsted in 1992
and promoting schemes for early
childhood learning in the late 1990s.
He was born in Limerick, Ireland,
to Norah (nee Kennedy) and Richard
Curran, who emigrated to England
with their two young sons in 1947
in search of a better life. Our family
settled in East Acton, west London,
after our father joined the prison
service. He joined the civil service
aged 18, straight from GunnersburyPharmacologist convinced that the
public and doctors needed to know
more about prescription drugs
My father, Desmond Laurence,
who has died aged 96, was a
pharmacologist whose career was
dedicated to informing the public
and doctors about the drugs they
were taking or prescribing.
His textbook Clinical
Pharmacology, fi rst published in
1960 and reissued in seven further
editions (from 1992 in collaboration
with Peter Bennett), was translated
into fi ve languages and used by
students and practitioners all overGeorge Abendstern
Patrick Curran Desmond Laurence
Together George and Linda
campaigned tirelessly for the
rights of Palestinians. George was
also a peace campaigner and was
bookkeeper for Greater Manchester
CND for many years. Although
politics took centre stage for George,
he had a rich cultural and social
life and a wide range of interests,
including mill engines, classical
music and cooking. He loved hiking
and cycling in the Pennines and the
Lake District, canal boat holidays ,
and Greek island hopping.
He was deeply attached to
Rochdale, feeling hefted to its
industrial heritage and landscape.
He was a man of great charm and
style, warmth and humour, an
activist who refused to stand by
when he witnessed injustice.
He is survived by Linda, his four
daughters and seven grandchildren.
Michele AbendsternBirthdays
[email protected]
[email protected]
@guardianobitsCatholic grammar school. In 1964 he
married Patsy Byrne and they settled
in Sunbury-on-Thames in Surrey.
My brother became passionate
about preserving Sunbury’s unspoilt
riverside character and in 1972 was
central in setting up the Lower
Sunbury Residents’ Association,
which he also chaired. He led many
local campaigns, including one
against a proposed bypass through
Sunbury, and another against the
controversial Heathrow-Gatwick
large helicopter link, which began
operating in 1978. Its licence was
revoked in 1986.
In 2000 he was appointed OBE for
his services to education.
A keen amateur footballer into
his 30s, Patrick retained active
sporting interests throughout his
life. He co-founded a local cycling
group and also took up long distance
running in his mid-50s, completing
three London Marathons. He was a
supporter of the London Irish rugby
union team and of Blackpool FC.
He is survived by Patsy, their
daughters Catherine and Juliette,
a grandson, James, and his two
brothers, Noel and me.
Desmond Curranthe world. It was known for its
yellow cover, accessible style and
wide range of quotations. The 12th
edition appeared earlier this year.
Desmond believed strongly that
both the medical profession and
the public needed to know more
about drugs to be able to use them
eff ectively. He also published The
Medicine You Take (1978), with his
friend Sir James Black.
Desmond was born in Vancouver,
Canada, where his peripatetic
parents, Colin Laurence and Lady
Sybil Stopford, had arrived in search
of a living. Returning eventually to
England, his parents were divorced
in 1930. Desmond was educated at
the Royal Masonic school in Bushey,
Hertfordshire, and in 1940 he went to
St Thomas’ hospital medical school.
After his national service he
became a registrar at St Thomas’ and
in 1950 a lecturer in therapeutics.
In 1954 he was appointed a
senior lecturer then reader in
pharmacology and therapeutics
at University College London and
University College Hospital medical
school. In 1964 he was made
professor of pharmacology and
therapeutics. He retired in 1984.
He served on many committees
in the university, the Department
of Health and the World Health
Organization and enjoyed acting
as an irritant to what he regarded
as establishment views. In 1966
he began a campaign to secure the
regulation of clinical research by
ethics committees and prepared
the fi rst edition of the Royal
College of Physicians’ guidelines
for such bodies. His interest in this
continued into old age when he
conducted a campaign to secure
no-fault compensation for healthy
volunteers injured in clinical trials.
He was an energetic man with
wide interests. In retirement he
took up collecting oriental ceramics,
giving their study the same serious
attention that he had given his
professional concerns.
He married Alice Roseby in 1946.
She died in 2011. He is survived by
their three children, Sue, Mike and
me, and by six grandchildren and
two great-grandchildren.
Anne LaurenceErrol Groves
Gardener by day, musician by night,
and co-founder in 1976 of the Vale
Earth Fair music festival in Guernsey
My father, Errol Groves, who has died
aged 69 of cancer, was an activist,
gardener, musician and co-founder of
the Vale Earth Fair, an annual charity
music festival held in Guernsey.
Every August bank holiday ,
about 2,000 people and more than
60 acts gather across fi ve stages at
the 15th-century Vale Castle, which
Errol chose as the island’s best venue
for live outdoor music. The two-
day festival is volunteer-run and- largely thanks to Errol’s infl uence
- as green as possible, with profi ts
donated to humanitarian causes and
everything possible recycled.
Born in Banbridge, Northern
Ireland, one of fi ve children of Eva
(nee Davis), a shopkeeper, and David
Groves, a farmer, Errol attended
Banbridge academy. After leaving
school he travelled to Guernsey
in 1966, where he had heard there
were jobs to be had. An anarchist ,
he helped bring 60s and 70s
counterculture to the island.
He set up his own gardening
business, Earthworks, in the 70s. A
gardener by day, he was a musician
by night, playing the bongos and
conga drums in three local bands
over the years: Two Trumpets, the
Coal Hole Combo and Edith’s Head.
His contribution to the island’s
music was also to arrange gigs in
unusual venues, inspiring others to
do the same. In the summer of 1976
he took things further with some
friends, and planned Guernsey’s fi rst
one-day festival. He was involved in
the Vale Earth Fair for 41 years and
was the only founder who retained
a big role in what he once called “the
best little festival on the planet”.
Resolutely leftwing, in 1982 he
co-founded Radical Island Press,
or RIP, an alternative magazine,
which ran for several years. Other
initiatives included the Peace Field,
a crop-growing, horse-ploughedfi eld to raise money for good causes
in 1985, a three-day outdoor fast
against the Gulf war in 1990 and
protests against local plans for an
incinerator in 2004.
The last part of his life he spent
mostly at Duvaux farm, where
he tended his allotment and kept
chickens, discovered new music
online, read and, a Manchester
United fan, listened to football on
the radio.
He is survived by three children,
Siubhan, Michèle and me, from his
1972 marriage to Carolyn Myryam,
which ended in divorce in 1989;
a son, Yves, from his relationship
with Hayley Le Marquand; three
grandchildren ; and his four siblings,
Anne, Gordon, Brian and Enid.
Ellen GrovesEurope Now
will return in
the autumnРЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS