Robinson, Peter

OTT 474 - East

Date of Death: 07/02/1999

From The Gazette No.30.

It is with great regret that I advise you that Peter Robinson died peacefully in his sleep on Sunday evening, February 7th. 1999 in Weybridge, Surrey. He was 37.

Notwithstanding the devastating shock of someone being taken at such an early age, the fact that the autopsy could not provide any medical reasons for his death has left his friends and family especially cheated. He had suffered from influenza in January which had lingered on, but was recovered in the first week of February. His lungs were slightly congested and his arteries showed signs of furring but nothing that would have contributed. It has been attributed to be a rare case of‘Adult Cot Death*.

Peter would meet up with a few of us from Ottershaw’s last Upper Sixth year, namely Dave (Da) Green, Jon (Boing) Spring, George Biswas and myself. Da and I had met up with him for a drink on the 6th. and 28th. of January and, as usual, we fought to recount nostalgic and comic anecdotes of school and also, as usual, he was always the best at telling his stories. He was naturally gifted in many respects, and for me his most delightful quality was putting his brand of humour into anything he’d seen and experienced.

Of particular poignancy for me is that he’d come to a dinner party at a friend of mine’s house the night before his death. A brilliant aide for me to invite because the party was short of that particular commodity - batchelors - and he was this great entertainer and, being my good friend, I was unashamedly elevated in his company by association. He was in fine fettle and we had an excellent evening full of laughter and wine, and with the assistance of another male ended the evening with a bottle of port. I got a lift home and he stayed over at my friend’s, and my last memory will be shaking hands and he smiling and winking at me as we parted.

Apparently he was well the next morning and not suffering from the previous night’s revelry, and met his mother and friends for lunch. She has relieved me by saying that she hadn’t seen him look so well for a while and noted that he could hold his drink, and that this would not have affected him.

To give you some background to the man, I’ve taken a potted history from my memory and hope my recollections haven’t failed me. At school you may remember Peter was an excellent runner and played 1st. XV rugby and 1st. XI football until injury put him out in the last scholastic year. He was awarded School Colours. He was also of high intellect, scholarly, and more often than not would finish the Telegraph crossword before lunch.1974-1980)

He left Ottershaw School after his English, History and Art ‘A’ levels and read English at the University of East Anglia in Norwich where he received a 2:2 which was woefully beneath him and which he would have easily surpassed had it not been for the discovery of the guitar. At school his great love of music and musicians like Ry Cooder (I know because I was a few studies down from him) led him eventually back to being an accomplished blues guitarist. He could play in almost any style you could mention, had been in numerous bands including ‘Thrash Metal’ ones and had enjoyed minor success.

He met and was briefly married to a girl from college but would not have marked it out as being his great love. He joined the university’s acting society and afterwards attained an Equity card and performed in theatre, but struggled to achieve recognition. After many years he had some luck when someone who knew his potential got him introduced to do art direction for a video, and suddenly he had found the vehicle for the inherited natural talents that he’d been given at birth. He worked as Art Director on man;| applauded works in television, film and theatre and achieved great success.

He had just embarked on what would have been his most exciting project, a television drama that would track a family’s history overj 50-odd years, and involved amongst other things constructing a replica frontage of a 1930’s art deco cinema. He was veryj enthusiastic about it, and in the years to come would have added to it with greater achievements. It was a forgone conclusion.

Although we’d only catch up with Pete off and on over the years, it didn’t matter, because nothing changed - with him and us - we all meant exactly the same to each other as the day we left Ottershaw. And so, now, another substantial section of the School is lost because we can’t have a pint and recollect together.

He was a complete character, and his sort are few and far between, and it really upsets me that he’s not going to be around any more. I hope one day that I will again be able to enjoy telling one of my favourite school anecdotes - about how there were only two of us in my English *A’ level set, and the other bloke got an ‘A’ and I got an ‘O’ level grade.

Michael Edginton (Bruce), OTT 499 (formerly Michael Winton)