Martin Barker, master/housemaster 1950s, any news?
Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2017 7:42 am
Martin W Barker, a classics teacher, was my senior housemaster in Maine A from 1956 (when he replaced Colin Tod) until I left in Dec 1960. He joined CH, I believe, in 1954 or 1955 and presumably started then as a junior housemaster in another house.
Does anybody have any recent news or information on him? He must be well into his 80s, if still alive. I'd like to contact him, if he's still with us.
The reason for this is that I recently cleared out some of my oldest archives, mainly a lot of useless material from my CH days but a few interesting items among which a copy of the printed order of service for Martin Barker's church wedding at Chipstead, Surrey in December 1957, just after the end of the Michaelmas Term. This was not announced to us in Maine A before the event but some of us spotted an announcement about the coming wedding during our daily reading of the Daily Telegraph. Since this gave details of time and place and since this was not too far from where three of us lived south of London, we resolved to turn up unannounced at the service during the Christmas break and surprise them with our good wishes, which we successfully did. The three of were myself, Patrick Hildreth and Roderick Jones. We all travelled from our various homes in South London and Surrey to the event and back by bicycle. (I can't imagine doing that these days!)
The bride was a young lady called Judith Delafield, from the Chipstead area. The word on the street back in Maine A before and after the event was that she had been Head Girl at the well known girls' school at Bramley near Guildford (St Catherine's) and that Martin B had met her during his involvement in organising the annual CH Grecians' Dance with the girls at Bramley. I never participated in that event, which I believe was staged for First-Parting Grecians in the Summer Term of their final year -- something to help fill up the time before going up to Oxford or Cambridge on scholarships secured earlier in the year. I left CH in December immediately after securing my place at Cambridge, in order to earn money for a few months before entering university life and I don't recall specifically having the chance to go to a Bramley Dance. I did, however, find myself a wife some ten years later (who is still with me) after venturing into the computer dating process which was then in its very early stages (1971).
I was told by David Jesson-Dibley, another 1950s CH master, sometime in the late 80s when my wife and I met him socially in Battersea, London, that Martin Barker and his wife were then in Coventry and that MB had taken up a headship in that region after leaving CH. I also recall seeing MB mentioned in the Old Blue News around 2005-2006 as being one of the participants at a Maine A house reunion held at CH .
Fragments of information from sources such as the BT Phone book, electoral roll and so on show a Martin W and Judith E Barker at an address in Earlsdon, Coventry up to about 2013, which seems likely to be the Barkers in question. I shall next week try the CHOBA office to see whether they have an up-to-date record for Martin Barker and whether they could forward him a message from me and I can do the same with the alumni office of his old school, Marlborough. I am particularly anxious to pin this down since, if the Barkers are both still alive, this month would be exactly 60 years from their wedding that I attended and would be their Diamond Wedding anniversary and something worthy of congratulations. I thought it worth while to go out to Forum members first on this, before contacting the CHOBA office or Marlborough, to see whether anyone has any readily available recent news on the Barkers.
Does anybody have any recent news or information on him? He must be well into his 80s, if still alive. I'd like to contact him, if he's still with us.
The reason for this is that I recently cleared out some of my oldest archives, mainly a lot of useless material from my CH days but a few interesting items among which a copy of the printed order of service for Martin Barker's church wedding at Chipstead, Surrey in December 1957, just after the end of the Michaelmas Term. This was not announced to us in Maine A before the event but some of us spotted an announcement about the coming wedding during our daily reading of the Daily Telegraph. Since this gave details of time and place and since this was not too far from where three of us lived south of London, we resolved to turn up unannounced at the service during the Christmas break and surprise them with our good wishes, which we successfully did. The three of were myself, Patrick Hildreth and Roderick Jones. We all travelled from our various homes in South London and Surrey to the event and back by bicycle. (I can't imagine doing that these days!)
The bride was a young lady called Judith Delafield, from the Chipstead area. The word on the street back in Maine A before and after the event was that she had been Head Girl at the well known girls' school at Bramley near Guildford (St Catherine's) and that Martin B had met her during his involvement in organising the annual CH Grecians' Dance with the girls at Bramley. I never participated in that event, which I believe was staged for First-Parting Grecians in the Summer Term of their final year -- something to help fill up the time before going up to Oxford or Cambridge on scholarships secured earlier in the year. I left CH in December immediately after securing my place at Cambridge, in order to earn money for a few months before entering university life and I don't recall specifically having the chance to go to a Bramley Dance. I did, however, find myself a wife some ten years later (who is still with me) after venturing into the computer dating process which was then in its very early stages (1971).
I was told by David Jesson-Dibley, another 1950s CH master, sometime in the late 80s when my wife and I met him socially in Battersea, London, that Martin Barker and his wife were then in Coventry and that MB had taken up a headship in that region after leaving CH. I also recall seeing MB mentioned in the Old Blue News around 2005-2006 as being one of the participants at a Maine A house reunion held at CH .
Fragments of information from sources such as the BT Phone book, electoral roll and so on show a Martin W and Judith E Barker at an address in Earlsdon, Coventry up to about 2013, which seems likely to be the Barkers in question. I shall next week try the CHOBA office to see whether they have an up-to-date record for Martin Barker and whether they could forward him a message from me and I can do the same with the alumni office of his old school, Marlborough. I am particularly anxious to pin this down since, if the Barkers are both still alive, this month would be exactly 60 years from their wedding that I attended and would be their Diamond Wedding anniversary and something worthy of congratulations. I thought it worth while to go out to Forum members first on this, before contacting the CHOBA office or Marlborough, to see whether anyone has any readily available recent news on the Barkers.