Completely by chance I came across this obituary for Ivan Pinfield, written by his son Julian for The Guardian and published on 22 December 2014. Older members will remember Ivan from his time at The Questors in the 1950s and 1960s.
(Margaret Turner 16 February 2015)
Ivan Pinfield
by Julian Courtenay-Pinfield
As head of catering at the BBC from 1949 to 1978, my father, Ivan Pinfield, who has died aged 94, ran the BBC canteens that were a haven for the stars and crews of
television and radio. But he was also an accomplished actor in his own right.
After the war, he helped a cousin to run the Gurnard's Head hotel near St Ives in
Cornwall, where he was headhunted by the director of the Royal Shakespeare
Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon. Ivan was considered the ideal candidate to open
the theatre's new restaurant. It was here that he met the actor Margaret Courtenay,
and began a lifelong passion for the theatre. They married in 1947 and I was born in
1952.
In 1949 my father had moved to London, taking over as head of catering at the BBC
in the early 1950s. In this role he organised catering for performers, journalists,
technicians and other BBC staff at every level, in London, Glasgow, Belfast, Cardiff,
Plymouth and other centres, and at outside broadcasting events, such as the
Wimbledon tennis championships.
At this time he also took an active part in amateur dramatics, playing big roles such
as Macbeth and Prospero. His first marriage was dissolved in 1968, and it was while
working with The Questors Theatre in Ealing that he met Sandra Wainwright-Fahey,
a TV producer. They married in 1970, and had two children, Melissa and Barnaby.
My father retired from the BBC in 1978 and moved to a farmhouse in Baltonsborough, Somerset, where he developed a smallholding, apple orchard and
vineyard. Sandra died before the age of 50, leaving my father to bring up two
teenagers on his own. When they left for university, he moved to west Cornwall, where he was reunited with theatrical friends from the Stratford years, David and Eleanor Phethean. On a chance visit to the Gurnard's Head he met their daughter,
Meg. They married in 1996. Ivan played an active role with the local church and did
more acting, this time at the world-famous Minack theatre, near Land's End.
Ivan was born in Brighton. His mother, Lorna (nee Secretan), ran her own gown
business in Knightsbridge, west London, and in Penzance. His father, George
Potter, was a garment salesman. After he left, when Ivan was very young, his
mother married Reginald Pinfield, a prep school teacher in Brighton. Ivan was
educated at Highgate school, London, where he was awarded a full scholarship.
In 1939 he volunteered for officer training at Sandhurst, and saw active service in
the Middle East as a lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment). He was badly wounded in Syria and returned to Britain on home defence duties.
He is survived by Meg, Melissa, Barnaby and me, and by eight grandchildren.
IVAN PINFOLD AT THE QUESTORS
1965 The Country Wife
1965 How I Assumed the Role of a Popular Dandy
1965 Let's Get a Divorce
1965 The Winter's Tale
1966 The Golden Savage
1966 Henry IV
1966 Macbeth
1967 The Beaux' Stratagem
1967 The Corruptible Crown
1967 The Flying Dutchman
1967 Phaedra
1968 Romeo and Juliet
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