Michael Whitehead (1950-1955)
Died March 2023, aged 85
Taken from an obituary written by Dorothy Whitehead.
It is with great sadness that I must inform you of the death of my dear husband Michael Ernest Whitehead at the age of 85. He attended Merchant Taylors’ School from 1950-1955. While there, he played cricket for the School and later for a local club. Cricket was his passion, especially County cricket, he was an ardent Middlesex supporter and also an MCC member. In fact, the last County match he attended was the Middlesex v Worcestershire fixture at Merchant Taylors’ in July 2022.
He was one of the Classical Sixth group who later called themselves “The Rollers” after a prank using a roll of toilet paper. This was described, incidentally, in the 2022 Winter issue of Concordia, by David Farthing in his reflection on the connections between Winchester Cathedral and Merchant Taylors’ School, which also featured Martin Biddle, a fellow 'Roller'.
After leaving School, Michael did National Service in Cyprus and at Bawdsey in Suffolk. He then attended the LSE where he graduated with Bsc. Econ. He then went on to qualify as a Chartered Accountant working at Deloittes and later for Lazards Merchant Bank.
He married in 1963 and had 3 sons and a daughter and 9 grandchildren. A kind, generous man, he will be greatly missed by all who knew him. He passed away peacefully on March 10th, co-incidentally the day of this year's “Rollers Dinner”.