Reg Darvill
When talking to ringers about Reg Darvill, they speak of the great ability that he had to teach learners at all stages and inspire them with the joy and skills of ringing.
Reg started his ringing at St John’s, Hillingdon in 1930 at the age of 15, as a follow-on from singing in the church choir. He quickly took to it and it became a life-long passion even after he became unable to ring.
He benefitted from his early ringing years spent in a tower with a fine ring of ten bells and a strong band including Fred Goodfellow. His first quarter was Grandsire Caters at St John’s in January 1931 and his first peal Grandsire Triples at St Andrew’s, Hillingdon (as it was then) in January 1934. From 1935 onwards he combined his like of cycling and Youth Hostelling with ringing, travelling great distances over periods varying from a weekend up to 2 weeks and ringing at towers on the way or targeting a ringers’ meeting 70 miles from home. He was joined in these activities by another local lad, Dennis Brock who still rings at Sunbury-on-Thames. By 1938 the group had grown and had become NUTS, or the National Union of Tower Snatchers although by the standards of others these days their tally of up to 8 new towers in a day seems quite moderate. Cycling between the towers does limit the ability to ‘dash’. It was around this time that work took him to Essex. Lodging in the house of Frank & Winnie Lufkin did not, of course, diminish his ringing activities and certainly increased his peal total.
By the early 1940s, he had moved to St Albans and it was whilst ringing at St Peter’s that he met Kathleen West. They married in 1943, fortunately very shortly after the war-time ban on open tower-bell ringing was lifted. It was there that he started to take an active role in teaching new ringers including their four children. Several times over the years he was Ringing Master at St Peter’s and also of the St Albans District and at other times Secretary for both.
He was not a prolific peal ringer, ringing just 58 in his lifetime. One benefit of the war-time ban was an increase in interest in hand-bell ringing. He scored his first hand-bell peal in October 1944 in spite of Kathleen having to put up the black-out in the course of it because they had omitted to do so beforehand. The peal at St Peter’s for VJ Day in August 1945 is recorded in the stained-glass window in the ringing-chamber. He was particularly pleased with the peal of Grandsire Caters at St Peter’s in 1963 in which Kathleen rang her first peal and which also included their two sons.
Upon his retirement from a career as a chartered electrical engineer in the late 1970s, Reg and Kathleen moved down to Bourton-on-the-Water where they had had a week-end cottage for several years so they already knew the ringers there. Here Reg extended his many DIY activities beyond woodworking, building their first television and rebuilding car engines to include dry-stone walling. However beautiful the Cotswolds were, they felt that they wanted to be closer to their children and so moved to Wingrave. He was pleased to be able to join in the ringing and help teach more ringers there and at Aston Abbots. He rang his last peal at Wingrave in December 1985. He was elected to be Vice President of the Central Bucks Branch.
At the age of 79 he had a major operation near the top of his spine which affected the strength and flexibility in his hands. However he was determined to get back to his ringing, so he adapted his style and technique so that he could. The photo shows Reg and Kathleen ringing at Aston Abbots for his 90th birthday. That was the last time that he rang, although when any of the family went to visit he would point out the interesting snippets from The Ringing World.
Reg died peacefully on 26th January 2010, aged 94.
Ken Darvill
