Bloxham School is sad to announce the passing of Martin Roberts, Director of Music at Bloxham School between 1973 and 1996.
Martin Roberts served at Bloxham School as Director of Music for 23 years, arriving from Monkton Combe in 1973. With his naval background, he was renowned for keeping everything ship-shape and Bristol fashion, and this extended to his stewardship of the Music Department as much as to his running of the CCF. In both areas he handed on a well-run ship to his successor and long-term colleague, Chris Fletcher-Campbell, in 1996.
As well as overseeing the move to the Sam Kahn Music School (the old gym, now extended), which transformed the place of music in the life of the School, Martin organised a myriad of performances from great choral and orchestral concerts to small-scale ‘Play and Listen’ concerts. Highlights included two Brahms Requiems, two Mozart Requiems, Orff’s Carmina Burana, choral evensongs at Gloucester and Oxford and the 1990 choir tour to Gibraltar.
Martin ran the CCF for many years and will be remembered with gratitude for his contributions to camps and expeditions as well as field days, parades and inspections, and with possibly less gratitude for his Thursday Drill sessions with the training platoon. His wife Sarah was a gifted instrumental teacher at the school and was an important part of the Music Department’s success in this period.
We extend our sincere condolences to her and to the Roberts family on their loss.