Terry Webb (1934-2019)

Terrence Dudley Webb passed away on 12 April 2019, just over two weeks after learning that he had lung cancer. He was 85.

Terry Webb and his father Leslie Webb (1904-1992), c. 1935.

Born March 23, 1934 in Pretoria, South Africa, Terry was the first child of Leslie Ralph Webb and Mona Beatrice Webb (née Schwegmann). Leslie was a mechanic, fixing adding machines, calculators, and typewriters. He was, in his way, an early computer engineer – a field that would later be of interest to all three Webb siblings. Mona’s belief in a benevolent god and ability to see the best in everyone gave him – Terry would later reflect – “optimism and courage.”

Graham Webb (1936-2015) and Terry, c. 1939.

And two more siblings. When two-year-old Terry was told that the family would soon gain a new member, he looked forward to welcoming a little sister. So, his brother Graham’s arrival in June 1936 was a surprise. But Terry adapted. In a photo taken three years later, the two brothers – clad in matching sweaters and shorts – sit side by side, Terry smiling as Graham leans against him. The little sister finally arrived in November 1941, when Gloria was born.

Thanks to comic books, young Terry had taught himself to read before he began primary school in 1940. In 1946, a job in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) brought the Webb family – which now included their Zulu servant Donswene – to Lusaka. However, the promised house was still under construction, the small cottage where they lived had a leaky thatched roof, and the local schools weren’t up to par. Not wanting to send her sons away to boarding school, Mona convinced Leslie to return to South Africa. After a short stay with Cyril Webb (Leslie’s brother) and his wife Iris in Durban, the family at last moved to 97 Glenwood Drive, Durban. There, the Webb children would spend the rest of their childhoods.

Though girls’ education was not a priority, Terry noticed that his sister Gloria was bright and inquisitive. He encouraged her studies, insisting that she enroll in serious academic courses, including Latin and Maths, rather than the “domestic science” classes that girls usually took. He also challenged her to think critically.

By the end of his high school years, Terry had discovered be-bop. The music of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Thelonious Monk begat a life-long love of jazz. Though more passionate about his musical education, Terry attended to his formal education, graduating from Durban High School in 1951 and Natal University in 1956.

While still a college student, this be-bop aficionado became an accountant, joining the Durban firm of Murray, Smith, Berend and Noyce. That combination – avant-garde jazz and careful financial management – encapsulates Terry’s personality. He had a sharp mind, but also a wry sense of humor. He was meticulously attentive, whether to the complex harmonies of a Lester Young solo or to the intricacies of an audit. He was fluent in the languages of art and of economics. For that matter, Terry also spoke French, Afrikaans, and – much later – Luxembourgish.

Terry married Pat Fletcher on 27 June 1959. Though (and perhaps because) they were childless, Terry took an active interest in the lives of his nieces and nephews, taking them to dinner whenever his travels brought him near, sending postcards from those travels, or – with his niece Linda – playing golf.

As Terry put it, “professional ambition” inspired him in the 1960s to take up golf and join the Royal Durban Golf Club, where his younger brother was already established as a first team player. Upon Graham’s passing in 2015, Terry recalled: “Notwithstanding my lack of ability, he introduced me to his friends, partnered me and gradually taught me the finer points of the game.”

The Webb siblings in 2004: Terry, Gloria, and Graham

While Terry rose in the ranks of chartered accountancy, he always remembered to mentor younger colleagues. When the firm of Murray, Smith, Berend and Noyce merged with Deloitte (then Deloitte, Haskins and Sells) in 1975, Terry joined Deloitte as a partner, moving to the Johannesburg office a few years later. In 1987, he moved again, this time to manage Deloitte’s Luxembourg office. In 1991, he retired, and he and Pat moved to Ferndown, Dorset, in the UK.

When Pat died in 1996, Terry reorganized, downsized, and moved to the Bournemouth flat where he would live for the next two decades. But not on his own. In February 1999, he – quite by chance – met Evelyne King. She, too, was recently widowed. They started chatting, and just clicked. They married on 6 April 2001.

