Justin Davies wrote an obituary for my dad in the local magazine, Welle-in-Touch.
“Born 24th September 1923 Died 27th January 1999
Stuart [Malcolm Stuart Maxwell] Carnson was the second son of a Methodist Minister. The family, with the three children, Burton, Stuart and Hilary, had to move house to a new posting every 3 years.
Much of his secondary education was at Kingswood School in Bath and Newton College. As a schoolboy and later on, Stuart excelled at sport, playing hockey for Cornwall, Nottinghamshire and the Midlands and throwing the javelin for his county. In addition, he qualified as a judge and referee for water polo, football, hockey, rugby, boxing and fencing.
The war started when he was only 16½, but he managed to bluff his way into the Royal Marines and was commissioned in 1941. He served in small ships [actually on a landing craft] around the Mediterranean and was mentioned in dispatches. In 1945 he joined the RAF as a Physical Fitness Officer and had the distinction of spending a year in charge of the RAF gymnastics display at the Royal Tournament.
When his family moved to America, Stuart stayed in England, where he met Audrey in 1949 at a bus stop on her way to a concert. They were married in 1952, and Stuart obtained a posting to Cornwall, where Audrey was teaching. He now changed his career to teaching, but in order to gain qualifications, he had to do his teacher training at night school – a long slog for 3 years. Stuart and Audrey taught variously in Cornwall and Staffordshire until they moved to Audrey’s family home in Three Holes, teaching at Upwell, the Queen’s School, Wisbech and Clack Close Middle School in Downham Market until retiring in 1980.
Stuart worked indefatigably in the local community. He started the youth club in 1966, buying and refurbishing the old cold store for use as a sports and social venue, and ran it, with Audrey’s help, for some 15 years. When the old store became unsafe after a fire, he set up the Welle Community Centre Committee in order to try to build a Sports Hall – it would be a fitting memorial if we achieve this objective one day.
He launched the magazine Welle-in-Touch in May 1991, edited it in a very personal way, and was delighted to see its circulation steadily growing. He had a delightful sense of humour, exhibited not only in this magazine but at numerous quizzes he ran for the Gilbert and Sullivan society and others. Stuart had a fine bass voice, sang in the Church choir and took the appropriate leading parts in our Gilbert and Sullivan productions. Perhaps the most memorable was as The Mikado, where he used his commanding presence to great effect.
One could go on for a page or two describing his achievements, but he would not have approved.
He was, above all, a very modest and gentle man – it is indeed a privilege to have known him.”
Justin Davies for Welle-in-Touch
