The Queen's College Record 2023

ALAN CROSSLEY LANGFORD
Obituaries
Alan Crossley Langford was born in Halifax on 28 November
1933. His parents were Lawrence and Lena. He was
brought up by his mother and grandparents in Brighouse
while his father was fighting in the Second World War.
His family encouraged Alan in his studies, and he was
a proud alumnus of the prestigious Bradford Grammar
School. At school he excelled at sport, (notably, cricket and rugby) and at academic
subjects, securing a scholarship to Oxford University. However, before attending
university, he had to undertake National Service in the RAF, which he absolutely
hated – although he got very good at poker!! He would recall being ordered to
shave his wispy blonde moustache, when he had never shaved before in his life, not
realising he needed to! After leaving the RAF, he went to Queen’s College, Oxford
where he read Classics. He had the time of his life at Oxford. He often commented
that it was magical that a boy from a humble Yorkshire background, could sit and
study alongside the country’s aristocracy. His time at Queen’s laid the foundations
for the rest of his life – his love of travel and his drive to understand the people and
the world around him.
Throughout his life, my father was a successful linguist. He picked up German when
he volunteered during university vacations in refugee camps. He would also tell
stories of his adventures hitchhiking around Europe, including the discovery of apple
strudel. He was always thirsty for knowledge, right through to retirement achieving
an A* in Spanish GCSE. He was fond of saying that for him languages were made
easy because of his grounding in Latin and Ancient Greek. It certainly made family
holidays in France easier!
After university he married his first wife Christine, a schoolteacher, whom he met at
Oxford. My father chose a career in the burgeoning computer industry and enjoyed
the travel, prosperity, and interesting colleagues of that early computer era. He said it
was the logic he learnt at Oxford that made computing an obvious choice for him, he
also said that his Yorkshire roots lent him the ability to work with multiple teams from
engineers on the ground to the Directors of companies. He met my mother, Jane, his
second wife, when they both worked at Digital Equipment Corporation in London. My
brother Philip and I both enjoyed sports with skills passed down from our father who
was a keen spectator and could always be counted on for his vocal encouragement
from the side lines. He also supported local Rugby Union and Cricket teams and was
devastated that COVID-19 paused a number of fixtures (never mind anything else the
pandemic brought). He proudly claimed to be a tight-fisted Yorkshireman from God’s
Own Country and was often mock disappointed that his children were not able to
play cricket for the county – sadly they were both born southerners!
100 The Queen’s College | College Record 2023