It was only while looking something up on The Centaur page that I realised my wife was influenced by two Mellish old boys in her life. John Webster was her tutor in 1st year botany at Sheffield in 1962-63. The former Miss Large still recojnts the story of him giving her an essay on ‘the importance of being the right size’. We had no idea then we he was a Mellish boy. John was a very good tutor but that did not prevent her – and me – dropping botany even before the ink was dry on the exam paper at the end of the year.

WEBSTER, John [1936-1943] Scholarship to University College Nottingham. War-time Degree. Ist Class Hons Botany. 1946 Assistant Lecturer, University College Hull. 1950 Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and then Reader in Botany, University of Sheffield. PhD Sheffield. 1969 Professor of Biological Sciences University of Exeter. Mycologist. President British Mycological Society and a founder of International Mycological Association. b 26 May 1925, Kirkby in Ashfield; d 27 December 2014. Exeter.

Thanks to Lady Clare Howes DL looking for a home for the papers relating to her uncle, Arthur Naylor, I now have the papers scanned and uploaded on two pages. Arthur was killed while training as a fighter pilot in 1941. I have started a new page (War Memorial) that I hope will eventually contain details of all the Mellish boys and masters who died in 1939-1945. Arthur’s School Certificates and other material can now be seen on the Miscellanea Page and since he was a temporary member of staff in 1940 I have amended his entry on the Staff Page.

WILLMOTT, Frederick Edwin. 1952-1959. MB BS (Guy’s Hospital, 1964) FRCP. Medical posts in Nottingham. Surgeon Lieutenant Royal Navy (Short Service Commission), genito-urinary medicine in Manchester and Leicester. Consultant in Auckland, New Zealand. From 1985 Consultant, Royal South Hants Hospital. b 1941, Beeston; d 16 December 2024. Obituary, British Medical Journal 21-28 February 2026.

Now on the OBITS Page