Jonathan Williams remembers the life of popular Institute personality, Roy Davies
 Davies: sense of fair play, honesty and integrity. |
Roy Davies quite literally walked into my life a few days after I started with the Institute and FONASBA. He appeared unannounced at the door to my office, introduced himself as the chairman of Federation Council, and thus began a friendship that lasted until the day he died.
Roy was immensely proud of the Institute and everything it stood for, matching, as it did, his own sense of fair play, honesty and integrity, and his commitment to education, hard work and professional standards. He encouraged his staff to take the ICS examinations and to participate in the activities of the local branch. Medite employees that became ICS members found their certificates framed and hung with the others in the boardroom for all to see, such was his pride in the achievements of his staff.
With the East Anglian Branch dinner in danger of falling by the wayside, Roy became its Fairy Godmother. He changed the venue, encouraged, cajoled or if necessary bullied the Felixstowe port community into attending, engaged excellent speakers, including former England rugby captain Bill Beaumont and Ipswich legend Sir Bobby Robson, and so turned a dying event into a sell-out that replenished the branch coffers and the education fund.
It was his drive and encouragement, while chairman, that set Federation Council on its way to becoming what it is today: an active, enthusiastic and ever-growing organisation, the representative body for the UK broking and agency industries, and the provider of a significantly expanded range of tangible benefits to its members.
It was fitting, for someone born by the Mersey and married to a Liverpool girl, that the Liverpool Branch dinner in April 2004 was where Bruce Ogilvy invited Roy to become his vice-chairman. Roy saw it as the culmination of his career in the shipping industry and he described his decision to stand down, taken in late spring this year, as one of the hardest he had ever had to take.
At his funeral in late July, the Order of Service closed with the traditional Vulcan salutation “Live long and prosper” – Roy was an avid Star Trek fan. With his passing a week shy of his 70th birthday, Roy wasn’t granted that option, but his memory will live long with those of us that were fortunate enough to have him as a friend, to work with him or even just to have met him, and the Institute will continue to prosper as a result of his support and commitment to it. We will all miss him greatly. Roy was survived by his wife, Barbara, and his children, Adam and Ruth.
Chennai loses“founding pillar” It is with a sad heart that we report the death of Chennai education officer Mr Sritharan FICS, one of our founding pillars and involved in the branch activities from its inception over 10-years ago. Most of our younger members are indebted to him for the voluntary help and assistance that he had given them over the years: one student of the 1996 batch still recalls the help and guidance Mr Sritharan provided to him a decade ago. As a senior member says, Mr Sritharan was considered to be a walking encyclopedia on ICS and shipping matters; he had a particular love for the study of case laws. Softly spoken and hard working he was ever willing to dig out something when others seemed lost. He had contributed greatly to the Branch’s case law compilation for the 10th Anniversary ICS-BIMCO international conference held in Chennai last December. He will be greatly missed. |
[ Back to contents ]