Bryan Mash (OW 1959)

Bryan’s wife Lydia informed MCS on 28 April 2013 that he had died. She wrote: ‘It is with sadness that I inform you of the death of my husband Bryan Mash, aged 73 years, after battling with pancreatic and liver cancer for the past 12 months’.

Lydia provided the school with the following obituary:

Bryan was born in Kidlington, Oxford, and after winning a scholarship was a pupil at Magdalen throughout the 1950s. During his teenage years whilst studying he undertook many part-time jobs doing a milk round for Billy Burton, of which his proudest moment was delivering milk to Blenheim Palace and film star Dirk Bogart! He also learnt to dig graves at the local cemetery after befriending the local groundsman. Whilst at Magdalen he was the nine men’s Morris champion – a game that I could never master. He also enjoyed punting on the river and in later years with many a young lady…

After leaving he studied for his degree in pharmacy at Brighton College. Unfortunately due to a motorcycle accident, whilst returning home to Oxford one weekend, he suffered head injuries and couldn’t complete his course. However, he continued to work for Boots the Chemist as a dispenser for some years which is where we first met and we married in 1965.

In the early 1970s Bryan retrained as a tool-room miller engineer discovering his love of engineering, carpentry and anything to do with working with his hands.

During our 47 years of marriage Bryan did everything constructional in the home – a good man to know as he could fix and make anything. We led a pretty much self-sufficient lifestyle and set up our own greengrocer’s and nursery business in the 1980s, meaning we could work alongside each other.

Bryan was always so very proud of his school and revisited it many times, for Commem with family and in recent years to look around and see the changes. He still loved to take us all out on a punt and even in his 60s was far more proficient than the younger people out on the river.

During his retirement he enjoyed his garden and many workshops which were his second home. He has left two daughters – Heather and Julia – a grand-daughter Lydia and grandson Niall and a huge hole in our lives.

If there are any OWs who remember Bryan and would like to get in touch I can be contacted through the Waynflete Office.