Chair of Stratford Chamber Music Society and stalwart of the bridge club, Brian Midgley has sadly died aged 86
Esteemed maths teacher and pillar of the community Brian Midgley sadly died on 13th February aged 85 following a short illness.
A friend of many in the district, including a regular and charming correspondent with Herald Arts, Brian had been the chair of Stratford Chamber Music Society for 21 years. He was also a keen member of Stratford Bridge Club, and was a councillor and church warden in Ettington where he lived before moving to Shipston more recently.
His brother, Alan, told the Herald: “Brian was born in 1938 in Southport, Lancashire. Our father went off to war in 1942 and Brian didn’t see him until 1946. He was a major in the army and went to Burma during the war. Fortunately he came back because they had me afterwards – so there was 11 years between us.
“He’d left home and was in his 20s when I was sent to school aged 11. We got to know each other more in the 1970s and went on holiday together. Brian was a wonderful brother.”
Brian’s love of music was nurtured at Rossall School in Fleetwood.
He went to prep school and onto St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, where he studied maths and later engineering.
Following graduation in 1961 he taught maths at the Merchant Taylor’s School in Crosby. He went onto Windsor Grammar School, and his last teaching post was as head of maths at Wellington College, which he joined in the mid-1970s. He retired around 1998.
His abiding love of music saw him very active in opera and Gilbert and Sullivan societies around Windsor.
He married in later life, meeting Mary while visiting Dartington Music School.
Alan recalled: “They married in 1992. We came to love Mary – she was 11 years older than Brian and came from the Scottish lowlands. They had a very happy marriage until her death in 2018.”
Known for his intelligence, Brian was keen on crosswords and bridge and excelled at both.
“He’d do the Times crossword in about five minutes,” said Alan. “His favourite one was The Listener, which is for aficionados, it doesn’t even have numbers in the clues. He won all sorts of silverware for prizes through music and doing crosswords and bridge – which he played at county level.”
Alan continued: “Brian and Mary had a very active retirement, and did lots of travelling.
“After Mary died and Covid, Brian moved into a house in Shipston from Ettington. He seized the day and enjoyed five or six foreign trips a year. Last year he came to see us in Germany, where we live, and to Portugal where we spent a lot of our time. He was travelling up to the end.
“Brian was a very talented pianist. He was playing chamber music a month up until his death.
“His illness came suddenly, it started with a lung problem and while treating that it was discovered he had bowel cancer. But his passing was painless and in his own bed.
“The day before he died – and this is typical of Brian – he was annoyed because he was told to stay in bed and couldn’t watch University Challenge and Only Connect. He greatly loved that sort of intellectual pursuit.”
Alan is sad that he couldn’t share the news with Brian that he and his wife, Pauline, are to become grandparents for the first time, with their daughter Alison expecting.
“It was too early in the pregnancy to tell him, Brian would have loved that.”
Sharing a final thought, Alan added: “He was a very Christian man, with a strong set of moral values, but friendly. He was a wonderful brother, one couldn’t have asked for more.
“Brian had so many friends. He was so kind and considerate – they don’t make them like that any more.”
Details of Brian’s funeral will be announced in a forthcoming edition of the Herald.
