Hugh Brogan (Arthur Ransome’s biographer), Roger Wardale and Christina Hardyment outside the Butt and Oyster at Pin Mill at Mike Rines’ 1989 lunch to mark Nancy Blackett’s restoration. Photo by Martin Lewis.

We regret that we must report the passing of Roger Wardale on 28th December, after a short illness, at the age of 78.

Roger Wardale was a founder member of the Arthur Ransome Society, its sometime chairman, and the editor for some years of its journal “Mixed Moss”, but he will be best-remembered for his many books about Arthur Ransome, notably “Nancy Blackett, Under Sail with Arthur Ransome”, without which the Nancy Blackett Trust might never have come into being. It was the initial inspiration for Peter Willis, the Trust’s President and co-founder, whom Roger invited to contribute a foreword when it was later republished as “Arthur Ransome Under Sail”.

Roger Wardale corresponded with Arthur Ransome as a child in the 1940s and his biography “Arthur Ransome: Master Story-teller” received the Saint & Co Prize for People and Business at the 2011 Lakeland Book of the Year Awards. 

After training as a teacher at King Alfred’s College, Winchester, he spent his career at Nyewood Church of England Junior School, Sussex, taking numerous school parties on educational visits to the Lake District from 1972, including the climb of “Kanchenjunga” (Coniston Old Man). His hobbies included photography and ship modelling, as well as full size dinghy construction, and he restored Arthur Ransome’s second dinghy Swallow, which had been built at Pin Mill in 1938. 

Aside from being a great expert and enthusiast for the works of Arthur Ransome, Roger Wardale made a remarkable contribution to athletics in Sussex, having been a considerable athlete while a pupil at Chichester High School for Boys. Over several decades he became involved with the Bognor Regis, Brighton & Hove, Sussex and Sussex Schools Athletics Clubs in various capacities including athlete, manager and coach. He also tirelessly contributed to the Amateur Athletic Association both as a track official and a field judge at meetings throughout the country. 

He coached a wide range of athletes including several English Schools medallists such as sprinter Andy Parker, long jumper Marion Wolsey, and discus thrower Carol Mitchell. As an international track judge in the 1980s he also came into regular contact with many of the great British names of that time including Steve Ovett, Seb Coe, Daley Thompson and Steve Cram. 

Roger Wardale was passionate and painstaking in his work, while his knowledge of all things Ransome was truly encyclopaedic; for that alone he will be greatly missed.