We sadly report two deaths of members of the community during the school year.

Miss Kay Gill, sister in the school Sanitorium for the last twenty years of her life, died of cancer last summer before she even had a chance to enjoy a day of a more than deserved retirement in her native Aran Islands, just off the coast of Galway.

Her loss to a school like ours is an intangible one, because her professionalism as a nurse ensured that most of us, rarely, if ever, came into contact with her.

Sister Gill came to The Duke of York's at the age of 43. She had trained at St. Bartholomews in London and had arrived here after serving in The Queen Alexandria's during the war. She also worked for a spell in India and also in private nursing.

In the latter years, the devotion to duty was epitomised in the fortitude with which she bore a desperately painful illness. Her selfishness was always evident in her concern for others at a time perhaps when she should have looked to herself.

Her ability to assess patients and friends alike will be sorely missed. Her faith, her humour and her firmness allowed her to get the best out of people. This feeling for others was Kay Gill's legacy to the Dukies who knew her. If the intangibility of that philosophy means little to the present Duke of York's, then her loss is the greater still.

"Bill" Gillespie, who had lived in the Pylon's cottage out on the road to the cliffs died after having been in very bad health for some time. He had been forced to give up his job as a messenger some eighteen months previously after suffering a short stroke which made him almost totally housebound. By nature, Mr. Gillespie was shy and quiet, one of those people whose value to the school was only fully realised when he was no longer there to do his job. His unobtrusive efficiency at his task of keeping us all informed has been missed.

It seems somewhat invidious to dismiss seventeen years of service to the school in so brief a paragraph, yet the modesty of the subject himself would doubtless find something appropriate in such a state of affairs.

Mr. Robertson joined the staff here in 1965, following spells at Eton and in Africa. He was a sensitive Housemaster of Wellington, and devoted much time to the coaching and organising of games, bringing to them a cultured enthusiasm and a good deal of talent. To those with ears to hear, his knowledge and sense of scholarship on the Modern Languages side was self-evident.

As a colleague, his wit, warmth and sound advice are qualities that are sorely missed, as well as his willingness to undertake cheerfully the dullest of tasks at a moments notice - one could always rely on him to umpire in February, or even worse, in May at Chatham House! In a Stentorian age such as this, such contributions to our community are all too often misinterpreted or simply unnoticed.

To him we extend our sincerest thanks and hopes that his retirement will be both full and satisfying.

R.J.A.