Christopher Charlton (OW 1969)

His brother Patrick (OW 1970) informed MCS of Chris’s death on 24 February 2013. He provided the following words for his obituary taken from a tribute which was compiled by his family:

After leaving MCS Chris went on to read Geography at King’s College, London. In 1972 he came back to Oxford, to Wadham College, to do his PGCE. During this year he was sent to St Bartholomew’s Grammar School in Newbury to do his teaching practice. There was a teaching vacancy for a full-time geography teacher and Chris took up his first post at this school. Shortly afterwards he met his wife-to-be, Pamela, who was teaching history.

In 1980 Chris and Pamela moved to Grenville College in Bideford, Devon, to take up the post of Head of Geography and also took charge of one of the junior boarding houses. This is where their two children were born, Rachel in 1982 and James in 1986. In 1991 they moved away from the boarding house and Chris became Head of School House in charge of the day boys. In 2009, on the eve of a major reorganisation of the school, Chris decided it was time to retire, having chosen to spend his entire teaching career in the classroom. Tragically, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer in December 2011.

He loved North Devon, the coast path, Clovelly and Hartland but also his field trips to Snowdonia, Lundy, Iceland, Pembrokeshire, the London Docklands and Westward Ho! He loved to keep fit not only by coaching hockey at school but especially by gardening, walking and cycling whenever he could. He loved listening to all types of music with an eclectic taste ranging from Renaissance recorder music through a wide range of classical music to guitar and rock. He was a great fan of Bob Dylan. Chris played the piano, cello and guitar. He was also a keen birdwatcher, carrying out surveys for the British Trust for Ornithology and producing talented bird sketches.

With a witty, caring and engaging personality, Chris was universally popular and the family has received an enormous number of tributes. Essentially a modest and unassuming man, he would have been overwhelmed and surprised by these.

At the funeral Rachel read out the full tribute and James read the words of Bob Dylan’s Forever Young.