Geoffrey Leonard Essery (RS 1951), Gill McRonald (PC 1962), Keith Mawdsley (RS 1960), Ramsay Mikhail (RS 1947), Peter Whiting (RS 1953), Bessie Whiting (PC 1951), and Mike Wood (RS 1968)
My dad Geoff died unexpectedly on 11th December 2021 aged 88 after a very full life. He always spoke fondly of his days at Rydal and was thrilled to read the recent article about Hester Norris and see himself in the shirt standing to the left of her in the photo below.
Geoffrey with Hester Norris
He proudly told us that she led him up his first ever rock climb, and loved going out in the mountains with her in her red MGA. His love of the great outdoors has certainly passed down through our family and onto his 9 grandchildren – aged 74 he took them climbing with torches up inside the chimney of the Mousehole on the North York Moors in traditional full moonlight just as we had loved doing as children.
Dad had a very successful 35 year career with ICI, after reading Natural Science & Chemical Engineering at Clare College, Cambridge. In his last 10 years at ICI, Dad held Health Safety & Environment divisional roles and became more involved in emergency planning with the emergency services. After retirement, he enjoyed setting up and running SIESO and its magazine. The acronym became Sharing Information and Experience for Safer Operation which totally sums up his passion. His CV is very impressive, no wonder he was given the OBE for services to Health & Safety in the Chemical Industry in 2004 making us all feel very proud.
His love of bridge, which started at Rydal, has been Dad’s lifeline since Mum died in 2016. He joined every bridge club in the area, increasing the number of games to 23 a week, by going online during lockdown. He never minded if he won or lost, just enjoyed playing, teaching others and staving off dementia.
Geoffrey Leonard Essery
He had a fantastic time barn dancing the night away with all his cousins at a 70th birthday party in November. No wonder his sudden death only a month later was such a shock to us all. The Zoom Pilates group couldn’t believe it as he was by far the fastest seated sprinter, he always went for everything with enthusiasm. That’s our wonderful Dad.
Jane Phelpstead, daughter
1 October 1943 to 3 October 2021
It is my sad duty to report the death of my longstanding and my dear friend Keith Mawdsley. Keith and I joined Rydal Preparatory school in September 1953, the year in which it moved back to Colwyn Bay from Oakwood Park near Conwy to where the school had been evacuated during the war. The Preparatory school had just moved into the newly renovated Pwllycrochan Hotel with Compton Lewis as headmaster.
Keith and I were in the same dormitory and it wasn't long before we found out that we didn't live very far apart. And by the end of the term our mothers were arranging for us to see each other in the school holidays which was the beginning of a very long friendship. We moved with many others to the senior school in due course and progressed through the various years until our O levels after which Keith left to join the bank in Southport. I left a couple of years later and that meant we were able to see each other again in Liverpool during the swinging sixties. It was during this time that he met Barbara, fittingly in a flat above a bank in the centre of Liverpool and they became engaged to be married a few years later. After their marriage in 1972 they moved to Formby but after a couple of years there they moved to Solihull so that Keith could take up a new post with the bank.
During his much of his early life Keith lived not far from the famous golf courses of Southport so it is not surprising that he was a very keen golfer but he was also a keen cyclist and enjoyed walking particularly in the Lake District after his retirement.
He is naturally very sadly missed by his family , Barbara , daughter Helen, son Ian and their six grandchildren as well as their many friends.
Brian Bennett (RS 1953–62)
We are sad to report that Gill McRonald (née Bagnall) died on 18 December 2021.
Her family had an incredible connection with Penrhos: at least five Bagnalls attended the school over the years.
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Ramsay Mikhail: Husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather.
Ramsay attended Rydal from 1944-47 and the experience stayed with him for the rest of his life. In years past he attended alumni dinners in London and, maintained life long friendships, formed during his time at the school.
Ramsay always enjoyed a story and he would share his experiences with anyone who was prepared to listen. He was brought up in Egypt and lived there until the age of 13 when the fighting in the desert became a little too close for comfort and he was evacuated on a troop ship, along with his mother and brother, back to Britain. The trip took 13 months! They travelled down the East coast of Africa, stopping for three months in Durban, up the West coast and then headed out towards Greenland to join a convoy heading back to Britain.
It was on his return to Britain that he attended Rydal. He would tell us stories of his adventures at the school, including several things that certainly would not be allowed today, and probably weren’t then.
When Ramsay left school he did his National Service in the RAF. He signed on for three years and his main job was to drive huge, very long and very slow lorries, delivering aircraft parts around the country. His lorry had a maximum speed of 30 mph so long trips took days. There was a memorable occasion when he was told to drive through central London and through the Blackwall Tunnel to get to his destination. He pointed out that he didn’t think the lorry would negotiate the bend in the tunnel but was told that was the way he had to go. Ramsay was right and the lorry wouldn’t go around the bend and got stuck, blocking all traffic in the tunnel for the best part of a day! He had to reverse it all the way out.
