Robert (Bobby) King (1942-1947)
Died 28th March 2024, aged 94
Much admired Senior past President, who was part of Merchant Taylors' School history in the 1st Rugby XV of the late 1940's
Robert (or Bobby, as many of his friends called him) had an extraordinary zest for life, with boundless energy and enthusiasm, which he displayed from the earliest years through to his final days. As a small boy he lived on Ascension Island where his father worked for the Cable and Wireless company sending and receiving signals. A letter from his aunt to his mother at the time asked how the ‘holy terror’ was. Returning to the UK when his father was made redundant, the family settled in North Harrow and eventually he went to Merchant Taylors School. His exceptional energy was channelled into a love of sport, which he inherited from his mother. The two of them went together to watch the test match for a birthday treat. He grew early and a picture of him at prep school shows him a foot taller than anyone else on his team. He loved rugby and cricket but was also in the Athletics and the Rugby fives teams. He had the school record for the fastest century - 113 runs in 63 minutes.
A wise teacher at Merchant Taylors told him to apply to Pembroke College in Cambridge, though he hadn’t considered Cambridge an option, and practically forced him onto the train to go for an interview. First though, with the war just over, he had his military service in the Royal Artillery which, true to form, he thoroughly enjoyed. His three years at Cambridge were among the happiest days of a life crowded with much joy. He dived into life at Cambridge with his usual enthusiasm, made wonderful friends, and played a lot of rugby and cricket, earning his rugby blue in 1950 despite a broken finger. Without much time for study during the term he had to work hard in the vacations to make up for it. It was at Cambridge that he met and later married his first wife, Elizabeth. He studied Economics and Law - he really loved the study of the law, though did not feel any desire to become a lawyer. He knew that he needed a different kind of career.
On leaving Cambridge he was offered a job that would have given him the opportunity to play and develop his rugby, but without much prospect for growth and challenge in the work. Instead, he chose a career in Metal Box, which was a relatively small but fast-growing company. The company moved him around the UK every two or three years. In 1965 they surprised him and his family - now with four young children - by sending him to manage a subsidiary factory in Karachi, Pakistan for two years. The two older children were packed off to boarding school, the two younger ones taken with Robert and Elizabeth to lead the very different life of expatriates. Robert loved the challenge of working in, and learning so much in, a culture that was new to him. On returning to the UK he eventually joined the board of Metal Box and the family settled in the outer suburbs of northwest London, where they stayed until he left Metal Box in 1977.
In 1977 Robert accepted a job as Chief Executive of Scottish and Newcastle and the family moved to Edinburgh. The views over Holyrood Park from his office in Abbey brewery were stunning, as was the food in the Golden Trough but this was a difficult time both for him and to some extent his family; a Sassenach trying to modernise an old boys club into a modern business. Perhaps the main compensation was the glorious golf on a summer’s evening. After five years at S&N they moved back to Buckinghamshire when he ran Burroughs UK and then Bespak. At this time, they bought a small farm. Elizabeth ran the dairy farm, but at the weekend Robert was hauling bales of hay and generally helping out. This continued until Elizabeth’s death in 1999.
In 2000, he met and married his second wife, Anna and he gradually retired from his work life. They moved to Primrose Hill a couple of years later, where he involved himself in the local community. He and Anna went on many trips to different places around the world, lately spending several weeks each year in Tortola. He belonged to the local church and was a passionate supporter of the youth work at the church, a thriving ministry for at-risk teenagers. Only two days before he died, he said how more should be done to support this youth work, and how keen he was to help.
The friendships that Robert made at Merchant Taylors School, at Cambridge University and then the Old Merchant Taylors Society (where he could be found playing or supporting rugby on many a Saturday) endured through his life with regular parties well into their 80’s. Robert nourished friendships with these men and their families which lasted to the very end. He was also an early member of the Woodpeckers RFC (a touring club of Oxbridge undergraduates and graduates) with whom he joined for many rugby tours, and later continued to enjoy their company with golf. He especially liked to talk of their tour to Italy in 1950 where they were the first British team to visit after the war and beat the national side in Milan.
Robert picked up golf in his 40’s and was a regular player at Harewood Downs, Gullane, and Denham golf clubs, playing into his 90’s.
Robert was extremely grateful for his education and continued to support both school and college. Nothing gave him more joy than seeing young people being given the opportunities that he had, and his work in fund raising was recognised in being made a ‘Fellow commoner’ at Pembroke college, of which he was very proud.
Robert was bed-bound for the last year of his life but his energy, humour and enthusiasm shone through. His daily refrain was ‘I’m a lucky man.’