The adult life of my friend Robert Fyson, who has died aged 83, fell into two halves, divided between two partners and two very different parts of the British Isles.
During the 1960s and 70s, with his wife, Michaela (nee Fordham), Robert was a history lecturer at Staffordshire Polytechnic (now Staffordshire University) and lived in Newcastle-under-Lyme, where, among much else, he was a stalwart of the local CND group, founder of the Stephen Swingler lectures, which brought leftwing speakers to the town, and a Liberal party councillor who stood for parliament in the local constituency twice in 1974, coming a respectable third on both occasions.
In the second part, after the breakdown of his marriage in 1984, he found a new partner in his second cousin, Valerie Cottle, a journalist on the Isle of Man, and divided his time between her home in Douglas and Staffordshire, where he continued with his teaching, rising to be a senior lecturer. He also further developed his longstanding interest in Chartism, completing a PhD in 1998 on Chartism in north Staffordshire and applying his research skills to writing about Manx history, including in a 2016 book, The Struggle for Manx Democracy.
He took early retirement at 52 and thereafter became increasingly resident in Douglas. Wherever he was, the first order of his day, whenever possible, was to have a thorough read of the Guardian. His allegiance was now with the Labour party.
Always ready for a pint or three and a curry, Robert was a welcoming host when I was down in the dumps. He was also a genial parent, an urbane walking companion, and above all a dedicated consumer of books. We nursed a secret rivalry on that score.
Robert was born in March, Cambridgeshire, to Cedric, a teacher, and Dorothy (nee Draper), a school secretary. Educated at Christ’s Hospital school in Horsham, Sussex, he then went to Hertford College, Oxford, where he gained a degree in history. His first job was as an organiser for CND in East Anglia, after which he became a development worker for the World University Service before taking up his lecturing post in Staffordshire in the mid-1960s.
He is survived by Valerie and her daughter, Anna; the four children, Lucy, Rachel, Hannah and Tom, from his marriage, two grandchildren, Rose and Max, and two siblings, Anthony and Penny.
