Obituaries D
Fred Ratcliffe
r Frederick (Fred) William Ratcliffe CBE, who died aged 98 on 16 April, had a stellar career in university libraries and, for at least 30 years in the latter half of the 20th century, he occupied the unofficial position of ‘Doyen of university librarians’. He was also known as ‘the Kingmaker’, since so many of his staff became univers ity librarians in their own right, such was the extent of his influence in the sector, and the degree to which he took pains (and no small pride) in fostering the careers of those who worked for him. Born in Leek, Staffordshire, in 1927, FWR attended Manchester University, where he obtained a first degree in German and a PhD with a thesis on the Middle High German
poet Heinrich von Mügeln. His first professional library post was at Manchester University, where he served under Moses Tyson, whom he subsequently succeeded as Librarian in 1965 after successful senior postings at Glasgow and Newcastle University Libraries.
His 15 years at Manchester were characterised by his relentless pursuit of opportunities for expansion, both in library accommo dation and in collections of rare books, manuscripts and archives. He was, perhaps above all, an outstanding collection builder. It was his energy and personal drive which led to the merger of the University Library and the John Rylands Library in 1972; and, with the consequent creation of the expanded John Rylands University Library of Manchester (JRULM), he almost succeeded in persuad ing the Whitford (Copyright) Commission (197377) to make the JRULM the sixth copyright library of the United Kingdom. With all this success to his name, it came as no surprise, when the University Librarianship at Cambridge fell vacant with the
Thomas Howard T
homas William Howard FCLIP, formerly County Librarian of Warwickshire, died in Warwick on 6 March 2026, aged 96.
Born in Kent, he was evacuated to St Helens, Lancashire, for part of the war years. He was educated at Gilling ham Grammar School. He completed his National Service in the Royal Navy, much of it at HMS Ceres, a shore establishment in Wetherby, West Yorkshire.
Tom’s first job was at Rochester Public Library. He then moved first to Kilburn Library and later to Hampstead Library, where he met his wife Margaret, a newly qualified teacher. The rest of his career was spent in county library services, first in Wiltshire and then in Berkshire. In 1965, he was appointed Deputy County Librarian of Warwickshire County Library, which had a growing number of parttime
libraries and a fleet of mobile libraries. This was to change in 1974, when five formerly independent urban library services became part of a newly formed county library service. Harry Budge, the County Librarian, died suddenly a few months before the new service came into being. Tom Howard was appointed County Librarian, with the immediate task of bringing the six
48 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
library services together. He achieved this successfully through regular consultation with his new colleagues and by adopting a more decentralised structure than had originally been planned. Tom maintained good relationships with council members of all political parties, and this was a major factor in the significant increase in financial support for the service.
He supported a number of initiatives, including the introduc tion of collections aimed at young people and efforts to improve access to libraries for deaf people. Computerbased systems were introduced into the library service during his tenure, offering significant opportunities and occasional frustrations. Tom retired in 1989 and enjoyed a long and active retirement. He took a keen interest in archaeology and ornithology. He and a group of friends enjoyed long walks in the Cotswolds, continuing into his nineties.
He became a member of Warwickshire County Cricket Club, though he remained loyal to Kent. He and his wife were, for many years, volunteers at Charlecote Park, a National Trust property in Warwickshire.
He is survived by his wife Margaret, his son and daughter, and his grandchildren.
Phillip Gill June-July 2026
untimely death of Dr Eric Ceadel in 1979, that FWR was invited to accept the position (with a letter of appointment from the Chan cellor, HRH the Duke of Edinburgh!); and thus he became the first nonCambridge graduate head of Cambridge University Library in all its long history. At CUL, he carried on where he had left off in Manchester, building the special collections, and the reputa tion, of the Library: during his tenure (198094), CUL became the home of the collections of the Bible Society, the Royal Common wealth Society, and the Greenwich Observatory, in addition to the magnificent private libraries of Sir Geoffrey Keynes, Professor Ralph Leigh, John HarleyMason and Norman Waddleton, among many others. Unsurprisingly, FWR’s services were also in considerable demand outside the Library and he undertook many additional roles, including membership of national library bodies; Visiting Professor at Loughborough University, lecturing and leading courses and as Chairman of the Cambridge Magistrates Bench. In 1983 he oversaw the British Library’s groundbreaking report, Preservation policies and conservation in British libraries. Alongside Douglas Foskett, he founded the Consortium of University Research Libraries, known today as Research Libraries UK (RLUK). In ‘retirement’ from CUL, FWR accepted appointment to the prestigious post of Parker Librarian, in Corpus Christi College, where he had been an active Fellow since 1980, serving from 1995 to 2000. His second retirement, at the age of 73, brought to a close the extraordinarily distinguished career of a quite remarkable scholar librarian. A ‘oneoff’ in the library world, perhaps, he was a man of great personal warmth and wit, and is still remembered by many with gratitude and respect. He is survived by his wife, Joyce, and by their three children, George, Helen, and John.
Reg Carr, Bodley’s Librarian Emeritus, University of Oxford
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