We are saddened to learn of the death of David Tomley who was a pupil here from 1942 - 1950.

David’s father Denis was also a pupil at the school at the end of the Great War in 1918.

David was sent to the school as a boarder aged 8, because he was continually playing truant from his local village school. His parents thought he was not being challenged enough and was bored!

He started in the green hut - the then Prep Dept with Mrs Morgan Nicholas as his teacher, helped by Mr R Williamson’s sister. The regime at the School was strict and uncompromising and David soon learned that you had an easier life if you knuckled down to work and complied! 

He became a bright and keen scholar who was usually two years younger than the average age for his class. He was also successful on the games field, and represented the School at both football and cricket.

On leaving Oswestry, (which had no sixth form provision at the time) he attended the Priory Boys’ School Shrewsbury, where he took his A Levels. From there, he went on to the then University College of Wales, Aberystwyth gaining a degree in Zoology. After eleven years as a teacher of Biology first at Bedford Modern School and then at The Manchester Grammar School, he went to The City of Portsmouth College of Education as the Senior Lecturer in Biology. After five years in Portsmouth he moved to become a Lecturer and later Senior Lecturer at The University of Leicester, from where he retired in 1995. 

In his later years, David gained great joy and delight in seeing his children and later his grandchildren succeed and flourish. He valued his wider family and had many friends and he lived by a few key principles -  namely - if it works, don’t fix it; use it or lose it; be kind where you can and carpe diem! 

David's son James (Jim) has said these words: 

My Dad, David died on Wednesday. He’d been unable to recover from Pneumonia, made worse by and an underlying lung condition.
My sister Kate and me were able to support him through his shift in mindset, and his two days of palliative care.

Dad passed away surrounded by love, at peace, feeling content with his 92 years.

I’ll miss him terribly. My sole parent since the age of 10.

Heartfelt thanks to the staff at Glenfield General Hospital for their compassion and expertise.

Please spare him a thought when you’re enjoying the natural world. Plants, animals (especially bird song), the hills, the water, the weather, the stars, the people; He was happiest in nature, and even happier sharing it with others.


Brighter days ahead.