D___, C___, and another C___: all gone. These surnames that I was placed amongst on my first day in the chemistry laboratory in the Franklin Building belonged to three men, all of whom have left us. I would not have known them had it not been for the way that the Department of Chemistry at the University of Birmingham organised the large group of first-year students in the laboratory. Our scientific bench places were arranged alphabetically. How extraordinary to bring to mind, almost sixty years later, that this mundane arrangement determined that the surnames of lifelong friends were clustered between B and E. Even more unreal is the fact that in the past two years, three of our group have left us; the announcement of the passing of G C___ reached me this very morning.
How clearly I recall that I struggled with my chosen subject in my first year at the University of Birmingham. The help of those around me in laboratory sessions enabled me to get to grips with the course. I admired their work ethic, their apparent confidence and ability in practical work, and I valued their advice and friendship. Somehow, I turned my results around and graduated with a 2:1, which enabled me to embark upon PhD study in the same department. I believe that the ‘B to E group’ of undergraduates helped me to improve my approach to learning the scientific method. After graduation in 1969, all but one of us stayed on to undertake PhD research.
I was very happy to be invited by the group to share a large flat in Clarendon Road, in a leafy suburb of Birmingham. Five of us lived in the upstairs flat at number 30, and three in an upstairs flat next door: the owners of both houses lived on the ground floor. (Only one of the group left Birmingham to undertake PhD study elsewhere. However, P C___ has always been an honorary ‘Clarendon Roader’.)
The three years between 1969 and 1972 found us working hard on our research. We received a maintenance grant, spent long days in our research laboratories, and focussed mercilessly on producing and – very importantly – repeating results from our various experimental endeavours. We only went out at weekends; post-graduate research is very demanding. At some point during this period, girlfriends began to appear on the scene; some of these relationships led to marriages after we finished our research in 1972. To date, the group is characterised by nine marriages, with no divorces!
In the early years of the nineteen seventies, there were jobs to settle into, each other’s marriages to attend, lives after six years of study to establish. The nine of us kept in touch, arranging reunions every few years or so. Following retirement from careers, reunions became more frequent, usually annually, at one of the houses of the nine, or in a nearby restaurant, with anything up to eighteen of us attending. Special occasions such as 50 years since we started at the University of Birmingham in 1966 and 50 years since we graduated in 1969 were recognised as particularly important reunions. Get togethers ceased during Covid, replaced by weekly Zoom meetings. Since the end of the pandemic, a number of reunion events have been curtailed by some of the group dealing with health issues.
I have often heard it said that friendships at school or university can last a lifetime. In my case, as a member of the Clarendon Roaders, this is manifestly true. As I write this, I reflect on the enormity of how a prosaic arrangement of the names of novice chemistry students standing uncertainly at their work benches on their first day at university has had a significant and consequential impact on my life. I can readily remember standing at my bench, not knowing anyone or anything, reading my first laboratory experiment set for the session, unsure whether I could do it, indeed whether I could actually do the course. To be frank, I felt scared. Perhaps the B’s, C’s, and D’s standing near to me felt the same. If they did, they seemed to me not to show it.
As I looked about me on that day, I could not have known that I would remain friends with several of the other students standing nearby in their new white lab coats, remain friends for – as it has turned out – the rest of their lives.
Now, three of the nine have gone. Three good men, three brave men who fought and lost to serious illness, three husbands, fathers, grandfathers. The soon to be held funeral of the third Clarendon Roader will bear witness to a grieving family and bewildered friends.
So, farewell G C___, you join I C___ and C D___ to wherever they have gone. Our little band of brothers is becoming smaller in number; future reunions will require fewer table settings. At the next one, we will all imagine the three of you amongst us. Your wives will be there, carrying your spirit.
Friday, 23rd January 2026.
David Muir 