Martyn Ives Vesey 1959-1965

From Colin Snook:
On Friday 21st April I attended the funeral of Old Cicestrian Martyn Ives Vesey at The Church of St James, Birdham who sadly died on 30th March 2017 aged 72. Martin McGranaghan was also present.

During the service conducted by The Reverend Jonathan Swindells, Anthems were sung by the ‘Sansara Consort’ directed by Ben Cunningham, Choir Leader (Westminster Abbey). A tribute ‘Remembering Martyn’ was given by Peter James. The immediate family then attended at Chichester Crematorium for a short service. A reception was later held at the Chichester Yacht Club.

Martyn’s school years were 1959 – 1965. He was a House Captain, Deputy Head Boy and an outstanding sportsman in both games and on the track.

He attended the Culham Centre in Oxfordshire and qualified as a teacher. He quickly moved on to join Marks & Spencer as a training and service manager for many years and later became a director-general in the cleaning business support service industry.
In retirement, his sporting prowess turned to canoeing and sailing. He served briefly on the O.C’s Committee.

 

July 2019

From Roger Byron-Collins

Dear Richard,
 
….enquiry
I am trying to make contact with an old friend of mine Martin Vesey when I attended the school in the late 1950s whilst my father was stationed as aircrew at RAF Tangmere. Martin lived with his parents at the Racehorse Inn Coultershaw Bridge near the old Petworth railway station and I was a regular visitor when I used to cycle to visit him to and from Tangmere. In 1959 we had a great trip to Paris and Chartres on the  School trip.  Later that year my father was posted to Aden and I left the school to become a boarder at King Edwards School Witley and sadly we lost contact.
 
…….later message
 
I appreciate your prompt response to my email and I was saddened to learn of Martyn’s passing back in 2017. I had tried to make contact with him once before through his former connections in Petworth but to no avail. I should have written to you sooner.
 
I will continue to have great memories of my friendship with him, albeit for only two years, which was par for the course in my coming from an RAF family.
 
My memories and enjoyment whilst I was a pupil at ‘Chi-High’ will always remain with me and I was saddened to leave the school in 1959 having made such many good friends to become a boarder at King Edwards Witley.
Reading about Martyn in Life after School he certainly pursued what he enjoyed in life – his connections with ‘water’  His biggest interest when I visited his parents’ pub The Racehorse at Coultershaw was our spending time on the adjacent River Rother.  We built more rafts
with oil drums attached to pallets than I can remember and ended up in the river numerous times.  Even more exciting we were regular visitors to Goodwood motor racing track and in the summer of 1959 we watched Stirling Moss and Carroll Shelby win the RAC Tourist Trophy in their Aston Martin and we ended up meeting them both.  Equally as exciting was the following July we both able to sit inside Donald Campbell’s Bluebird on a visit to Goodwood.
 
He was a good friend for less than three years of our lives so a great loss he is gone and I never had the chance to meet him again.
 
Having lived and worked in southern Norway since 2001 I would like to become a member of the Old Cicestrians.
 
Thank you once again for letting me know about Martyn.
 
Roger Byron-Collins