To those of us fortunate enough to be classed as Keele pioneers – the mid-fifties graduates – the news of the death of Peter Whelan has seemed like the closing of a door on a golden time. Peter was of average height but he stood head and shoulders above the rest of us, certainly as far as thespian events were concerned. We have to remind ourselves that when Peter arrived, a Potteries boy and straight from National Service, the College population was 300 and when he graduated in English and Philosophy in 1955 it was still only 600. Everyone was aware of any new initiative and Peter, with sketches and revues and taking part in debates, found a ready, appreciative audience. In his first year Peter played Hal in Henry IV Part 1, staged in the courtyard of Keele Hall, but he had grander ambitions. He took the gamble of building a large audience grandstand on the lawns facing the lake, creating a natural amphitheatre, and directing first The Tempest and then As You Like It. Thus began the tradition of outside Shakespeare. Would the Potteries turn up to watch? Of course they did. Frangcon Price was an enchanting Miranda in The Tempest and she and Peter were married soon after graduation. Peter satisfied his passion for theatre by writing, acting and directing at the Questors Theatre in Ealing. He was 40 before he began writing seriously for the stage eventually taking it up full time. He had a long association with the RSC where most of his plays were produced both in Stratford and London. The Accrington Pals evoked the stresses of the 1914/18 conflict through the eyes of a Lancashire battalion and their wives, The Bright and Bold Design drew on his knowledge of the Potteries and the history of pottery design and The School of Night was based around the life of Christopher Marlowe. In almost all his work he took historical incidents and with meticulous research fashioned intriguing and challenging stories from them. His biggest commercial success was with The Herbal Bed (1996) recounting the case of sexual slander brought by Shakespeare’s daughter against a neighbour. It ran for several months in the West End and also on Broadway and elsewhere. Peter never lost his enthusiasm as a dramatist and was full of ideas right up to the end. The University of Keele can now boast of many graduates who in their own fields have made a difference. When it was still a University College. Peter Whelan was one of the first to be in that category.