Simon Ogram (56-60) was born in 1943 and brought up in Beverley.  After his time at Pocklington, he joined the army as a regular soldier and was posted to Germany around the time when the Berlin Wall went up in 1961. He trained at Sandhurst military college, where he excelled in boxing and was a keen rugby player. He went on to serve as a commissioned officer in the Duke of Wellington regiment. He left the army in 1966 and settled into family life in Yorkshire with four children.  He joined Texaco where he worked as Sales Manager for a number of years. He also had a stint working on the oil rigs off Shetland – not a job for the fainthearted.

When his first marriage ended, he eventually moved to London where he turned his hand to writing. He landed a job as a direct marketing copywriter with the renowned advertising company Ogilvy & Mather and then went on to work as a freelancer. In his forties he took up skydiving as a hobby – he always loved a thrill. He went on to have two more children and remarried.

He was a lifelong supporter of Hull City football club and often went to watch them when they visited the capital. In retirement, though, bird watching was his main pursuit and he spent many happy times walking in the countryside and on the coastline of southern Britain, sometimes camping out.

He also took a great interest in WWII, particularly on the French Resistance. In his mid-sixties he went on an intrepid trek across the Pyrenees in the middle of winter. He was following in the footsteps of George Millar, a Scotsman who on escaping from the Nazis fell in with the French resistance, finally escaping from Perpignan over the Pyrenees into Spain in the winter of 1943. Like George before him, Simon dug himself into the snow each night to sleep with just his habitual peanuts and the odd tin of baked beans. Those old army skills were never forgotten.

Despite his passion for walking and getting out in nature, in later life he unfortunately struggled with heart issues, which subsequently led to a fatal fall.

He died on 28 February 2022. Sadly, his eldest daughter Elizabeth predeceased him.  He is survived by his second wife, Jane, and his children Emily, Joanna, Henry, Theophania and Florence, four grandchildren and two great grandchildren.