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10/01/2021 (updated 14/01/2021) Malcolm Redfern Peart 1932 – 2021
News has been received of the death of Malcolm R Peart of Scarborough, peacefully at home, on 08/01/2021, at the age of 88. Besides the more-formal biographical piece what follows immediately, Scarborough Chess Club Secretary, Neil Pennock adds detail on Malcolm’s contribution to Scarborough Chess Club, and Peter Cloudsdale gives his personal memories lower down.
Malcolm had long been associated with Scarborough Chess Club, but was not a native of Scarborough. He was born on 25/09/1932, in the immediate rural environs of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire. This was almost certainly in the village of Messingham, a mile or so due south of the southern edge of the built-up area of Scunthorpe, as Messingham is where he lived with his parents and older brother in 1939. His middle name was his mother’s maiden name, Redfern.
He was educated at Scunthorpe Grammar School, which he left in 1950. His father had been a “blue collar” worker in a Scunthorpe steelworks, but Malcolm aimed for a “white collar” career, and got into banking. He seems to have taken up chess shortly after leaving school, or possibly in his final year(s) at school. He also received training as a singer not long after leaving school.
He married in 1958 and went on soon to have a daughter and then a son, at which time he lived in Louth, Lincolnshire. He evidently also had a second daughter.
In 1980, he became the branch manager of the TSB bank in Scarborough. Whether this was the point at which he moved to Scarborough, or whether he was already in Scarborough is unclear, but it was soon after this that Malcolm became visible in Yorkshire chess, as a Scarborough player.
The A G Sunderland Cup (division 4 of the Yorkshire league) was first contested in the season 1978-79, and Scarborough first entered in 1980-81, winning at the first attempt. Malcolm was not in that winning team (though a certain “P. Cloudsdale” played in a couple of the matches in the latter part of the season). The following season, 1981-82, Scarborough won the Silver Rook (division 3), though, again, Malcolm was not a team member. Then, in 1982-83, Scarborough won the I. M. Brown Shield (division 2), with “M R Peart” as a regular member. In 1983-84 Scarborough played for the first time in the Woodhouse Cup (Yorkshire league division 1), though they struggled at this level and dropped back into the I. M. Brown, where they spent a number of seasons, only occasionally managing to get back for a season into the Woodhouse Cup. Malcolm represented Scarborough in these matches from 1982-83 through to 1988-89, and served as a club official of one sort or another, at some time or another.
Malcolm did of course get the opportunity to play in the Scarborough Congress, and was 1st-3rd equal in Major section in 2001.
He represented Scarborough in the York league in 2006-07, 2007-08.
He won the Scarborough Chess Club Championship in 2009 (aged 76), and possibly in other years.
He continued playing in internal club tournaments through to 2014.
His chess grade in earlier years was in the 140s, but in later years was typically in the 150s or 160s.
Away from the bank and the chessboard, Malcolm was a Methodist lay preacher on the North Yorkshire Coast Methodist Circuit, and had had some level of activity as a Methodist preacher for most of his adult life. He was reported in the local press as preaching at Seamer Methodist Church as recently as 2015, and may have well been serving as a circuit preacher right up to his death. His local church was South Cliff Methodist Church on Filey Road, near his home in Weaponness Valley Road, Scarborough.
Steve Mann, 10/01/2021
Neil Pennock, Scarborough Chess Club Secretary, adds a more-informed summary of Malcolm’s contribution to Scarborough chess as follows.
Peter Cloudsdale, now of York, worked for a while in Scarborough, thereby coming to know Malcolm Peart, and Peter gives his own memories, as follows.
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