Rob Collinge, Honorary Secretary of Centurion Lacrosse Club, has kindly provided the following obituary for Geoffrey Wilkinson after his passing on Monday 17 December and details of funeral arrangements.
We regret to announce the death of Geoffrey Wilkinson:
As an Old Hulmeian, Geoffrey must have been familiar with lacrosse from an early age but it was at Oxford University where his career developed. On graduating he went on to play for Hampstead Lacrosse Club which is still a stalwart of the southern league.
Off the pitch, older Centurions remember Geoffrey as keen to foster links with the ladies game. In those days gender very much divided the sport and it is only in recent years the two gender based forms of the sport have started to come together.
In those early days he wrote a regular weekly column in The Times and collated the weekend’s results for publication. The column brought welcome publicity to the sport as well as informing players of the leagues’ progress through the season.
Nevertheless, some older lacrosse fans do remember Geoffrey’s humour could be seen as critical. The line ‘Fox at last fulfilled his schoolboy promise’ in a report on the Varsity match won by Oxford with Fox as a leading Oxford scorer, still seems clear in the memory of one of Geoffrey’s old friends.
Geoffrey was one of those who founded the Centurion Lacrosse Club in 1954. Sadly, he was the last of the original group of 37 that began an initiative which has contributed much to the sport of lacrosse over the years since.
In 1985 Geoffrey began the Centurion Award for service to lacrosse which he organised until last summer’s awards at The House of Lords. His service to the club has been long and diligent.
In 1994 he was a key member of the Organising Committee of the International Lacrosse Federation’s World Championship that was held in Manchester with responsibility for Marketing, Profile, Publicity and ticket sales.
He also organised for a leader of the Iroquois Nations to come to England ahead of the event which attracted much publicity for the games as well as marshalling the northern lacrosse community volunteers to make them feel part of the event.
It is a much over used phrase but his passing does mark the ending of a lacrosse era.
Funeral Arrangements
The funeral will be held on Friday 11 Jan 2019 at 12:15
The Milton Chapel
Chilterns Crematorium
Whielden Lane
Amersham
HP7 0ND