Remembering Rydal Penrhos Society members
Peter Blatherwick (RS 1948-1953)
Iain Blatherwick (RS) has informed us that his Father Peter Blatherwick(RS 48-53) has died. Peter was an OR (President OR Club 78-79), Parent and Governor of Rydal for many years. He was also the son of an earlier generation of ORs Douglas Blatherwick (RS 24-27) a noted Methodist Layman.
Brian Fullerton Dale (RS 1934-1943)
Sue Jolly (Brian’s daughter) informed us her father, Brian Fullerton Dale (RS 34–43) died Tuesday 9 March 2021 aged very nearly 96, at this wonderful age Sue thinks he must be almost the last of his era.
Angela Margaret Durow (nee Edwards) (PC 1950's)
Angela Margaret Durow (née Edwards) born in 1941 and a pupil at Penrhos College died peacefully at the age of 79 after a number of years of illness, in South Africa, during the Easter Vigil on 3 April 2021.
My mum, who was always called Andi, treasured her memories of the college and her years in Wales and was always delighted to receive news from the school. She would have loved to visit her homeland more often but when she did she was always in her element to educate us, her four daughters, about England and Wales and teach us the Welsh pronunciation of town names. From Jane Stretch (daughter)
David Meredith Williams (RS 1947 –1953)
My father in law, David, sadly passed away in 2019. Both he and his brother Brian (RS 49-50) attended Rydal in the 1940/50’s (Brian also sadly passed this February).
He was a magnificent man, successful both with acting and in his many roles in education. He often talked with great fondness of his time at Rydal. In clearing through his belongings we came across numerous editions of the Rydalian magazine, dating from 1948 through to 1978, there is also the memoriam for Donald Wynn Hughes. Some editions even contain his name, which was so nice to see. - Cameron Main
Anne Maureen Murfitt-Swindells (PC 1950-1957)
Maureen was born in the Lancashire mill town of Nelson in 1941. Her Father, Frederick Murfitt, was also an accomplished organist playing in the Methodist circuits of his locale.
At this time, local Methodism was musically rich with many chapels supporting psalm-singing and yearly get-togethers where the key oratorio repertoire was covered, and Maureen soon participated in such performances. Following school at Penrhos College, Colwyn Bay, she began the organ learning with Kay Arthur, with whom she kept in contact for many years.
Maureen commenced studies at the Royal Manchester College of Music. Here she shared a piano teacher with the great pianist John Ogdon and remembers Maestro Barbirolli floating through the corridors. She studied organ, piano and voice and gained not only the ARMCM but also the GRSM (Graduate of the Royal School of Music).
Maureen held teaching posts in Wiltshire, Southport and most notably at Hunmanby Hall School, near Filey, Yorkshire where the image of a smashing young lady sitting on the organ console in full academic dress was a picture that struck many a pupil. Maureen moved to York in the late sixties and became a music teacher at Mill Mount School where a number of theatrical and large scale musical performances were put on in partnership with Nunthorpe Grammar School.
During this time, she also studied for her FRCO, the highest diploma in organ playing in the UK, which she gained having lessons with Dr Francis Jackson.
As an organist, Maureen was the last of the generation to perform the benchmark repertoire in the English style. Her playing of Bach was highly musical, the fugues started quietly with a gradual adding of stops until the Tuba might even ring out at the end. She had a particular affinity to the music of Rheinberger but also felt at home with the then-contemporary composer Jean Langlais.
Her service accompaniment was very subtle and understated and she usually could be heard singing from the organ loft as well, and on some of the smaller organs she had to contend with, this was the most powerful stop on the organ. She was very keen on clear phrasing and eschewed the use of the tremulant and woe betide a pupil who looked at their feet when playing or rested their right foot on the swell box for too long. Her pedal technique was especially accurate and she included the Thalben-Ball pedal variations on a theme of Paganini in her repertoire.
The majority of the organs she played were modest instruments, but she had the skill to make them more colourful than their modest stop lists would show. Maureen gave organ recitals in such places as Bridlington Priory, Ripon and Sheffield Cathedrals, Leeds Parish Church, Mill Hill Chapel, Leeds and in various venues in York. She was twice President of the York and District Organists association and President of the Leeds Organists association.
Maureen had always wanted to start a family and this became possible when she married her second husband, David Swindells. Sadly though, the impact of child-birth led to postpartum psychosis and Maureen from then on suffered from bipolar disorder, with a number of prolonged stays in psychiatric hospitals. Even greater tragedy was to follow as their first child Helen, died just before her third birthday of a cerebral abscess. Maureen’s doctors said that another baby would cause worse mental health problems but despite this, she had a son, John.
Living by this time in the Yorkshire Dales town of Pateley Bridge, she held popular musical appreciation classes and had many piano pupils as well as short term music teaching. In the 1980’s and early 1990’s she was organist at Hampsthwaite Parish Church near Harrogate and musically directed the Pateley Bridge Singers.
