Part 2 (Obituaries) - King's College - University of Cambridge

specialty. After a couple of years at King’s, Michael left Cambridge, deciding
to go to Edinburgh and study brewing instead, but two more years later, he
changed his mind and returned to Cambridge to finish his degree. He met
his future wife Mary (née Makepeace), a fellow student, to whom he
became engaged.
The marriage between Michael and Mary took place in 1951 far from
Cambridge in a church with a beaten dirt floor in Amani, Tanganyika.
Michael had joined the Colonial Service and been appointed a medical
entomologist doing research into malaria-carrying mosquitoes. The
couple stayed in Africa for six years and had three children, Andrew, Tim
and Mark.
At the end of the 1950s the Christie family exchanged the sun of Africa for
the wind and showers of Edinburgh. Michael worked at the Animal Diseases
Research Laboratories at Moredum as a parasitologist. After both Michael
and Mary retired in 1987 they moved south again, but this time only as far
as Bradninch in Devon. Devon was not Tanganyika, but Michael relished the
exotic plants he could grow in his south-facing garden with its rich
Devonian soil. He also fell in love with Exeter Cathedral, where he worked
as a steward once a week.
Michael continued to keep his vivid intellect alive in retirement. He was a
polyglot who enjoyed reading Zola in the original and who translated
scientific texts from Russian. His tastes were, however, always eclectic, and his
firm voice could be heard commenting not only on Zola but also on the latest
episodes of Neighbours. Despite the firmness of his voice, the monocle and his
famously bushy eyebrows, Michael was as unassuming as he was kind and
generous. He was a loving husband to Mary for 54 years, and a caring father
to his three sons. He lived with cancer for seven years until it led to his death
a few days before Christmas 2005.
THOMAS ADAM CLAYTON (1922) was born on 3 November 1903. He
attended Cheltenham College before coming to King’s to read Mechanical
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OBITUARIES