Tributes to Tony Boycott

1st April 1951 - 7th June 2024

1981

2019

Antony Boycott, known as Antony to his mother, Ant to his father and Tony to his many friends, was born on 1st April 1951 in Westminster Hospital, London. His father Brian was an exuberant outgoing scientist. His mother Marjorie, a quiet, unassuming, very determined woman, was a source of enormous strength to both her husband and her son throughout their lives.

What many here won’t know is that Tony had a younger brother, Richard, born when Tony was 6 years old. Sadly, Richard had cerebral palsy and died 6 years later, after being cared for at home by Marjorie throughout his life. Tony was 12, when Richard died and while his brother’s tragically short life was something Tony rarely spoke about, he’d always treasured a small toy donkey of Richard’s and I promised him that Donkey would always have a home with me.

Brian Boycott’s work on cephalopod and mammalian eyes led him to Naples on several occasions, where Tony learnt Italian street slang with a distinct Neapolitan accent. He put this to good use on a trip to Slovenia in 1993 when we made an unscheduled stop at a hotel not far inside the Austrian border. Graham and Helen unsuccessfully tried German, I attempted French, but to our dismay, the receptionist replied in Italian. Our heads all swiveled to Tony, who – after a brief pause – conjured up the Italian of his childhood and procured rooms and a meal.

From both Brian and Marjorie, Tony inherited a deep love of the natural world, which often expressed itself in strange but memorable ways. On a walk to a cave in Co Clare, he plucked some grey lichen from a tree branch, chewed it thoughtfully and after swallowing, casually remarked, “I’m glad I’m not a reindeer.”

Tony went to school in London, then came to the University of Bristol in 1969 to study Biochemistry. His interest in caves had already been piqued on showcave trips in Europe with his parents and so he promptly joined the Spelaeological Society, going on his first trip on 4th October 1969 to Sump 1 in Swildon’s on Mendip. This led to a lifelong love of caves and the underground world in general. After a year at Bristol, Tony changed to a medical degree, which led his career path as a GP. However what came to define Tony above all else was caving, and the music you heard on entry from Canadian group Dangerous Dick and the Duckbusters, very much sums him up, as Tony was definitely a caver to the core.

Tony was, without a doubt, one of the kindest, nicest people it’s been my pleasure and privilege to know. He was always the first to offer help and support when needed, combining calm pragmatism with a dry sense of humour that often caught people unawares.

These qualities stood him in good stead in his medical career, first as a hospital doctor in Swindon and then as a general practitioner in Bedminster in Bristol. After his relatively early retirement from his practice, Tony became probably the most sought after locum in Bristol, able to step into surgeries anywhere in the city with ease.

This change allowed him the freedom to spend more time caving abroad, where his services as an experienced expedition medic made sure he was always in demand.

Tony worked tirelessly for many years as librarian, sales manager and archivist for UBSS, and was made an honorary member of the society in 2014. He was the one of best researchers I’ve ever known, both in person and online, but it was a long time before I let him forget dragging me to the British Library from Streatham by bus! I could have driven there quicker from Bristol! Needless to say, we returned there by tube. It was invariably easier to ask Tony something rather than go to a bookcase.

Tony had a long association with caving in Ireland, particularly Co Clare, and he visited there almost every year, exploring, diving, surveying and documenting the caves, contributing hugely to all the successors to Prof Tratman’s book, the Caves of Northwest Clare. Tony bought a holiday home in Kilshanny in 2013, where Jayne now lives. After that, he divided his time between there and Bristol, and had just returned to Bristol in 2020 when covid struck. Tony caught covid early in the pandemic, which led to considerable physical and mental fatigue, now recognized as long covid. He then added to his covid bingo card with every passing strain. This exhaustion unfortunately segued into the symptoms of his brain tumour, a diagnosis in April 2022 that came as a shock to us all, although perhaps not so much to Tony himself. He faced the knowledge of an incurable cancer with the same calm pragmatism he brought to all medical matters.

