Sadly, Merlin Channon informed me after the event that Professor Hassell-Smith had died on the very same day as our reunion. Hassell was assistant housemaster at Halls for a while, but I myself never had him as a teacher. He was a somewhat gruff but kindly chap who didn't stay that long at the school as far as I remember.

I do remember him mildly criticizing me once for the - as he saw it - inadequate tying-up of my trunk just before we were going home for the hols. For some reason this stuck in my mind, possibly because I was in fact convinced that my knot-tying and trunk-securing abilities could not be outdone by any of my peers. A few years ago I was in contact with him in an effort to get him to a reunion, but he was already having some health problems and had to decline. When I asked him if he rembered the silly little trunk incident he said: "No, to be honest, but that does sound rather like the old boy."

Well, his passing is sad but the thought that he had a brilliant career after Woolverstone is a pleasing one.

Here is an obituary I found in "The Guardian": http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2013/sep/05/alfred-hassell-smith