Mervyn Stockbridge Gould
The President and Committee of Mercia Cinema Society announce with the greatest regret the death of the Society’s much-esteemed and loved Administrator, Mervyn Stockbridge Gould.
Further details and funeral arrangements will be given when known.
*UPDATE*
From Ian Houseman, who is Mervyn’s Executor:
The funeral service will be held at Loughborough Crematorium next Friday (13th November) at 3.30 p.m.
You can visit Mervyn to pay your last respects on Thursday between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and on Friday between 10 a.m. and 12 noon. He is at Swanns of 4, Bridge Street, Loughborough, just across the road from the Swan In The Rushes. Telephone number 01509 210656.
Refreshments will be available after the service. The location is yet to be fixed but will probably be at Mervyn’s favourite watering hole The Swan In The Rushes, Loughborough.
No flowers by request, although donations to the cost of the funeral service are welcomed.
on October 30, 2009 at 10:56 pm
Permalink
Mervyn will be sorely missed by all who knew him and the many who benefitted from his wide knowledge of theatre and cinema matters. Always ready to share information and pictures from his personal collection and to give his advice, he has made a major contribution to cinema history. His own books were meticulously researched and put together. His work for Mercia was prodigious and we owe him a great debt of gratitude. Personally, I have lost a good friend and will always remember him with great affection.
Ian
on November 2, 2009 at 9:55 am
Permalink
I never had the pleasure of actually meeting Mervyn, although we exchanged emails and I contributed a couple of facts to his Gazeteer, for which he graciously credited me.
From that distance it was clear to me that he was a man I would have been pleased to know much better.
I would like to offer my sympathies to his friends and family. Fortunately, his memory will live on through his printed words and legacy of research.
on November 13, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Permalink
I thought it only appropriate that I should add a comment or two in remembrance of my dear friend Mervyn – on the website of the society to which he dedicated so much of his energies and intellectual insight. I hope that we sent him off in Loughborough today in a fitting manner – no doubt he was looking down on us all with a wry smile, as the essentially private man that he was… After the ceremony – marked by the three eulogies that demonstrated both the breadth of his learning, the depth of his character and the sheer fun of the man – someone whom, when you met them in chance encounter, made the day so much brighter – an informal wake was marked by the stories we had to tell of a remarkable person. One of the saddest, perhaps, being the fact that a mutual friend informed me that he had driven Mervyn downtown just a few weeks ago to pay off the last installment of his mortgage, which would have given him a larger degree of financial freedom in his later years – and a substantial property investment. How sadly ironic… we shall all miss him…
on November 14, 2009 at 12:47 am
Permalink
… a slight mistake in the link in my earlier post… a hectic day…
on November 15, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Permalink
I was very sad to hear of Mervyn’s death.When I was serving as Mercia’s Treasurer, and later as a committee member,he was very helpful to me and was a constant source of knowledge and information.The last time that I saw him was on the occasion of Arthur Northover’s funeral.I picked him up at Kettering station and we went to photograph the Savoy at Kettering before going over to Rushden for the wake.Never one to miss an opportunity we also slotted in the Ritz at Rushden and the Palace at Wellingborough before retiring to a local pub for a drink (or two) he was damn good company, he will be much missed, but his work will live on.