It was during his time in the RAF that he met the sister of one of his best friends and the woman who was to become his future wife. Jane and Ramsay were married in 1956 and remained married for 65 years! He was very proud of the card they received from the Queen last year, acknowledging this outstanding achievement. Ramsay leaves behind his two sons, Martin and David. Although he was quite a traditional man he was a very relaxed father to his boys and put up with a lot of long hair and patched clothes with little more than a bemused shake of the head. He also had to endure a lot of very loud music, or “infernal racket”, as he preferred to call it.
Ramsay was a hard-working man who loved life and people. He worked for over 40 years with the same company and became an invaluable member of staff and a much-valued colleague. He always claimed that the fact that the company closed within two years of him retiring was no coincidence!
Ramsay Mikhail
When he retired, he went, with Jane, on a nine-month trip around the world. Not on a cruise and not just to the ‘safe’ places but hiking in the jungles of Thailand, trekking up to nearly 5,000m in the Himalayas and exploring India on the way.
He was always open to new experiences and loved to meet and chat to new people – whether they understood him or not!
Ramsay was always active, whether it was with DIY projects, golf, bowls, sailing or travelling the world with Jane. He was adventurous and continued to travel well into his late 80s. His last overseas trip was in 2019, to visit his son David in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. People there were so impressed that a man of his age was still keen to explore new places and meet new people.
He had a kind heart and would always be the first to step in and offer help to anyone in need.
Ramsay was a man that people remembered, and we know he will be in the hearts of the many people who knew him, his family and all the people around the world, whose lives he touched.
David Mikhail, son
George Peter Whiting died on Sunday, 28th November, 2021 two days after a fall on a pavement in Alicante where he was living.
With his sister, Bess, at Penrhos and with Frank and Mary Richards as their guardians he was at Rydal from 1947 to 1953. He differed from most Rydalians in many ways but most notably, initially, because his home was in Monaco. Other differences became apparent as time passed and as his academic and sporting abilities developed.
On the games side he was Captain of tennis, playing for Denbighshire, shooting and fives and represented the school on the 1st XV and on swimming and athletics teams. He was a keen cyclist and pedalled home from Colwyn Bay, across France to Monaco for his summer holiday on two occasions! Academically he was brilliant, gaining 10 passes at “O” level and 3 at “A” level in sciences in one year and an additional 2 at “A” level in foreign languages the following year all of which gained him an Exhibition to Cambridge.
After a period working abroad for the Foreign Office, spreading the word around South East Asia, he achieved fluency in three additional foreign languages, graduating from London University. He then chose to become a Freelance Conference Translator which he continued to undertake up to his mid 80s. During the latter part of his career Peter worked for the International Labour Organisation, the International Telecommunication Union and the United Nations all in Geneva where he lived.
In the Winter 2018 issue of the Rydal Penrhos Society Newsletter the following snippet appeared:
Antony Jackson and Peter Whiting RS 1947-53 met up in Moissac, France, on 7th September 2017 to celebrate their ‘70 year’ friendship, to the day, forged at school.
Peter at school
Peter frequently maintained, with good reason, that he would live until he was 100. But for a quirk of fate I believe he would have made it.
Peter at home
Sadly he leaves his wife, Brigitte, a son and daughter from a previous marriage and two granddaughters, Nathalie Rossi (RPS 2003–6) and Elodie Rossi (RPS 2003–9).
Antony Jackson (RS 1947–53)
Bess came to Penrhos in 1947 as a boarder. Her parents were close friends of Frank and Mary Richards who became guardians to Bess and her brother, Peter, who came to Rydal at the same time.
Bess spent four happy years at Penrhos which she saw as a ‘life changing’ experience and a time when she first experienced independence.
Her adult life was spent in Germany and later Monaco, where she died. She is survived by her three children and four grandchildren.
Date of death, 05/07/2021.
Nic Kelpe, son
Bess on her first day at Penrhos
It is with great sadness that I report sudden passing of old Rydalian Michael Wood on 13/11/2021 aged 71. Michael left Rydal in 1968, during his time he was in Trojan sports house and was In Oaklands sleeping house. Whilst at school he was in the first eleven football team in the prep school and the second fifteen rugby team and first eleven cricket team in the seniors. After leaving school he went on to study law in Leeds and then joined the family firm of solicitors Rupert Wood and son where he remained until his death. He was a keen golfer and joined Ashton Under Lyne golf club in 1972 where he was captain and president. He regularly attended old Rydalian golf days where he only recently won the Marsden trophy. He will be sadly missed by all and especially by his old Rydalian brothers Peter Richard and Nick.
