Mark Whittow

Yes, it is time for more LWC reminiscences.

It was a cold morning in December and I was walking around the Cambridge colleges with Karen, the daughter of my mother’s friend. (Yes, I did have a big crush on Karen, just in case you were wondering.) Just on the off chance that he might be at home, we called at Mark Whittow’s house.

Mark was one of my heroes at the London Water Closet (and I did not have many). He kindly tolerated my presence, even though I was three years younger than he was, probably because he knew that I was also a fan of all things historical. (In particular, I remember Mark patiently correcting my understanding of the caracole, a cavalry tactic in the Thirty Years War.) Not only was he a brilliant actor (his performance as Doctor Stockman in An Enemy of the People was superb), Mark was also an all-round eccentric. Mark treated the teachers at LWC with a mixture of casual indifference and flippancy. On the morning in question, he had just received a letter from Oxford, to say that Trinity College had given him a place to read History.

 
We were given hot chocolate, together with the good news about Oxford. But that chilly morning, Mark gave me something much more valuable: hope. Someone I knew (and admired) had got into Oxford, so maybe I could do it too.

A few years later, I had dinner with RTD at the Blue, Blanc, Rouge restaurant in Oxford, together with Mark and Malcolm Reynes. Mark went on to get a First, became a don and wrote The Making of Byzantium. He had been appointed Provost of Oriel, but shortly afterwards he was killed in a car crash.


And Malcolm Reynes? What happened to him? Like Mark, Malcolm was a very talented actor and his performance as Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady was outstanding for one so young. I also saw him on stage at the Oxford Playhouse in The Threepenny Opera. Malcolm read History at New College, but after graduation he got a job with a merchant bank and started drinking rather too much. I have never been able to find out what caused his early death.  


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