Bob Beatty died on 11th March 2020 aged 85. Due to COVID-19, Bob's funeral on 26 March 2020 will be private. It is hoped there will be an opportunity to celebrate his life on a future occasion.

Bob had been living in a residential home in Reigate, having left his house in Catford in 2019. He had for many years run the Commissioners' Xerox Department in the 6th Floor of No 1 Millbank. Since his retirement he was a faithful member of the pensioners' committee, standing down only in 2015.

Bob was a connoisseur of English porcelain. He used to give talks about it in the USA and Canada, where he was a frequent visitor.

Bob Hodges writes , "Bob served with the Commissioners' staff for approximately 40 years. I only knew Bob during the last 28 years of his life, beginning when I joined the Chief Architect's Department in 1992. Bob was responsible for managing the Reprographic Department on the top floor of No 1 Millbank. Frequently he was asked to handle highly confidential minutes of the meetings between the Church Commissioners. Not once did he ever betray that trust regarding vital and important affairs, and the consequent documentation remained secret and highly confidential.

Because of his extraordinary length of service at No 1 Millbank Bob could recall a great many senior Commissioners and Secretaries who had left their mark on the affairs of the Church Commissioners, as well as their particular idiosyncrasies.

In private life Bob's passion was collecting English porcelain, so much so that he became an acknowledged expert in that field. His particular speciality was an in-depth knowledge of porcelain made by Shelley and Wildman. Often he was invited to lecture on Shelley porcelain, and in particular on his own fine collection which had taken years to accumulate. On several occasions Bob was invited to speak at meetings of the Shelley Group in Canada and America, where he made lots of friends amongst those fellow collectors.

Bob had a very dry sense of humour which, combined with an abundant knowledge of most things, appealed to people who knew him well.

I understand that Bob spent a short period after arriving in England working as a cameraman with an international news agency. He spent the remainder of his working life with the Church Commissioners.

His great wealth of personal knowledge combined with his incredible memory was truly remarkable. I am proud to have been one of his friends".

Ed Peacock writes , "If you were a new and junior member of staff in 1971 you soon learned that you should approach Bob properly, and with the courtesy that was his due, if you wanted your copying done, especially if you wanted it done extra quickly. Assuming that he and his colleagues would jump to it if you gave some peremptory instruction was, er, a mistake. So too was trying to get away with sending up some personal papers for copying. I tried that and the folder came back empty save for my document, and a short but clear and negative pencilled note from Bob.

Bob understood the ways of the office, and would go out of his way to help me when Private Secretary cope with the exigencies of getting out the papers for the Commissioners' Board of Governors.

He was a great friend of Ruth Roderick, one of the secretaries on the First Floor at Millbank in the 1970s, and did much to look after her in her last years. For example, while she was in hospital her flat was burgled. He knew it would break her heart if she saw her flat in the state the thief had left it and, knowing too that she could no longer live alone, made the arrangements for her to go into residential care without having to go back there.

He was proud to be Irish and would talk entertainingly about his visits to Ireland and to North America. He was on the pensioners' committee because he cared about his former colleagues. RIP".

Maureen Webb writes , "Getting familiar with Bob Beatty's working methods was a huge part of getting to know the Commissioners as a whole. No matter what he said, he never let a circulation of the Board of Governors, Assets Committee or other Committee papers go awry because of any failing on his department's side. He was a kind person who will be greatly missed".