Malcolm Mitchell (1938-2010)

Shrewsbury School and the Old Salopians, with many others, are mourning the untimely death of Malcolm Mitchell at 71.

One of his many contributions to a more civilised world was to help form the Monday Club and inaugurate the Northern Championships, which he also ran originally. His love of Fives, which he played to a high standard, also rubbed of on his three children, Andrew, Fiona and Ian.

A few years after the Monday Club started, he wrote: "On Boxing Day 1975, a number of well-fed and well-watered gentlemen at a luncheon party near Shrewsbury were wondering how best to revive their appetite and thirst. One of them facetiously suggested a game of Fives and discovered that three others had heard of the game, although none had played it for more than 15 years and not even then with any regularity or skill. More surprisingly, four pairs of mildewed gloves and an ancient ball were unearthed. Off they went to do battle on the Shrewsbury courts, two Salopians versus the rest of the world. There was a return match soon afterwards on a Monday evening and soon the game was being played on every Monday evening the year through.

The club retains a core of four players and leave of absence is rarely requested. A business trip to New York, Lisbon or Delhi must be arranged to ensure a return to Shrewsbury by Monday evening. One member asked leave without giving a reason and announced the following Monday that his wife was expecting. That was acceptable once, not without comment, but when a year later the story was repeated, the Disciplinary Committee (the other three) held an unusually long meeting at the Clubhouse, a local hostelry. The member was warned as to his future conduct and I'm glad to say that his game has now recovered.

We find to our surprise and pleasure that we have improved beyond recognition in four years, with our increasing experience more than matching the advancing years so far. Early skirmishes with established players were not crowned with much success and we planned a fixture card with one column for the pre-printed results. We then progressed to a series, almost a tradition, of losing in the fifth game mostly against current Salopians. Now, if we select the opposition carefully enough we are capable of winning the occasional fixture.

We are thankful for having stumbled on the discovery that Eton Fives is such an entertaining and sociable game. We are sure that many others would feel the same if they happened to make the game's acquaintance. After all, many squash players don't start playing at school and does anyone who has played both squash and Fives doubt for a moment which is the superior game?"

If we go back to the summer term of 1957 and learn of Malcolm's final school reports, we see a record of outstanding achievement. First, from his form master, Stacy Coleman, “He has ended a remarkable school career with an exceptionally busy term, marked by the Sidney Gold Medal to set the seal on his classical labours. To a person as many-sided as he is, the difficulty will be to know how to put a quart into a pint pot. He has a great future in front of him and I shall watch his progress with great interest. It is not every Head of School, especially if he is involved in so many and such various athletic activities, who puts his school work to the fore with such effect, and such examples count. He is a robust and vigorous person who has used his gifts energetically all round and left a very large and personal impression. I wish him every good thing.”

Next, from Rex Connell, who was his Housemaster for three years, “He has certainly been the best Head of House I have had, in spite of the numerous calls of school duties and he has not been afraid to delegate authority when necessary to a good set of monitors, for whose unity and efficiency he can certainly claim some credit.”

Finally, from Jack Peterson, his Headmaster, “It has been a great delight to watch him achieve everything that one had hoped and expected of him. A splendid Head of School and such fun over it all! He will be a fine advertisement for Shrewsbury wherever he goes and one cannot be too thankful and grateful for all he has done and all he is.”

His other distinctions at school were captain of boxing, secretary of several committees and senior editor of The Salopian. He also won his colours for athletics and as a member of the First VIII. In particular, the VIII in the semi-final at Henley were the first schoolboy crew to break seven minutes and were firm favourites for the cup but, sadly, the night before the final they all succumbed to a stomach bug.

A scholarship took Malcolm to Balliol, Oxford, to read Greats, obtain a first in Mods and almost achieve a rowing Blue. From Oxford, Malcolm went for a year to Cambridge to prepare for the Colonial Service and thence to Northern Rhodesia (soon to become Zambia), but not before marrying Judy, who he met at Oxford. All three of their children were born in Zambia, where they spent 12 years. Malcolm started as a District Officer and rose to become Director of Elections. It can be certain that no fairer elections were ever held in Zambia than during the Mitchell era. His duties included training the locals to take over in local government. His first three years there also saw him become a single-figure golfer and one of his most intriguing interests in Zambia was butterflies and moths. He became a serious lepidopterist and he built up what was probably the best collection of Zambian butterflies and moths at that time, and he was arguably the top authority on the subject then, being involved in several publications. There were two or three new specimens that were named after him and Fiona. He was one of those remarkable people who became seriously good at whatever he set his mind to, so much so that he became known at London’s Natural History Museum as the expert on Zambian butterflies.

After Zambian Africanisation, the family returned home. Malcolm then took the bold decision to begin life all over again. In 1975 he became a trainee solicitor, in due course qualifying and becoming a partner. Fellow Salopian, Richard Hudson, recalls Malcolm as “one of that nearly-vanished breed of old-fashioned and wholly reassuring country solicitors, soft-spoken, spectacles glinting as he smiled benignly over his vast and ancient partners’ desk. But, behind the smiling, avuncular manner lay a razor-sharp legal mind which, taking one glance at my document, spotted a potentially disastrous ambiguity, the resolution of which, proposed with equal acuity, was eloquent testimony to his skills as an astute and versatile lawyer.”

Whilst working as a solicitor, other portfolios included being Under Sheriff for Shropshire as well as Secretary to the Commissioner of Taxes in Shropshire. He was also secretary of the local branch of the Oxford Society.

As a top-flight oarsman, Malcolm coached the schoolboy crews, became fully involved with the Old Salopian Club and, in the late eighties, he became a governor for 15 years, a remarkable stint. But, he was no ordinary governor. He was the governor who represented the masters and he made a point of visiting the Common Room on Saturday mornings, thus getting to know its members. He overcame the challenge of being seen by staff and governors alike to be equally fair in how he represented their sometimes differing views to one another. He never failed to bring a clear head and great common sense to all the deliberations. He served his old prep school, Packwood Haugh, as a governor and chairman for several years and Moreton Hall Girls’ School as governor and chairman 24 years. By all accounts, he was an outstanding chairman in both cases. Malcolm played golf at Oswestry for several years and at bridge he reached the rank of Grand Master.

In the last 30 years, Malcolm’s greatest interest was his beloved schools Packwood Haugh, Moreton Girls and Shrewsbury. Since retiring from work and acquiring a digital camera and laptop, photography and emails took over his life and he rarely left his comfortable captain’s chair in front of his laptop except to play bridge or contact one of his schools.

From these tributes shines the fact that Malcolm Mitchell was not only a particularly able man with a strong sense duty but also a delightful companion with a lovely lightness of touch. In short, he was a wise and grounded human being. A very human being. He and a fellow Salopian once discussed the characteristics of the old boys of other schools. They were critical of one school in particular. “The problem is,” said Malcolm, “they lack humanity.” And humanity was the quality Malcolm exemplified above all.

Clearly, from his schooldays, great things were expected. Perhaps being a provincial solicitor was not what his Headmaster had in mind, nor an obvious step from high office in the Zambian Civil Service but his choice of career probably gave Malcolm a better quality of life than a more high-profile job in the City or the Civil Service and it gave him more opportunity to indulge in his other projects. From all the marvellous letters the family has received, it is obvious that he has enriched the lives of very many people in an around Shropshire and, indeed, further afield. We shall all miss him and we share the deep sense of loss that his family must feel and to them we send our deepest condolences.

Gordon Stringer (with acknowledgments to Andrew Mitchell, Jonathon Forster and Nicholas Barber)