John Cripwell RIP

Richard Cripwell has emailed to let us know the details of his father’s funeral:


The Memorial Service for John Cripwell will be held on Tuesday 12 March 2024 at St Edmund’s Church in Calne, Wiltshire at Noon. The address of the Church is:

Saint Edmund’s Catholic Church
Oxford Road
Calne
Wiltshire
SN11 8AQ

Please note that there is very limited parking near the Church but some is located reasonably close by.

The Cripwell family warmly invite everyone to join them, after the service, for tea and refreshments at The Pewsham SN15 3RU, between Calne and Chippenham. It is about a seven minute drive with plenty of parking.


News has been passed on by Lawrence Scott that John Cripwell died on 17th January 2024. John’s son Richard called Lawrence to let him know, and will pass on details of funeral arrangements when they are available.

John was born in Rhodesia on 8th January 1934, so he had just turned 90. He was a surveyor with Fairey Surveys from late 1965, and spent a lot of time overseas, as well as managing the FSL Dublin office for a time.

Ross Dallas sent in an article for the website about his time as a surveyor with FSL in the late 60s, with references to John during a job in Saudi Arabia. You can read it here.

The picture at the top is from a photograph taken at the 2004 reunion barbecue at White Waltham. For the full photograph, click here. He is also on the 2013 reunion photograph.

Bob Purcell memorial service

The memorial service was held on 30th September in Cookham. John and Carol Tompkins and Jean and Ken Fostekew attended from Fairey Surveys.

Below are photographs sent by John Tompkins from Bob’s memorial service booklet. To see larger versions of the photographs, right click and select ‘open in new tab’.

A memorial service has been arranged for Bob Purcell at the Holy Trinity Church in Cookham, followed by cheese and wine. The family would be really pleased to see some of his old friends and colleagues from Fairey Surveys.

Date: Saturday 30th September 2023
Time: 3:00 pm / 15:00 hrs

The Holy Trinity Church is at Ferry Lane, Cookham, Maidenhead SL6 9SN. The church has a small car park for visitors.

The nearest public car park is the Sutton Road car park on the A4094 towards Maidenhead. According to the web, it’s free, but there are only 18 spaces. Next nearest (about 500m) is the Cookham Moor National Trust car park, 2 High Street SL6 9SG, £2 or free for NT members. There is a bit of street parking by the war memorial at the West end of the High Street (about 300m).

Peter Forsey – funeral details

Peter’s son Chris has let us know that the funeral will be on Monday 24th July 2023 at 2:00 pm, at West Berkshire Crematorium on the A4 Bath Road near Thatcham.

The funeral will be followed by a wake at the The Angel on the A4 at Woolhampton, at about 3:00 pm onwards.

Peter Forsey RIP

Sad news has come in from Tony White that Peter Forsey died yesterday, 22nd June 2023. If we get news of the funeral, it will be posted up on the website.

Peter was a Board member of Fairey Surveys and Marketing Manager for Fairey Surveys in the 1970s, when the successful Faireys Leisure Map series was launched. He was also a cricketer, on the FSL team in the late 1950s and 1960s

Tony Furneaux, visitor, operator?, Pete Forsey
8th September 1959 Back row L-R: Malcolm Eaton, Tony Philips, Bill Steadman, Tony Walker, Jim Storey Front row L-R: Pete ?, ?, Peter Forsey, Peter Challis, Brian Atwen

Links here are to Fairey Surveys newsletters with more information about Peter and about the first Leisure Map:

Bob Purcell RIP

We had news this morning from Bob’s daughter Mariette that Bob died last night, 2nd June 2023. He always had a smile and a joke for everyone. He will be missed.

This is one of the few photographs we have of Bob during his FSL years. It came from Jim Rowe’s son Chris, but we don’t have a date for it.

Crew in Chile. L to R: Bob Purcell, Ozzie Vertigo, Geoff Milsom, Jim Rowe and John Renton

Fairey Surveys reunion 2023

Date: Friday July 28th 2023 from 12:00

The reunion will be at lunchtime at the White Waltham Cricket Club again, and we look forward to seeing you.

There will be a cold finger buffet from about 13:00, which also caters for vegetarians.

There is a charge of £20 per person for the buffet, and it helps to know numbers, so if you receive a form in the post, please send it back with a cheque, or download one here. This year we are emailing invitations out first, so if you get an email, could you reply quickly with a yes or no, as it will save on postage.

If you have not been before, and would like to come, please let us know (admin@faireysurveys.co.uk), or download the form and send it in with a cheque before 14th July. You are welcome to just turn up, but if you don’t want to eat, there is a small charge of £4.50 per person to cover hire of the clubhouse and bar staff.  Please introduce yourself when you arrive, and we would love to see any old photographs you may have!

Check the White Waltham Cricket Club website for directions. If you need assistance with transport, email us at admin@faireysurveys.co.uk. We may be able to help.

FSL Reunion invitation 2023, download here

Geoff Milsom 99th birthday

Geoff Milsom celebrated his 99th birthday at White Waltham, with old friends from Fairey Surveys, on Saturday 13th May 2023.

Photograph courtesy of John Tompkins (with Ken Fostekew taking his own photograph).

Ken Fostekew has passed on some of his photographs from the birthday celebration, and here is a better photograph of the cake:

Bob Purcell

Mariette has sent us an update (7th April 2023):

“Bobby went into the local residential home earlier this week.  Along with his favourite book….”

Bob’s daughter Mariette found the website, and Bob has been sharing reminiscences of his times in South America, Africa, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, and of the people he knew at Fairey Surveys. His story of Christmas in Saudi Arabia is already on the website:
Christmas in Saudi Arabia 1967

Mariette has sent us this photograph today (21st February 2023) with the message:
“Bobby sends his love to you all”

If anyone would like to get in touch with Bob or to be remembered to him, please send your message and contact details to admin@faireysurveys.co.uk and we’ll forward them on to him.

Malcolm Eaton RIP

Funeral arrangements have arrived from the

family:

Monday May 16th, 3:30 pm, Easthampstead Crematorium, Bracknell.


News has come from John Tompkins that Malcolm Eaton died on 14th April. Funeral details will follow when we hear from his wife Josie. He was at Warren Lodge Home in Wokingham for the last six months, but had been ill for three years.

Malcolm joined what was then the Air Survey Company in 1956 (on the same day as John Tompkins!).

With Bix Clark, Malcolm headed up the Livingston office of Fairey Surveys, which was set up in 1973. Below is a photograph of Fairey Surveys Scotland staff from about 1974, sent in a few years ago by John Scarrott, and another which is the earliest photograph we have of Malcolm in the cricket team (but there are a number of others!), presumably at White Waltham Cricket Club, where there are also photographs of him on the walls of the clubhouse.

Faireys Surveys Scotland Ltd – Staff circa 1974 L-R Bill Clark, Isobel (Secretary), John Scarrott, Malcolm Eaton, Neil, Dave, Linda and Isabel (our four trainee draughtsmen), Graham Longley
8th September 1959
Back row L-R: Malcolm Eaton, Tony Philips, Bill Steadman, Tony Walker, ?, Jim Storey
Front row L-R: Pete ?, Peter Forsey, Peter Challis, Brian Atwen