Obituaries

OBITUARIES The Right Hon. Sir Winston Spencer ChurchUI, K.G., O.M., CH. The death of Sir Winston ChurchiU which occurred on January 24th, 1965, removes his honoured name from our RoU of Honorary Members and Vice-Presidents. It was in 1946 that Mr. ChurchiU accepted election to the Society first as an honorary member and then as a Vice- President, and on that occasion CouncU recorded, 'The Society may indeed count itself fortunate in having the support of such a distinguished historian and man of letters, and feel proud that the name of the greatest Englishman of the age is now inscribed on its roU of members.' We shaU always cherish with pride the memory of our association with this great man. JAAMES F. H. CHECKLEY, F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A., F.R.N.S. The sudden but peaceful death of our member, James Checkley, on 3rd August, 1964, at the age of sixty-six, has taken from Kent a numismatist of outstanding distinction. For over thirty years he was a member of the Kent Numismatic Society and for long held office as Honorary Treasurer. His influence on the study of coins in the county has been very fruitful, for the example of his high standard of collecting and scholarship has caused many youngsters to enter this field of learning with a proper, critical background. He had but recently retired from his position as a senior architect in the Buildings Department of the Kent County Council. Of late years he had speciahzed in school buildings but visitors to Whitby wiU recaU with pleasure the delightful Pannett .Art GaUery there wliich was a product of his earher career. He was elected a FeUoW of the Society of Antiquaries in 1958 for his services to architectural studies and numismatics. L.R.A.G. 231 OBITUARIES GEOFFREY EDWARD HUTCHINGS, F.G.S., F.R.G.S. 1900-1964 The sudden death of Geoffrey Hutchings in February of this year has been lamented by a wide circle of friends and students, past and present. He was born in Strood, Rochester, in 1900 and it was in his natal city that he first began to practise his chosen profession of teaching. From his father, who was an amateur geologist, he inherited the instincts of the field worker to wliich he added an extensive knowledge of botany and zoology. Out of school he took an active part in the work of the South-Eastern Union of Scientific Societies and of the Weald Research Committee of the Geologists' Association, and also during vacations he was tutor to the residential courses in geography and natural history organized at the HUl Farm, Stockbury, by the Misses Pugh. In 1937 he was seconded for service as Principal of the Technical School in Baghdad and later in a simUar post in Bahrein. He came home in 1945 to become a research officer in the Ministry of Town and Country Planning, but within two years he resumed the teaching work which he loved by accepting an appointment as warden of the second field centre of the Council for the Promotion of Field Studies at Juniper HaU, Dorking, but some ten years later he changed to become Senior Geography Tutor to the same Council. He was President of the Geographical Association for 1961-2 and was serving on the Council of the Royal Geographical Society at the time of his death. Among his books were Stockbury; a Begional Study in North-East Kent (with Miss Christine Pugh), an Introduction to Begional Surveying (with C. C. Fagg), London's Countryside (with the late Professor Wooldridge), and a well illustrated and valuable book on Landscape Drawing. He joined our Society first in 1925 but his membership lapsed in 1933; he rejoined in 1949. Geoffrey Hutchings was a perfectionist and this intense characteristic shone through all his activities, whether as geologist, geographer or in natural history; or as tutor, writer, painter, illustrator and cartographer. With him courtesy, kindliness and charm were second nature. J.H.E. SIR HUGH GARRARD TYRWHITT DRAKE, Kt., D.L., J.P., F.Z.S. The death of Sir Garrard Tyrwhitt Drake, on 24th October, 1964, at the age of 83, has removed from amongst us an honorary member of this Society who would have stoutly denied that he knew much about antiquities excepting Staffordshire pottery but who by his deeds showed that he had a deep regard for the customs and past of his native town of Maidstone of which he was an honorary freeman. 232 OBITUAARIES He was twelve times Mayor and for many years served the town's Museum Committee as Chairman. He founded in 1946 the Museum of Carriages which was subsequently given the addition of his name by the Corporation and also presented the town with the medieval College of Priests in 1949. He was High Sheriff of Kent for 1956-57. L.R.A.G. CYRIL STAPLEY CHETTOE, F.S.A. With the death of Mr. C. S. Chettoe in November, 1963, which was briefly referred to in the last Volume, the county has lost a tireless and devoted worker for the preservation of buildings of historic or architectural interest. He was born in London in 1893, the son of iirthur Noakes Chettoe, of Canterbury, and after taking an engineering degree at King's College, London, his professional career gradually led him to the Ministry of Transport as its Chief Bridge Engineer. He served in France in the 1914-1918 War with the East Surrey Regiment. In 1954, he retired from the Ministry and became a Consulting Engineer specializing in bridge and road work in this country, Australia, Iraq and Malaya. He joined the Society in 1918 and served on the Council from 1956. Two years later he was elected a Fellow of the Society of iintiquaries. His wide contacts and his sense of the power and beauty of the countryside were invaluable in his work for the Joint Committee of the Society with the Preservation of Rural Kent Committee of which he was a very active Chairman for many years. A man of intelligence and great charm, his anxiety to preserve all that was best and beautiful led to his untiring support of the National Trust, the Committee for the Preservation of Rural England, the Society for the Protection of .Ancient Buildings, the Green Belt Council, and the Kent Naturalists' Trust. He was always gracious and courteous, and never allowed his own views, however strongly held, to diminish his patience or his courtesy. A.R. 233