Section:GDN 1J PaGe:9 Edition Date:190731 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 30/7/2019 18:01 cYanmaGentaYellowbla
Wednesday 31 July 2019 The Guardian •9
Victoria Azarenka, tennis
player, 30 ; Steuart Bedford,
conductor, 80 ; Kenny Burrell,
jazz guitarist, 88; Dean Cain,
actor, 53; Evonne Goolagong
Cawley, tennis player, 68; Will
Champion, drummer, 41 ; Geraldine
Chaplin, actor, 75; Jonathan
Dimbleby, broadcaster, 75; Lord
(James) Selkirk of Douglas,
former Conservative minister,
77; Lord (John) Dyson, former
master of the rolls and head
of civil justice, 76; Emilia Fox,
actor, 45 ; Frank Gardner, BBC
security correspondent, 58 ; Frank
Giles, former editor, the Sunday
Times, 100; Fergus Henderson,
chef and restaurant owner, 56;
Penny Hughes, business executive
and former president, Advertising
Association, 60; Stanley Jordan,
jazz guitarist, 60; Sherry Lansing,
fi lm producer, 75 ; Andrew Marr,
writer and broadcaster, 60;
Conor McGinn, Labour MP, 35;
Peter Nichols, playwright, 92;
Lynne Reid Banks, novelist and
children’s writer, 90; JK Rowling,
children’s writer, 54 ; Fatboy Slim
(Norman Cook), DJ and record
producer, 56 ; Wesley Snipes,
actor, 57 ; Howard Thomas,
emeritus professor of hepatology,
Imperial College London, 74; Mark
Thompson, CEO of the New York
Times company and former director
general, BBC, 62.Announcements
Birthdays
[email protected]
@guardianobitsJK Rowling,
author of the
Harry Potter
children’s stories,
is 54 todayOther
lives
Alan Bell
Folk musician whose best-known
song, Bread and Fishes, written in
1968, is still widely performed
My friend Alan Bell, who has died
aged 84, was a folk singer, songwriter,
festival organiser and activist, but
earned his living as a sales manager in
the wine trade. His best-known song,
Bread and Fishes, written in 1968,
is still widely sung in churches and
schools, was featured on television
in Songs of Praise and reached the
charts in Ireland and Japan.
Alan’s fi rst payment was a couple
of bottles of beer for performing
six Woody Guthrie songs in the Old
Dungeon Ghyll hotel in the Lake
District in the mid-1950s. He soon
turned to British folk songs and
joined the Taverners quartet, who
started the Blackpool folk club in- They recorded four albums and
did as many gigs across the north of
England as their day jobs allowed,
disbanding in 1981.
The son of Reginald Bell, an RAF
driving instructor, and Lilian (nee
Brooks), a barmaid, Alan was born
in Gorton, Manchester, but grew
up in Fleetwood on the Fylde coast
in Lancashire, attending Hodgson
secondary school in Poulton-le-
Fylde. The Fylde and the Lakes
provided much of the inspiration
for Alan’s songwriting. Windmills,
The Lakeland Fiddler, Alice White
and Song for Mardale all referred
to specifi c people, places and
incidents, and even Letters from
Wilfred, about the poet Wilfred
Owen, made reference to the time
Owen was stationed in Fleetwood.
In the 70s Alan was principal
Martin Michael
Ian Duffi eld
Peter Sibley
Malaysia’s longest-serving
commercial pilot, he clocked up 18,523
hours with the national airline
My father, Martin Michael, who has
died aged 79, was an airline pilot who
always had fl ying in his blood.
He was born and brought up in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the son of
Michael Sami, a manager at Standard
Chartered bank, and his wife, Agnes
(nee Rajaratnam). As a child, Martin
would make model planes and use a
torch to read aviation books at night
when he was in bed.
After attending school at St John’s
institution, Kuala Lumpur, he was
able to train as a pilot in the UK – at
Elstree aerodrome, Hertfordshire- thanks to a loan secured from
the bank by his father. In 1966 he
joined Malaysia Singapore Airlines
as a commercial pilot. He started
fl ying DC-3s and after a few years as
a fi rst offi cer he got his command as
captain in 1971, on the McDonnell
Douglas DC-10. He was always a
respected and well-liked pilot.
When the airline split into two
companies along national lines, in
1977, he opted to stay in Malaysia to
be with his family. In 1989 he was
selected to ferry Malaysia Airlines’
fi rst B747-400 from Seattle, in the
US, back to his home city. It was an
exciting upgrade to the fl eet and he
felt honoured to be chosen.
At the time of his retirement in
1999 he had clocked up 18,523 hours
and was featured in the Malaysia
Book of Records as the nation’s
longest-serving commercial pilot,
with 36 years’ service.
In retirement in Sydney, Australia,
he enjoyed gardening, PC games and
keeping up with current aff airs.
He is survived by his wife , Gloria
(nee Lobo), whom he married in
1973, their three sons, Nikhil, Rakesh
and me, and seven grandchildren.
