We were saddened to hear of the deaths of Frank Rowley (in March) and of Christopher Willis (in April), both once active members of the Branch. We send their families and friends our sympathy.

Christopher James Willis died on 24 April 2003 after a long illness. Born in 1928, Christopher was educated at Berkhamsted School and the Thames Nautical Training College, and later at the College of Estate Management. After a spell at sea, he began a second career in 1952 as a Chartered Quantity Surveyor, becoming an active member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and in 1978 President of the RICS’ Quantity Surveyors Division. A Chartered Arbitrator from 1971, he became a highly respected member of this profession too, with a reputation for applying commonsense to complex legal arguments.

Christopher leaves a wife Elaine, to whom he was married to for 49 years, three sons Andrew, Simon and Philip, and five grandchildren.

Francis Miller writes:

When I heard about the death of Chris Willis, I turned to the wallboard in my study and took down a compliment slip which Chris had sent to me. I was reminded again about the human failing of neglect. The compliment slip was dated 15.2.90. Sadly, I reflected upon the fact that 13 years had passed since Chris had written his note which said, "Let me know if you would like to come … and I will arrange … for you." I never responded in a positive sense, although I did see Chris on many occasions since that time. Chris never seemed to have that human failing of neglect, and perhaps mine is more extreme than most, in attending to the niceties of normal life. The compliment slip followed a conference where we were both giving lectures upon some aspect of conflict. The lectures spanned a couple of days so we had been booked to stay in the hotel. We had plenty of time to natter about one thing and another and attend a local theatre for an evening showing of Oscar Wilde.

Once one begins to reflect back, so many things crowd into the mind, for example: I thought about my own studies in the fifties and the Elements of Quantity Surveying (fourth edition) by Chris’s father. Also the fifth edition of More Advanced Quantity Surveying. In one of the later editions, there is a little note by the author in the introduction, which reads "as with my other books recently revised, my son has helped in the revision of this and is now joint author with me". That note appeared in More Advanced Quantity Surveying (seventh edition, 1967, revised). Perhaps that addition to the authorship accounted for the outrageous price of fifty-five shillings. Nevertheless, the Elements of Quantity Surveying could still be obtained for £1.90 in 1969. However, as the price will tell, that was the METRIC edition.

Chris always seemed to have a straightforward answer to most questions. On one occasion, I remarked about his obvious enthusiasm about quantity surveying and he replied that he really wanted to be in the Navy, but family pressure led to the family business; and he noted that in the early 1950s that was the expected route. On another occasion, I was giving a joint lecture with Monty Trent in the Council Chamber of the RICS and Chris was in the chair. The lecture was about the failings in drafting the preliminary section of the Bills of Quantities. I had taken some of my examples from Bills which had been prepared by Chris’s own firm. In opening, he philosophically remarked that the preliminary bills prepared by his firm were a history book of everything which had gone wrong in the past. The statement was an obvious truth, denied by many others, but which truth inevitably gave rise to the topic of the lecture, namely: that the content of preliminary bills looked backwards more than forward and lacked the necessary precision and thus caused many points of conflict.

Chris must have led a full life, but he seemed to have time to spare. For example, when I finished my period as editor of the Newsletter, Chris was one of the first to come forward to offer his services to help with the new team of editors. Indeed, from his apparently relaxed manner and sense of availability, one could easily imagine that Chris was seriously under-employed, but his achievements and activities clearly deny that possibility.