OBITUARIES

The Flag Officers and Committee would like to express their sympathy to the relatives and friends of members who have died during the past year. As Editor I would also like to thank those who have contributed the following appreciations, since Club records are seldom full enough for these to be compiled without additional information.

Howard Fowler

Howard Fowler, who died in February at the age of 88, will be remembered by many OCC members as our Secretary.

The first part of his career was in the Merchant Navy, where he developed an interest in navigation that was to remain with him for the rest of his life. He joined the Royal Naval Reserve, and spent his training year as a Lieutenant in HMS Daring, commanded by Lord Louis Mountbatten, where his distinctive height earned him the nickname of `Lofty'. Among his proud possessions from that period was a pair of miniature silver oars, gained during the Mediterranean Fleet Regatta -- one gathers that with Lord Louis in charge there was no doubt about which ship was going to win the officers' whaler race!

But the Merchant Navy was sadly hit by the 1930s depression, so Howard joined a couple of colleagues in an air navigation school. Thus it was that the coming of war found him not in the Navy but in the Air Force, where he taught navigation to aircrews, much of the time in South Africa.

After the war he turned his hand to running a family restaurant, but eventually returned to teaching navigation -- this time to yachtsmen -- which he combined in due course with being secretary of the OCC. He was living then in North London but owned a small cruising yacht which he kept at Burnham-on-Crouch, and after a while, with his teaching load reduced, he and his wife Beattie took the sensible course of moving to Burnham where they were to spend several happy years. This sunny time was marred only by the gradual onset of Parkinson's disease which inevitably forced Howard to give up such activities as his yacht and the OCC. A further blow came six years ago when Beattie died and Howard had to move into a nursing home -- firstly in Essex and then near his son's home in Yorkshire. Here he was able to keep in touch with the OCC and his many friends with the help of his son John.

Howard always retained his interest in matters nautical, and after leaving the sea be remained an active member of the Company of Master Mariners. Concerned later with smaller craft, he was proud to have completed, as navigator in Griffin III, a 1000 mile voyage to Gibraltar whlch enabled him to become an OCC member in his own right. After retiring as secretary he was made an honorary life member.

It was said that during his time as secretary Howard never left a letter unanswered. Certainly he established a rapport with the members, many of them from distant parts of the world, that did much to establish and maintain our present far-flung membership. This he achieved with only an old manual typewriter, while also keeping the accounts and organising the functions.

Those of us who remember his work for the club will view his passing with sadness and offer our sympathy to his son and other members of his family.

LEDW

Ken Mann

My father passed away in November 1995 at the age of seventy-seven, having been a member of the OCC for twenty years and a keen sailor for over fifty. He began in dinghies on Berwen Water in Lancashire, progressing to small cruisers just after the War. His first boat was a Silhouette named Taki, and in the early 1950s he became a founder member of the Llanbedr and Pensarn Yacht Club in North Wales, along with Wing Commander David Burrows (also an OCC member) and Group Captain William `Hank' Howell. My father changed the Silhouette for an Eventide, also called Taki, and then began many voyages to Scotland and around Ireland.

However, the important goal was to qualify for the OCC, so in the mid 1960s Talys was commissioned. She was a 35ft, 10 ton, steel yacht built to a Buchanan design. She was delivered to Pensarn and for the next two years the three partners -- my father, David Burrows and Hank Howell -- completed the fitting out. All volunteers were most welcome, especially ladies as they were small enough to paint the inside of the bilges! On her maiden voyage the only difficulty encountered was swinging the compass, due to the steel hull.

A number of voyages around Ireland and Scotland were undertaken before the long haul to Gibraltar, non-stop from Pensarn, in 1975. David Burrows, my father and Dick Holdsworth took her the 2000 miles without major incident, however once in the Mediterranean they soon realised that steel hulls were not to be recommended in a hot climate as they `stifled in an oven'. After a few weeks Talys was returned to Pensarn by David Burrows, crewed by John and Ann Parkes.

My father, due to failing health following a stroke, was unable to undertake any further long cruises. He remained involved with the sea, however, ensuring that his three sons-in-law `learnt the ropes', whilst his three daughters were supervised in teaching the ten grandchildren the basics.

He was always immensely proud that he was a member of the OCC and, although not an active member, took great delight in telling everyone about it. He is sadly missed by his family and also by David Burrows, now the sole surviving member of the trio who owned Talys.

TKW

Brigadier Mike Wingate Gray MC, OBE

Mike joined the OCC after sailing with Martin Minter-Kemp aboard the Freedom 40 Exchange Travel in the 1981 Two-handed Transatlantic Race. However his chosen patch was the Mediterranean, and for several years in the 1980s he was our Port Officer in Calpe, Spain.

A Scot and a career soldier, Mike was commissioned into the Black Watch and served with the 1st Battalion from 1942 until the end of the war. His first MC was won in 1943 at the battle of Gerbini in Sicily; the second in October of the following year when he negotiated the safe evacuation of some 20,000 military and civilian wounded from France.

After the war he served in Germany, British Guyana, Egypt and Cyprus, and in 1963 took the Massed Bands of the Black Watch on a tour of America, where they were invited to play at the funeral of President John Kennedy.

On his return he joined the SAS as second-in-command at Aden -- after insisting on completing the physically demanding selection course over the Brecon Beacons at the age of forty-one -- later being posted to Indonesia, Gibraltar and Paris.

After retiring from the army in 1973 Mike became involved in a boatbuilding venture, then in providing security for VIPs. He married twice and had three sons.

TDT

Nick Broughton

Nick, although a relatively inexperienced sailor at the time, with great courage bought the old Baltic Trader Zebu and chartered her, together with himself and his wife Jane, to Operation Raleigh for a circumnavigation. Crews of twelve young venturers from all over the world joined ship for three months at a time and the circumnavigation lasted three years, from 1984-87. It largely followed the trade wind route, but visits to both Australia and Japan were included. The voyage was carried out in an exemplary manner with much fine seamanship, a happy crew and a well maintained ship.

On return to England Zebu was sold and Nick, now fully qualified, was employed, mostly in the United States, as delivery crew and professional skipper. His early and sudden death from cancer at the age of ®MDUL¯thirty-three is tragic. His enthusiasm, competence and ability to make friends wherever he went will be very sorely missed.

RJK