The Queen's College Record 2020

MICHAEL GAUTREY
Obituaries
Michael Sidney Gautrey, Emeritus Fellow, died on 20
December 2019 at the age of 86. He was Domestic
Bursar at Queen’s from 1985 until his retirement in 1999.
Born in 1933, he spent 26 years in the flying branch of
the Air Force as a fighter pilot and he was promoted to
the rank of Wing Commander. He was then Bursar at a
school before coming to Oxford as Administrator in the
Department of Nuclear Physics in 1980.
John Moffatt, Physics Fellow at Queen’s was appointed
Provost in 1987 and, in anticipation of this, encouraged Michael to apply for the post
of Domestic Bursar which he took up in 1985.
Like many twentieth-century bursars, Michael brought the training and experience
of a services career to the very different society of an Oxford college. That was not
necessarily an entirely easy mix, and some bursars found it hard to reconcile their
expectations of authority, and of clear chains of command, with our non-hierarchical
culture. But it was a transition that Michael made remarkably well. He sought clarity,
which could occasionally rub up against long-entrenched practices and expectations,
but he always acted sensitively and with conspicuous fair-mindedness. He ran the
domestic side of the College compassionately as well as fairly, and showed patience
and forbearance in the face of occasional personnel difficulties. Fellows who were
College officers in his time will remember him with affection.
Michael was also a skilled organist. His musical life started as a chorister at St John’s
College, Cambridge. At Oxford he played the organ at St Nicholas Church, Old
Marston, across the road from his home. He was organist there until he could no
longer manage the steep stairs up to the organ loft. When James Dalton, Music Fellow
and Organist at Queen’s retired in 1993, Michael stepped in to hold the fort until the
appointment of a new Music Fellow in 1997.
Michael is survived by his wife Patricia, a son, daughter and five grandchildren.
John Blair and Graeme Salmon (Emeritus Fellows)
124 The Queen’s College | College Record 2020