Keith Manley (12 Oct 1931 - 6 Aug 2024)

Keith had a long and successful career in business and was Finance Director of Dr Barnardo’s from 1973 to 1992.

He was born in Exeter on 12 October 1931 to Stanley (‘Les’) Manley and Eva Mairs. Les was a gardener and Eva worked in her family’s sweet shop. Sister Maureen was born in 1934.

In 1943 he entered Exeter School where he excelled in Maths and Languages. He won several prizes and took a keen interest in drama, music and chess. While several of his schoolmates went on to study at Cambridge University, he preferred to do his National Service and find a career. As a private in the British Army he was assigned to the communications intelligence unit of MI6 where he learned codebreaking and Chinese (the Korean War had broken out). He completed his National Service at the rank of lance corporal.

In 1953 his family moved to Tottenham in London where he qualified as a chartered accountant. After a couple of years at auditing firm Shipley Blackburn he was appointed Office Manager at Associated Television. He joined engineering firm Powell Duffryn in 1963 and in 1967 took up a role as Financial Controller with British Steel Construction.

In February 1973 he became Dr Barnardo’s Chief Accountant, based at their head office in Barkingside in East London. Promoted to Finance Director later that year, he quickly established himself as an authority on managing not-for-profit organizations, and his expertise brought him into contact with friends and patrons of the charity including the then Prime Minister John Major, Princess Margaret and Princess Diana. He retired from Barnardo’s in 1992 (retirement at 60 was compulsory then). Passionate about his work for the charity, he kept in touch with many of his former colleagues and was a regular at Barnardo’s annual AGM into his 80s. He was an honoured guest at Princess Diana’s funeral service in 1997.

After leaving Dr Barnardo’s Keith and a couple of partners set up a consultancy called Caritas (Latin for charity) which for a few years gave business advice to small charities. During that time he was a course tutor in charity finance at South Bank University, where he was invited to write a well-received handbook, Financial Management for Charities and Not for Profit Organisations (1994).

Keith met Jean Donald (b 1939) at a Tottenham table tennis club in 1959 and they married two years later. They had two sons, Jonathan (b 1962) and Neil (b 1963), and three grandchildren: Ben (b 1985), David (b 1988) and Emily (b 1995). After their divorce in 1986 Keith married Sylvia Bones (1930-2015). Sylvia’s twin children from her first marriage, Tim and Caroline (b 1962), joined the family together with their children Patrick, Joe and Sarah.

For most of his working life Keith lived in Essex (Ilford and Upminster). In 2001 he and Sylvia retired to Woodbridge, Suffolk, to be nearer her daughter Caroline, husband Mark and their children Joe and Sarah. There he spent his free time doing voluntary work as treasurer for Abbeyfield Care Home and pursuing his favourite hobbies: bridge and bowls.

Keith was well enough to live alone after Sylvia left us in 2015 but physical frailty prompted his move to a care home in Southend in 2022. He was happy, safe and comfortable there and enjoyed regular visits from his family nearby.

Keith was a sports fan and a lifelong supporter of Exeter City and Tottenham Hotspur football clubs. He followed rugby, cricket, golf, tennis, motor racing and snooker, and chanced the odd flutter on the horses. Both his parents were interested in sport and games. Les was president of Exeter Speedway Club and Eva taught him whist and other card games. These games were always played for a small stake (pennies and halfpennies) and Keith threw a tantrum whenever he lost. His play improved quickly and when he was nine years old Eva asked the budding card sharp to join her at the local whist drive. They made a strong partnership and swept the board; as their winning streak continued some players wanted Keith banned for being “under age”. First prize in these contests could be a much as £5, a tidy sum in those lean war years (equivalent to a week’s wages in a low grade job).

Bridge became his favourite game and, in his words, “almost an obsession”. After work twice a week he would brave the North Circular for a bridge table at his club in Muswell Hill. Practice at the club and weekend matches for Essex honed his skills, earning him the title of Life Master. He was strong enough to represent England in the 1980s with long-time partner Stanley Ritter. He continued to compete at a high level and was proud to be one of Suffolk’s strongest bridge players into his 80s. He took up competitive bowls in his 60s and latterly turned out for Melton Bowls Club in the Suffolk league. His children and grandchildren inherited his love of sport and competition. He took great pride in watching his family mix business with leisure as successfully as he had.

He liked jigsaw puzzles, crosswords, crime fiction and reading the Daily Mail (mostly the financial pages, he said). He would write limericks for colleagues and family members to mark special events such as birthdays and leaving parties. He had a lifelong interest in the theatre, film and music. Learning to play the piano at an early age influenced his musical tastes. His favourite composers were Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Schumann and Strauss, and he enjoyed comic songs by Flanders & Swann, Gilbert and Sullivan, Tom Lehrer, Victor Borge and The Goons. Rock and pop passed him by, apart from the odd tune by pianists Alan Price and Georgie Fame. Sylvia introduced him to jazz and they were especially fond of Chris Barber and his band.

Mild-mannered, modest, kind and generous, Keith had a gentle sense of humour, a sweet tooth and he loved a tipple. He was a good man.

He is survived by his first wife, three sons, one daughter, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.