Remembered By Ted Sampson

Although, at the time of his death, Les had not visited Orwell Park Observatory for several years, he will be fondly remembered by many long standing members of OASI. He joined the Society in 1991, having moved to the Ipswich area for family reasons. He was made an honorary member after his 90^th, birthday, commenting in his usual humorous style that it was a cost effective decision of the committee to leave it until so late! He became a keen and knowledgeable observer, hosting frequent observing sessions in his back garden. Of many fond memories of him I cherish the following:

His telescope. This was a 200 mm Dobsonian with a rectangular-section tube which, he always claimed, was constructed at home from a kitchen cabinet. The lower bearing was a 30 cm vinyl LP. The instrument was featured at least once at an Open Weekend and twice at workshop sessions about telescope construction, where Les teamed up with James Appleton to make a presentation. A picture of it hung, for a long time, on the wall at the Observatory. Les frequently expressed his appreciation for the help he received from Society members in its construction.
His cartoons. He was a handy artist with paint and pencil. For several years he contributed a cartoon, with caption, for the Newsletter, all concerning activities at the Observatory, or with an astronomical theme. One that particularly amused me concerned the introduction of training sessions in the use of the Tomline Refractor and featured a picture of the telescope with a huge dent at the OG-end after a collision with the observing ladder. The caption read: No, you have NOT passed your telescope operator's test!
His memoirs. (He entitled the document "Memories".) At age 91, he decided to write about his life. With no previous experience of computers, he bought a Dell home PC, read the sparse instructions accompanying it, and began word processing a lengthy document - eventually it grew to more than sixty pages. Although he mastered it fairly well all considered, I was summoned many times to his house to explain things, or to retrieve pages of recently typed text which had disappeared, or to work out why paragraphs or page numbering didn't appear as expected. Not being too competent myself, this was a testing time for his never-failing sense of humour and a tribute to his tenacity.
His sense of humour. As already mentioned, and most evident in the cartoons, he had an eye for the amusing side of life, and an ability to express it, sometimes in an acerbic way. Towards the last of his visits to the Observatory, after the climb up the stairs and most of the way down again, in November 2003 he slipped and fell the last few steps, amazingly without injury. This event was a matter of serious concern and prompted lengthy discussion at Committee. The Committee decided against fitting a safety handrail or rope to the stairs as the matter was the responsibility of Orwell Park School. However, the week following the incident, a notice appeared on the wall at the bottom of the flight of steps, advising all those thinking of making the ascent to be sure that they could complete it safely. Les commented: cheaper than a hand rail!

Les and I lived close to one another and I was therefore able to give him a lift every week to society meetings after he took the decision to give up driving (remember the cartoon of him in a wheelbarrow?). During our travels together, I had the pleasure of hearing much about his early working life in London during the war and his childhood experiences. I knew his wife Louie, who sadly died in 2003. In his final years he was lovingly cared for by his daughter and husband at their home in Hadleigh. For me, he is high on the list of interesting friends and I will be one of many who will miss him. I would be pleased to loan to the society library, perhaps on a reference basis, my copy of his Memories, and a book he kindly gave me of his cartoons.

Remembered By James Appleton

Like all members of OASI who knew Les Lamb, I was greatly saddened by the recent news of his death, having not quite scored a century.

Les joined OASI in 1991 and was made an honorary member after ill-health meant that he was no longer able to ascend the spiral staircase at Orwell Park. In the early 2000s, he and I jointly led Astronomy Workshops on observing constellations. I greatly enjoyed working with Les to create our scripts, as I could always rely upon him to keep us firmly rooted in the practical realities of observational astronomy and far away from wild flights of fancy. Although Les was in his 80s at this stage, he was never fazed by new technology, and soon was remarkably comfortable with production of our scripts and slides by computer.

For many years, Les's wonderful cartoons graced the front cover of the OASI Newsletter, and it is through this rich vein of entertaining commentary on the astronomical events of the day that many members will remember him. In his role as cartoonist, he was ever alert to the often strange and bizarre happenings associated with OASI, and many members looked forward to the issues of the Newsletter to learn how he would portray events. His incisive sense of humour never failed to delight. His cartoons and sketches are all on-line. I know that he would enjoy the fact that his work still entertains, and I'm sure that, even now, in a better place, he's having a real chuckle at the thought…