Grahame Hopkins (OW 1948)

MCS was informed that Grahame died on 15 May 2013. His son Simon provided the following obituary:

Grahame was born on 31 May 1931, the only son of Claude and Edna Hopkins. His early recollections were of patting butter in his Grandma’s front room which doubled as a Grocer’s Shop at 117 Hollow Way, and delivering essentials on a bike with a basket on the front. He enjoyed a happy childhood, telling many stories of having a cricket net erected in the back garden in Hollow Way and bowling at one stump or hitting cricket balls out of the net and breaking greenhouse windows.

He attended Magdalen College School from 1942 to 1948, where he was able to indulge his passion for sport, with cricket being his number one sporting love, and to represent the school at all age groups, including the Cricket 1st XI from 1947 to 1949, becoming Secretary in 1949. He also represented the school at rugby, hockey and athletics.

He was stationed during his National Service in Hong Kong and Singapore, serving at RAF Changi from May 1950 to August 1951 as a Fighter Plotter and Radar operator, where he was able to indulge his passion for all things mechanical, with a report stating that he showed considerable promise.

On his return from National Service his father asked him to run a business that had been set up during his time abroad and he began his working life at the Oxford Terrazio and Mosaic Company, which later became OTAM Oxford Ltd in Magdalen Road.

In 1962, following the death of his father, he took over the family business of Hopkins of Cowley – a tool, ironmongers and hardware store in Hollow Way, Cowley. The business had been started in 1921 by his grandmother as a grocery store and then morphed into a hardware store when his parents assumed control. In the late 1970s Hopkins of Cowley and OTAM were merged on the Hollow Way site trading as Hopkins of Cowley Ltd. Grahame presided over the expansion of the business, which had 45 employees at its peak, until it was sold in 1995, and the site was turned into accommodation, now named Hopkins Court.

In 1957 at a dance in the Town Hall in Oxford he met Pat Maule, whom he would marry two years later. That same year, they built and moved into High Trees, Shillingford, in the garden of Hazeldene, the family home since 1955. They lived in Shillingford from 1959 to 2000, moving to Warborough, where they still resided when Grahame passed away.

Grahame, as well as being a businessman, was a good all-round sportsman enjoying hockey, rugby, golf, table tennis, squash, snooker, water skiing and lawn bowls. He regularly represented the Old Waynfletes and went on to play for Cowley St John CC – Cowley Jacks as they were known. He represented the County in 1955, then played for North Oxford CC before playing for his local village team Warborough & Shillingford CC in the mid to late 60s. His proudest achievement as a cricketer was representing the RAF when in the Far East.

Grahame is survived by his wife Pat, sons Simon and Nick and by his grand-daughter Amy.