Fred Partridge: an appreciation by Trevor Harvey

Fred Partridge, who joined SPC in 1972 and who was still attending the occasional meeting until about eight years ago, has died in Lancing at the age of 101. 
 
Fred was an accountant by profession but he also had a great love of playwriting.
 
Before moving to Brighton, he was a member of the Progress Theatre, Reading where, for twelve years, he was also the manager. Four of his play translations from the French were among works that were staged there.
 
He was a full-time member of The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain and one-time Chairman of their Associates Branch.
 
A number of his plays, from the 1960s through to the late 1980s, were broadcast on BBC Radio as well as on radio stations in Germany, Holland and Australia.
 
He joined SPC in 1972 after his adaptation of Tolstoy’s MASTER AND MAN had been given a reading by the club.  His play, THE ENGAGEMENT, was chosen by The New Venture Theatre as their 21st Anniversary production in 1979 and, later, a professional production of his play A SWEET EMOTION formed the nucleus of an Anglia TV Arts programme. Several of Fred’s plays (full-length and one-act) were published for the amateur market and he also wrote short stories and articles.
 
He was a keen and talented photographer and, for many years, was a member of Southwick Camera Club.
 
Many of Fred’s plays were first read at SPC meetings and, as members had come to expect, the writing was always of a high standard. He made helpful observations and gave useful advice during the discussion of other members’ plays and he was always supportive of the club and his fellow writers.
 
Fred was kind, able and he had a gentle sense of humour. It was a pleasure to have known him.
 
Trevor Harvey