To his surprise, Tony survived the operation to remove the tumour and then went on to have both radiotherapy and chemotherapy, as well as participating in the Paradigm trial of a drug to which we might well owe the additional time we had with him. Over the next two years Tony was able to take part in various digs on the Mendips, including Axbridge Hill and Bleadon Hill. He also particularly enjoyed a week long trip to Kent’s Cavern in Torquay where we are recording historic graffiti. There, Tony made an important and unexpected discovery through his usual painstaking archival research. His last full caving trip was down Canada Combe Cave on 11th June 2023 something he’d long threatened me with. It was a huge amount of fun, with Tony proudly pointing out his favourite scaffolding to me, then declaring that the later squeeze wasn’t really worthy of the name, just before I thrutched through it, followed by him slithering into the chamber with cheerful ease. He was an enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide to the cave and it was a fun visit I’ll always treasure.

But all illnesses and treatments take their toll and after 18 months, Tony was becoming increasingly tired and also frustrated with his worsening short term memory. He was admitted to hospital at the end of April, two years after his initial diagnosis, followed by a move to the Garden House at St Monica’s, where he received exemplary care from all members of staff. The infection that finally claimed him was as unexpected as the cancer. Tony died peacefully on 7 June 2024 with me by his side.

Tony led a full life and a good one. He leaves a huge, Tony-sized hole in the world and in our individual lives in so many ways.

Linda Wilson

Considine's Dig Co.Clare Ireland 18th April 2019

Tony Boycott remembered

In another life, where I got the right exam results, I might well have been a fellow student with Tony. Fate led me to him quite swiftly though as when doing my second house job at Treliske, Howard Siddall (universally known as Sid) told me I would get on with a fellow medic due to start his medical house job in Cornwall. Angie, my then girlfriend, who worked with him at Tehidy Hospital, claims she introduced us. What is clear is that within a couple of months Tony and I were diving and caving together. I was surprised to find, reading my old logs, that my first diving trip with Tony was at Kynance Cove in the summer of 1975 then caving to the end of OFD 3 in September of the same year with my father and the late Tessa Pearce.

In the early 80’s Tony did a fair number of sea dives with me in both Devon and Lyme Bay and then introduced Angie and myself to the joys of Irish caving resulting in the extensions to the Cave of the Wild Horses in County Clare. When I took up cave diving in 1980 Tony, already a qualified cave diver who had made the first successful exploratory cave dive in Scotland, joined me on some memorable dives, Wookey 24 in flood conditions, an arduous trip to the end of Little Neath River cave and explorations in Pridhamsleigh Cavern spring to mind. In Ireland he made one of the first dives in the Cannahowna Rising in the Gort lowlands. There were low points: the tragic death of Keith Potter in Wookey Hole resulted in Tony and I retrieving his kit the following weekend. As Mac will later mention Tony was an active member of the Mendip Rescue Organization and was first on the scene when Tim Flanagan suffered a compound leg fracture at the far end of Southern Stream Passage in Agen Allwedd. I believe Tony plastered Tim’s leg before he was hauled out of the cave over 2 days, the longest cave rescue in the UK to that date.

In Morocco the late Ray Stead, Tony and I were fortunate to make a significant discovery by diving in the Middle Atlas mountains and it was a great moment for the three of us to march abreast into new territory in Kef Rouadi.

Tony joined the Malago practice in Bedminster in the early 1980’s and I remember once meeting him after work and remarking how smart he looked! Of course, he looked like that most of the time but I will always remember his brown jumper and sandals. I remember him telling me how he had learned basic Hindi to communicate with patients in his multicultural community. He became senior partner in the practice but left in the 1990’s to work as a locum often for long periods in the same practice so he remained one of that dying breed a true family doctor. This style of working however gave him the freedom to travel widely usually to explore caves. His medical skills were valuable on trips particularly in Meghalaya and his dedication to duty was such that when Tony Jarratt concussed himself in a bar in Shillong later requiring a brief hospital stay, Tony accompanied him sleeping in the hospital overnight.

In latter years Tony struggled with the effects of long Covid but it didn’t stop him helping in a variety of digs enabling new discoveries in Fairy Cave quarry amongst other locations around Mendip. We also had two memorable trips to Iceland walking and exploring an assortment of lava tubes and a descent into a volcanic magma chamber (as tourists I might add). The driving was interesting crossing those huge fords fed by glacial water and led to some nail biting moments. We also had a Satnav that spoke Italian for a bit – Tony’s way of reviving his knowledge of Italian from a childhood partly spent in Naples where I gather he met descendants of HG Wells.

