Minett, William

OT 317 - North

Date of Death: 01/04/2018

From The Gazette No.68

I was very sorry to hear of the death of my contemporary Bill Minett (OT 317 – North).

I recall Bill best as the leading light of the school's termly general knowledge quiz. Ottershavians may remember that a couple of weeks before the end of term a list of 100 general knowledge questions would be handed out. We then had about ten days to look up the answers in the library, complete and hand in our answers. I was quite keen on this quiz and had plenty of time to spare in the library since there was never any question of my being asked to participate in school sporting matches.

On reflection, that is not quite true. On one occasion I was sitting contently in the library in the warm when the door flew open and Jake Buttery pointed at me and one or two others sheltering in there from the cold outside. "You boys, get into your rugger kit. The Charterhouse first fifteen have turned up for a match. They have got the date wrong but we have said we will put up a scratch team to play them." I think they beat us 162-0 or something, but at least I could say then that I had played rugby for the school against Charterhouse. That looked good on my c.v.

Anyhow, I digress. If I remember correctly, the reward for getting 98% or better in the GK quiz was a signature in the Honours Book. It was here that Bill Minett played an essential role. If you could establish yourself as a GK specialist then ill might swap an answer with you. If you had an answer that he needed then he would swap with you for one you needed. But agreeing the swap was no easy matter. He would require you to produce your full list of answers (except for the one he needed). If he was satisfied that you did indeed have, say, 96 correct answers, then he might agree the swap. Thanks to him I got three Honours Book signatures for GK (and none for anything else). However, I never did score more highly in the school general knowledge quiz than Bill Minett.

Angus Palmer OT 330 - East