By: Panayiota Demosthenous, https://www.mynewsmag.co.uk/
A Chorleywood historian and former tutor to the son of the King of Tonga has died, aged 88.
Ian Foster, who wrote books on the history of Chorleywood, Chenies, Loudwater and Heronsgate, was born in West Lancashire and briefly attended St Martin’s School in Northwood, before reading History at Trinity College Dublin.
After 15 years of teaching at King’s College in Auckland, New Zealand, Ian was returning to the UK by sea when he received a request from the King of Tonga to tutor his son for his Oxford entrance exam. This job led to Ian spending six months at Tonga’s royal palace.
In the late 1980s, Ian taught at The Beacon School in Amersham, was a keen member of Chorleywood Cricket Club, and settled in Heronsgate a few doors down from his sister Gill Gibbins.
Gill said: “Ian was a very gifted teacher who made children think for themselves.”
Ian met his future wife Kate in The Land of Liberty, Peace & Plenty pub in Chorleywood, and the couple were married at St John’s, Heronsgate, in 2011.
Kate said: “We were complete soulmates from the beginning and our marriage was wonderful.”
