Brian Pritchard 1938-2014

Friday, 17 January. The sad news has just reached us that our dear old friend and Past President Brian Pritchard passed away this morning in hospital after a relatively short period of very poor health. One of the great stalwarts of our club, Brian joined Belgrave in 1942, signed up as a four year-old by his Dad, Tom, who was himself a large part of club life and had two brothers who were members. In time Brian’s wife Maureen became a Belgravian, as did their children Simon, Justin and Jane, sister Gill and grandsons Thomas and Matthew. Many were the club roles encompassed by Brian during his membership. He was Assistant Team Manager for our young athletes when such later luminaries as Mark Sinclair, John Gladwin and Andrew North took their first steps in athletics; he was a great supporter of the walking team when Jane took to that event (she joined in the very first week that Belgrave became a mixed club); numerous dances and other functions, including ‘Surrey Suppers’ at Belgrave Hall have been organised by Brian with much support from Maureen; for nearly a decade he organised our Annual Club Dinner – including the last one where in the end he didn’t feel well enough to attend. Brian will also be much missed by our successful road runners, for during the last twenty years there surely hasn’t been an occasion when he couldn’t be found cheering on our road relay teams from up near the ice-cream van at Sutton Park. Brian often quipped that as a young man he “wasn’t gifted as a runner” but had never found that a hindrance, always feeling “at home in this great Club of ours”. He was made President for 2005-2006. Our deepest sympathy goes to Brian’s family.