The England men’s hockey team, 1952. Bob Schad is standing third left (with glasses) behind Norman Borrett, the captain.

Still playing golf at 93, Robert (Bob) Schad’s long-lasting batteries finally ran out of juice on 17 November 2022, drained of life after 96 well-filled years by the pernicious Covid disease.

An exceptional all-round athlete who reputedly beat Gordon Pirie over a mile while at university, Bob won hockey blues for Oxford University in 1946, 1947 and 1948 and in 1952 was selected at centre-half for England. Bob played in a team that comfortably won all three internationals against Wales, Ireland and Scotland and beat a much more experienced France team 2-0 at Wimereux near Boulogne. England’s goalkeeper on those four occasions was Sir Derek Day (winner of a bronze medal for Great Britain at the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games and later British High Commissioner in Canada), a direct contemporary at Hurstpierpoint College in Sussex where Bob was educated during the war years.

Bob Schad’s England record.

Despite the clean sweep of victories, curiously Bob was not selected again for England; one can only speculate as to whether he might have had a difference of opinion with his captain, the famously headstrong Norman Borrett.

Tall, lean and tireless, for many years Bob was a mainstay of Cheam Hockey Club 1st XI, playing well into his fifties, and also represented Surrey and the South.

Cheam Hockey Club men, early 1950s. Bob Schad is seated second left.

Following Oxford, Bob undertook National Service, being commissioned as a Pilot Officer in the RAF, and teaching maths at the RAF College, Cranwell. This experience led him into following a career in teaching and he subsequently spent no less than 48 years on the staff at Whitgift School in Croydon, thought to be a record for long service. At Whitgift Bob took charge of hockey and cricket and ran the Air Cadets for 30 years. He played in the Hurstpierpoint College Old Johnian cricket week for more than 50 years and in his 70s was still turning out for the Old Mid-Whitgiftians 3rd XI.

Also in his 70s, Bob took up golf and while on a golfing holiday in Scotland at the age of 79 discovered the hidden joys of Scottish Country Dancing. By virtue of practice three times a week, he learned the steps of well over 100 dances, each dance consisting of 32 bars with a change of formation every 8 bars. He was also an accomplished bridge player, winning the Daily Telegraph worldwide sim pairs, with a massive 83% score.

Bob leaves a widow Carole, a son James (also an Oxford University hockey blue), two daughters and three grandchildren.