It is with great sadness that we announce that Sir Rex Richards, a former students of Colyton Grammar School has died aged 96.

Sir Rex was a highly distinguished chemist who was knighted for his work surrounding Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). He also received the Davy and Royal Medals from the Royal Society for his research in this area and was at the forefront of work to design and develop new NMR equipment.

His time at Colyton formed an interest in the Sciences, in an interview with Oxford Brookes University he recalled ‘ I went to the local grammar school where I was extremely lucky to have really very good teachers, particularly on the Science side. I had a good Chemistry teacher and a very good Physics teacher, and I learnt a lot from them and became interested.’

The headmaster, Mr Mackay-Ohm suggested he applied to St John’s Oxford and his wife taught Rex Latin to ensure that he passed.

Sir Rex attended Colyton Grammar School in the late 1930's-1942 and then onto St John’s College, Oxford. He went on to become a Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1977-81 and was also a Director of The Leverhulme Trust. He became the Chancellor of Exeter in 1982 at a time when the University was continuing to expand, with the creation of a new library followed by a social and study centre for postgraduate students in 1991.

Sir Rex had a keen interest in the arts; as well as science. He was a trustee of both the National Gallery and Tate Gallery and was also Chair of the Henry Moore Foundation. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society and an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy for Humanities and Social Sciences.