David Catlin
Class of 1945
David Hamilton Catlin, 1928-2021 (Cowell’s, 1940-1945)
The following obituary was provided by David’s son, Robin Catlin OSE (Cowell’s, 1973-1978)
David Hamilton Catlin has died peacefully at the age of 93 years.
He was born in Woodford Green, Essex on 7 January 1928.
He spent his school years, firstly at Edinburgh House preparatory School in Lee on Solent, and thereafter at St Edwards School Oxford, where he was in Cowells House during WW2. Even recently he vividly recalled the noise of bombers passing over head on route to France.
At Teddies he began his lifelong love of the city and its Dreaming Spires. He enjoyed academic life and sport, representing both 1st XV Rugby and 1st VIII Rowing.
He left Teddies in 1945, and planned to join the Navy for his National Service. But he was rejected because he was colour blind. So he joined the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, a battalion of the Royal Green Jackets. After a short period of training 2nd Lieutenant Catlin was posted to Berlin, aged 19.
On 23 January 1948, at the age of 20, he was put in charge of a train transporting German personnel to Holland with explicit orders that nobody should board the train. He told the story many times of how on that fateful night, dressed in his uniform over his pyjamas, he refused access to the Russian Army. In doing so he may have caused the Blockade of Berlin and subsequent Airlift, and possibly started the Cold War, with a little help from Joseph Stalin!
On leaving the army in September 1948 and returning to England, he read law at University College, Oxford. Having graduated, he then qualified as a barrister at Grays Inn. He practised at the Bar for a short period, but he quickly saw the bright lights and moved into the corporate world, working as a lawyer for Fisons in Felixstowe.
His career took him to Rockware Glass in Greenford, and then to Glaxo, a burgeoning pharmaceutical company, where he spent over 25 happy years. He loved the corporate culture, and the colourful characters that he met around the world. He travelled widely, throughout Europe, to Brazil, Egypt, India, and Korea.
He retired from Glaxo in 1986, and began to hatch plans with his wife Sue for a small hotel in the Cotswolds, close to his beloved Oxford. In 1988 they opened Elm Farm House Hotel, having purchased a Cotswold stone farmhouse in Fulbrook, near Burford.
They ran the hotel for 5 years and then retired fully in 1993. moving into Burford where for 26 years they lived in a quiet corner and exercised their passions for travel, opera and ballet, art, history, their dogs, but not necessarily in that order!
They spent many days between Oxford and Burford. David was a churchwarden at Fulbrook Church, a trustee of Burford School Foundation, they ran guided tours of Burford and the local branch of NADFAS or The Arts Society, as it is now known.
David married Susanna Dring in 1957, and she passed away in 2016. He leaves two sons, Timothy and Robin (A 1973-1978), daughter Jessica, and his grand-daughters, Becky, Amy, and Rachel.
David Catlin – born 7th January 1928, died 31st October 2021, aged 93.
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