Obituary: Ralph Vickers

Ralph Cecil Vickers, stockbroker, born London 14 November 1913, MC 1944, staff Vickers da Costa 1935-39, 1944-81, Senior Partner 1961-72, Chairman 72-81, Fellow Commoner St Catherine's College Cambridge 1973-92, married 1950 Dulcie Metcalf (died 1992; one son, one daughter; marriage dissolved 1987), 1987 Khorshid Farman Farmaian, died London 10 September 1992.

ALTHOUGH they would not have been among his most important clients by volume of business, Ralph Vickers took particular pleasure in the work he did for educational charities such as the Physiological Society and a number of colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, writes James Wright. The daily call that I received as Bursar at St Catharine's, Cambridge would be laced with inconsequential anecdotes about shooting or travel (he was well versed in the upper reaches of the Michelin Guide to France), but the advice was always shrewd and the concern for the welfare of the institution genuine.

He was a classic example of the importance of a single clear strategic decision - his recognition of the strength that would surge through the Japanese stock market for more than 20 years - and his faithful pursuit of its consequences bore a rich harvest for his clients. It can truthfully be said that parts of the St Catharine's buildings derive from his skills as surely as from the benefactors of old. He also much enjoyed his part in the floating of a Loan Stock which made the college the only educational institution quoted on the Stock Exchange. It was a well- deserved and warmly appreciated gesture of thanks when he was made a Fellow Commoner in 1973.

As a man he had a great appetite for life, infectious good humour, and true generosity. He was a gentleman of the old school with a traditional outlook, but his sharp and independent intelligence would have no truck with unreflecting conservatism and his views on some of its uglier modern manifestations were entertaining, if unprintable.

Although retirement did not come easily to him it was probably as well that he was no longer actively involved during the great upheavals that occurred in the investment world in the mid-Eighties. They introduced methods of working far removed from those built on personal relationships and mutual trust with which he had grown up. It was a great sadness to him to see the firm which he and his father had done so much to build up over so many years disintegrate under the pressures of changed times.

But it was not in him to sink into morose glorification of things past. With the zest that had characterised him all his life he continued to enjoy his sporting interests, the company of his many friends, and the happiness which came to him with his marriage to 'K'.

(Photograph omitted)