Obituary: David Collis


Obituary: W M David Collis (1957-2009)

Dave died on 20 May 2009 after a long illness His funeral service was on Friday 5 June at St John's church, Washingborough.

Dave was born in York on 15 April 1957 but grew up in Lincoln. He attended Skellingthorpe Junior School and went on to the City School which was then in Monks Road, Lincoln. .

Dave read chemistry at Sheffield Polytechnic at West London Polytechnic (now Thames Valley University) in Slough...

Dave's great love was bellringing and he learned to ring at St Giles, Lincoln in the early 1970s. He became a familiar figure at practices and meetings with his brown Kawasaki Z400 motorbike often with his younger brother Colin riding pillion! In 1974 Dave was elected a member of the Cathedral Company of Ringers.

His first peal on 19 August 1974 was of Kent and Oxford T B Major at Walesby. His next three peals were in January 1975 and all were of Stedman Cinques at Lincoln Cathedral! Altogether in 1975 he rang six 12 bell peals.

Whilst on a course in Woolwich in 1977 Dave rang regularly at Camberwell and at Southwark Cathedral. He was elected a member of the Ancient Society of College Youths in 1981. In 1984 he joined the band at Warfield ringing his first handbell peal soon afterwards. He is remembered at Warfield as a very cheery person who was always willing to help where necessary and he assisted at the Easthamptstead Ringing Course. Dave moved in 1989 to Watford, and then to Snodland, Chester and Aylesbury before finally moving to Waters European Headquarters in Paris in late 1998.

Wherever Dave lived he joined in enthusiastically with the local ringing and he particularly enjoyed helping learners as well as ringing peals both in the tower and in hand.

It was soon after his move to Paris that he was diagnosed with a brain tumour. An operation was initially successful but a recurrence eventually overcame him. During the last few years I helped Dave to update his peal records and I also gave him contacts for bellringing on the continent but unfortunately he was never well enough to take advantage of these.

Since Dave's death I have received a number of messages from those who knew him as a bellringer which confirms, as I always found, that he was a good friend and good company. Whenever he was in the UK he rang at St Giles and Lincoln Cathedral but eventually he had to stop driving and this limited his visits considerably.

Although bellringing was undoubtedly Dave's major interest, in Washingborough Hall after the funeral service there was a very graphic display illustrating Dave's many other interests! Dave's brother in law, Mike during his address said that on Dave's desk at his apartment in Versailles was found a small card displaying the following motto :

'Stand up, be brave'.

This philosophy no doubt kept Dave going for much longer than the doctors expected.

JRK