Former RTT theatre critic dies after losing battle with cancer (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

Former Richmond and Twickenham Times theatre critic dies after losing battle with cancer

7:50am Sunday 5th February 2012 in Richmond News By Rachel Bishop

A former theatre critic for the Richmond and Twickenham Times died this week after losing a year-long battle with cancer.

William John Thaxter, or John Thaxter as he was known to friends and family, lived a varied life in his 85 years, including working as a journalist and a computer systems designer.

He was born on February 11, 1927, in Forest Gate, London, and died on Monday, January 30, leaving behind two children, Emma and Simon Thaxter Mr Thaxter left school when he was 14 years old, and became self-educated after he lost a grammar school scholarship because his mother could not afford the annual £24 cost of books and uniform.

In 1941, he took on the role as a walking telegraph boy in the heavily blitzed West End. He then became a pioneering computer systems designer from 1961.

In 1968 he was part of spearheading BT’s entry into large-scale, commercial online computer systems.

His final project was the Directory Assistance System in 1986, a database design used globally.

He then took premature retirement to become a full-time theatre critic.

His journalism career began moonlighting as a freelance from 1951, including, first, a weekly photographic column and then paid theatre reviewing, for both the Boreham Wood and Elstree Post and the Herts Advertiser. He also freelanced for photographic and gardening magazines.

He was recruited by Nick Smurthwaite in 1979 to be second stringer at our very own Richmond and Twickenham Times and he later took over as the chief theatre critic. He later joined the team at The Stage, on invitation of Peter Hepple.

Mr Thaxter was married three times. His first wife was Sheila Shaw-Jones, a Wolfit actress, model and MGM production secretary. In 1961 he wed Hilda Janet White, a journalist with McLaren’s and later Dimbleby Newspaper Group, and then tied the knot with Francisca Ruiz, a Canary Islander and cordon-bleu chef, in 1986.

All family and friends are invited to his funeral on Friday, February 10, at 11.20am at Mortlake Crematorium, Kew Meadow Path in Townmead Road in Richmond.