<---

Memory Lane 23

May 2025. Gerry Miller remembers Brian Hatherell 1944-1990

I first met Brian in September 1951 when I joined the First year of Deanesfield Primary school in South Ruislip. From then until we left SNGS in July 1962 we were always in the same Form. My most conscious memory of Brian in the early days was his amazing artistic ability. We were taught to write with pen and ink, essentially a nib attached to a stick with an inkwell of sooty ink to dip into. Most of us struggled to make letters legible even after much

study and practise whilst Brian from the beginning developed a style of copperplate script which was the envy of us all, including our teachers. On the opening day of SNGS in September 1955 Brian and I transferred with another eight boys from Ian Smith’s (our inspirational teacher) in years 3 and 4 class to SNGS. Brian & I were posted to Form 1d.

Mr Peter Banton was our Form Master.

From the beginning Brian & I travelled to school together on the 225 bus from the Eastcote Arms to Norwich Road. Then in the 3rd Form, motivated by a bus strike, we decided to cycle. We did so every day, I picked him up from his house at about 8am and we rode up Field End Rd. through Eastcote to Joel Street then up Wiltshire Lane. He took the kerbside station with me on the outside. Never once to my memory, although it must have happened, did we have to cycle single file due to traffic. We returned in the afternoon similarly positioned. Neither of us were sporty and our academic talents were well matched. However, Brian’s ability with

pencil, pen, charcoal, paints, pottery, engraving or any other of the artistic media that were sent his way was outstanding.

We both took 3 good A levels and opted not to go on to university. In fact, during our last

term at SNGS, apart from our daily commute I all but lost touch with Brian as he was

courting a local girl. On the last day of the summer term in 1962 we cycled home side by

side and as we approached my right hand turn off Field End Rd at the Clay Pigeon I shouted

to him ‘Have a Good Holiday Mate’ he would then cycle on to his turn in a couple of hundred yards. Brian raised his arm in acknowledgement and we parted... never to see or hear from each other again.

In the summer of 2005 I was asked, as General Manager of BA’s sports clubs, if SNOBS could hire our main function room at Concorde Centre for a 50th (1955-2005) anniversary reunion lunch. I was pleased to arrange the event & took on the responsibility of gathering as many SNOBs, their partners and surviving school masters as possible.

This I gladly did and over the following months numbers rose to 250. I was very keen to track down two of my closest friends from school days, Steve Bacon & Brian Hatherell.

Where to start looking?

May 2005 marked the 60th anniversary of the end of WW2. I visited Uxbridge Library most

Saturdays & was intrigued to view a comprehensive display of WW2 memorabilia when venturing onto a floor in the library that I had never before visited. There I discovered

row after row of every telephone directory for the UK. I was amazed. Looking at them I

remember thinking there is a good chance that the phone numbers of my two missing

school mates were probably there in front of me. I selected a directory at random, for the

Harrow area I think, & there found the means of contacting Steve Bacon who had at that

time and for many years lived in the far north west of England. Within 30 minutes I was

talking on the phone to Steve. But that’s another story.

For the purpose of personalising the place settings for our lunch I was seeking the first names of various partners of SNOBS who were coming to the Reunion. One’s name was Harding I knew his address and so was able to look him up in the telephone directory for Hampshire which was just one of the several hundred neatly set out on the library shelves in front of me. Whilst I leafed through the directory my eye spotted G A Hatherell. Now I remembered Brian’s Dad was George Arthur. I knew Brian’s second name was Arthur. So, I

phoned the number and heard a very old sounding voice say ‘George Hatherell’ here. I explained who I was & he said ‘yes I remember you, you came to

our house each morning to pick up Brian to cycle to school’. I enquired about Brian. ‘Oh! He said ‘I’m afraid Brian was a victim of the First Gulf War’. Would you like me to tell you what happened?

Brian’s artistic ability had led him from school to join the Ordnance Survey where his skills enabled him to rise through the organisation to become the Chief Cartographical Draughtsman. In 1989 he was sent to China to help codify the maps of that enormous country. The Gulf War threatened and he was brought back to the UK to lead the team which

was charged with the standardisation of the British, US & French maps of the gulf area. No doubt a high-pressure assignment. Having completed the task Brian & his team were summoned to a high-level military meeting on Salisbury Plain to present the

result of their labours. As Brian’s father related to me, ‘Brian made his presentation then was struck down by a heart attack from which he didn’t recover’.