In Chris Rolfe, the Society has lost one of its most long-standing and influential members.
Like many working class children, Chris was not well-served by a postwar school system
which passed peremptory judgment on pupils at the age of eleven: at fifteen he had to
leave education and was apprenticed to a tool maker. However, outside of working hours, he
immersed himself in literature and politics and, like many of his contemporaries, enlivened
his weekends by playing in a skiffle group.
After two years of national service during which he was stationed in Northern Ireland and
Germany, Chris found it difficult to readjust to factory life. He managed to take O-levels, then
enrol on a course for mature students at Fircroft College, Birmingham. By this stage,
fortunately, the education system was becoming more accommodating to people with a ‘non-
traditional’ background and in 1966, at the age of twenty-eight, Chris won a scholarship to
study English and American literature at the University of Warwick. One of his tutors was
Bernard Bergonzi, author of the seminal Early HG Wells. Others included Germaine Greer
and EP Thompson.
While on a postgraduate course at the University of York, Chris fell in love with a trainee
teacher called Liz Page whom he’d previously known at Warwick. By the time they married
in 1971, Chris had returned to Fircroft as an English tutor. Dissatisfied with changes in the
management team there, he sought an alternative job and in January 1972 began teaching
modern fiction and drama at the Polytechnic of North London, where he was to remain for
the rest of his career, in due course becoming the director of its Study Abroad programme.
Chris and Liz bought a house in St Albans, convenient for commuting by train, where they
raised three children, Hesther, Edward and Robbie – the latter now the most famous of the
Rolfe dynasty as the drummer of the rock band Enter Shikari.
As a lecturer, Chris was able to pursue his deep interest in Joyce and Wells. Once he joined
the Wells Society, his enthusiasm and ability soon made him editor of the newsletter and,
even more importantly, secretary, helping build the Society into the organisation that it is
today. He turned the Polytechnic (later University) of North London into a hub for Wells
Studies, not only hosting events but facilitating publication of the Wellsian, plus reprints of
Select Conversations and The Discovery of the Future. Many of us have had cause over the
years to thank Chris for his his advice, support and hard work. Whatever challenge we
faced, his was always a good humoured, unflappable presence.
In 2017 Chris disclosed that he had developed a muscle-wasting disease. Even as his
mobility declined, he remained resilient and upbeat, always delighted to receive a phonecall
or a visitor, until a sudden deterioration of his condition during June. Our thoughts go out to
his family. He will be much missed by all of us.