Dr Brian French

Dr Brian French, graduate of Loughborough, passed away on the 12 of April 2026 in his 86^th year. Brain was an easy-going character and one of the small group of people who quietly helped shape UK sport as it is today.

Born in the then Lancashire town of St. Helens in 1940 Brian attended Cowley Grammar School and went on to gain a Degree in Latin studying at Durham. Studying generally got in the way of sport with football, cricket and athletics, a passion. From a sporting family, father Alf (Everton 1920’s) and Cousin Ray (MBE, Rugby League and BBC commentator). Brian followed his mother’s path into teaching with his first post at Great Missenden’s Misborne School, then P.E. at Watford’s Victoria school for boys followed whilst playing football for Aylesbury Utd and Wycombe Wanderers F.C.

Coaching the Watford schools XI football teams (Under-12,14,16) Brian attended many sports schools at Loughborough, one being in Exercise Physiology with Harry Thompson (Salford Uni) and John Brooke (Uni Guleph - Canada). Brian then was accepted to study the then new master’s degree in human biology run by Ernest Hamley, Peter Stone, Peter Jones, Nick Norgan and John Atha with students or “Humbugs” Roy Wright, Noel Cameron and Reg Beal. 

To support study Brian taught P.E. at Douglas Road Primary School in Nottingham which he thoroughly loved. Graduating from Loughborough a career in academia beckoned as an opportunity arose at St. John’s College of Education in York as Head of P.E on the Brook St and Heworth sites in 1973. Brian played Sunday football and cricket for Dunnington with Pete Mulligan (ex-Barnsley FC) winning the Sawkill Cricket Cup.  

Opportunity beckoned once more at Sheffield City College of Education in 1974 to take on the position of Lecturer and with help from Peter Warden MBE and Olympic 400m hurdler, learnt how to Canoe to support Post Grad P.E. with colleague Alan Jones and Sheila Wigmore. Many outdoor pursuits activities followed taking students up and down the mountains, hills and waterways of the UK whilst coaching volleyball for the now merged Sheffield Polytechnic.

Another merger followed and the Lady Mabel College at the stately Wentworth Woodhouse saw P.E relocating to the site, with new courses steadily introducing science and sociology into P.E. with the late Celia Blakenrigde (GB Women’s Lacrosse and Brunel Uni) and John Warnock MBE (Sheffield United). P.E. merged with Education and achieving his PhD Brian was appointed to the Centre for Education Management where he loved travelling the world delivering and validating MSc courses to places such as Mumbai, Pakistan, Budapest, Edmonton, Copenhagen, Lithuania and his least favourite, Bradford.   

Brian retired in the early 1990s and took up writing, focussed more on half marathons and 10k runs, then in the early 2000s relocated from Sheffield to St. Merryn (Padstow) in Cornwall where he joined the NCI Coastwatch as a volunteer and wrote many local maritime history books. After a short stint near Truro, Brian with wife Sue headed north once more in 2009 to their last venture in Chesterfield where again, numerous pens and keyboards were worn out with copious cups of tea. At 83 he travelled solo on the great railways of Canada then headed to the Galapagos via the Panama Canal to “see what it was like”.