The 2023 Chronicle

Michaelhouse. He formed several friendships that lasted 62 years. I was privileged to be one of them. Nick quickly established a reputation for academic excellence. During his time at Michaelhouse he made regular trips to the dais on prize-giving occasions. His fine brain did not extend its reach to good coordination with limbs and eyes in various sports. This was not a social advantage in a South African boarding school for boys in those times. Geoffrey Lange was Nick‘s much-loved English teacher and a lifelong influence. At times Michaelhouse has been referred to as “the Eton of South Africa”, usually frivolously. As a Michaelhouse Old Boy who served as an esteemed Eton English teacher for almost 40 years Nick added gravitas to the claim. Margaret and I were once privileged to attend one of Nick’s VI Form classes and were hugely impressed by both boys and teacher. This quality was touchingly confirmed when a grateful Old Etonian endowed the Nick Welsh Scholarship. Nick retired a year early to Oxford because he fell ill with cancer. A long battle ensued with remission followed by recurrence. Nick and Sally endured this hard journey with great stoicism, with Nick teaching English and Sally giving music lessons in their Oxford home while continuing to enjoy their global network of friends. Nick and Sally have been fine examples of lives well lived.

years, later playing Nomads hockey and Masters squash for decades. He was also an active member of the Johannesburg Country Club. Highlights of his later life included winning the World Squash Masters tournament in the over-75s category in New Zealand and also discovering a new branch of the family in Zambia, the Thornicrofts, after whom the endemic giraffe is named. By this stage in life he had come to fully embrace his rather unusual first name “Thornycroft” and loved making new connections with widely dispersed cousins. He is survived by his wife Archie, daughters Janet and Judy, grandchildren Luke and Iona, and family around the world. John maintained enthusiastic lifelong links with Michaelhouse, being a keen member of the Old Boys’ Club and the Chairman’s Club, interacting with Jamie Inglis amongst others, and keeping up with old friends Roger Keane, Peter Clucas, Tim Hammond and many more. He was a regular at the annual Michaelhouse–Hilton match weekends, playing squash in the Masters squash each Sunday for many years. He developed a long-standing friendship with fellow old boy Dave Short, also a keen squash player and organiser of famous Pietermartizburg tournaments. Together with their wives Archie and Normaine, John and Dave enjoyed memorable international squash tours with the Jester’s Club. He was delighted that his daughters developed a

close friendship through university with the Mbuyazis and their Michaelhouse legacy: first Phiwayinkosi, then his sons Menziwokuhle and Gqamile. John died peacefully in his sleep on 8 August, a few days after a fall at home at the Bryanston Village, Johannesburg. He was a great advocate of living life to the full until the end, keeping up to date with world affairs, appreciating trips to the bush, watching birds from his verandah, and socialising with family and friends near and far. He was greatly loved and will be sorely missed.

VINCENT, JOHN Born 1937, Died 2023 Michaelhouse 1951-1955

John Vincent passed away on 10 July. John worked for the Natal Parks Board from 1965 to 1989 and then went on to be Deputy Director of KZN Museum Services. He retired in 2002 and moved to his family farm in Mooi River.

WELSH, N.R.F. (NICK) Born 1948, Died 2023 Michaelhouse 1961-1965

Nick passed on 23 February, two days after falling ill.

In January 1961 Nick arrived at

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