J SH 1946 - 1953
We have been notified of the sad death of John Mathias who passed away on the 11th January 2021. He was 85. Our thoughts and best wishes go to his family and those who knew him well.
You can read memories from those who new John in his later years, here: https://hgsheritage.org.uk/Detail/objects/obituary-johnmathias
If you would like to have your memories of John posted on this webpage, please feel free to email them to TWS@wycliffe.co.uk
At Wycliffe:
Library Committee (President)
Camera Club (Secretary)
Science Society
Rugby 2nd XV (Colts)
R.L.S.S. Member (Bronze Medal)
Literary Society, Drama, Art
Obituary
John A. Mathias, born 1935 and died on the 11th January 2021. He had health issues but contracted Covid 19 in hospital.
John came from Cardigan where his father worked as a medically qualified dentist. He joined the Junior school at Ryeford in 1946 which was not the warmest of buildings especially in the notorious winter of 1947. He moved to the Senior school and was in School House under the care of David Paine. The Art master Col. D N Morgan introduced John to watercolour painting so that he had a lifelong love of this medium and produced some exquisite landscapes. However, he followed the school science curriculum with a wish to train in medicine. The event which earned him a mention in the Loosley ‘First Hundred Years’ of Wycliffe (p162) was the painting of a Zebra Crossing from Springfield to the main school.
John left school in 1953 to study medicine at University College London and University College Hospital, UCH. He qualified in 1959 and following his House jobs at UCH signed on for a short-term commission in the army rather than National Service. He was an RAMC Captain in the Worcester Regiment. In 1961 he went with the British relief force to British Honduras to assist following the devastation caused by hurricane Hattie.
The Army was followed by a training in Anaesthesia at St Thomas’s Hospital where he was appointed a Consultant. There he had a distinguished career as an anaesthetist and was renowned for his teaching and his calm and kindly patient care.
Retirement was very active for John who had a great interest in sailing and shared a succession of boats on the South Coast with regular cruises to France and the Channel Islands. His last boat was, for an anaesthetist, appropriately named ‘Perchance to Dream’. The sailing and travelling gave John ample opportunity for painting. John was active in his home community in Hampstead Garden Suburb and was Chairman of Fellowship House for some years.
John married met and married Sonia, who was a nursing sister at UCH and they were blessed with two sons Jonathan and Gareth, and two granddaughters.
– Obituary composed by OW Brian Morgan (J SH 1946 – 1953)
