Malcolm Loveday joined the Guild in 1973, and was tower captain at Chertsey from 1979 until his death. He has served the Chertsey District as Executive Committee Member and District Master, and has served on the Library Sub-Committee since its formation in 1981, assisting with the responsibility for this valuable resource.

Throughout his membership Malcolm has taken a great interest in bell restoration matters,
assisting with many projects over the years, including the rehanging of Chertsey bells in 1994, and this culminated in his appointment as Bells Advisor to the Diocesan Advisory Committee in 1993, a post he held until his death. In this role he has managed the difficult task of working within the DAC’s conservation and protection remit, while still enabling restoration projects to be completed to the satisfaction of ringers. His advice at the early stages of bell restoration proposals has been extremely helpful in allowing faculties for work to be issued with minimal difficulty in a number of cases.

The Guild library contains over 100 reports of visits he made to churches in the Diocese as bells advisor, not only those with rings of bells, but many with chimes of just 1, or 2, or 3 bells, where access is often difficult.

Malcolm also had an interest in turret clocks, and was our resident expert on clocks,
particularly as they impinge on bell installations.

In 2015 Malcolm was the main organiser of the Guild’s ringing activities in association with
the celebrations for the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. This ringing generated a
considerable amount of good publicity for ringing and for the Guild.

Over the years Malcolm has taught numerous people to ring on the difficult bells at Chertsey,
and he can be relied upon to support Chertsey District activities, including organising a
number of enjoyable District outings. Always interested in new ways of introducing people to
ringing he installed a dumb bell in the tower at Chertsey and worked to improve the ringing experience in the tower.

Wendy Harris, the DAC secretary had this to say about Malcolm:

“I’ve been DAC Secretary for almost 14 years, and in that time I have found Malcolm’s involvement to be sacrificial!  He rarely missed a DAC meeting, he attended as many site visits as he could, and he was always happy to visit parishes if I was contacted about a bells related problem. He had a great sense of humour and regaled us with many funny stories about his visits to churches. His reports were always very detailed and helpful, and his advice second to none.  He’s going to be a very hard act to follow and we will miss him enormously.”

This sums up admirably Malcolm’s contribution to ringing in the Diocese of Guildford, in recognition of which he was elected a Vice-President of the Guild in 2017.

Malcolm died on 31st December 2025