Evelyne and Terry in Salzburg, Austria. December 2006.

Since they both liked to travel, over the next 18 years Terry and Evelyne visited Paris, Nice, Venice, Rome, Tuscany, Lake Como, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Singapore, Lisbon, Madrid, Andalusia, Amsterdam, Athens, Brussels, Budapest, Salzburg, the Canary Islands, the Arctic Circle, Norway, Iceland, Scotland, Switzerland, and many places in the U.S. – New York, New England, California, Colorado, Texas, Las Vegas, Arizona, Utah. (This incomplete itinerary at least gestures to their geographic range, even if it cannot conjure the many delights of traveling together.)

Back in Bournemouth, Terry was a member of the Probus Club, the Big Band Club, and (from 1998 to 2011) the Board of Governors of the Bournemouth School, serving as its Chair from 2007 to 2011. During his tenure as Chair, he helped establish the fiscal foundations for improving the school’s infrastructure, increasing its enrollment, and attracting the brightest students from the area. As Headmaster Dr Dorian Lewis noted, the school gained much from Terry’s “generosity of time and spirit” and his “wisdom and good humour.” As did all of us who knew Terry.

Terry is survived by his wife Evelyne Webb, his sister Gloria Hardman, as well as cousins, nieces, nephews, other family, and many good friends.

A funeral will be held at the Bournemouth Crematorium on Friday, May 3, 2019 at 1 pm, followed directly by a celebration of Terry’s life.

Flowers or donations, made payable to Cancer Research, may be sent care of Head and Wheble, 1A Oxford Road, Lansdowne, Bournemouth, Dorset, BH8 8EY, telephone number 01202 551190.

– Philip Nel (Terry’s nephew)

5 Comments

  1. John Penn-Simkins

    Reply

    I shall miss Terry. We had much in common. Both colonial boys, love Jazz, Dudsbury Golf members,and Terry very kindly took over the Treasurer-ship of Probus from me. We sat together on his last Probus lunch. We always looked out for each other as friends. My sincere condolences go to Evelyn and the family. Good bye Terry and God Bless. John.

  2. Sheila Baker

    Reply

    Sad news of Terry passing away.

    Unable to pay my respects at funeral as away till end of June
    Terry will be missed by so many who met him over the years,always sunny and bright

    My condolences to all the Family in my absence

    Regards

    Sheila

  3. Karl Horsburgh

    Reply

    He was always kind considerate and full of valuable advice. I learned a lot from Terry and respected him greatly. The world will have lost a great man and example to us all. Condolences to Evelyne and family. See you at the funeral.

  4. Janine Horsburgh

    Reply

    I remember an old school gentleman whose kindness and lack of ostentation impressed me. Although it is little comfort now I hope Evelyne, who I only had the pleasure of meeting once, and his surviving family will eventually take solace in what was clearly a life well lived. I shall raise a gin and tonic this evening to memories of invitations to their home in Luxembourg and his and Pat’s kindness to a young couple starting out on their own path

  5. Tom Gielink

    Reply

    I was an Artlicled clerk at Murray Smith and for a reason unbeknown to me. Terry or Terrance as we called him liked working with me as his clerk on his pet audits
    We were both quick and careful and completed the Audits well with the allotted time. He would then say that we coud not leave to soon as the client might feel short changed so we checked a few extra ledgers and chatted about Golf. He would elaborate on his Music and Chess – topics he loved.
    I solved a problem for him once when he purchased a almost new Rover Car in the mid 60`s, only to find the seller left Durban for Belgium The seller illegally sold the car that was not paid for. but on Hire Purchase. That meant Terry had to pay the finance company, In order to To keep the car. Terry had to pay again. this time to the finance company.
    I represented a Belgium Textile company and we established that the crooked seller lived a couple of miles from the Factory. After I relayed Terry`s problem to the factory owner he immediately had the seller arrested and charged. He was ordered to repay the money and Terry got got his money back less a few costs.
    The world will miss a very bright gentleman.
    RIP Terry

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