Tony died at home of oesophageal cancer on New Year’s Day. His dancing career began locally in Eltham, continuing at Cambridge. Graduating there in Classics he taught at Blundell’s School, Tiverton, gained his Full SCD Certificate and co-founded RSCDS Exeter. Through dancing he met Dilys, a pharmaceutical chemist from Wrexham. Tony moved to Loughborough Grammar School and they married in 1974.

Joining Nottingham Branch, Tony became its principal teacher, taking us with expertise and good humour through everything from 18th-century pure figures to McNab’s `Lamont of Inveryne’.

His musicianship at piano and organ, his work with the school’s Naval CCF and his Christian faith as U.R.C. Elder and Street Pastor are remembered with affection and admiration. He leaves Dilys, daughters Melissa and Anna, their husbands Duncan and Matt and grandchildren Joe, Rosie, Ben and Sam.

Anthony (Tony) Payne, 1946 – 2025; an appreciation

How can two men’s lives run in parallel, each unknown to the other, for half a century or more? Both of us Cambridge men and former day pupils at public schools; both of us teachers in Secondary and Primary sectors, Tony teaching Classics at Blundell’s School, Tiverton before a move to Loughborough Grammar School. Both of us musicians and organists, both of us involved in long-haul courtships until, still unknown to each other, we tied our respective knots in Wrexham (Tony & Dilys) and Glasgow (myself & Rhona) on the same day in 1974, Tony and Dilys beating us to the altar by a few hours! And both with Church connections, in the United Reformed Church and Anglo-Catholicism.

Even in the University community in the mid-sixties two men with different interests reading different subjects at different colleges might easily never meet. Whilst Tony was amusing the porters at St. John’s by riding his (man’s) bike in kilt to the Strathspey & Reel Club, gowned after dark lest the Proctor and his bulldogs should impose a six-and-eightpenny fine, I was busy with the Railway Club, the Officers’ Training Corps and Eastern Counties’ elderly buses, so there were opportunities a-plenty for our paths not to cross!

Tony took his degree in 1967 and taught Classics at Blundell’s School, Tiverton and two years later I took mine and eventually followed him into the blackboard jungle. He enjoyed Scottish Country Dancing at Summer School and down in Devon, and collaborated with Naomi Duncan and Sue Tyler in founding Exeter Branch RSCDS. His increasing skills in both Scottish Country Dancing and Highland dancing led to a Full Certificate in SCD, his certificate signed by Miss Jean Milligan herself. It had been a long journey from the Evening Institute at Eltham, where his mother had encouraged him to join their Scottish dance class.

Also on the Exeter dance floor and at Summer School he met a young Welsh lady from Wrexham, qualifying as a pharmaceutical chemist before her post-registration year at Manchester Royal Infirmary. Tony’s move to Loughborough Grammar School brought them closer whereas Rhona and I had to rely upon the GPO, the phone, overnight Glasgow sleepers and the motorways…until two weddings took place on 10th August, 1974!  

Tony and Dilys joined Nottingham Branch and he taught classes at all levels until Jenny Bradley’s retirement in 2007 when he became our principal teacher. His enthusiasm for precision and almost geometrical covering when preparing teams for festivals is remembered with appreciation as well as his sense of humour on class nights…and his perseverance when he challenged our dem team to dance `Lamont of Inveryne’ at a regional festival. Dances featuring pure figures were a particular fascination, alongside the occasional quirky features of the early RSCDS books such as the `left petronella’ in `Dumbarton’s Drums’.  He maintained his Exeter connections, too, and led a week’s or a fortnight’s class at Sidmouth for many years.

I didn’t find out about his enthusiasm for sailing with the school’s CCF until he invited us to do `safety boat’ duty at a nearby lake. Again his knowledge was deep but unassuming, and I was glad to be able to send him photographs of sailing drifters and rowing boats taken at a festival in Cellardyke, Fife, while he was still able to enjoy them.

For many years he was a member of the East Midlands Association of Classical Teachers, continuing his interests in Latin and Greek as well as organising and leading visits to sites related to the Roman Empire and the city-states in Greece. He also taught three U3A classes – in Latin, in Classical Greek and in Classical Civilisation.

He and Dilys became deeply-involved members of the Loughborough United Reformed Church and both became Elders. His organ and piano playing – including improvisations – were most impressive, and I was able to hear him to full advantage when he invited me to join the rota of organists soon after the old pipe organ had been replaced by a most versatile three-manual electronic instrument. 

Christianity didn’t begin and end at the church doors, though; for many years both Tony and Dilys took on the rôle of Street Pastors in the town, which meant spending nights in support of vulnerable students and engaging with the full range of charitable activities.            David Page