Philip Swales (F61-66). Roger Swales has submitted the following about his brother:

“Philip Swales passed away on the 17th April 2011. His death was very sudden and totally unforeseen.
He was born in Assam, India, where our father was a tea planter working for Brook Bond near the Burma/Tibet border. We were both schooled locally on the tea estates and then in Darjeeling before going off to boarding school at Seascale in 1956 and then to St. Bees. At holiday times we moved from family to family in the Lake District until it was our time to fly back to India, perhaps once every year or eighteen months. By now Philip had a passion for three things in his life which never faded:

1. His love of Assam. He called his house in Lymm “Raidang”, the tea estate we were brought up on, so he never forgot his roots. And of course Assam tea. Very loyal!

2. His love of flying. He would regale all and sundry about our epic flights to Assam in the late 50s and early 60s, when we flew in super constellations, VC10’s and Dakotas and the like, hopping from country to country until we got there three days later. More recently he often used to gaze from his garden at the planes leaving Manchester Airport, wondering where they were going and itching to be on them.

3. His love of a good curry. With Philip it was the hotter the better and if he didn’t have hiccups, then not hot enough! He would cap this off with a good glass of Kingfisher beer, Indian of course.

After St Bees, Philip left to join Tom Sharpe (OSB) and his company, Harold Sharpe, in Sale, Manchester, as an articled accountant. Soon after this he met Jean his devoted wife of 42 years. His son Matthew was born in 1978 and in 1982 Alex. He was a round the clock father, on hand all the time. I think this was a part of his life he had missed in his own early years, as we were apart from our parents for such long breaks, and he was determined to ensure all the best for the boys. After a few years he left Harold Sharpe and went to Poco Homes, but returned some years later to Tom’s company as a partner. A number of years later he yearned for a new challenge and set up his own company and with it he found clients who were to become more friends than customers as time progressed. Away from work Philip enjoyed a game of golf, though that was far too infrequent.

Rugby was near and dear to his heart at all times, and he was a really good player in his own right. But I’m sure he is better remembered for his love of the game at Sale Rugby Club. He gave a lot of his free time to ensure the club was on a sound footing from a financial perspective. By now Matt and Alex were at Manchester Grammar School and they both went to University and graduated with high honours. Four months ago Philip and Jean became grandparents for the first time, to Matt and Joey’s little Freya, and I think this was, to date, the culmination of his life; something he had looked forward to all through the years, and my word he entered grandparenthood in a big way!

He was a wonderful, generous and great-natured person, someone who does not come around very often.

Philip, you will be sadly missed by us all. You were taken far too soon and with so much to look forward to. It was wonderful to have known you as a brother.”