Sanjay Michael
Pioneer in the study of black British
history and of empire from the
perspective of the colonies
My father-in-law and former PhD
supervisor, Ian Duffi eld, has died
aged 82. A brilliant historian of
formidable intellect, he was a
pioneer in the study of black British
history, particularly of radicalism in
the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
After a trip to Australia in the
1980s and his discovery of the
convict archives there, Ian took
up the study of the transportation
of black convicts from Britain and
its empire to the Australian penal
colonies. His innovative work on
such “histories from below” added a
missing dimension to social histories
of the day, bringing the experiences
of convicts to the fore – including
enslaved men and women in theTheatre manager and producer with
stints as a music promoter and an
ecstatically reviewed restaurateur
My friend Peter Sibley, who has died
aged 77, was a fl amboyant fi gure
in the world of theatre, where he
was a manager and producer, and
in music, where he spent time in
public relations for Polydor. He had
a fi erce and sometimes frightening
intelligence, with a razor-sharp witsongwriter for Granada Television’s
series Ballad of the North-West.
Inspired by Ewan MacColl’s Radio
Ballads for the BBC, he wrote several
song cycles that were performed and
recorded by his own band. The Band
in the Park won an Italia radio prize,
Wind, Sea, Sail and Sky celebrated
Fleetwood’s 150th anniversary and
The Century’s People told the stories
of local people – local themes, but
universal messages.
Frustrated that the north-west
had no major folk festival, he started
the Fylde festival in Fleetwood in- It quickly grew in size and
reputation. There were clog dance
and dialect competitions and a
music hall night as well as concerts
from famous names in folk music.
In 1969 he married Christine
Harrison, who went on to give him
strong support as festival secretary.
She survives him, as do their sons,
Jamie and Alistair, and his brother,
To n y.
Derek Schofi eld
and a machine-gun laugh. He was
also a brilliant raconteur, a lover of
all things theatrical, a scurrilous
gossip and an inspiration to many.
Peter was born in Northampton,
the only child of Reginald Sibley, a
draughtsman in the car industry, and
his wife, Winifred (nee Lilleman),
a dressmaker. After Northampton
grammar school for boys Peter
studied languages at St Edmund
Hall, Oxford University, where he
worked in the student theatre with
the director Michael Rudman.
As a 21-year-old he went straight in
as house manager at the Royal Court
theatre in London. It was there that
our friendship started, as my mother,
Helen Montagu, was working as
general manager in the theatre. After
many years working at the RoyalCourt, Peter moved to Germany
in the 1970s to take up a job in the
publicity department of Polydor
Records. When touring Europe
with James Brown, he would phone
ahead to the best fl orist in the next
town on the schedule, arranging for
dozens of red roses to be hurled at
Brown as he stepped off the plane.
In 1980 he wrote lyrics for the
album Cathode Mamma with the
Italian new wave electronica duo
Krisma, including for the single
Many Kisses, popular across Europe.
He fi nished with Polydor in 1982, but
continued to live in Germany on and
off for the rest of his life.
He had spells back in London,
including, in the 80s, as production
manager on the musicals Tommy
and 42nd Street. A superb cook,in 1984 Peter opened a restaurant,
7 Down Street, in Mayfair, which was
ecstatically reviewed but lasted only
until 1986.
He was diagnosed as HIV-positive
in the late 80s and lived with the
condition for more than 30 years. He
had a stroke in 2011 and had to use
a wheelchair. Shortly afterwards he
moved into a fl atshare in Berlin, in
the Lebensort Vielfalt, a pioneering
project allowing gay people of
diff erent ages and abilities to live
together, with a restaurant, library
and shared garden. He was the
perfect poster boy for the Gay not
Grey movement that held events in
the Lebensort Vielfalt.
Peter’s partner, Manfred,
predeceased him.
Sara WillettCaribbean and other colonies – in
British and Australian history.
This laid the ground for the
current “global turn” in convict
studies and new histories of empire
from the perspective of the colonies.
Born in Halesowen, West
Midlands, Ian grew up in Birmingham
and attended Handsworth grammar
school. His father, Walter Duffi eld,
worked in the motor trade, and his
mother, Miriam (nee Squires), was a
teacher. After two years of national
service at RAF Locking, Somerset, in
1958 Ian went to University College
London to study history. There he
met Jill Franks. They married in 1959
and had a son, Toby.
The family moved to Addis Ababa
in Ethiopia, where Ian and Jill
taught at a British Council school,
the General Wingate, and where
a second son, Daniel, was born.
On reading that the University of
Edinburgh was setting up a Centre
for African Studies, they moved
in 1964 to the city, where Ian
completed a PhD on pan-Africanism
before taking up a lectureship in the
university’s history department.
A third son, Samuel, whom I later
married, arrived in 1969, followed by
a daughter, Miriam, in 1970.
Ian built up Edinburgh
University’s historical collections
and resources, and supported
numerous undergraduates and PhD
students, including me (1994-97),
in their own learning. He remained
at Edinburgh until his retirement
in 2002. Ian continued to research
and write, focusing particularly
on “convict pirates” – those who
attempted to escape from the
Australian colonies by mutiny.
Ian enjoyed socialising, and
discussions and debates usually
went on late into the night. He had
fi rm opinions on many things – from
politics and the church (though he
was a confi rmed atheist) to food
and wine. He and Jill loved to throw
parties and enjoyed many trips to
the Highlands and to Spain. He was a
founding member of the Scotch Malt
Whisky Society.
Ian is survived by Jill, their
children and eight grandchildren ;
and by a brother, Alan.
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