In Memory Of John Bryant

(1949 – 2022)

At School: 1961 – 1967

D.S.O.B.A Chairman: 2004 – 2022

Members were shocked and saddened to hear that our Chairman suffered a heart attack in his sleep and died on Thursday morning (August 4th).  John, 72, had returned home only a few days earlier after undergoing a knee replacement operation.
 He became Chairman in 2004 and proved an ideal leader. He set out his stall in his first letter to Members, requesting email addresses to improve communications and talking of a website, while thanking the new, “younger” Committee Members, Robin Marriott and Ian Stewart, for their efforts in this direction.
 He led the introduction of our present newspaper-style Newsletter in 2011, forged links with Dunstablians Rugby Club and set up the initiative of a plaque in St George’s Church, Ypres, to commemorate our former pupils who had died in the Great War.
 John’s legacy, in 2022, is an Association that has a 500+ membership, with ex-pupils always joining, a Newsletter that keeps Members in touch more efficiently and a website constantly developing under David Durnford’s touch. The Annual Lunch still proves popular despite the loss of our venue when the School buildings were sold to a developer.  But he was always more than “the Chairman”. To the Members, he was cheerful, charismatic and sociable. To his fellow Year of 61-ers, he was simply our mate. We will all miss him very much.

John's funeral was held at St George of England Church at 10:30am, on Monday 12th September 2022.

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