Past President: an illustrated profile of Richard Calvert Williamson

ROBERT WILLIAMSON

A PERSONAL PROFILE OF THE SOCIETY'S PRESIDENT

I am the fourth child of Loetitia and Henry, and I was born in September 1933.

I went to Stiffkey Village School, Paston Grammer School, and then on to Blundell's School, Tiverton, in Devon.

After doing my National Service in the RAF, I worked at Marconi's in Chelmsford, and then for Decca Navigator in France and Canada.

I then went into teaching and qualified in 1965, retiring in 1998, then as a Primary Head teacher.

I married Mary in 1957, and we have one daughter, Sarah, and three grandchildren, Sophia, Laurence, and Lucy.

A life-long passion for sailing was sparked by 'sailing' Henry's dinghy Pinta with John, when it was stored in the Turkey Shed at the farm in Norfolk. In later years, when I was able to get my own boats, both John and Richard occasionally joined me, sailing the Essex coast, and the North Sea to Holland and beyond.

Music and poetry have both been important to me – a very broad taste, but Vaughan Williams, Richard Strauss and Sibelius have a very special place, as has the poetry of Housman, Kipling, Masefield, and many others.

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