Cyril Wratten (1943 - 2004)
The large church of St. Mary's Cheltenham was packed full on November 2nd, All Souls day, for the funeral of Cyril Wratten.
The congregation was made up of family, friends, work colleagues, members of the church but above all, by bell ringers. Ringers who had come from all over the country to pay their last respects to an eminent and admirable man who had achieved so much in ringing and who had given so much to the Exercise as a talented and enthusiastic practical ringer and conductor, composer, tower captain, administrator at the highest level, a knowledgeable and meticulous historian, author, indexer and a popular tutor and lecturer at Ringing courses everywhere.
Cyril Wratten was born a Man of Kent at Saltwood, near Hythe in 1934. Born into a ringing family he learnt to handle a bell at the age of 14 at Saltwood and just eleven months later rang inside to his first peal, Grandsire Triples at Lyminge conducted by Mark Lancefield. His early ringing days were spent cycling around the Romney Marshes ringing at the many sixes in that area, a background which no doubt inspired his love of six bell ringing and of which he was to become the leading expert in later life. Attending The Harvey Grammar School, Folkestone, he passed the Civil Service entrance examination and was destined for a career with H.M. Customs and Excise. However National Service in the R.A.F. changed that direction as he was selected as one of the elite few to undertake the Russian Language course at Bodmin, Cornwall, followed by a years service in Vienna with the Allied Control Commission for Austria.
On discharge in 1955 he was appointed as a Civil Servant at the Government Communications Headquarters in Cheltenham where he immediately joined the band at St. Mary's, the Parish Church. On the retirement of William Dyer in 1959 Cyril was elected Tower Captain, a post he was to hold for nearly 40 years, working and inspiring St. Mary's to become an active and progressive 12 bell tower.
Cyril was a quiet, modest and self-effacing man and the writer of this obituary had almost as much difficulty listing Cyril's many achievements in ringing as if he had enquired at GCHQ about his working career!
From a major Obituary by HOWARD EGGLESTONE
