Univ Record 2017

nuns at his primary school who had given him the initial encouragement in his studies.
In 1941 he went on to study Classics at Canterbury University College, taking a First
followed by postgraduate degrees. In 1947, he was appointed Junior Lecturer in Classics
at the University of Otago, and a career as a Classicist beckoned.
However, in the same year he was awarded a University of New Zealand Postgraduate
Travelling Scholarship in Arts, as a result of which he came to Oxford. Frank chose
to matriculate, not in Classics, but in Modern Languages, focussing on French and
German, a language he had entirely taught himself. Nevertheless he won the Heath
Harrison Prizes for French in 1949 and for German in 1950.
On taking his First in 1951, Frank was appointed Lecturer in Modern Languages at
Univ., but then in 1952, was elected to a Fellowship at Trinity College to become their
first Fellow in Modern Languages. During his first year at Trinity, he continued to teach
his Univ pupils until his successor was appointed.
Frank was fluent in at least five modern European languages. He specialised in
teaching French literature, language and philology as a Tutorial Fellow and University
Lecturer, but also taught other languages from time to time. He researched and published
in particular on Late Latin and the early history of the French language. However, he also
took an especial interest in Romania, because of the Romance origins of its languages,
visiting the country regularly in the 1960s, and lectured on Romanian in Oxford.
Frank widened his knowledge of languages and put it to use in the fostering of
international understanding, to which he attached the greatest importance, through his
translation work for the United Nations. He also did editorial work for the International
Labour Review.
On his retirement from Trinity in 1986, Frank and his wife, Elizabeth, returned to
his native New Zealand to live in the house into which he had been born, although they
regularly returned to Oxford and their holiday home in Spain. He died peacefully in
Christchurch. [We are very grateful to Elizabeth for her help in preparing this tribute].
SIR JOHN ANTHONY SWIRE died on 28 November 2016. See Honorary Fellows
above.
DAVID WILLIAMSON TANNER (Raynes Park County School) died on 28 November
2016 shortly before his 86th birthday. David read Chemistry at Univ, both as an
undergraduate and a postgraduate. Having spent two years postgraduate research at
the University of Minnesota, he came back to Britain to work first for the Department
of Scientific and Industrial Research from 1957-64, and then for the Department of
Education and Science, where he rose to become Head of the Science Branch from 1981
until his retirement in 1989. He leaves a widow, Glenis, a son and two daughters.
David’s son Jo has kindly allowed us to include these extracts from the eulogy he
delivered at his father’s funeral:
‘“Stand up, speak up, shut up’. David was never far away from a pithy aphorism.
He had the most remarkable brain. And with it came a remarkable sense of humour. I
remember when we were bicycling in Budapest the wrong way down a road. ‘Vun way!
Vun way!’ a man shouted at us. ‘We’re only going one way’ David said to me with a smile.
“He loved books. No he didn’t. He really, really, loved books. By the time I was about
5 or 6 I accepted that I would always get them as presents – the flares and football boots
were left to my mother to buy. It’s the way he was. But as a result he was the first boy to
get a scholarship to Oxford from Raynes Park County School. They were so proud of him
they immediately instigated an annual day off for everyone, in his honour.
“David was not ambitious. He was gentle, studious, intellectual. He was artistic and
sensitive, cultured and non-confrontational. And although he worked for Mrs Thatcher,
he distanced himself the moment she revealed her politics.
“He took us to galleries, theatre and exhibitions, always with the aim of opening our
eyes and our hearts. The 1970 Pop Art exhibition at the Tate changed my life. And we
never went to a city or town without visiting its churches or cathedral. He loved them for
their beauty and tranquillity.
“Another great love of his was philosophy. Aged 65 he decided to study it part
time. Within weeks his tutors had a departmental meeting about him because they
were struggling to have a life beyond marking his extraordinarily long and analytical
essays. They asked him if he wouldn’t kindly mind reducing them a little … possibly?
He obliged. And in return they obliged him with a Starred First – the first in 15 years.
“David was more than our father, he was our friend. And this makes his departure
and our loss doubly heartfelt.”
1949
COLIN EDWARD GEORGE (Caterham) died on 15 October 2016 aged 87. He read
English at Univ, but like many of Peter Bayley’s pupils was drawn to the theatre,
becoming a member of OUDS. On graduating he formed the Oxford and Cambridge
Players (later the Elizabeth Theatre Company). Their production of Henry V, in which he
took the title role, was televised. In the late 1950s, Colin moved from acting to directing,
and in 1958 was appointed associated director of Nottingham Playhouse. In 1965 Colin
became artistic director of the Sheffield Playhouse, where he introduced audiences to
modern playwrights such as Bertholt Brecht, John Osborne and Harold Pinter.
Shortly after taking up this post, he was given funding to design a new theatre, and
persuaded by the director Tyrone Guthrie to visit Stratford, Ontario, and Minneapolis,
encountered for the first time three-sided thrust stages, which brought the actors into
the middle of the audience. He successfully persuaded the Sheffield authorities to create
this effect for their theatre, and although at the time some councillors and theatre
directors were bitterly opposed to the innovation, the new Crucible Theatre was opened
in November 1971, and soon proved a great success, not least as the venue for the World
Snooker Championships.
In 1974 Colin left Sheffield to work first for the State Theatre Company of South
Australia, where he gave Mel Gibson his first major stage role, and then for Hong Kong
Academy for Performing Arts. In Hong Kong he took a Chinese production of The
Bacchae to Beijing and Shanghai. On his return to Britain he joined the Royal Shakespeare
Company in 1994. He also devised a one-man-show in the person of Shakespeare’s father.
His last stage role was that of Desdemona’s father in Othello, performed appropriately
enough at the Crucible in 2011, in a production marking that theatre’s 40th anniversary.
He is survived by his second wife, four children, and 14 grandchildren.
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