Farewell to Chris Winn
Photo by Murray Glover
Members will be sad to learn of the death of a much-loved member of the Association. Chris died on August 27th at the age of 90. He had been in a care home only for 4 days before he succumbed to pancreatic cancer. Many members will be aware of his sporting achievements: he played in 59 first class cricket matches for Sussex and Oxford University (having attended Exeter College) and played Rugby Unionfor England 8 times between 1952 and 1954. Following defeat in Paris in his final match for the country, Chris went that evening with the rest of the team to the Folies Bergere. There are no known reports about this visit. He was a keen (Real) Tennis player up until his early 80s and memories are still fresh in my mind of his excellent eye for the ball and finding the sweet spot on his racquet - most of the time.
So much for his sporting prowess; what about the man himself? Chris married Valerie Ball, the 800 yard record-holder in the early 50s. He worked for ICI in the paint division. For the past 15 years I have been organising the stuffing of the quarterly RTC Newsletter into envelopes - aided by my valiant team of Stuffers; right from the start, Chris was a member of the team and continued to be so up until fairly recently. He was the life and soul of the stuffing sessions (which sometimes had to go on for an appreciable length of time on account of the workload), providing us with an inexhaustible supply of jokes, some ad lib., others with the help of a stack of newspaper cuttings - so many that they made his wallet appear to be at bursting point. He was readily recognised by the panama hat that he invariably wore. He was great fun and had a very warm personality. He will be much missed.
Our thoughts and condolences go out to Val and family.
A Service of Thanksgiving was held at St Luke’s Church, Kew Green, TW9.
David Francis Seelig