A Tribute to Peter Davies

It is entirely due to Peter's efforts that the first Bournemouth Reunion in 1996 got off the ground. The College in its wisdom had destroyed all its records from the 50's, so his first task was to compile a list of former students, starting with a small nucleus of his own friends. Many had died or were untraceable, others chose not to be involved, but gradually a mailing list was built up. Remarkably, over 100 people turned up for the first Reunion dinner, a good proportion of them staying for the whole weekend, visiting both old and new colleges, renewing old friendships and making new ones. On the Friday night we danced to the Gerry Brown Jazzmen, still blowing well after 40 years – we discovered later that Peter had funded this event entirely from his own pocket!

Peter was the life and soul of subsequent reunions in 1997 and 1998, although it became clear that he was far from well. He was taken ill at the 1999 reunion and sadly died in spring 2000.

There was a full appreciation in the August 2000 Clocktower.