Philip Hawtin (OW 1954)

27 January 1936 – 27 December 2024

The Waynflete Office has been sadly informed by James Hawtin (OW 1989) of the death of father Dr Philip Hawtin, aged 88. We send our condolences and sympathies to his children James and Jane, brother Brian (OW 1955) and other family and friends.

As a Former Governor and Former OW Committee member, Philip was a stalwart supporter of MCS and he will be greatly missed.

We are most appreciative for the legacy Philip left to MCS. Philip’s eulogy from his daughter Jane  is below:

Philip was born at the Radcliffe Maternity and his brother Brian was born 14 months later. He always spoke about how they used to be “chucked” out of the house with their bicycles and fishing rods and allowed to roam the local area, with their friends the Nethertons, provided that they were home for tea. Growing up during the war. One weekend he was helping dig the vegetable patch when he put the fork through his wellington boot. His mother was horrified – the foot would heal but how would she replace the boot!

A pivotal moment in Dad’s life was when his parents chose Magdalen College School for him. This was to be a lifelong association for Dad which saw him at various times, pupil, President of the “Old Waynflete’s”; a governor and also Chair of Governors. Even up to last November he was attending the lunches and was particularly proud that his son James also attended the school.

Dad’s time at the school saw a reform in the education system which essentially brought in something along the lines of O and A levels. At the time the school decided that they would not require pupils to sit at O level any subject they would then sit at A level. As a result, Dad held more A levels than O levels.

While at the school Dad developed his interest in wiring, in particular stage lighting, and he described how the teenagers would be left clambering around in the “gods” unsupervised setting up the lighting, Health and Safety was very different back then.

As with many people, Dad developed a number of his unique qualities in his formative years at Magdalen. Indeed a number of his school reports ring true For example his head of year wrote “Hawtin has an elevated opinion of the importance to society of a 6^th former”, his English teacher wrote “Hawtin needs to learn to use a more concise form of the English language” whilst his History teacher wrote “Hawtin is fascinated by living history”.

Dad’s careers advisor said “I don’t know Hawtin, you are not very good at chemistry not very good at physics and not very good at maths. On the other hand you are not bad at any of them. Chemical Engineering is the career for you. So instead of becoming an accountant like his father, he headed off to University College London where he completed both his Batchelor degree and PHD in Chemical Engineering. It was here he met Elisabeth his future wife.

Professionally Dad spent 36 years based at Harwell and then a further 14 years as a consultant and was the only person to hold the highest-level site security pass for 50 years. As a consultant, Dad rediscovered the joy of work, he could do all the things he had enjoyed in his 30s without the politics of his 50s. I am pleased to see that he also got to support a number of startup businesses and latterly saw the renaissance of nuclear energy.

He joined the Institution of Chemical Engineers. This formed the springboard to his membership of the Worshipful Company of Engineers, a position that earned him the “Freedom of the City of London”. He did enjoy the dinners as he rather enjoyed dressing up and wearing one of his collection of natty waistcoats.

At home in Cumnor, Dad developed an interest in gardening, was a church warden for many years, overseeing the refurbishment of the church organ and the augmentation of the church bells from 6 to 8. He discovered he also became a trustee of the Old School and he played a significant part in seeing the property released by the County Council and brought back into a serviceable condition. Alongside this he was a Parish Councillor for several decades, developing a gently antagonist relationship with both Oxfordshire City Council and the Vale of the White Horse. Indeed, following one failed attempt to humanely deter badgers from tunnelling under Cumnor Hill, Dad was quoted in the paper saying “Badgers United 1, Oxford City Council 0”.

A humble individual, he preferred recognising the successes of others rather than himself, happily talking about the achievements of his father-in-law instead of the 50 research papers he published, setting up the IChemE Benevolent Fund or becoming one of the first Euro Engineers in the UK.

Dad talked about his own exploits as a hockey goalkeeper, and regularly regaled his Granddaughter Emma (also a goalkeeper) about how the sport has changed, but most importantly how they now protect goalkeepers

He had a lifelong interest in living history, he “lived and felt it”, as such when he announced he had become a trustee at Combe Mill it seemed an obvious fit. He was particularly fond of their steaming days and the fact that they were a working museum. When clearing his desk, we found that he had been working on differential calculus equations for boiler analysis, a mind active to the end.

His brother, Brian (55), commented that the difference between him and Philip was that he had left school. This was an allusion to the close association Philip kept with MCS, regularly attending the OW dinners, joining the OW committee, becoming its Chairman. This led to an invitation to become a Governor and he became its Chairman, gracefully stepping up unexpectedly on the death of Angus McIntyre. It was a difficult time for the school as we navigated our independence from the College. As assiduous as ever he ensured that his memories from this time are in the schools’ archives.