I would like to finish by saying that Tony was a very good friend and an excellent traveling companion. My family will greatly miss him.

Peter Glanvill

Roadside Tavern, Lisdoonvarna after a digging session at Considine's

Pat Cronin, Cheg Chester, Tony Boycott & James Cobbett

Dr Tony Boycott

Tony’s caving and diving activities covered over 50 years and were very extensive, looking through his caving logs, I did wonder how he had time to be a doctor. Time is short so here are a few of his exploits!

As Linda said Tony’s first caving trip was in Swildon’s Hole in October 1969.

This followed with trips to other caves on Mendip, south Wales, Yorkshire and the UBSS trips to Ireland.

His first cave dive was in White Lady Cave, followed by Bridge, and Little Neath in December 1970.

He was on the fateful trip with OCL, Julian Walford and Bob Churcher when Paul Esser drowned in Porth-yr-Ogof in February 1971.

His caving and diving experiences continued, notably Little Neath, Wookey, Swildons 12 and the exploration of Desolation Row in 1972.

1972 saw Tony on the UBSS trip to Yugoslavia. The preparation for the trip did not start off well when it was found that much of the ladder they were going to use had been stolen or was in a bad state! This resulted in 3 months of frantic ladder making, and some kit only being finished 5 minutes before they left Bristol.

The team were met with some amusement by the populace on their arrival in Yugoslavia, as their mini-bus was inscribed with Bristol as were many of their T-shirts. It was not until later that they found out that Bristol was the Slovene name for a popular brand of toilet paper! And why 10 mad Englishman would want to advertise a foreign toilet paper by their underground exploits they could not imagine!

Tony became a Qualified Cave Diver in 1973 and a BSAC diver in 1974.

He was involved in the search for Roger Solari in Aggi in June 1974.

As Peter has mentioned Tony was the first person to extend a cave by diving in Scotland, in July 1975 in Sutherland at Cnoc Nan Uamh or as its more commonly called “Knockers” when two sumps were passed yielding over 200ft of dry passage.

He was on the 1979 WSG trip to “The Astraka Plateau” in North west Greece, it is a fantastic landscape like Yorkshire karst on steroids.

1982 saw Tony joining the Bahamas Blue Holes expedition.

In 1989 Tony was part of the BEC Romania Expedition to Transylvania. He writes in his log about having a day off with Tony Jarratt (JRat) writing …days drinking got lost on way back – walked back with a drunken JRat 5 miles.

JRat’s Log book reads Tony and I ended up lost, pissed, falling over and benighted – all at once. Thankfully they met some local farmers who directed them to their campsite!

1994 saw Tony joining Rob and Helen Harper on what would be his first of many visits to Meghalaya. Brian Karpen Daly and many of Tony’s friends in Meghalaya were saddened to hear of his death.

In 1994 Tony also went to Sulawesi, with Rob and Helen Harper, Snablet, Liz Price, JRat and myself. An entertaining trip, which found us walking around half rotten coffins, and across scattered bones and skulls of long deceased Torojan people, all placed in these burial caves.

Tony also fitted in Trips to Thailand and Madagascar.

In 2000, Tony, Rob Harper and myself travelled to Chile, we went to Teirra de Fuego and did some walking in the Torres del Paine National Park. Whilst walking from our campsite to the Torres del Paine Lookout, Tony tripped over on the path, but fortuitously he fell forward into the chest of a female walker coming the other way, to which Tony just said “thank you”!

We managed one cave, The Milodon cave near Porta Natales

2001 saw Tony, Rob, and Helen Harper, and myself off to Assam, to an area where unknown to us had insurgency issues! Finding ourselves with armed guards outside our accommodation every night and a very displeased Police Chief having to provide security, we decided to leave after a couple of days and return to Meghalaya and concentrate on the Cherrapunji area, exploring about 5Km of cave.

Tony’s caving trips here and abroad continued, but I will quickly move on to Tony’s other caving interests.

Cave Rescue.

Tony was an MRO doctor for many years, and was called out on numerous occasions.

