Close
I was in Field’s for four years with Ian. Occasionally he came to stay when his parents were abroad. One of my roles was to accompany him to the 16-acre field where Ian, and many others smoked at discrete times. While 410 boys on Wednesday afternoons did CCF activities, Ian and I were two of the ten scouts. But I never saw him in any scout uniform, in fact I never saw him in any sporting attire throughout our time!
In the sixth form we rather considered ourselves ‘the History Boys’, with Roger Lockyer our outstanding teacher, and three of the eight of us went into the Foreign Office, Christopher Meyer and Charles Anson along with Ian.
Ian was a natural diplomat; he gave his views when asked but always with courtesy and gentle humour. Unique in my experience he was a ‘chortler’, his shoulders shook whenever he laughed. When I became Team rector in Richmond, I would occasionally have meals with Ian and Mary in Kew, and he would always sit discretely behind a pillar whenever I preached at his parish church of St Anne’s.
It was special for both of us when I married his elder daughter Emma to her husband Michael and Ian gave her away. And along with others I shared my memories of him at his thanksgiving service, held in July a year late due to Covid. In later years Ian needed a mobility scooter, but he never complained, always courteous, and still with his unique laugh.
Canon Julian Reindorp, Field’s 1958-1962
The Foreign Office sent Ian to MECAS in Beirut. There he met Mary. Their first posting as a married couple was to Canada where Emma (Handford 85-87) and Claire (Handford 86-88) were born before stints in Iraq, London, Saudi Arabia, France, Sudan and finally as Ambassador in Bahrain.
Latterly Ian attended as many OL events as possible as he thoroughly enjoyed reminiscing about a time and a place of which he was so fond.
Emma Raffan (née Lewty) Handford 1985-1987