People

East 15’s star of tomorrow

Arsher Ali, who graduated from East 15 Acting School in 2006, has been nominated by the film industry magazine, Screen International, as a Star of Tomorrow.

Those nominated were described as ‘the brightest new hopes of the British film industry.’

Arsher won the prestigious Laurence Olivier Student Award in his second year at East 15. He recently appeared in Peter Kosminsky's Channel 4 programme about Asian identity in the UK, Britz, and starred in Ayub Khan-Din's play, Rafta Rafta, directed by Nicholas Hytner, at London's National Theatre.

Obituaries

Professor Geoffrey Martin CBE

Professor Geoffrey Martin, the distinguished historian and archivist, died after a long illness on 20 December 2007. Geoffrey joined the Department of History as a Visiting Professor in August 1990 and became a Research Professor in September 1993. He attended Colchester Royal Grammar School, writing a history of his school when he was 18. He went on to read History at Merton College Oxford, where he met his future wife Janet who also became a historian. In 1952 Geoffrey joined the University of Leicester, becoming a Professor of History in 1973. From 1982 to 1988 he was the Keeper of Records at the Public Records Office, best remembered for the 1987 Doomsday Exhibition.

Geoffrey’s research interests included medieval chronicles and intellectual history; urban history; bibliography and the history of archives. He was also very interested in modern naval and military history. He joined the Department at a time when local history was particularly vibrant and active, and Geoffrey contributed to this with his publications and public lectures.

Geoffrey had broad interests ranging from the Middle Ages to the present, and was blessed with an astonishing memory. He was gentle, modest and unassuming and he always took any question, no matter how trivial, seriously. History for Geoffrey was something that should be communicated beyond the scholarly community. He was a stalwart supporter of the New Dictionary of National Biography and contributed 37 entries, ranging from the twelfth century to the late twentieth. No other external contributor came anywhere near this diversity of period and subject.

Geoffrey Martin will be much missed, and an event in his honour will be organised later in the academic year to give friends and colleagues an opportunity to remember the kind and distinguished scholar that he was.

Dr Rainer Schulze

Professor Phil Richardson

Professor Phil Richardson, who died in December, was a popular and charming man who joined the Department of Health and Human Sciences in 1998. He was jointly appointed at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust where he spent his time establishing joint courses and building a partnership.

Phil established a ‘top-up’ doctorate for clinical and counselling psychologists (still going strong), followed by a hard won qualifying doctorate in Clinical Psychology.

At the Trust, Phil worked to establish a Randomised Controlled Trial of psychodynamic psychotherapy which, when completed, will provide a major contribution to the currently limited evidence base for psychodynamic therapies.

All these are phenomenal achievements given the contexts and political climates, and thus none are testament to a mere intellectual at the top of his profession! They are testament to someone with a passion for people and life with a unique power to persuade.

Phil gave his time and energies generously to students, administrators, junior and senior staff: in Phil’s world everyone was equal over a glass of wine. This had inevitable frustrations for his closest colleagues who had to compete for his time; but he was easy to forgive, charming when humble, was a pleasure to nag and when he finally produced the goods there was always a streak of genius worth waiting for.

Phil, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in September, will be sorely missed by all his colleagues and friends at the Tavistock and Essex, and remembered very fondly.

Susan McPherson

Also in the printed January edition of Wyvern:

• Year abroad inspires photo competition
• New Chair of Nuffield Council
• Archive Director advises British Library
• Founding professor knighted