Richard Hodgkin — October 14, 1948-June 30, 2024

RICHARD Hodgkin, who has died, aged 75, from prostate cancer, was a well-known member of the Henley community who became involved with many organisations over 40 years.

Richard was born in Norwich in 1948 to Squadron Leader Charles Hodgkin and his wife Jean.

He joined his sister Sandra and they grew up in many different places as his father was posted far and wide, including some time in Germany.

It was decided to bring some stability to his education and he was sent, at the age of 12, to Bedford Modern School where he boarded for the next six years.

He had many exciting adventures, crossing continents to visit his parents who were posted to Hong Kong.

It was on one of these visits that he first met Elizabeth, his future wife and the daughter of friends of his parents who were also in Hong Kong with the RAF.

Richard’s main interest at the school was sport. He played rugby, enjoyed athletics, swam and basically involved himself in anything but academia.

He always supported Norwich City Football Club. When it came time to leave school at 18, he changed his mind about being a teacher and instead joined Coutts Bank as a clerk.

It was at this time that he became interested in rowing and, as he was living in Marlow with his parents, he joined Marlow Rowing Club.

There were many wonderful moments but they had a particularly good time in 1972 with many a win and lots of “pots”.

During this year, he married Elizabeth at Holy Trinity Church. An arch of oars by Marlow rowers was a memorable image.

During that year there were difficulties to get on the housing ladder in Henley with prices rising rapidly (no change there!).

They moved to north Essex and then to Caversham Park Village where they started their family.

After seven years and three boys, at last they found a house in Nicholas Road, Henley. Although they changed houses later, they remained in the road.

A daughter was born and so began many happy years of family life with the children attending Valley Road School and both Richard and Elizabeth becoming heavily involved with the parent teacher assocation etc. During this time the three boys joined Henley Rugby Club as minis and subsequently juniors and Richard began his coaching career.

There were many cold and wet Sunday mornings of carrying muddy kit and transporting youngsters to other clubs.

His junior teams were very successful and he took them on two memorable trips to Amsterdam and Ireland.

Even after he stopped coaching, he was always interested in knowing how the boys on his team were doing. He continued to support Henley Hawks and had many wonderful memories of Saturday afternoon at Dry Leas.

He stayed with Coutts for 30 years, working at many of their branches in London, and ended his career with early retirement as manager of the Eton branch.

He spent a few years doing various jobs but eventually settled on becoming a temporary lock-keeper. This lasted for 12 years.

Although the hours and shifts were disruptive at times, he loved messing about on the river and became very well known at Marsh, Hambleden and Hurley locks to all the boaters. He eventually retired in 2010.

He joined the Lions Club of Henley in 1998 and spent many years organising events such as the duck derby and the Swimarathon.

He was proud to be club president in 2002 and continued to support the club until his illness prevented him from taking part. Around this time he became involved with organising quizzes, mostly in the town hall, for a variety of charitable causes.

These quizzes became quite epic and, with his good friend Allan Follett, he raised upwards of £40,000.

Richard began as a controller on the Henley Talking Newspaper in 2007. He took over the role of chairman in 2015, only retiring shortly before his death.

He was also chairman of the Henley HandyBus where he had been a driver for a number of years. Again, he retired from this role shortly before he died.

Both these organisations were very close to his heart and he gave everything to ensure their smooth running and would have been disappointed not to see the new bus that is due for commission soon.

Richard was a supporter of many other organisations including the Henley 60+ Social Club where he was on the committee.

He was a keen supporter and committee member of the Town & Visitors’ Regatta and for a few years enjoyed “laying the course”.

Elizabeth and Richard enjoyed 51 years of marriage. Richard was very proud to become Liz’s consort when she was Henley mayor in 2009/10 and 2012/13 and supported her in the many events they attended.

Richard has been described as decent, devoted, tireless in his efforts and fun with volunteering running through his veins. He was a thoughtful and a loving family man, a lovely man, a dear husband and dad and grandad to all his family.

Many tributes have been paid to him and this brings great comfort to Elizabeth and his children.

Richard is survived by Elizabeth, his children, Andrew, Peter, Christopher and Sarah, and grandchildren, Alice, Matilda, Esme, Reuben and Charlie and his sister Sandra.

His funeral will be held at St Nicholas Church in Rotherfield Greys (where he helped cut the grass in the churchyard) at 11am on Saturday, July 20 folllowed by a celebration of his life in the village hall. All are welcome.

Richard and Elizabeth and the family were helped so much by the Bell Surgery and by the Sue Ryder charity team and would ask for family flowers only but donations, if desired, can be given to Sue Ryder.

These can be sent c/o Tomalin & Son, 38 Reading Road, Henley, RG9 1AG, or visit https://richard
hodgkin.muchloved.com