Martin Dedman: a bit about the man – 1947 - 2022
 
 
My words today are a personal account based on many years of friendship.
 
Martin was a kind and generous man with a sharp and engaging intellect. He was a devoted father to Simon, Rachel, Danny and Zoe. Martin and I shared a love of the outdoors.
 
I can remember where I met Martin but not exactly when. It was about 52 years ago on Southampton Common. I was a Scout aged about 14 or 15, Martin was several years older but also engaged in Scouting. A few years later we were both Assistant Scout Leaders with the 14th Highfield Scout Troop in Southampton. Martin gave about 20 years of voluntary service to the Scout movement, giving young people opportunities and helping positively shape their lives. There is not time today for Scouting anecdotes but one aspect of Scouting that endured throughout our lives after ceasing to be Scout Leaders in the late 1980s was bivvy hikes. We used to take Scouts on bivvy hikes in the New Forest hiking until after dark and then sleep out in the forest with no tent, no matter the weather or season, before returning in the morning.
 
After we ceased to be Scout Leaders, we took our children on bivvy hikes, from the age of six or seven. Simon, Rachel, Danny and Zoe and both my daughters all went on these. For a couple of you, if I recollect correctly, once was enough!  Again, we went in all weathers and woke up covered in snow on more than one occasion! These Bivvy hikes lasted about 10 years and when our children had grown up (we all grow up but some of us never grew out of Bivvy hikes) we started to take my grandson. When he moved to Wales Martin and I continued to go on bivvy hikes, sometimes just the two of us and sometimes accompanied by my wife Tracy and / or Paul who are both here today. I estimate that over the past 50 years that I have been on between 60 and 70 bivvy hikes with Martin. Our last bivvy hike was on Saturday 24th July last year. Following his diagnosis Martin wanted to go on a final bivvy hike. After some debate we opted for an indoor bivvy hike and I hired a static caravan at Hurst View, on the Solent, and Martin, Barrie (again here today), Paul and I (all ex-Scouting colleagues) spent the weekend of 11th February (this year) together reminiscing over the occasional glass of lemonade.
 
Martin and I also pursued our love of the outdoors undertaking annual trips to mountainous areas. Martin always used to say that Dedman’s were not designed to be mountaineers. Among peaks we ascended over the years were Pen-y-fan, in the Brecon Beacons, Scafell Pike (in dreadful weather), in the Lake District, Tryfan, in Snowdonia and Sgùrr nan Gillean, on the Isle of Skye. Any mountaineers or serious hill walkers amongst you will know that the latter two are both serious mountaineering challenges! Martin was more of a mountaineer than he would admit to.
 
Over the past 20 years or so Martin and I also kept in touch when he generously entertained me, several times a year, to lunches at the Reform Club. Tracy and I last lunched with Martin at the Reform Club on Friday 11th March (this year).
 
Tracy and I were in Croatia when Catherine, on behalf of the family, asked whether I would say a few words today. I readily agreed. It was a poignant moment not just because I was asked to speak about such a lovely man and lifelong friend; but also because years we have always sent postcards to each other when on travels and there was an instant realisation that I would not be sending Martin a postcard from abroad.
 
I will end now by paying tribute to a man who touched and influenced the lives, of not just family and friends, but literally thousands of young people through his lifetime career as a university lecturer and voluntary work as a Scout Leader. Martin, you meant so much, to so many of us in so many ways. Farewell my good friend and rest in peace.
 
Steven Rose
8th October 2022