Douglas Henderson
Obituary
The death is announced of Douglas Cameron Henderson, who died in Bristol unexpectedly after a short illness on 8 Feb 2022. Douglas filled a very full life; he was a family man, a theatrical play producer, cricketer, schoolmaster, and TCD reunion organiser.
Douglas was educated at Dean Close School, Cheltenham and entered Trinity to study Ancient and Modern Literature in October 1963. He was very musical, and his keyboard skill enabled him to play the organ at several of his friends’ weddings. He was in the quartet that won the Richard Cherry Cup in 1967.
He was no mean actor in Players, but his expertise lay in his many productions. The production with the widest acclaim was “The Country Wife”, described in the Irish Times as “The best costume drama in Dublin in the last ten years”.
On the cricket field, as well as being a reliable mid-order batsman, his brisk medium swing and seam bowling brought him rich rewards on the Dublin pitches, and he took 9 in one innings. In the last 80 years, only two bowlers have taken 60 or more wickets for Trinity in the short Dublin season, and Douglas was one of them. He was vice-captain on Chris Anderson’s side, winning the league title in 1966 and captain in 1967.
After Trinity, he spent a year at Cambridge, obtaining a Dip Ed, producing plays and bowling unreadable off-breaks to Mike Brearley in the nets.
In 1968 he was appointed to run the cricket and teach English and Latin at Clifton College in Bristol. There he stayed until retirement, being a distinguished housemaster for 15 years, heavily involved in cricket and the College’s theatre, and a much respected Senior Master. One highlight was when the Old Cliftonians won the Cricketer Cup in 1993.
In retirement in 2003, he was the Times Schools Cricket Correspondent, and then he took over the reporting of schools cricket for Wisden 2006, collating results from over 200 schools. He was involved in selecting Wisden’s Schools Cricketer of the year from 2008, and he wrote the annual schools report in his own inimitable style.
In 2010 he took over the organisation of the TCD Association Annual Lunch for the South West of England. This proved very popular despite the heavy workload, with over 100 alumni/guests attending the lunch party in September 2021. He was working on the 2022 event when he died.
He is survived by his wife Heather (nee Lukes, TCD 1966), another Players star who was often his leading lady, and by his sons Jeremy who is in shipping in the British Virgin Islands and Tom, a businessman. He will be much missed by his many Trinity friends.
Douglas Cameron Henderson, b. 19 Mar 1944, d. 8 Feb 2022 aged 77.