It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Old Viking Bill Eaton (64B).
A member of the first cohort of pupils, Bill remained a huge supporter of the School and was the name behind the Eaton Prize, an award presented at Prize Giving that recognises the two pupils who have shown the most significant academic progression across the academic year.
Bill was not only one of our first ever pupils but was also proud to be a member of the incredibly successful 1964 rowing crew. Crewmate and life-long friend Gus Coulton (64E) remembers him:
Bill was one of the first boys at Shiplake, I remember him being pulled-up by a master for his spidery handwriting and replying “That’s so you can’t see my spelling.” The first Old Vikings will remember him as a powerful member of the 1964 1st four, coached by the inspirational Sam Hall. This four won novice fours at Wallingford Regatta then went on to achieve 21 wins out of 23 races triumphing at several other regattas. To put these wins in context, nobody at this time in the recently established school had ever won any kind of open competition. In sports like cricket and rugby, Shiplake played the third or fourth teams of established larger schools – on the water this 1st four were beating some of these school’s first crews. Their success was the first step towards the school focusing on Rowing as a centre of excellence. It was a disappointment that Sam Hall was not permitted to take the crew to Henley Royal Regatta as that would have meant missing classes, unheard of in those days.
The crew stayed on after the end of term, combining with the 2nd four to race in an eight at Maidenhead Regatta, only to be beaten by an eight from Eton. Years later when Shiplake beat Eton in the Princess Elizabeth Cup at Henley Royal Regatta, Sam Hall a passenger on the umpire’s launch, famously intoned “Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace”.
When founded, the Shiplake Boat Club owned only a pair of ancient clinker tubs and an equally venerable four. Over the next couple of years the school added the occasional elderly four. By 1963 Bill and his fellow crew were learning racing as juniors in ramshackle regattas on the upper Thames. The winner of a race often depended on just how dilapidated the 'committee boat' was that they might have been allocated.
As the school never let oarsmen miss Saturday morning classes, before lunch the crew would pile into Sam Hall's car scooting off to a regatta, eating sandwiches on the way. Sam would have wangled their first race to be scheduled for the early afternoon so there was just enough time to change before racing.
After the win at Wallingford, the school bought its first new boat - a clinker four, each of the crew’s parents contributed by buying an oar.
In 1989, then again in 2014, the crew reunited on the water to celebrate the 25th then 50th anniversaries of the 1964 summer on the water. In chatting during these reunions, the crew realised that each of them had dyslexia. This was an unacknowledged condition at the time of their education but perhaps due to the schooling they received each of the crew were now successfully running their own businesses.
After leaving Shiplake, Bill enjoyed time as a jackeroo on an Australian sheep station before joining an agricultural business CYO Seeds. He was never happier than when wielding an oily spanner, or devising then building ever more efficient and ingenious seed cleaning machinery. He had a love of gadgets that overflowed from the workshop into his home. Eventually he bought out his business partner and transformed the business by dint of his good-natured personality, hard work and shrewd management.
Recent Shiplake alumni will remember Bill as the man behind the Eaton Prize. The prize was highly coveted as it gave the recipients something exciting - a flight in Bill’s helicopter.
Taking his prize winners one at a time he varied the routes taken, sometimes going over the pupil’s homes or maybe viewing the Uffington chalk figure in the Vale of the White Horse. He prided himself on getting to know the students and greatly enjoyed his conversations with them.
Those who knew him had a fun loving and generous friend, he will be greatly missed.
Our heartfelt condolences go out to Bill's family and friends. His funeral took place on Wednesday 17 March for a limited number of people due to the COVID pandemic. If you would like a copy of Bill's order of service, however, please email [email protected].
At the request of Bill's friends and with his family's blessing, a JustGiving page has been set up in his memory. Donations will go to the Shiplake College Boat Club, with the aim to name a boat after Bill. You can donate by following this link.
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The 1964 Crew preparing to take to the water 50 years later in 2014
L-R Bill Eaton, Victor Durman, Mike Shingler, Gus Coulton
