“John was sent to Pangbourne from the Downs prep school in the Malverns – an establishment run on Quaker principles that had a lifelong influence on him. As a child he was fascinated by the sea and sailing and loved reading adventure books set at sea. He was also restless and three years after arriving at Pangbourne knew that, aged 16, he had a legal right to leave school. So as soon as he could he moved on, with the blessing of his father.

Four hugely happy years as a merchant seaman followed during and after World War 11. John spent a great deal of time in the Far East and was also involved directly in the Battle of the Atlantic. On one occasion a merchant vessel he was sailing on from South America to Britain was used as a decoy by the Allies, leading to a major battle between an Allied fleet of battleships and German U-boats that only ended when a huge storm blew up. John was a gunner on his ship and fought all day, as a result of which he had mild percussion deafness for the rest of his life.
 

In 1947-48 he left the sea and became a cub reporter on the local paper in Blackburn in Lancashire where he had been born. Then his father became a high court judge and the family moved to London. He worked for a time in Fleet Street while also writing short stories and poems and plays for television. One of his plays, Chicken Play, was presented at the New Lindsay in London.

In the early 1950s John moved into advertising, joining the London Press Exchange as a copywriter. He left 20 years later as vice chairman of Leo Burnett as the company by then had become. This must have been an exhilarating time for him – they were literally inventing television advertising from scratch. Later he joined Lintas and worked for the agency in Java, Indonesia, and subsequently in Colombia. At the same time he did voluntary charity work helping men traumatised by war. This involvement in charity is a thread that ran through his life. John retired from advertising in 1983 and moved to a former tavern called The Old Hare and Hounds in Somerton, Suffolk which he restored, also creating a magnificent garden separated into ten areas and opened to the public each year for charity.

As he grew older John came to realise that one theme had driven him forward and that was the need to find a new perspective for the spiritual side of life. He started trying to capture these ideas in a book In Search for a Modern God but it was not until he completed a fifth version that he was satisfied. Two days before he died he was contacted by an agent who was excited by the book and full of ideas about how to get it published.

John once said that he imagined his life as being like a map of the world with a large arrow pointing at him with the legend ‘You Are Here. Do not regret the past. Do not fear the future.’ The day before he died he quoted extracts from Milton, Auden and Elliott. He had a phenomenal memory.”

LCS adds: John Ormerod wrote throughout his life and compiled an amusing tale about his maiden voyage with an OP contemporary Ian Jackson (40-43) and a third midshipman titled “Three Boys in a Boat.” In 1993 he contributed a wry account of the temporary teaching staff employed at the NCP in World War 11 to Issue 23 of the OP Magazine.