John grew up in rural Kinver, West Midlands and then spent several years in Canada where he first learnt to ski and play ice hockey. Following in the footsteps of his father and two uncles, all at Cotton House, John then came to Marlborough in 1945 in the last months of the war. He wrote in his autobiography that the manservant at The Priory, Ladd, still remembered his father Geoffrey and his uncle Bruce. John loved the freedoms of Marlborough, including having enough small change in his pocket for a brew up of sardines on toast. School rules allowed the pupils to cycle anywhere inside a ten mile radius but within that perimeter Swindon was for some reason strictly out of bounds. John joined the choir and he recalled the sensation in the chapel of 600 boys all singing facing inwards as uplifting. On the other side of the coin he was a lowly fag at the beck and call of prefects: the last junior boy to come running getting landed with the job. He was caned once for making someone an apple pie bed. There was a desperate shortage of clothes and linen, all rationed by points, and he thought that the authorities were afraid his victim would punch his feet through the sheet.
When the VE Day celebrations came and the pupils were granted three days leave, 600 boys swarmed onto Marlborough Station and buying a ticket simply wasn’t possible. Instead of joining the crowds headed for London, John took advice from his Housemaster GW Gooch, an expert on the Bradshaw railway timetables, and seven changes of train later he arrived in Stourbridge for an unexpected bonus exeat at home.
After only a year at Marlborough John’s new stepfather gave him a choice. “Travel with the rest of the family to New Zealand where I have been offered a job – or continue your education at Marlborough and live with your grandmother in the holidays.” Thirty seconds later John had made up his mind: he was going too! The family moved out to New Zealand, where John spent the next seven years finishing his schooling and reading Engineering at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch. Thus began a life-long love affair with New Zealand, and by the age of 21, he had circumnavigated the world and had acquired British, Canadian and New Zealand passports.
John’s long working career began as a pupil apprentice in industrial refrigeration in Dartford, Kent in 1953, on a starting salary of £4 7s 6d per week, out of which he had to pay for his digs and run a car. He excelled at his job and rose quickly to earn chartered status in both engineering and marine engineering.
He went on to spend 17 years in the wire rope industry, first of all writing contracts and specifications for the first major suspension bridges to be built in the UK after the war (Tamar and Forth Road Bridges) then advancing to export sales management and market planning and in 1973 leading a Trade Mission to India and Pakistan. In later years he worked in export finance management, promoting major agro-industrial developments around the world particularly in the sugar processing industry, and in the development of fisheries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
In his autobiography he listed 92 countries across six continents to which he had travelled on business, with countless tall tales and adventures along the way. He had a great gift for telling anecdotes of funny moments from the past and in his retirement he enjoyed writing some of these up into stories and tales of the unexpected. He was very hospitable and enjoyed good conversation, and he often regaled visitors and friends with his anecdotes. He commented that he had had busy and fulfilling years yearning to see as much as possible of the world. He had married his childhood sweetheart and still loved her dearly, though she must despair sorely at his inability to fry an egg or iron a shirt.
A keen tennis player and golfer and a great fan of classical music, church music and opera, he delighted in attending musical concerts and recitals and at home he played the piano. The family will always remember him playing and singing carols at Christmas.
John Stewart-Smith married Catherine Clarke in 1955 and they were married for nearly 69 years until she passed away in November 2024 aged 92. They lived out their retirement years in Chulmleigh in deepest North Devon and they are survived by their son Geoffrey (CO 1971-1975), two daughers Jo and Nicola and five granddaughters Jess, Izzy, Holly, Linda and Fiona.
