John Frederick Silverthorne Esq. 1955 - 1963

John Frederick Silverthorne was at KHS from 1955 to 1963, first in Plymouth and then Sheffield. Sadly we recently learn he died just before Christmas in 1988.

When John left Kingham Hill, he went straight to teacher training college in Saltley, Birmingham, but because his mother was frequently ill at the time, he often spent his week-ends hitch-hiking from Birmingham to Reading and back to look after her.

After graduation, he began his teaching career at Wilson school in Reading, teaching history, but he was also a great music lover, and besides singing in the choir of St Giles in Reading, ran small orchestral concerts there. (He had previously been in the Kingham Hill choir under both Stewart Brindley and David Weatherill.)

He later taught at various schools in Berkshire, and eventually settled at Ashmead secondary school, again teaching history.

In the 1970s, he joined Reading Rugby club, and in 1975 organised a successful Colts side, which formed the basis of the club’s revival following a disastrous 1982-83 season. He eventually became the club’s president.

He was voted in as a Reading town councilor for the ward in which he lived (and continued to live) and devoted much of his spare time to serving the less well advantaged of the town, and unlike so many politicians, did not work towards his own engrandisment, but eschewed that path completely. However, his active political life was such, that had he lived, he may well have stood as a parliamentary candidate. Sadly, that was not to be.

John was passionate about preserving what was good in the town, and when part of the council wanted to destroy the historic Victorian town hall (a fine example of a Waterhouse design) by removing the very fine Father Willis organ, putting in a mezzanine floor and offices, and selling of the original Victorian furniture, he stepped in, stopped the sale and thereby saved the town hall for posterity. It was not renovated and brought back to useable condition until after his death, but in recognition of his passion and devotion, there is a now meeting room named after him in the town hall complex.

He was active in setting up attractions in the form of the Blakes Lock Museum on the river Kennet, and was instrumental in bringing the Reading Rock festival to the town. He was also in on the early stages of the re-development of the centre of the town with the Oracle shopping and leisure complex.

All this he did despite the fact that his sight was failing due to the inherited degenerative defect of retinitis pigmentosa. In fact, towards the end, he had to watch home rugby matches on a closed circuit TV screen as standing on the touchline meant that he could not follow the game at all. With his council work, he coped by using an early model of a TV based reading machine.

He met his girlfriend in the mid 1980s, and as she was Kenyan, he went to Kenya to meet her family – presumably with the ultimate intention of getting married. But tragically, whilst at her house south of Nairobi, he got up in the night, smelt gas, and in attempting to turn off her cooker inadvertently ignited the gas which exploded, seriously burning him.

He was taken to Nairobi general hospital, where it was hoped he would recover sufficiently well to return to the UK, but sadly, he was too badly injured and died just before Christmas in 1988.

His funeral was held in a packed Reading town hall, and there were representatives from Ashmead school, Reading Rugby Club, the Town Council, St Giles church choir and some of his many musical and drinking friends. The late Rodney and Mrs Chapman were also there, so Kingham Hill too was represented.

Because of John’s love of Reading’s past, and his activities in helping preserve the fabric of the ruins of Reading Abbey, his ashes were scattered there in early 1989.