Geoffrey William Arthur Earle (57-61) died in hospital in Colchester on 6th April 2025.  He had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in August 2024 and suffered a stroke three months later which left him unable to walk, one of his favourite activities. Aged 81, he was a confirmed bachelor according to his niece Hazel Orchard who kindly provided the detail on which this obituary is based.

Born in Enfield and growing up mostly in Potters Bar, Geoff entered The Nautical College in 1957 aged 13 with a view to making a career at sea. A member of Harbinger Division, he was part of a cadet led and formed trad jazz band in the early 1960s, playing clarinet solos to much acclaim and practising in the boot room at the back of Bowden.

A family story has it that one of the neighbours in Manor Way, Potters Bar was the jazz clarinetist ‘Acker’ Bilk. Passing Geoff’s home one day, Bilk heard him practising and came in to say ‘that is not the way to play,’ then proceeding to give him an impromptu lesson. Bilk’s famous 1961 recording of ‘Stranger on the Shore’ was played at Geoff’s funeral on 14th May.

After the NCP Geoff joined Shaw Savill & Albion, a cargo/passenger line operating mainly on the UK to New Zealand run, as an officer cadet, sailing around the world nine times. He spent his 21st birthday in 1965 at sea on deck as a lookout while the rest of the crew (who apparently regarded him as posh) celebrated below. Eventually, he was relieved by the captain. Soon after he came ashore.

Qualifying as a solicitor, he lived in Essex and worked from 1971 to 2001 as an Admiralty manager in various firms in London and Hong Kong concentrating on marine claims of all types from collision and salvage to fire and total loss. In 2002 he effectively retired although undertaking consultancy work from time to time. 

It was in retirement, which he mostly spent living in Harwich in a flat near to the sea, that he refined a skill first encouraged in childhood by his father of designing and building model boats, including radio-controlled yachts. These models raced well and proved to be in high demand from enthusiasts, not least because he usually charged only for the cost of materials. He also owned his own yacht underlining his lifelong love of the sea.

A very gentle man, softly spoken and with a good sense of humour, Geoff’s main legacy, in the view of his family, is the one hundred or more model boats built by him over the years, many of which are still sailing and racing in Eastern England at Southwold, Walton-on-the-Naze and Dovercourt in Harwich.