Happy memories, too many to list, all of them lovely, all of them memories of a wonderful and talented man (music, photography, boating, humour and puns!)

Marian and I are so sorry to hear this news. We have been close friends of Mervyn since my university days at Bristol and have many happy memories. These relate especially to music and boating, both of which involved enjoyable activities together. Mervyn was a godfather to our daughter Ruth – I know she will be much saddened by the news. I first met Mervyn in the autumn term of 1963. We both resided at Churchill Hall, Bristol. I was the singer in his band (Phil Martin and His Music) – his fabulous wind-playing was a mainstay of our performances. We kept in touch over the intervening years, meeting regularly. With a mutual interest in boating we developed a friendly rivalry as to who had the larger / faster boat. We raced our boats on the Thames, breaking speed limits while keeping an eye out for Thames Conservancy patrols! We shared many gentler cruises up and down the river. Mervyn also helped me by arranging backing tracks for songs. He was a fine musician and an inspired oboist. I will pass this sad news on to Ruth, of course and also to Martin Crawford-Phillips (the pianist in our band). We knew that Mervyn was physically unwell and we visited him at Islip in September 2014. Mentally he was absolutely unchanged – the same sense of humour and at that time, although he could no longer play, he was still composing using his computer. He showed quite remarkable fortitude.