Bloomfield, Rex. Passed 25th July 2021

Rex was at the school from 1954-1964 and will be sadly missed by his friends and family. 

We are conscious that many people from this time at School may not be in contact with us and we would be very grateful if you could pass on this information to those that you know.

As is the usual practice, we would like to place an obituary for Rex in the next OI Journal and would be very grateful if you felt you could come forward to write one. Alternatively, if you know of any stories or memories, please pass them on so we could put them together for publication. Address any contributions to me through oldipswichians@ipswich.school.

With best wishes

Iain Chesterman
OI Chairman

His brother Peter Bloomfield OI, writes:

On leaving School, Rex became an Articled Clerk at an Ipswich solicitors, and on qualifying spent time working in London before moving to North Devon where he was in practice for a number of years and was also able to follow his passion for surfing. He returned locally in the early 1980's to firms in Colchester, Coggeshall and finally Tiptree. After early retirement he briefly lectured on Law at the then Civic College. 

In recent years he had suffered poor health, and, after a brief decline, passed away peacefully at Ipswich hospital.

He will be greatly missed by his family, wife Anne, children Clare and Jonathon (OI), by his grandchildren.

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John Skeates (OI 1953-64) writes:

I first befriended Rex some 67 years ago when he joined the Prep in 1954. We remained friends all the way through the School until we both left in 1964. My main school memory of Rex was that he detested any form of physical activity and became a master at avoiding sports and particularly runs around the Lower Road, Westerfield. He became quite proud of his expertise at avoiding these activities and over the years began to know Matron, and the outpatients of the hospital in Ivry Street across the road, very well indeed.

At School he was affectionately know as “Sexy Rexy” by his peers, an endearment, to which I don’t think he objected.

Rex’s parents owned a poultry farm at Bentley, and I can remember that as boys we used to play in the empty chicken sheds, and if my memory serves me correctly, I believe an air rifle featured in our games. It was in Rex’s parents lounge, in July 1969, that I remember watching the first manned moon landing on television, in black & white, with him.

As a teenager, Rex took up playing the electric guitar, in the mid 1960’s and was a great fan of Duane Eddy and also the Beach Boys. It was because of the latter that Rex & I drove to Woolacombe Beach, in Devon, with tents and a home made Surf Board strapped to the car roof that I had made from a plank of wood, to demonstrate our expertise as surfers. It was not a tremendous success, as, with a teenager boy standing on, it did not have enough buoyancy to float !

Rex continued his guitar playing and “jamming” at local events and pubs until very recently.

It was because of Rex that I joined the Capel Young Farmers Club, mainly for the social activities that we both enjoyed and the friends that we made.

We always remained friends until his death, meeting up occasionally with other O.I.s & their wives for meals and pub lunches.

Rex was quite a character and a good friend, who I will miss.

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David Wilson (OI 1954-65)writes:

Rex and I became friends at Ipswich when we were on the same A level Geography course, enjoying our field trips for our course work. After leaving school we both went to study in London and kept in touch at several parties there along with other OI’s in our age group. Rex actually met his future wife Anne at one of these parties whilst I was attempting to be the DJ with my old tape recorder and vinyl record player, and despite this they went on to be happily married for nearly 50 years! Rex introduced me to his love of surfing before he married when we went on a ‘recce’ trip to Braunton, Devon, sleeping en route in his not too warm car overnight on Exmoor, before he decided to move down there to work in Law.

As well as surfing, Rex enjoyed his music, playing guitar, banjo and listening to Blue Grass music as well as the Beach Boys surfing style. He was still enjoying the latter only a few years ago, attending one of their concerts.

Rex (and Anne ) were very welcoming and I and other OI friends were able to spend some lovely weekends down in Devon, with tents pitched on the lawn if there was not enough space indoors for the guests.      

After moving back to Suffolk, we met up more regularly and Rex did an excellent job as my best man back in 1985. He always had a great sense of humour which he and I enjoyed almost to the last. He arranged mini coach parties to see some live shows, I especially enjoyed the one to see Dame Edna Everage’s ( Aka Barry Humphries) final tour show at Norwich, wine and sarnies even supplied en route!

I shall miss his company a lot, but along with other family and friends will keep in touch with Anne, who remained amazingly positive throughout Rex’s long illness at the end.

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