St Andrews

1948–2018

Roy was introduced to ringing in 1961/62 whilst a pupil at Winchester College – one of the few schools to have a ring of bells in their school chapel. There was an active group of ringers at the school and he rang his first quarter there in December 1963. His records show details of trips and outings including the rather daunting 12 (now 14) at Winchester Cathedral.

He went up to King’s College, Cambridge in 1966 and rang a peal at Trumpington by a band of “freshers”, i.e. first year students. He rang in his 3 years in Cambridge but almost not at all after that until 2008. He and Cecilia had a flat in Edinburgh although they lived mainly in St Andrews. The bells at St Andrew’s and George’s, Edinburgh, had just been restored and he was re-introduced to ringing there and took part in 2 of the early peals. In St Andrews he was involved in the initial re-hanging of the 2 bells at St Salvator’s Chapel into a 6 bell frame in 2003 and then in 2010 when the current ring of 6 were installed. This was in preparation for the 600th anniversary of the foundation of the university. He played a major part in establishing the band – made up of students, staff and others. He was keen to see students taking a lead and was pleased to see progress being made in learners and experienced ringers alike. At that time, he and Cecilia lived part of the time in the Highlands and he travelled to support ringing in St Andrews as much as possible despite worsening health issues. He was also involved in ringing at Tulloch – near(ish) to their highland home.

His health gradually worsened but he made huge efforts to ring where and when he could.

He died in August 2018 and his life was celebrated in a wonderful weekend of remembering and ringing in early November.

Peter Williamson