T.F.R.G.Braun - RIP

Thomas Felix Rudolf Gerhardt Braun - Tom to his friends was born in Germany , the son of a High Court Judge. The family led to Britain. Tom - interned at one time on the Isle of man sharing a dormitory with Max Mosley ent on the Bootham Quaker Scool, York, and Balliol.

He spent a short time at Leicester University where Lord Patel met him before he went on to Merton College as a Fellow and later as Warden.

Although his published work was slight he had a massive impact on all who met him. Gregarious, funny, with immense knowledge of Ancient History, epigraphy and ancient Mediterranean cultures. He read, spoke and wrote in many languages and could quote extensively from world literature of all tongues and ages.

We have just been notified of a slight obituary in the Oxford Alumnus magazine that he died aged 73 in a road accident in September last year. There is a Times obit.

Two abiding memories.

The night before the Cuba crisis he produced a bottle of Johnny Walker Red Label, which as I was to sit the German language scientific translation examination ( an absolute requirement for a science degree) when Cuba was about to disappear in a puff of smoke, was perhaps unwise.

He appeared one day as Lord Patel was struggling with the Daily Telegraph crossword ... " The last refuge of an empty mind". He has never wasted his time since with another.

He last wrote from his cottage in Wales in the summer. Much missed.