Ted was at the school from 1952-1960 and will be sadly missed by his friends, family and all who knew him at the School.

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 him in the next OI Journal and would be very grateful if anyone felt they 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 the publication. Address any contributions to me through oldipswichians@ipswich.school.

With best wishes,

Iain Chesterman

OI Chairman

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Ted was 4 years behind me at school so my early memories of him are limited and probably only reflect his occasional visits to the Prefects Room, I do, though recall a lanky young man with a mop of blond hair.  Some 21 years were to pass before our paths crossed again.

In 1977 I arrived at the BP Oil Terminal in Ipswich to be greeted by Ted who had been working there for some years.  He had joined Shell-Mex and BP Ltd on leaving School and worked for a while in their office in Lloyd's Avenue, Ipswich.  It was there that he met and in due course married Deanna.  He subsequently took up the post of Shift Manager at the Company's Cliff Quay Terminal.

Ted's career in the oil industry took a new turn in 1978 when he was appointed to manage BP's packed lubricants distribution centre in the West Midlands and he and the family finally left his native Suffolk for a new home in Stourbridge.

Ted's management style so impressed BP that he was then given a particularly tough assignment, the management of their Oil Distribution Terminal in Belfast.  This he handled in his usual cheerful way and even developed a strong friendship with the then BP CEO, largely through the game of golf! 

On retirement Ted returned to Stourbridge but took up the office of BP Pensioner's Liaison Officer for the West Midlands and part of the South West,  I was one of his clients.  He regularly visited my wife and I to see that all was well with us and we enjoyed sharing stories and memories of the past 40 years.  Rotary and Golf were both central to Ted's life and he will be sadly missed in both circles, a packed funeral service was testimony to that.

Jeremy Barr (OI 1946-56)

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Ted was a carrier!  -  I don't mean of germs like Chicken pox, Measles, Influenza, Covid etc. - I mean "of people"!   Let me explain - so ’Bear with' . . . as they say!  

I knew Ted a long time - nearly 70 years - We were at school together and later in life he admitted that he always considered himself a bit of a 'country bumpkin', really, because he was born and grew up in the small village of Grundisburgh, a few miles outside Ipswich.   He earned his place in what he called 'a posh school' as a County Scholar and he was intelligent and clever enough to pass the exams that got him there, but underneath it he always had the feeling that he wasn't quite up to 'muster' and although he was quite definitely good enough - and I told him a few times - he was never quite convinced.  

But allow me to remind you, or just tell you, of a proverb that I have heard a few times over the years - It seems to date back to the 14th century and has been used, at different times, to describe a US president and by an English cricketer (Cliff Gladwin in 1948).  It is "Cometh the hour - cometh the man!" which, popular translation is understood to mean - when something important needs to be done, the right man will turn up at the right time to do it - and I believe Ted was that kind of man and the proverb adequately classifies him.  We didn't know it back then in 1955, of course, but it certainly showed up later.  If you just knew how much of himself he gave to others who were less fortunate, less able and more in need of help and support than most, you would understand how that proverb fits.

I met him at Ipswich School when I too was still a country bumpkin at heart, having spent my first 11 years growing up in the then village (now a town) of Thatcham near Newbury in Berkshire.  So he is the person (apart from my mother, who lived to be over 100) that I have known longest in my life - he was two and a half years younger than me and in all those years I cannot recall a harsh  or unpleasant word between us, or indeed about other people.  Fortunately, we both had a similar sense of humour and I believe he could have been a successful stand-up comedian.  

I've seen him get up at events to introduce something or someone and with comfort and ease launch into a totally unscheduled short comedy turn that had people laughing in just a few minutes.  Sometimes I would tell him or send him a joke which his sponge like comedy brain would suck up and like ABBA in Thank You for the Music, he'd probably heard it before, but he wouldn't put you down and tell you so, he’d just use it another time. 

In fact he was not a 'putter downer' he was definitely a 'lift you upper' and knew how to raise someone's spirits when they were having a hard time.  He was generous with his personality and his friendliness. 

When he left Ipswich School he joined Shell Mex & BP.  When the companies split he stayed with BP for the rest of his career.  He clearly showed potential as he worked, being promoted through various distribution and operational roles to his final and toughest position of Oil Terminal Manager for Northern Ireland for 4 years during the troubles.  After retiring he was asked to be a Retired Persons Welfare Manager and later became Pensions Liaison Officer for Worcestershire, Cotswolds and Gloucestershire area.  Obviously using his relationship skills in a retirement role. 

He joined Rotary in 1995 and was elected president on two separate occasions, a notable achievement, raising money for charities, community and in particular Children of Chernobyl who were then able to enjoy holidays breathing clean air in the UK.  He was also a local councillor.

His first love in sport was Golf and he devoted 25 years to the Churchill & Blakedown Club driving its modernisation and ultimately the building of a new clubhouse and was Captain, President, Seniors Captain, and Chairman of greens committee and also Seniors Captain of the Worcestershire Captains. 

As I said earlier - 'Cometh the Hour . . . 

What a man!

Mike Turner (OI 1950-57)