 A long standing member and supporter of Guildford Hockey Club sadly died last week. Rolly de Rebello was an integral part of our umpiring team for several decades including normal Saturday umpiring duties as well as the mainstay for mid week fixtures and summer evening games.
Always a friendly face in the bar, never seen to lose his cool, his shared passion was Merrow Cricket Club and GHC. Occasionally he would bring his guard dog along with him when he was umpiring, and his pet Jack Russell made sure no cards were required and on occasions decided to wander onto the play area. His umpiring duties and pleasant demeanour brought him into contact with many (present and past) Club members who will remember him with fondness.
His partner Lucy has sent some words on Rolly's life:
I would like to let you know that a very long-standing member of the club, Roland de Rebello, died last Wednesday, 7 December. Rolly was a life Vice President of Guildford Hockey Club. He had represented Engineering College, Guindy, part of Madras University, at hockey c1948-1951, played for 4thRHA and REME during his national service in Germany in the 1950s, taken up hockey again while teaching in northern Nigeria in the early 1960s and then joined Guildford Hockey Club in the mid-1960s when he was already in his thirties.
He was part of the team captained by Mike Keeling which won the 17th International Hockey Tournament in Lahr in the Black Forest in 1966. When I first knew him in the 1980s he had started umpiring for the Club and he continued to umpire for the Pilgrims until six or seven years ago, when he was almost 80 years old. He was a very proud member and supporter of the Club.
Sadly he could not continue supporting the Club in the last few years because of ill-health. He died peacefully in the Royal Surrey County Hospital of pneumonia. His funeral will be this Monday, 19 December 2016 at 12 noon at Guildford Crematorium.
Lucy Vanderpump | 
