Our friend JP-S

John Price-Stephens, affectionately known as JPS, has sadly and suddenly passed away. In recent years Bob Bullock spent some time with John and has written the following:

John Price-Stephens died on December 30th aged 75. 

I first met John in early autumn 1976 on the causeway at Pitsford reservoir which at the time was nearly empty north of the causeway after one of the driest years on record. I pointed out to him a Temminck’s Stint which was hiding behind a rock sticking out of the mud. I told him about the Northants Bird Club and he joined sometime after. He had a young family then and always made an effort to see any new bird for his Northants list. 

He was best man at my wedding and godfather to my daughter Katie. A few years later he got heavily into twitching and together in various combinations with Steve Mawby, Richard Johnson, Andrew Cook and I, went for every new bird we could, apart from once when Sue, his wife, said ‘If you go for that bird (Paddyfield Warbler at Walney Island in September 1992) I won’t be here when you get back’. It took him many years to get that one back! 

In 1990, with his family, he did a year-long house and job swap with a family in Brisbane and we visited him over there in the summer holidays, there he had a worrying episode where in the outback he wandered off into the bush to look for a bird and got totally lost for several hours before being discovered by a passing motorist. Together we visited most counties in Britain and a number in Ireland in pursuit of new birds. He amassed a total of more than 540 species. He also went on Bird Club trips to Panama, Finland, Gambia and twice to South Africa which he thoroughly enjoyed and often spoke of the night he spent in the same room as Bob Gill and Phil Horsnail and listened to so many jokes and stories he got no sleep. Until he retired from his job as a Special Needs teacher he wasn’t able to go on any other NBC trips but instead visited USA, Bermuda, Venezuela and much of northern Europe in school holiday time. With our wives we went on a camping trip to southern Spain and Portugal and on a Red Sea cruise visiting Jordan and Egypt combining birding with some culture. In September 2018 we went again to South Africa with our wives and drove the Garden Route and visited sites around Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. 

John was also an Arsenal and Welsh Rugby Union team fan as well as a plane spotting fanatic and on every foreign trip was keen to see any of the local planes, and regularly visited airshows in USA and Europe in his campervan, he also flew over ‘area 57’ in Nevada to log all the stored aircraft in the desert. Latterly he renewed his old interest in fishing and liked to take his grandchildren along. He also joined a fishing club with me to catch some larger carp and catfish and caught his first catfish in 2020 including four in one day. Our last twitches together were for the Brown Booby and Paddyfield Pipit at the end of 2019 in Cornwall where it was apparent that he had a heart problem. We went on our last fishing trip at the end of September last year and he had open-heart surgery in October, twice cancelled at the last minute and seemed to be making good progress. 

His sudden death was a shock to everyone and completely unexpected, he will always be remembered for kind, gentle and good-humoured nature and will be sadly missed by all who knew him. My sympathy goes to wife Sue, daughters Eleanor and Clare and to their families.  

Bob Bullock.

Thank you Bob. 

  

One of my fondest memories of John was passing his home in Pitsford one morning. Just in time to catch him cussing at a misbehaving lawn mower. Unexpectedly, for John I stopped and asked if he was alright. John looked at me, smiled and asked if I'd like a cuppa and a chat, "as long as there's a biscuit in it" I replied. Everyone who knew John and from all at the NBC, echo Bob's sentiments and offer heartfelt condolences. John's legacy will remain in our memories forever. 

Robin