Robert Nicholas Nicholson (SH 39-42)  Rob Nicholson (SH 73-80) has written about his father: “My dad, known as Bob to his friends, died on 14th October 2012 aged 88. He was born in 1923 in Workington, Cumberland, the eldest child to a fishmonger father who came from a long line of yeoman farmers. He was evacuated from Pocklington Boys Grammar School during the 2nd World War to St. Bees School, which he attended from 1939 to 1942. His "claim to fame" at school was as a left hand spin bowler. He once bowled out ‘Bill’ Edrich, the Middlesex test cricketer. He was a keen rugby player and became a lifetime member of the Zebras, Workington Rugby Union Football Club. After school he went on to study civil engineering at Liverpool University and then architecture at Durham. During the war he was sent to Burma; however, en route he was diverted to India, where he served several years in the Royal Engineers building bridges. He often recalled the story of how he had to fill in for the pianist aboard the Monarch of Bermuda in 1948 whilst returning from Asia.

After being discharged from the army he continued to work as a civil engineer for ICI in Cheshire with his close friend Bernard Burton. It was while working for ICI that he met his wife Josie, who bore him two daughters and a son who later also went on to attend St. Bees. In 1955 he joined a firm of architects based in Carlisle and Whitehaven and eventually became the senior partner. Dad was a keen sailor and spent many a rough weekend being tossed from pillar to post sailing across the Solway Firth from Workington to the southern Scottish borders with his life long friend Alan Müller, and any of his kids, frequently me, that he could persuade to join the crew. His love of the sea saw him become very involved in the local sea cadets and he eventually became the Honorary Secretary of the Workington lifeboat crew. Dad was always an active and fit person and his love of the outdoor life saw him eventually settle in north Wales, when he remarried to Loris on his retirement. He continued to walk his dogs until Alzheimer’s got the better of him around 18 months ago. He was a kind man who always had time for everyone, and treated everybody with equal respect. On 25th November this year dad’s ashes were scattered at sea at the South Workington cardinal buoy by the local lifeboat crew. In attendance were his wife, daughter and grandson.”

 

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