Leslie Stacey obituary

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jan/30/leslie-stacey-obituary

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My father, Leslie Stacey, who has died aged 96, was a leftwing entrepreneur dedicated to the arts, sport and community activities.

He was born in London, the son of Frederick Stacey (who also used the name Roy), a City trader, and his wife, Edith (nee Rance), a piano teacher. At the age of 13 Leslie spent a year in hospital with osteomyelitis and underwent surgery on both legs. Despite having to learn to walk again, he became a good tennis and cricket player. He attended Merchant Taylors’ School for Boys, London. Although he showed academic promise, his father took him out of school six months before his final exams and found him a job on the Stock Exchange, which provided Leslie with the material for a book, The Small Man’s Guide to Profitable Investing, which was published under the pseudonym A Clifton Danvers in 1947.

During the second world war he served in the RAF. He was invalided out due to arthritis in his legs three months before the conflict ended. When he returned to civilian life he began speaking on platforms for the Labour party and campaigning for the NHS. His staunchly Conservative father wanted him to work in the City again but instead he became a journalist and publisher, using Roy Stacey as his professional name.

He was a keen sportsman, qualifying as a tennis coach and playing for Hazelwood tennis club, near Enfield, north London, where he met my mother, Daphne (nee Dall). They married in 1955.

Running the monthly magazine Amateur Stage, he set up Stacey Publications, becoming the UK agent for the New Orleans-based drama-in-education publisher Anchorage Press. He remained self-employed, managing his small business from our family home in Hayes, near Bromley. Throughout my childhood, I would wake every morning to the sound of him typing in his office across the landing.

On retirement in 1986, he joined the University of the Third Age (U3A), setting up and chairing the Bromley branch, which now has more than 1,600 members. He founded and ran the national travel group, organising educational trips for U3A members; and he proofread Third Age Matters, the U3A magazine, until he died. He believed we could change things and make a difference. At the age of 90 he invested in solar panels – with a 30-year payback period. He was ever the optimist.

He is survived by Daphne, by my brother, Tony, and me, and by five grandchildren and three step-grandchildren.