I have the fondest memories of Bryan (and Mary) whilst working for them as a tutor in Cotton. Bryan’s humanity and generosity were always to the fore. I would arrive for supper, receive an update on the house and then disappear on to the boys’ side. At the end of the evening a convivial hour would be spent reporting on the evening. I really felt part of the Cotton family. I only realised how very special Cotton was when running my own house elsewhere. Tutors expected to arrive and leave on the dot with none of the sociability and sharing of thoughts. Their support and friendship meant a lot to me and I took particular pleasure in producing a house play: Roses of Eyam in which pretty much the whole house took to the stage. I have rarely met a couple with more wisdom and compassion. I am blessed by their memory.

As you may remember Lloyd, I was a Tutor under your Dad when I arrived at RS - I still have the letter he wrote to me forty years ago inviting me to take up the job. In the letter, he wrote ‘my wife and I ...’ and it was very much Bryan and Mary in Cotton back then. From the start they were immensely kind to me, from eating supper with them in the kitchen to allowing me to do my washing in the House laundry. These might seem like small things but be sure they meant an awful lot to me at the time and still do. I used to do my duty on a Friday as it kept me out of the pub on the night before a match and that night often coincided with the parties your Mum and Dad used to throw on the private side. It was through this that I got to become friends with the Jones’, the Suttons et al. Of course we were never short of conversation at supper times and most often I played the part of listener rather than participant! One of my favourite memories is on an occasion when Bryan ‘had the floor’ and was probably only halfway through his story when your Mum jumped in with the immortal line ‘Bryan, how many times have I told you not to go round Carmarthen to get to Llanelli’. Fabulous stuff. Unfortunately, I arrived after the time when the Houses used to play rugby against The Old Guard and so I never had the chance to throw him a few of my Barnes Wallis passes. However, in my second term, we did play on the same OG soccer team and if memory serves, we lost 9-3. I scored two and your Dad got one, a cracking half volley from the edge of the area. During the game Bryan spent a lot of the time dribbling down the wing rather than passing to a team mate, so after the game I asked him why he wouldn’t pass. He replied quickly and simply ‘Well Peter, I didn’t think there was anyone worth passing to’. I was put firmly back in my box. Later, he decided to take up squash, a game that I had been playing for quite a long time if with no great talent – I would have been 26 or 27 and your Dad in his early 50’s – and so he challenged me to a few games. Despite his age and lack of playing experience, he could not understand why he couldn’t beat me. Indeed he went to see Brian Walton to ask for advice. He knew, as did I, that he was a far more talented sportsman then me, and I think this was the first time that I had come across a competitor with such extraordinary self-belief – on that note, I remember him telling me that in any game of rugby he had played he would always have at least three shots at a drop goal. I never tired of his stories of Swansea in his time and when I visited him last year, he was telling me of an open-side flanker from Pontypool, I think, who was always out to get your Dad but of course, never succeeded. A fabulously talented sportsman and great company. It was a pleasure to have had Bryan as a colleague and friend.

Taffy, as he was universally known by we boys (so original!!), was a lovely man. He never taught me, but he used to organise the Wanderers cricket team - mostly chaps like me who were very keen cricketers but not good enough to make any of the official school teams. We played local villages and always ended up in the local pub where Taffy would allow us all a couple of pints with the opposition - pretty certain he footed the bill as well! A proper teacher and and a proper bloke!