Bob Vass

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Bob Vass, who was in Bradford 1938 to 1944, died on 13 October 2009 in Minehead. His funeral was in Taunton on 2 November. His Warden was Canon Douglas Horsefield, and he was taught by Messrs Durrant and Ball. He is survived by his five children, of which his two sons were at Kingham Hill: Chris (Durham 1968 - 1973) and Adrian (Durham 1967 - 1974).

Bob went to St Paul's, Cheltenham where he trained as a teacher, and did his national service with the King's African Rifles in Kenya. He became a missionary with the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in the Sudan from 1950 - 1964 and was fluent in Bari, Swahili and Arabic. When Bob came home with his family in 1964 he trained as a priest at the London College of Divinity. He had a close friendship with Canon Horsefield. In 1970 Bob went back to Africa and worked with Sudanese refugees in Northern Uganda for CMS, Danchurchaid and Norwegian Church Aid. His work with the programme came to an end in 1972 and so he set up a 'not for profit' logistics company supporting African development projects across sub-saharan Africa. The business, called Lifeline Relief and Development Services, was based in Southampton, but with sub - regional offices in Kampala, Nairobi, Arusha and Juba. It later supported projects in West Africa; in particular Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroons. He retired from the business 20 years ago and lived in France, Spain and then more recently close to his sister Jesse in Somerset. Bob had been battling with prostate cancer for 12 years, but was still able to travel regularly to France and Norway, and visited much of Asia in his latter years.