The Association has learned of the death of S/Lt(A) Sidney John David Corsan RNVR on 9 January 2020.
S.J. DAVID CORSAN
Born 7th October 1925. Wellington College 1939-1943. Registered for the Navy (Fleet Air Arm) 1943. Two terms 1943-1944 studying law at Trinity College, Oxford, prior to reporting for duty. Registered for chartered accountancy articles with Coopers Brothers & Co 1944. After HMS Vincent, Portsmouth (shore training base), he was sent as one of a group of Fleet Air cadet pilots to the US Navy Air Force base at Corpus Christi, Texas, where he trained for seven months before receiving his ‘wings’ on VJ-Day 1945.
Post-WW2 he served on HMS Illustrious before in 1946 re-joining Cooper Brothers & Co which subsequently enjoyed a rapid period of growth and expansion over the next forty years. Having being appointed manager of the Sheffield office he became a partner in 1955 and returned to London two years later where he remained until his retirement in 1986. In his time he served as staff partner; on the Overseas Firms Committee for thirty years; as a founder-member of the Executive Committee in the early 1960s; and as liaison partner for South-East Asia, Australasia and the West Indies. For seven years he was the firm’s lead partner on a major World Bank project in Thailand, in constant liaison with the Thai Government and its officials amongst many others.
Among the many UK clients for which he was senior partner responsible were British Oxygen, BPCC, EMI, Clarke’s Shoes, Paul Hamlyn (Octopus Books), Staveley’s, Wilkinson Sword, Pergamon Press, Mirror Group Newspapers, Beefeater Gin and the White Ensign Association.
After his retirement from the firm he took up a succession of appointments, directorships and chairmanships – including with insurance firm John Poland & Co, the City regulatory body IMRO, the Institute of Neurology and the Brain Research Trust. He became an honorary Vice President for life of the White Ensign Association. After his wife Jeannie’s death in 2007 he founded the charity the Jean Corsan Foundation which provides grants for research projects into the causes – and hopefully eventually the eradication – of Alzheimer’s and similar diseases or conditions of the mind.
He was renowned for his team leadership, commitment, energy, dynamism, enthusiasm and directness. A keen sportsman, at 27 he had to retire from rugby – at which he had been a county player – because of a chronically-injured knee. Subsequently this joint could cause consternation or worse (some claimed deliberately) in an opponent by dislocating at any time without warning on the squash or tennis court until he finally had it replaced forty-nine years later.
David’s other great passion was sailing. He was skipper of his X One Design racing keel boat Skua at Itchenor in West Sussex for over fifty years and took business and holiday opportunities to sail in locations around the world. He served at different times as commodore of Itchenor Sailing Club, as both captain of the Itchenor XOD class and the national XOD Association, and was a founder-member of the Itchenor Society, designed to preserve the special nature of this sailing village.
He died on 9th January 2020 aged 94. He is survived by three sons, eight grandchildren and one great grandchild.
JDMC 28.1.2020.
(Son James)