Time spent at school: 1945 - 50

Date passed away: 23rd May 2023

David Morley’s funeral service will be in St John’s Church (Farncombe) at 2 pm on Monday 26th June.

David Morley was born in Godalming in July 1932. Initially attending the Sir Walter St John’s school which had been evacuated to Godalming at the onset of WWII. In 1945 the school returned to its ‘home’ in Battersea and David completed his education at the Grammar school in Godalming, leaving in 1950. He had been an active back-stage helper in the school’s Operatic and Dramatic Society.

David left the Grammar school from class 6th ScA and joined the Drawing Office at the local engineering company RFD in Catteshall Lane. National service was served in the RAF maintaining Gloster Meteors before resuming his employment with RFD.

David joined the Old Godhelmian Association, becoming a member of the committee in 1955-56 and was elected honorary secretary of the OGA during the period 1957-1959.

In 1959 he met Sylvia Mounsey (OG 1945-1953) who had trained to be a Domestic Science teacher and was, by then, working in Cranleigh, at Glebelands Secondary School.

At Easter 1960 Sylvia and David announced their engagement, and in September of that same year, David was elected President of the OGA, a post he held until the AGM of September 1961 when he proposed a successor in the name of W.K. Norman.

David and Sylvia were married on 12^th August 1961, with fellow OG Chris Brading as his best man. Both continued to be members of the OG Association and were stalwart helpers whenever there were reunions.

They had two sons, Jonathan, born in September 1964, followed by Christopher born in March 1967. The family lived in Farncombe and OG Hazel Freeston recalls having taught both boys at Meadrow Middle School.

Both Sylvia and David were members of the St John’s Parish Church, Farncombe congregation, David becoming a churchwarden and Sylvia founding the Young Wives Group with Margaret Dedman, mother of Helen, Jenny, and Martin. Later Sylvia would be active in the running of the church’s branch of the Mother’s Union.

During the 1960s David worked at Smith’s Industries office opposite Godalming station, until all operations were transferred to an office in Basingstoke. In the mid-1970s David joined the Drawing Office team at the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences (IOS), Wormley. Happily, the transfer of operations from the Wormley site to Southampton in 1994 coincided with David reaching retirement age.

David and Sylvia remained in the family home until April 2023 before frailty and, for both, short periods of illness resulted in their move to a care home in Godalming, where David died peacefully in his sleep, with Sylvia by his side, two months short of his 91^st birthday.

David is survived by his wife, two sons, two granddaughters and one great-granddaughter.