- The Guardian Sat urday 30 Apr il 2022
10
Michael Alms
Surgeon specialising in orthopaedics
whose early life in Japan was
a mystery to him for 70 years
My uncle Michael Alms, who has
died aged 99, was an orthopaedic
surgeon born in Japan who spent
his childhood and youth in Britain.
At his birth in Kyoto, he was
named Tadashi Kubo. His mother,
Naka Kubo (known as Kimi), was
from a samurai family; his father,
George Alms, was a captain and
translations offi cer for the British
army engineering battalion
stationed in the city. The marriage
was felt by Kimi’s family to bring
shame and disgrace, and they
rejected the young couple. George
returned to Britain, but Kimi
remained to care for her dying
mother, and Tadashi went to live
with Kimi’s aunt and uncle. Their [email protected]
[email protected]
@guardianobitsdaughter, Masu, six years older
than Tadashi, became Tadashi’s
playmate. When Kimi and Tadashi
left in 1924 to join George in Britain,
the family in Japan tried to erase
all memory of them.
Arriving in Taunton , Tadashi
became Michael Alms. He
was told little about his family
history. A sister and brother were
born. Michael was educated at
Bembridge school on the Isle of
Wight. He studied medicine at
Bristol University, graduating with
its gold medal in 1945. In 1946 he
married Beryl Norris (known as
Goo), a nurse.
He trained in general surgery
(specialising in orthopaedics)
at the United Bristol hospitals
and, after further orthopaedics
training at Liverpool University,
and obtaining his MCh Orth in 1955,
he became a senior registrar in
orthopaedic surgery at the United
Bristol hospitals. Despite his ample
qualifi cations, he was told that
because of his racial origins
he would never be appointed as
a consultant surgeon.
As a result, Michael, Goo and
their four children emigrated
to Canada in 1960. He worked
as an orthopaedic surgeon at
University hospital and St Paul’s
hospital, Saskatoon. Later, he
went into private practice. To aid
with surgery of the hand, Michael
invented an adjustable andPoster for Glastonbury (2006), a fi lm produced by Robert RichardsObituaries
Other
lives
Robert Richards
Fixer at Glastonbury festival
for three decades who produced
a fi lm about the event in 2006
Robert Richards, who has
died aged 65 of cancer, was an
important fi gure in the story
of the Glastonbury festival. He
worked for the festival’s founder,
Michael Eavis, for more than
30 years, and was producer
of the 2006 fi lm Glastonbury,
directed by Julien Temple.
Robert made the fi lm with
backing from Eavis’s personal
savings, and enlisted Temple to
capture every moment of the
festival as it happened in 2002 –
stretching to 2,000 hours of fi lm.
At that point Glastonbury was
facing something of a crisis, having
suff ered break-ins and serious
overcrowding the year before, and
Eavis had been compelled to put
up a controversial “superfence”
Barbara Hibbert
Education consultant and history
teacher credited with being
ambitious for her pupils and staff
My former teacher Barbara
Hibbert, who has died aged 64,
was head of history at Harrogate
grammar school in Yorkshire.
She was an inspiring teacher, and
ambitious for her pupils, many
of whom credit her with setting
them on their careers. I am not
sure that I would have become
a political journalist without her
encouragement.
Born in Oldham to Elsie (nee
Ward), a secretary, and Denys,
an electrician, Barbara went on
a scholarship to Hulme grammar
school for girls, before studying
history at Leeds University,
returning later to do a PhD. She
was in some respects on the
traditionalist wing of the teaching
profession: she believed in rigour,
and favoured essay-writing,
debating and so on, an approach
that would become orthodox
towards the end of her career.
to keep out intruders. It took four
years for the fi lm to be released, but
it remains the defi ning record of the
festival’s fi rst half-century.
Born in Finsbury Park, north
London, Robert was the son of Ann
(nee Platt) and Robert, a design
engineer. While at Woodberry
Down comprehensive he played
rugby for school, county and
country. Eventually he decided
not to pursue the sport, growing
his hair long and hanging around
at Finsbury Park’s Rainbow theatre
to chat backstage to musicians,
among them Eric Clapton and
David Bowie.
He spent a year at the University
of Bristol (1974-75) studying politics,
philosophy and economics, but
then gave up, switching to do the
same subject at City, University of
London – and calling it a day after a
year there, too.