She was also for a time organist at the Army Training Facility near Harrogate and at Killinghall Church before moving to Leeds in 1997. Here she became organist at the Third Church of Christ Scientist and Roundhay Methodist church before moving to St Peters’ Bramley and finally, St John’s Church, Moor Allerton.
Maureen was very well travelled and visited most Mediterranean countries and hugely valued their antiquities, food and climate. She was very keen on learning languages and her phrase-book was an ever-present item on holiday. With this, she would invariably get herself onto an organ, and this included ones in Vatican City, Valetta and Dubrovnik Cathedrals.
Maureen’s other passions were history and theology and she had attempted a BA degree. Sadly she failed the New Testament which as a lifelong organist caused amusement to her tutor. What had she been doing in the sermons? The answer was eating a banana as this was often her chance to eat in a morning of services, often in two churches with no break. She was also able to complete her organ voluntary and go home to pick up the preparations for a full Sunday dinner, which the family enjoyed every week, and for which she left precise instructions for her husband to follow prior to her arrival.
Maureen was an avid letter writer with a plan for regular updates to a great number of people. Many were her own pupils to whom she had meant so much. She was also very keen to visit the lonely, help those in distress especially those who had no regular familial contact. She was a pioneer in terms of women taking on professional church organ playing and an incredibly cultured and well-read woman.
In 2013 Maureen moved to be nearer her son John in Tenbury, Worcestershire. Here she quickly became very active in the local community, and continuing to play the organ. She was delighted to play the organ for her son John’s wedding.
In 2018 she suffered a devastating mental health crisis as a result of a lack of oversight by health professionals. Although she did recover to some extent, and became a Granny, this started a period of decline and she was hospitalised again in September 2019 and never regained independent living. What were to be her final months were spent in Covid-lockdown, only briefly being able to see her family before she died.
Maureen was laid to rest in Tenbury Cemetery. Shortly before her death, she was able to be accepted into the Roman Catholic Church, something which she had been actively considering before her final illness. She is survived by her son and grandson and is a dearly loved Auntie to Angie and Suzi and Sister to William, who attended Rydal. A memorial service will be held at Leeds Minster at 2pm on August 3rd 2021.
Barbara was the oldest of three children: Barbara, David and Peter born to Percy Thornber and Elizabeth, nee Barritt. Their father was a part-owner of a cotton mill in Burnley. Barbara was born at home, in a house called “Inglewood”, in Scott Park, Burnley.
Barbara was a boarder at Penrhos College. The school magazine for 1939 records that she was a prefect, House Captain of Shackleton House, Games Captain for Netball, Lacrosse, Hockey and Swimming and read her paper on “radio-activity” to the school Scientific Society.
In 1940, Barbara was Head Girl. At this time, Penrhos College had been evacuated from Colwyn Bay and occupied Chatsworth House. On Speech Day, Barbara’s role was to introduce the chief guest, which was Her Grace, The Duchess of Devonshire. Barbara’s album from that year includes a photograph of her skating on the frozen long lake at Chatsworth with her schoolfriends Connie and Cynthia.
The following year, Barbara went up to the University of Manchester to study Chemistry, one of only five girls on the course. She graduated in 1943.
Barbara’s tutor for biochemistry was a young professor called Alexander Todd. On graduating, Barbara undertook a micro-analysis of penicillin for Mr Todd. Then, in 1944, when aged only 37, Alex was appointed Professor in the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Christ’s College. Barbara moved with him and his group of research students to Cambridge. This group, eighteen in number, coined for themselves the name “Toddlers”, and formed a dining club of that name.
In Cambridge, Barbara was Alex Todd’s personal assistant while he undertook ground-breaking research into the chemical structure of DNA and RNA, which led to the Watson-Crick model of the physical stricture of DNA.
Barbara continued working with Alex Todd, who was given a seat at the House of Lords as Baron Todd of Trumpington in 1962, was Master of Christ’s College from 1963 to 1978, received the Nobel Prize in 1957 for Chemistry, was elected President of the Royal Society in 1975 and was awarded the Order of Merit in 1977.
After Alex’s wife died in 1987, he moved into Barbara’s house, where he lived for the last ten years of his life.
Barbara was, herself, in 1951 married to Dr FG Mann, Fellow of Trinity College and a colleague of Alex Todd in the Department of Chemistry. Their daughter, Elizabeth, was born in 1954. FG Mann died in 1982 and tragically, Elizabeth died in her thirties.
Dr Helen (Moreland) Faulkner (PC 1950s)
I am writing to let you know that Dr. Helen (Moreland) Faulkner died on 7 June. Helen was for years Chairman/Treasurer of the West Riding Branch of the Old Penrhosian Association and nobly organised an annual lunch for the Branch, usually held near Wetherby.
As her health had not been good for the last 2-3 years, I had agreed to take over the task of trying to organise future meetings, but we had not been able to hand over due to Covid-19. Her husband has all the records and I will collect them when convenient for him, as I live quite near.
Those members who lived in West & North Yorkshire often joined together with the Sheffield Branch, which is much more active than the WR branch.
With best wishes,
Diana (Brocklehurst) Wetherill (Dr)
