Danny Howell, writing in 2010, noted:
I first came into contact with Roderick McAdams in 1985. I was running the Wylye Valley Life magazine. It was quite pressurised producing a fortnightly magazine, particularly when the magazine was reaching the final stages of production. It was always a rush to get it completed ready for despatch to the printers.
We had a sports column in the magazine which was written by Peter Farrell, whose wife Eileen (Reggie Foreman’s daughter) had been a leading light in ladies football, playing for Warminster Town Ladies. In the rush to get the magazine to the printers I hadn’t noticed a spelling mistake in the sports section. The word ‘Athletics’, used as the title for a short report, had been mistakenly typed as ‘Atheletics’. It was a simple typesetting mistake and it went uncorrected.
The day that the magazine came out I received a letter from Roderick McAdams. He must have put it by hand through the letterbox of the Wylye Valley Life office at Chinn’s Court, Warminster. It was the first time I had ever heard of him. In his letter, beautifully handwritten in gold coloured ink on a light-coloured sheet of paper, Roderick McAdams berated me for misspelling the word ‘Athletics’. He said it was a bad example to young people and he thought that the Editor of a magazine should know better.
I wrote a letter back to Roderick McAdams, pointing out the difficulty of producing the magazine when there was only myself and Neil Grant to gather the editorial, typeset it, lay it out, as well as sell advertising, deal with advertisers, design ads, plus arranging delivery and distribution of the magazine, not to mention doing the accounts and the VAT. I explained we had not noticed a typesetting error during proof-reading.
Roderick McAdams, a few days later, came into the Wylye Valley Life office at Chinn’s Court and introduced himself. That’s how I met him.
I soon discovered that Mac, as he was affectionately known by all who knew him, had been a teacher at Warminster School. He was short, a bit portly, clean-shaven and had grey-white hair. He dressed smartly. I can only ever remembering him wearing a shirt and tie and a grey suit.
My path crossed several times with Mac. In the summer of 1987 I was asked by Bridget Penny, of Video Pictures, to contribute to the script for a film she was making about Warminster. As it happened, I went on to write most of the script for the film and I went with Bridget and her assistant Amanda Chaunt, and the film’s narrator, Jane Young, to many of the locations, to point out features that should be filmed to coincide with the narration.
In the film, which was called A Video Profile Of Warminster, the old Fives Court at Warminster School was featured. Roderick McAdams and another Warminster School teacher, Philip Foster, demonstrated the technique for playing fives. I always remember my father, when he saw the film, thought the scene with Roderick McAdams playing fives was hilarious. My father found it very amusing.
What really brought me into contact with Roderick McAdams was the Warminster Civic Trust. I joined the Trust and from the outset of my membership I chose to be practically involved and not to be just someone who turned up and listened at the Trust’s public meetings. I wanted to play a worthwhile part in it. So I joined the committee and soon became a very active publicist for it. I wrote press reports and I organised events like those that took place during Environment Week. I also produced displays and ran fund-raising quizzes for it. On more than one occasion I gave slideshows at the Trust’s meetings. Roderick McAdams was the Membership Secretary for the Warminster Civic Trust. So I would be at committee meetings and at the Trust’ events with him.
I remember being asked by Elisabeth Collyns, the Chairman of the Trust, to type out a list of the Trust’s members, which was to include their names, addresses, phone numbers, so that Mac could consult it with regards who had or had not paid their subscriptions. There were several people who had let their membership subscriptions lapse but who were still receiving newsletters and minutes of meetings. The list needed updating. The list was really for Mac’s benefit, for when he had to send out notices, minutes, newsletters and invitations and the like. So I had to liaise with Mac about the list. He was very precise about the way the list had to be arranged. He wanted it arranged alphabetically by surnames and he decided the font size and all of that. I had to type it exactly as he instructed. He would then make further amendments to it and I had to do those as well on my computer. I had to do it his way. He would tell me, direct, if what I had done wasn’t to his liking. He was very forthright, but always in a quiet manner, about it.
I liked Mac as a person. He was a no-nonsense sort of chap and you knew exactly where you stood with him. I think he liked me. I definitely respected him. I would like to think he respected me. I’m sure he did. I went to his home several times, on Civic Trust business. Mac wasn’t married. He lived at Ash Walk with his spinster sister Marjorie McAdams. She was an accomplished pianist. They lived in one of the semi-detached houses at Ash Walk, the first or the second house on the right, just before you turn right into Manor Gardens. Whenever I went there Mac was always very sociable. He was friendly and he always offered me a cup of tea and biscuits.
The last time I saw Roderick McAdams was when I went to give a talk, a slide show, about Warminster, at the Health Clinic at the Avenue. I had been asked to give that talk by Francoise Moody. She had organised it and the audience was people who worked as carers or had some role in the community. It was held one lunch time or just after lunch in the early afternoon.
Roderick McAdams was there but in what capacity I don’t know. After the talk had finished I started to pack up the slide projector and roll up the extension lead. While I was doing that, everyone vacated the room, except for Mac (and myself). Mac seemed to be loitering with intent. He struck up a conversation with me, as he usually did whenever we met. It was a bit different on that occasion though. Suddenly, quite out of the blue, he said to me: ‘I’m a socialist.’ As if to reinforce his confession to me, he repeated: “A raging socialist, that’s what I am.’ I said: ‘Nothing wrong with that, Mac.’ He then said to me: “I should imagine you’re a socialist too, Danny?’ I said: “I guess you’re right, Mac. I would like to think I could always help someone less fortunate than me.’ I don’t know why Mac chose that moment to announce his politics. The Conservatives had been in power for 13 years, so perhaps that was why. I don’t know. Mac went on to say that he didn’t care much for the way the world was anymore and he even said he considered it was time he got out of it.
Those were among the last words he ever said to me. Not long after, maybe about a month later, I heard that he had died. His sister, Marjorie, told me that he had willed himself to death. Quite how he had willed himself to death I don’t know, but he had obviously got himself into that frame of mind. He had decided he didn’t want to live any more. He didn’t commit suicide. He just let himself run down, come to a halt, and die. I went to his funeral at St. Denys Church, The Minster. His former colleague and friend, Philip Foster, who had also been a teacher at Warminster School, gave the address for Mac.
After Mac died, his sister Marjorie McAdams, gave up the house at Ash Walk and she moved into a flat at Homeminster House at Station Road, Warminster. She kept herself busy. One of the things she was involved with was the Warminster Branch of Arthritis Research.
In the summer of 2004 I went to a coffee morning in the garden at Fran Pearson’s house at the Downlands, the residential estate off Copheap Lane. It was a coffee morning with a few stalls to raise funds for Arthritis Research. Marjorie McAdams was there. I took her photo and it was published in the Warminster & Westbury Standard.
Marjorie was a very humble person. I can remember, the day the Standard (with her photo in) was published, I met Marjorie walking down Station Road. She was pushing her shopping trolley and was making her way from Homeminster Court to the Somerfield supermarket near the corner of the Market Place. That’s where she used to shop. I told her that her photo was in the newspaper. Her response was to tell me that she hoped no one who knew her would see it. She added that she would keep a low profile for a few days.
Marjorie passed away on 24th May 2006. After Marjorie died I decided to feature an article about her in one of my Warminster & Wylye Valley Recorder booklets (Number 12, published December 2007). I included her obituary and some photos, and the cover featured a photo of her being presented with a bouquet of flowers by the then Mayor of Warminster, Les Rose, on the occasion of her retirement from the Warminster Branch of Arthritis Research.
