The College by the Harbour - St Aloysius

S.A.C.O.B.U
ST. ALOYSIUS’ COLLEGE OLD BOYS UNION
Obituaries
David Ellis Lynch (SAC 1937)
David Ellis Lynch (SAC 1937) died in late 2000. At the
time of going to print no further details were available.
Tom McLeod (SAC 1947)
After a long series of illnesses,
cheerfully borne, Tom McLeod
(SAC 1947) died on 23
December 2001. He came to the
College in 1943 from Narrandera
in country NSW. His main
interest lay in the sporting field,
He played in the 1946 and 1947
1st XV and Captained the 2nd XI
in 1947.
Tom had a long and successful career in the printing
and office equipment industry, retiring in 1990. Tom is
survived by his sister, Dorothy and her husband John and
their families and his brother Don (SAC 1948).
Don McLeod (SAC 1948)
Roger Leach (SAC 1965)
Roger Leach (SAC 1965), best
remembered for his role as
Sergeant Tom Penny in Thames
Television’s The Bill (seen in
Australia on ABC TV), has died
in England, aged 53.
Roger was born in Sydney, the
son of Stephen (SAC 1924) and
Claudia Leach of Lane Cove. He
attended the College until Year 8,
completing his education at St Ignatius’ College,
Riverview. While at school, his enthusiasm, vitality and
mercurial wit made a lasting impression on all his
contemporaries.
Whilst at St Aloysius’, he developed and interest and
talent for acting and singing He was a popular protégé of
Rev Father Comerford SJ, and performed in many Gilbert
and Sullivan productions at the College, notably as Pitti-
Sing in the Mikado, and as Bunthorne in Patience.
Roger’s early interest in language and drama was
reflected in his next move, an English Honours degree at
Sydney University, where he was a very active member of
the University Dramatic Society (SUDS).
In 1971 Roger received an Australian Government
Scholarship which allowed him to travel to London and
train as an actor at the Central School of Speech and
Drama. From then on, he played an enormous range of
professional roles in the UK, from the deeply serious to the
cutting edge to the uproariously funny. He was particularly
proud of the Salisbury Playhouse production of Barrie
Keefe’s Sus, a play that
helped to change the
iniquitous "stop and
search" policy of the
Britsh Police in the
1970’s.
Roger loved musicals,
and was blessed with a
good strong baritone
voice as well as a finely
tuned ear. What a range
of musicals he appeared
in – from The Sound of
Music, South Pacific and
My Fair Lady, to The
Rocky Horror Show and
Rockula. His last major
role in a musical, as Mr
Roger Leach, aged 10 years
as Pitti Sing in ‘The Mikado’
Peachum in The Threepenny Opera, was in many ways his
best ever: he played the part for all it was worth, singing,
dancing, declaiming, cajoling and even brandishing his
beloved banjo-ukulele with an aplomb that belied the
illness he was still fighting.
Television work included Perfect Scoundrels, Shoestring,
Bergerac, Enemy at the Door and of course six years and 180
episodes as Sergeant Penny in The Bill.
In addition to being a talented director, Roger was also
a wonderful teacher of Shakespearean texts and audition
technique at three leading drama schools in London. He
loved working with students, and always delighted in their
future professional success. An excellent writer, he cowrote
episodes of Moon and Sun, EastEnders and The Bill
for TV, a comedy thriller for radio, and two hilarious and
carefully crafted farces.
Roger Leach’s career and life were cruelly cut short by
multiple myeloma, for which he underwent a bone
marrow transplant in early 2001. In addition to his
professional accomplishments, he was a wonderfully
loving family man and a most generous and loyal friend
and colleague.
Whilst Roger was equally proud of both of his Jesuit
Schools, he always kept a special place in his heart for St
Aloysius’, the place where his love of acting developed.
He is survived by his wife Brenda and children Ben
and Val in Salisbury UK, and by his mother Claudia and
sisters Rosemary and Gillian in Australia.
Gillian Maury (nee Leach)
Eternal Rest grant to them O Lord,
may perpetual light shine upon them,
may their Souls and all the Souls
of the faithfully departed Old Boys of the College,
Rest In Peace.
St Aloysius, pray for us!
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