Let Us Now Praise Not Very Famous Men

Brief Lives: An occasional series in which we delve into the pages of the Dorset Dictionary of County Biography in search of one of the many forgotten men [and occasionally women] who have helped shape our lives.

# 26 Dr Kenwood Chefe

What do the following have in common: Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Gary Rhodes, Arthur Mullard, Dame Shirley Abicair and Professor Brian Thrupiece? Apart from the obvious - that each was touched with particular genius in their chosen field - it is the fact that, in each case, the identity of their teachers is almost wholly unknown to the public at large.

Such is, of course, the fate of those (whether giant or stature-challenged) on whose shoulders undeniably great men usually stand. Who knew, for example, that the late great Sir Deryck Guyler of washboard fame was once taught Probability Theory by none other than Sir Yehudi Menuhin when both men chanced upon each other at an audition for the original [black and white] series of Poldark? [For the record, neither was successful, their parts going instead to Robin Ellis and Angharad Rees respectively.]

Dr Kenwood Chefe Fellow of St Radegund College, Cambridge by Ianuarii John RA. It hangs in the College's former Dining Hall [now Media Centre].

So it is timely, being the 38th anniversary of his death this year, that we should highlight the career of pioneer Culinary Bio-ethicist Dr Kenwood Chefe, teacher, mentor and unsung hero to Professor Brian Thrupiece; a man without whom - some allege - the thrupiecediet amongst several other mentionable achievements might not have been possible.

Rather than adumbrate the contours and highlights of Dr Chefe's long career here, we merely state that he scarcely deserves the neglect or comparatively unremarked place in the historical backwaters that fate has thus far afforded him. Au contraire, we feel that, properly exposed to the forensic light of critical assessment, he is likely to emerge a major figure in the annals of our county's not undistinguished cultural and intellectual history and refer you to the splendid [though anonymously-penned] biography we have been permitted to extract from the Dorset Dictionary of County Biography.

FULL SUBSCRIBERS can access the article HERE

Freeloaders will have to await the end of lock-down and take a chance on finding us in a more generous mood. [Unlikley [Ed].]

NB The publishers have asked us to make the following statement on their behalf:

Dr Chefe's inclusion in the Dorset Dictionary of County Biography may be a puzzle to some. Dr Chefe was not born in Dorset, never lived or worked in Dorset and, to the best of our knowledge, never visited it for anything other than "recreational" purposes. Nonetheless, we feel justified in including him in the present volume by virtue of his impact on our most famous son Professor Brian Thrupiece who himself freely acknowledged the importance of Dr Chefe to his life and career.