The Committee of the Fours Head was very sad to hear of the death of Dr Richard du Parcq earlier this week. He had been ill for some months.
Richard served the Fours Head as Entries Secretary for 18 years from 2005-2022, and we all thoroughly enjoyed working with him. He was a rowing raconteur extraordinaire, always ready with an entertaining anecdote and equally quick to welcome and get to know to new colleagues as the Committee evolved.
While we were grateful for his hard work, meticulous attention to detail, and deep knowledge, Richard’s role to the Fours Head was only a codicil to his lifetime of contribution to the sport,
He had learned to row at Exeter College Oxford, where he read chemistry as an undergraduate and also obtained a PhD. After graduation, he took up a role in the civil service and joined Cygnet RC, then a civil service club, in 1969. Cygnet was not just a natural rowing home for him because of his employer; it also perfectly suited his skills and ambitions, which were focused on the fellowship found at rowing clubs and running them well rather than winning. That said, he enjoyed his novice win in a coxed four at Worcester Regatta in 1972. But while his rowing and coxing career didn’t over-burden his trophy shelf. “But whatever he lacked as an oarsman, he has more than made up for as a frighteningly efficient bureaucrat,” said Cygnet’s historian Paul Rawkins. Richard was appointed as Captain of Cygnet in 1977, and then again in 1989 and 1990, and served decade-long stints as club Secretary and later Treasurer and Vice-President, as well as coaching and coxing. He also spent 24 years ‘before the flag’ as an umpire. British Rowing recognised him with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022.
As Fours Head Entries Secretary Richard showed inexhaustible patience in gently enlightening the confused, often peppering his responses with tales about rowing on the Tideway from before they were born. These may not have always helped to clarify matters but were always entertaining. Entries-related correspondence has been much duller world since he retired at the age of 75 and certainly includes less Latin.
Richard Phelps, Chairman of the Fours Head said, “Every year, Richard did weeks and weeks of tireless work to get all of the details right with the very large entry for our race, and to ensure all crews are treated fairly. He’s one of the pillars on which the race’s popularity is built and I’m hugely grateful.”
The Committee’s sympathies are with his wife Diane, also a stalwart of the rowing community, and their children and grandchildren.
The photo at the top of this page shows Richard at the Fours Head prizegiving at Leander Club in 2022, proudly wearing his Cygnet blazer and Exeter College tie.
The Fours Head 