News came recently on the Henry Mellish Memories Facebook group. A new street on the school site has been named Centaur Drive. The photograph was taken by Simone Hancock Elliott.

The background to this news is that Garry Humphreys just before he died had been in contact with the city council to suggest that the new streets should be named in memory of the school. A favourable reply was received. We shall have to see if other streets are named accordingly.

New Obituaries – on the Obits page

Eric Horriben and Frank Naylor

War Memorial Page

Four entries have been completed. More information has turned up since the lists on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the Nottinghamshire memorial sites, for example, were compiled.

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

Martin Phillips posted a photograph on the Facebook Group ‘Mellish Memories’ of a person his mother knew, who had worked at the Mellish and who was named Margaret. Several of us recognised the Margaret as Margaret Unwin, (later Mrs Newsom) who was Assistant Secretary from the early 1950s until the mid-1960s. As the only young woman on the premises she had to put up with an awful lot – and that was just from the staff. I am sure Martin will not mind that I have added her photograph to the staff page.

Reminder: We are still looking for some issues of The Centaur: Nos 8-11 of 1934-1936 and 13-15 pf 1937-1938.

Many will have heard the news that Sir Neil Cossons died on 29 March. I have added a short obituary to the OBITS page which contins links to obituaries in, for example, The Times and The Daily Telegraph via his entry in Wikipedia.

Neil was enormously supportive in getting this site up and running.

Two additions:

Worm’s Eye View Programme 1964. On the PLAYS Page.

First XV 1948-1949. From Norman Fearn (now 94) via his daughter Judy. On the SPORTS Page.

I have now heard from Linda the arrangments for Garry’s funeral:

Garry Humphreys’ funeral will be held at 1:30pm on Friday 20 June, at Christ Church, Southgate (N14 7EG). 

This will be followed by a very short cremation service at 3pm, for close family members only.

We invite you to stay after the church service for some light refreshments at the back of the church, and look forward to the opportunity to socialise with you and to hear your memories of Garry.

There will be some parking available in the car park opposite the church, but we anticipate this may fill up quickly, and advise that you can also find further free and unrestricted parking in the residential streets near the church. 

In lieu of flowers, we ask that you donate to either Help Musicians or Cancer Research UK, via Garry’s JustGiving pages. 

We kindly request that you RSVP should you hope to attend, to help us keep track of numbers and plan accordingly. We are aware that some of you have already said you will not be able to, but wanted to know when it is taking place anyway. We are planning to record the funeral and will circulate the recording afterwards. 

If anybody here plans to attend please contact me on the form below. I will forward the information to Linda.

This week came the sad news that Garry had died on Wednesday 7 May. His wife, Linda, and daughter, Rhiannon, were with him.

It was Garry who sparked the appearance of this website and who provided a great deal of material he had collected together with ideas, contacts and the results of web searches that contined until March this year. The whole thing arose because he contacted me nearly 20 years ago wondering if I had any of the photographs I took of the school buildings.

Garry was at HMGS from 1957 until 1964. I am preparing an obituary for these pages.

I do have Linda’s email adrress should any of his friends wish to contact her.

Although living latterly in Suffolk, the funeral will be in north London at Christ Church, Southgate.

Robert Dawson found this 1985 cutting on a memorai service for The Boss.

Anybody know what happened to the memorial oak trees at Mapperley Plains?