The Haileybury Society is saddened to learn of the death of Ian Peter Tennent (B 44) on 19th April 2022 aged 91. We are grateful to his brother Tim who has written an obituary.

Ian was born in Londonderry (Derry), Northern Ireland on 30th March 1931 to Brigadier Donald and Joyce Tennent. He went to Tyttenhanger Preparatory School in Seaford Sussex and then to Haileybury School, where he joined his elder brother Denis (B 43).

Army career

He was called to National Service in July 1949 and did his basic training at Strensall Barracks outside York before moving to a regular commission, going to Sandhurst in October 1949. He passed out as a Second Lieutenant in the York and Lancaster Regiment, his father’s regiment.

Ian joined the 1st Battalion in Brunswick in Germany, followed by service in Khartoum, the Canal Zone guarding the Suez Canal, and the War Office Selection Board in Barton Stacey, Hampshire where he met Dorothy Burby whom he married in January 1960. They went with the Regiment to Berlin and moved to Munster where his son Peter was born in 1962.

In September that year he was taken on as Adjutant with the Hallamshires, the Territorial Army battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment. In March 1965, Ian, Dorothy and Peter moved to Cyprus where his daughter Rebecca was born in 1966.

Life after the military

He left the Army in 1969, when the Regiment disbanded, and moved to Ashtead in Surrey. He held personnel posts in London, with a timber merchant, Group 4 Security, followed by the Motor Agents Association, where he ran the company’s apprenticeship programme supporting 4000 apprentices. He retired in 1996.

In his retirement, Ian’s greatest achievement was a period of 23 years working as an Editor for the Talking Newspapers Magazine for the blind in Epsom. He enjoyed this hugely and his contributions were highly regarded.

In 2018 Ian and Dorothy moved to independent living. Dorothy died in January 2020 and Ian found himself living alone with the support of his family as Covid struck. During this time, he was diagnosed with Vascular Dementia and moved to a Care Home in Bookham in late 2021. Although he was in reasonable health for his age, he died unexpectedly yet peacefully on 19th April 2022.

As his son, Peter, says of him, “Ian was a kind-spoken gentleman who laughed easily and lived for his family who will miss him greatly.”

He leaves a son and daughter and five grandchildren to whom The Haileybury Society sends its deepest condolences at this time.