As Peter has mentioned Tony was the first doctor on the southern stream rescue in Agen Allwedd in January 1981.

Interestingly in February 1991 there was a call out after a report of a casualty having fallen down Dolphin Pot in Eastwater, Tony’s assistance was requested be he was involved in a car crash enroute sustaining cracked ribs and ending up in hospital himself.

Tony was involved in Sarah MacDonald’s rescue in Darren in December 1991.

Digging.

Digging was something that Tony took up very early on in his caving career. His log books are full of detailed descriptions of his cave digs. He even had a log book for Aveline’s Hole!

He was involved in the discovery of the Frozen Deep in Reservoir Hole and the digging and banging in Vurley Swallet to name but two.

Tony spent a lot of time in Ireland teaming up with Cheg Chester and Pat Cronin to dig numerous sites, such as:

Fraggle Rock.

When they decided cease digging the plan was to remove the elevated railway.

Pat Cronin said: The following weeks Cheg and Pat were not available, when unknown to them Tony single-handedly stripped out the entire suspended rail system and carried for seven hundred metres, up sixty metre of cliffs back to his car. Only mentioning it, when he had completed this long, arduous task.

Tony emerging from the entrance of Considine's Dig, 18th April 2019

Considine's Dig.

Again, Pat reflects: the presence of Tony was a huge boost and was awarded the Honorary title of "Popeye"

The citation reads...

“That between 21st April - 20th May 2019; despite injuries, Tony Boycott wrested spoil from the earth, placing into 105 nets and 531 kibbles, the conservative weight of 20 metric tonnes in 25 sessions; for this outstanding achievement he is awarded the honourable title of “Popeye”.

As Linda mentions his last digging session recorded in his log book was June 2023 in upper Canada cave so despite his deteriorating health he was determined to carry on.

Finally, when I visited Tony in Southmead hospital in April 2022 after he had been admitted to Hospital for the Brain Tumour, I recall a nurse asking him about his hobby of caving, NO said Tony it’s a profession…. that for Tony was very true.

Stuart McManus

Cullaun II Co.Clare Ireland, Chrismas Day 2019

Cheg Chester, Tony Boycott, Nigel Burns & Pat Cronin

Tony "Popeye" Boycott

It’s difficult dealing with Tony’s death; losing a truly decent Pal. Consoling me, on the death of Martin Bishop, Toe quietly said, such grief will often be countered. Explaining that he and I, by pursuing the unknown, in the company of others, our circle of friends was abnormally large; compared to the ‘norm’.

Approaching his death, Tony Jarratt wrote of the privilege knowing so many ‘rough diamonds’, which was and remains, true. But, there was nothing remotely rough about Toe. He was pure diamond: decent in all matters; with an easy going, unhurried pace. Yet would always, always, do the right thing.

Our underground addiction adhered us from the early 1970s. I admit, concerned for his welfare, I’m guilty of nagging him to become a Locum. Witnessing firsthand his unwavering commitment to the medical practice being regularly taken advantage of by an ambitious partner which, in time, came to pass. Far the better for it; relieved of increasing admin, Toe could focus actual work time attending the sick; a vocation he took seriously. The increased spare time directed to voraciously, joyously pursuing knowledge and the unknown: Toe was an exceptional researcher.

I have, and continue to encounter others who, to varying degrees, become friends. But Toe was a Pal, with a capital P; regrettably one of a decreasing circle, each of whom I dearly cherish. Consummate in each, I dived, dug, caved, and chuckled in his company, always a pleasurable experience.

At Toe’s packed funeral Linda, Mac and Peter lovingly, accurately described Toe’s character and myriad, lesser known achievements. Each emotional orator precisely nailing Toe’s character; his unwavering commitment to patients; his integrity, humanity and consuming interest to examine the natural world. Above all, his consuming desire to find new cave.
Three months after his death, I weep a little less, for the Tony Boycott shaped hole left in my universe. For the loss of this kind man’s gentle presence. Toe was a true Gentle Man

Patrick Cronin

Cover of U.B.S.S. Newsleter Vol 11 No. 1 March 1995

Caption Reads

A young hairy Tony 'Hero Doctor' Boycott

(absolutely irresistable according to Rachel Privett)

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