Anthony Maasz (OW 1949)

The Waynflete Office has been informed by his brother Peter (1954) of the death of Tony Maasz, aged 94. We send our deepest condolences to the family, and are grateful to Tony’s daughter Carolyn for sharing these words about his life:

Tony Maasz. My Dad,  a Grampa, a Great Grampa, a brother and an uncle.  A fighter and a true gentleman for 94 years.

Dad was born in Oxford on 10^th February 1932 and was the first son to his parents Ronald and Constance Maasz, followed 3.5 years later by his brother Peter.

By all accounts, Dad was the usual mischievous little boy, scrumping apples, getting the cane at school several times each week for not paying attention and drawing aeroplanes in his text books.  His Mum always knew on Sunday night, bath night which were the new bottom stripes and which were last week’s ones as the previous weeks stripes had a more yellowy tinge to them! I believe I am right in saying that he once pierced his brother’s ear after throwing a dart towards a dart board but it ‘somehow missed??

From an early age Dad had a keen interest in anything aeronautical and mechanical engineering. Dad’s inspiration as a little lad came from his favourite ‘Uncle Bill’ who was Flight Engineer Bill King with the RAF 617 Squadron; many of you will know 617 Squadron as the Dambuster Squadron. Dad was immensely proud of Uncle Bill, and when Dad was 12 years old, Uncle Bill took to the skies aboard Lancaster Bomber DV403, piloted by Flight Lieutenant John Edward DFC on a mission to attack Hitler’s rocket site.  Lancaster bomber DV403 came under fire with flak and Flight Engineer Bill King was killed instantly.  Dad was devastated, however, wanted to follow in  Uncle Bill’s footsteps into aeronautical engineering, and did just that with his future career path.

After completing his 6 years at Magdalon College, Oxford, between 1943 and 1949, Dad took on a 5 year engineering apprenticeship at Saunders Roe Ltd, on the Isle of Wight where he worked on one of the Princess Flying Boats.  There were only 3 ever made, and they were designed to fly a maximum of 120 passengers in luxury to South Africa or to carry equipment and supplies to troubled spots anywhere in the world.  It was, to this day, the largest of all metal flying boats to have ever been constructed.

On 22 August, 1952, Dad was a young engineer on board the flying boat with the call sign of G-ALUN, and was experiencing routine taxiing trials.  Once the last trial was over and they had moored up, the Chief Test Pilot, Geoff Tyson got out of the cockpit and announced that they had actually lifted off the water for about a quarter of a mile so they could claim that they were on the very first maiden voyage before the ‘actual planned’ maiden voyage! this incident, unauthorised and unplanned, has always been kept ‘very quiet!’

After completing his engineering apprenticeship, Dad took up his National Service with the RAF and spent much of his time stationed in Germany and in particular at RAF Gutteslow.  Many, many tales were to tell in that time, and some not really appropriate for today, but let us just say, he had fun!

With his National Service done, and being denied the opportunity to join the RAF full time as flight crew – due to his hearing not up to the pitch, Dad returned to complete his apprenticeship and he settled down to life on the Isle of Wight.  My brother Adrian and I entered the world, we were gifted the most wonderful childhood from both parents, with love, opportunity, education and discipline.  Dad began an engineering career with a radar company which was then known as Decca.  This company then became Plessey Radar, Siemans Plessey, Siemans, British Aerospace and probably other names to add to the list.

In Dads late teens, he had joined and become a keen member of the Royal Observer Corps.  He was a very loyal and dedicated officer of the Corps, and as a child, I can remember dinner had to be on the table at 6pm every Tuesday night as this was meeting night which started at 7pm and he could NOT be late!  Over the years he climbed the ranks to Group Commandant for No. 14 Group which became his life- long interest, and his close friend Brian Harries will say a few words later.

On 6^th September 1985, Dad married his beloved wife Ann and had a marriage blessing in this church.  After their retirement, they travelled far and wide, having a love of America, Europe, the Channel Islands, Canal boating in this country, and they adored Scotland, visiting it many times.  They were also able to add in a champagne flight in Concorde before that too took retirement.

Since losing Ann in October 2023, and due to his somewhat limited mobility, Dad took up residence at Shawford Springs Care Home in December 2023, just a short distance away.  Despite many anxiety issues and worries, he settled in extremely well, making great friends very quickly.  In no time at all, and due to the welcome he received from fellow residents and the amazing staff, he soon called it home.  Both he and I agreed he could not have been given any more love and care in his maturing years.

Dad’s brain continued to remain as sharp as a tack and he took part in daily quizzes, outings, Christmas pantomimes, and he set up a weekly scrabble club, every Friday, 11am, on the dot, of which, he was a frequent champion. I hope some of his skill has rubbed off on his team mates and the scrabble club will continue in his memory.

As Dad went into Shawford, I needed to find a way of contacting him as there were no phone lines and he had never used a mobile. I introduced him to the Alexa Show, which is a small tv screen, and if you ask it to call or video call someone in his contacts list, it does! He got the hang of this very quickly, and on the dot of 7pm every single night, we had a video call and would chat about our day’s events.  It was also a good indicator for me to monitor how he was feeling.

I visited him at least once a week and we would go out to lunch every time in search of either Moules Marineier, a Chinese at The Water Margin or sometimes just something local like basic fish and chips from his favourite chip shop.  Lunch was always followed by a trip to Waitrose to stock up his midnight snack drawer!  As time went on, Dad’s mobility became more of a challenge, particularly after an infection, and Dad went from walking stick, to a walker and then to a wheelchair, fighting the decline every time like holding back the tide with a tissue.

Despite everything that was thrown at him, Dad was a fighter through and through, and in the time he was in Shawford Springs, he had recovered from covid, 3 bouts of pneumonia, 2 bouts of sepsis, and a nasty uti.  Tough as an ox, and in total denial of how poorly he was at times, when asked how he was, without fail he would say, “Yes, Im fine!”  There was a time when at 7pm he called me on Alexa and I couldn’t see him.  I asked him where he was and he said “I’m on the floor and can’t get up” but he had the savvy to call me which enabled me to call Shawford to say he wasn’t where he should be! Whilst still on the video call, they were with him in seconds.  The power of modern technology CAN be priceless in this world.

Dads latest spell in hospital was mid- March and he was admitted with severe pneumonia.  He had absolutely refused hospital, saying he didn’t want to end his days there and was not going in.  The medical team at Shawford were in constant contact with me and at about 4pm, the GP – who he had also refused – was called in as the situation was getting critical, he really needed to go to hospital.  The GP told Dad that his oxygen levels were so poor that he had between 30 minutes and 2 hours to live.  His eyes were grey, his lips were blue, his nose was blue and ears were blue.  Dad’s reply was, Well I like having blue ears, I am not going!  He did eventually go in and wasn’t expected to make the night, however, true to form of the fighter that he was, he came out 2 weeks later!

Sadly, that spell in hospital took its toll on him physically, and he never really walked again.  But …. he still thought he could, and tried numerous times to get out of bed, refusing to be defeated, and still thinking he could run a marathon and get to the bathroom without help.  Dad defied all the odds through life, beating cancer when he was in his 50’s and surviving an aortic dissection 14 years ago, where he had clinically passed away for 11 minutes before being resuscitated. He underwent a huge heart bypass operation and bounced back like a ping pong ball.  A cat with nine lives as they say.

On 29^th May at 2pm, Dad fell asleep for the final time with me by his side.  He had become weary and it was time for him to join Ann.  He has led a full, happy and colourful life and I could not be more proud to call him My Dad, My Hero.