Roy Campbell, Nelson 1955-1960

Roy Campbell (Nelson House, 1955 – 1960) Roy joined Nelson House for the autumn term of 1955 from his home in Bexley, Kent, and quickly established himself within the house, especially as a boxer (the "mighty atom” would be a suitable epithet!), and as a skilled hooker when playing rugby. When he joined RHS Charles (Moggy) Mollard was housemaster, but he was succeeded in 1958 by George Hardy.

Roy left Holbrook in July 1960, having served in the guard to Lord Mountbatten, and quickly began to take up accountancy with the publishers Edward Arnold, an occupation he followed throughout his working life. Sometime later, when the firm he worked for went bankrupt, he was taken on by the receivers, and from then on followed a career as an insolvency practitioner. He moved to Bury Port, Carmarthenshire, and rapidly, with his wife Mo’s encouragement, became an established and enthusiastic member of the local Bowls’ Club.Following his retirement they both spent many happy days there. Although in early middle age he had a triple heart by-pass operation, his later appearance was that of a healthily-tanned fit man who enjoyed the outdoor sporting life.

Those of us who shared out time with Roy in Nelson have many interesting memories of the times, and our reminiscences about them will be less colourful without Roy’s contributions. On one occasion, when he lived in Wokingham, he and I met for supper in London prior to my leaving for Dundee on the sleeper from King’s Cross for a meeting. We had a wonderful evening meal, but when I arrived at King’s Cross I found that I had missed my train, and couldn’t get a sleeper berth on the next one, so I settled for a later sleeper to Edinburgh. By this time it was too late to phone my host and warn him. At Edinburgh Waverley, the announcer was saying that a train was just about to leave for Dundee as I arrived. I dashed across the station and boarded the train only to find that it was scheduled to stop at every station en route! I finally arrived in Dundee in time for lunch, had the meeting over lunch, and departed for Heathrow on a flight at about 1400! A truly memorable meeting. Later when I spoke to Roy again, and I told him of my experiences, he told me that he had fallen asleep on his train to Wokingham, and woken up in Cardiff, eventually arriving home just after dawn!

Roy was proud to be an "Old Boy” of RHS, kept in contact with others of us from Nelson, and organised several "old guard” meetings at RHSA weekends at the school, the last one being in June 2009. Unexpectedly Roy crossed the bar aged 66 on Monday 26th July, 2010, in Kings Lynn, whilst visiting friends and will be sadly missed by we remaining Nelsonians.

Bernard de Neumann. Ex Nelson House

August 2010