By then Robert had began to
make a string of underground
fi lms, all of which have since
been lost, except one – Krasny:
An Introduction to Philosophical
Thinking – registered at the BFI in- He also sold candles, and,
for a while, tea, in Covent Garden.
It was a vanload of candles that
took him to Glastonbury festival
in the early 1990s – he went there
to sell them to punters but came
back in following years to work for
the festival in its information area,
initially in the Green Fields section
with CND. Later, he helped Melvin
Benn secure the festival licence
and began to work more closely
Above all, she was a champion
of teachers’ autonomy, and
sought to shield her staff from
the micromanagement and
bureaucracy that piled up under
governments of all colours.
Barba ra was a believer in state
education (despite the name,
Harrogate grammar had become
a comprehensive in the 1970s),
but could be frustrated by
complacency and drift. As she saw
it, independent schools got the best
of everything because they asked,
and it fell to her to do the asking.
She was particularly passionate
about university admissions. Her
colleagues recall she was similarly
ambitious for her staff , many of
whom have gone on to be leaders
in the profession.
Barbara was a loyal Guardian
reader. Her classroom walls carried
the cartoons of Steve Bell and pieces
cut from the comment pages. She
would come to despair of Brexit,
and the state of the Labour party.
After leaving Harrogate grammar
in 2010, Barbara was a consultant to
the charity Teach First, mentoring
graduates ; and to Cambridge
Assessment, the exam board. She
was made an honorary fellow of
the Historical Association in 2012.
Barbara was diagnosed with
stage 4 bowel cancer in 2014. She
survived many years past the
expected lifespan, continuing
her consultancy throughout.with Eavis as Glastonbury grew to
become one of the biggest outdoor
events in the world.
By then settled in Somerset,
he also became involved in the
growth of Somerset Film, a charity
dedicated to nurturing new fi lm -
making talent; he was one of the
founding trustees in 1999. Aside
from his work with the festival
he kept goats on a smallholding
in Withypool on Exmoor, became
a trustee of Glastonbury Abbey
and, more recently, chair of the
Glastonbury Town Fund Board,
which raised £24m in 2021.
An astute negotiator, Robert
worked closely with the Eavis
family and the core festival team
on forging new partnerships
and opportunities, including
a longstanding media partnership
with the Guardian that began in
1998 and continues to this day.
Robert’s fi rst marriage, to Victoria
Thomas , ended in divorce in 2010.
He is survived by his second wife,
Ann-Marie (nee Buckley), whom he
married in 2011, and by his mother
and his sister, Elizabeth.
John Shearlawself-retaining surgical retractor,
designed to hold back the skin
and soft tissues to maintain a clear
surgical fi eld. It is still widely used
and is known as the Alms retractor.
After Kimi’s death in 1990,
Michael managed to trace some
of his family in Japan from an old
photograph. Seventy years after
leaving Japan, he returned to meet
the daughters of his cousin Masu.
They had been told that her friend,
a little boy called Tadashi, had
disappeared, and no one would tell
her where he went. He introduced
himself to them with the words,
in Japanese, “I am Tadashi Kubo”.
He visited Japan several times, and
created links between the Japanese
and British sides of the family.
After fi nishing his private
practice, he volunteered for
Care International, fi rst in the
Dominican Republic, and later in
Peru, before retiring properly in
2000 and settling in Vancouver.
Michael was a keen sailor,
golfer, photographer and potter.
He was a founding member of the
Saskatoon sailing club and sailing
school, and a member of West Point
golf club in Vancouver.
Goo died in 2000. Michael is
survived by their children, Harriet,
Richard and Georgie, and by
fi ve grandchildren and a great-
grandchild. Another daughter,
Charlotte, died in 2004.
Clive BrittenInformation on off ering Other lives pieces can be found
at theguardian.com/contact-obits. Submission and
publication of all Other lives pieces and letters is subject to
our terms and conditions: see http://gu.com/letters-termsAn astute
negotiator,
Robert worked closely
with the core festival
team on forging new
partnerships and
opportunitiesShe is survived by her husband,
Ed Ruck-Keene, whom she married
in 1983, their daughters, Eve and
Rosa, and granddaughter, Liberty.
Matthew Holehouse