Lives remembered: Lord Colwyn, The Rt Rev Timothy Dudley-Smith and Sir Ernest Hall

Lord Colwyn
Alastair Hume writes: Your obituary (August 23) made mention of his jazz band, the Autocrats. For one heady weekend in the late 1960s I was the bass player in the Autocrats, a stand-in for the permanent player. You quote Nigel Tully as saying “he was not the greatest musician”; while that may have been true it didn’t matter because he was the best frontman a band could have wished for.
He exuded bonhomie, fun, love of life and of what he was doing, and his interventions actually playing the trumpet were well judged and few and far between. He enfolded the partygoers in a great cloud of sheer exuberance, and his obvious enjoyment of what he was doing became totally infectious.
Lord Fowler writes: Anthony [Lord Colwyn] very nearly became Lord Speaker. Following the retirement of Lady Hayman in 2011, there was an election for a new Lord Speaker. Speakers were elected for five years and the hope was that the position would alternate between the parties. Anthony, as a Conservative peer, was in a strong position to be elected. Unfortunately for him, some of the leadership of the Conservative Party in the Lords advised him against standing on the basis that he would split the Tory vote.
In fact he was a strong candidate and, as a renowned jazz trumpeter, was better known by the public than any. His first reaction was to agree not to let his name go forward and avoid splitting the party. Very much at the 11th hour, he quite rightly changed his mind but it was too late to influence events and the result was that it was a crossbencher, Baroness D’Souza, who won the post by a handful of votes.
The Rt Rev Timothy Dudley-Smith
Julia Cameron writes: Timothy Dudley-Smith was one of my best encouragers as a small publisher. He believed in the power and necessity of print. A few weeks ago his daughter Sarah handed me a booklet priced at one shilling, published in 1957, entitled A Bibliography of Booklets — an annotated list of 200 titles, all selling at or below 1/6d. As small publishers struggled with marketing, he was using his Crusade magazine imprint to make these modest booklets known. Who else could have dreamed up such a masterly idea? I laughed as I took it. Generosity was the mark of the man.
Sir Ernest Hall
Glenn Lyons writes: I had the good fortune to know Sir Ernest Hall (obituary August 24) initially in my professional capacity. He was always a delight to converse with, often offering his wisdom. As a surprise, arranged with his then equally delightful wife Sarah, my wife, Maureen, and I saw him perform magnificently at Dean Clough. Meeting Hall afterwards he insisted we cancel our hotel and stay at his home instead — so typifying his generous and thoughtful nature.
Hywel George
John Evans writes: In 1948 I was living with my parents and my brother in Jesselton in British North Borneo, where my father was the general manager of the railway. As part of the Welsh contingent of the expats we knew the colonial administrator Hywel George (obituary August 19) very well. I was nine and my brother was ten. One day Hywel called round and asked my parents whether they would permit us to accompany him on his next round of visits to the remote villages in his residency, from the coast up over the flank of Kinabalu to Ranau. We travelled by Jeep to Kota Belud, about 20 miles north of Jesselton on unmade roads, and then set off on foot along footpaths in the thick forest, over the next three days to Ranau.
Our party was Hywel, his dog Cymru, brother David and me, Hywel’s senior local Dusun elder and interpreter clerk, and eight porters carrying our belongings and some food. We visited two or three villages each day for three days. Hywel would meet the village elders and listen to their reports and comments or complaints and dispense justice where necessary.
The first task at the end of the day was to pick off all the leeches that had accumulated during the trek and wash and change into dry clothes as it rained every day. After eating communally with the village, where palm-milk beer was readily shared, we stayed overnight in small atap (palm-frond) houses, sleeping on bamboo mats on the floor. David and I used to take it in turn to sleep with the dog as it was quite cold at night on the higher foothills of the mountain. It all seemed quite ordinary at the time.
Sir Peter Hall
Malcolm Hurlston writes: according to Professor of Russian Anthony Briggs, Sir Peter Hall was one of the outstanding National Service interpreters on the Russian course. In a line which ran from Alan Bennett and Dennis Potter to Lord Bethell, Peter Carson, Pasternak-Slater and ourselves, he accomplished with ease what others struggled for. His personal interests in literature and music — Henry Green, Anthony Powell, Byron, Mozart, The Rolling Stones — enriched his life. They added a unique dimension to his diplomatic persona, cemented in a four-page illustrated feature of Peter and his wife Marnie welcoming a team from the magazine Jukebox to the British Embassy in Belgrade.
In the former Yugoslavia he blamed all the nationalities, not just the Serbs. In India he starred in amateur dramatics, which were prominently reported in the Hindustani Times, alongside the future head of MI5, Stella Rimington. In Argentina he hosted Diana, Princess of Wales, on her first sortie in a new life.
After a Joint Services School for Linguists exam he said: “I don’t think I did particularly well …” (which left a lasting impression of modesty), “well, maybe as well as anybody else … if not better”.
Virginia, Countess of Airlie
Rosa Somerville writes: Museum and gallery guides have reason to thank the Countess of Airlie (obituary August 21 ) as she came back from The Metropolitan Museum in New York impressed by their “docent” scheme. As the chairman of the Friends of the Tate Gallery she was instrumental in recruiting the first group of Tate Guides, who began training in 1976. Many of the guides went on to work in other museums and galleries, and similar schemes over the years since 1976 have resulted in successful teams who take tours and deliver talks all over the United Kingdom. Those who knew her remember her with affection and guides past and present are all grateful for the opportunities which her idea offered us.
Ken Palmer
Malcolm Watson writes: I saw Ken Palmer (obituary August 14) win the first of a short-lived series of single-wicket competitions played as a finale to the Scarborough Festival in 1963. Wisden recalls “two days of excellent entertainment”; good enough it seems for it to be played at Lord’s in the following four years. Though he only played in the first year at Lord’s, being knocked out in the first round, he was joined in the list of winners by the Test players Barry Knight, Mushtaq Mohammad, Fred Titmus and Garfield Sobers — a fitting tribute to his all-round ability.