My father, Graham Salmon, who has died aged 88, was a warm-hearted and genuine man with a gentle sense of humour. In 1962, with his wife, Brenda, he founded the Old Rectory in Fittleworth, West Sussex, initially as a place where youth groups from inner London could come for weekends. This widened to include other organisations, and then over the years into a thriving adult education college. Run as a family business, it was unusual in being privately owned.
Courses ranged across a wide spectrum from painting and crafts to natural history and birdwatching and Graham often led walking groups across the South Downs. That many guests were retired, sometimes into their 90s, left me with an enduring legacy that learning can be lifelong.
Graham was born in Addiscombe, south London, the third of four children of Gertrude (nee Thorpe) and Reginald Salmon. His father was a senior engineer at Creeds, the manufacturer of teleprinter and Typex machines in Croydon. The family, with Baptist and Methodist missionaries among the wider family, often hosted foreign visitors, and, in his teens, Graham was involved in the Crusader Movement and went every summer to Benllech Boys’ Camp in Anglesey. Graham’s Christian faith was lived out in his approach to life, a key part of which was a genuine openness and acceptance for people from all backgrounds.
He attended Caterham school, then gained a degree in electronic engineering at Imperial College London, and did national service as an electronic sub lieutenant in the Royal Navy, an experience he seems to have enjoyed, though it was not necessarily a natural fit for his character. Once, while on manoeuvres and in charge of communication with the engine room, he had to be reminded that “not wanting to bother the engineers too often” might well result in a collision.
In 1956 Graham joined Ferranti in Bracknell, as an electronic engineer in early computer development. He and my mother were cousins, and their courting was often done on family holidays in Sussex. They married in 1956 and moved to Ascot, Berkshire, renovating an old stable block as our first family home. After the move to Sussex, and as the Old Rectory business grew, he gave up engineering to devote himself to it full-time.
Graham’s concern for humanity and the environment led him to get involved in many local projects, from activities to raise awareness of and reduce poverty to setting up an early recycling scheme in Fittleworth in the 1970s.
Retirement to Cornwall in 1994 enabled him to develop his childhood interest in astronomy unhindered by urban light pollution. He set up a telescope at the top of the house, created a slide-away roof and developed automatic systems for clear sky detection and night-time photography. Studying variable stars, he became an “observer”, contributing to international research. When my parents moved to Gloucestershire in 2010, where dark skies were limited, he joined a group of astronomers studying meteors.
After a back injury in 2015, he developed hydrocephalus, which affected his mobility and speech. He nonetheless retained his good nature and humour and continued to enjoy the company of his family.
Graham is survived by Brenda, his six children, seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren (with another expected soon).
