Brian Ashley Hargreaves
West, 1953-58
Brian was born on 4 June 1940, to an English father and Canadian mother. Wartime austerity influenced his early years in Pinner Middlesex, sleeping in a Morrison Shelter and having the garden turned over to vegetables and chickens instead of flowers. This may have inspired his later interest in cultivating an allotment growing his own fruit and vegetables.
Brian went to Caldicott school at the age of eight. He became a boy chorister, and eventually, head chorister. Perhaps this influenced his later interest in music and more especially opera.
Ahead of his younger brother and with four other cousins, who followed their respective fathers, Brian won a scholarship to The Leys where he honed his tennis skills as well as becoming a Queen’s scout, just after Her Majesty came to the throne. Following in his father’s footsteps, at the age of 18 he became a student at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and studied French and German. On the very first evening at Christ’s, Brian went down to the refectory and met a group of fellow freshers: they instantly clicked, and his college life began. Some of the group became lifelong friends. The Cambridge years were a great time for him and, in addition to languages, he graduated in archaeology and maintained serious interest in ancient history and artefacts. On the sporting front, he ended up captaining the college’s tennis team.
A postgraduate placement with Rank Xerox followed which involved spending time in all the different departments. The Advertising department was the one that attracted his interest, and he became an account executive with one of London’s major agencies at that time, S H Benson, famous for such ads as ‘Go to Work on an Egg’ and the Guinness advertisements.
In the 1990s Brian and two friends opened their own advertising agency. Clients were mainly in the motor and aircraft industries for whom they produced some remarkable campaigns. It involved frequent travel to Europe, Asia and America and visits to air shows around the world.
Brian was always interested in collecting things: antique maps, Victorian porcelain from China, but most importantly stamps. Having a Canadian mother prompted him to specialise in Canadian stamps, specifically early covers of the 19th century with unique markings that often had to be viewed through a magnifying glass. This interest absorbed him for the rest of his life, visiting Canada and giving talks to philatelic societies.
In retirement Brian was able to indulge his long-term enthusiasms including his love of opera. He had a particular interest in baroque opera, and he joined the Highgate Opera Circle and gave talks on Handel and Vivaldi and the music that has been discovered in recent decades. Covid did not deter him and during lockdown, he gave these on Zoom, a technology he embraced with aplomb. He became a friend of the baroque group, the English Concert, and occasionally hosted musicians from abroad coming to play with them. Brian also spent much time using the Ancestry facility and developing a substantial history of the Hargreaves family going back many generations. I was of modest assistance in this project, visiting and photographing the family factory in Hull, which manufactured disinfectants and cleaning materials, as well as the various family residences scattered around the city.
Words by Brian’s cousin John Hargreaves, West 1954-58