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March 29th, 2010

Bill Cotton

Some sad news from Moorlands College, where I was a student from 1995-1997:

Dear Moorlands Graduate,

This email is coming to you because you are on our database as having been a student at the college during the time that Bill Cotton was on the faculty here. We had hoped to send this message before the weekend, but it was unfortunately delayed.

Bill had been suffering from cancer for a few months and died, peacefully and at home, last Wednesday night. The funeral is tomorrow (Tuesday 30th), at 11 a.m., at Bransgore Community Church, Shackleton Square, Bransgore, BH23 8NU. Gladys, Bill’s widow, wanted his former students to know of his death, and to know that any who would like to come to the funeral and thanksgiving service will be very welcome.

Martin Inchley

Bill Cotton was the Old Testament lecturer, Librarian and my tutor at the college. A group of about 10 of us were part of the ‘Cottons’, a group which, led by Bill, met for worship, social events and to go on missions. The photo below shows Bill and the Cottons on mission in Tenerife of all places:

cotton tutor group

Going clockwise around the table from left foreground: Bill, Andrew, Heidi, Malc, Dave Horton, Marco, Chris, Dave Walker, Phil, Bob, ?

Another picture, this time Bill with members of the tutor group as they graduated in 1998 (I was no longer there by then).

cottons picture 2

Anyway – very sad news. I hadn’t been in touch with Bill since being at Moorlands, but he was an important part of my time there and will be sadly missed.

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5 Responses to “Bill Cotton”


  1. sarahw says:

    sorry to hear this.
    i shall always remember his passion for the old testament, oddly something i have got more into since leaving college- mainly as i feel a lot of children’s and young people’s material is very Jesus focused. though you have to admit you could never see his map from the front row of the lecture theatre, let alone the back!
    as for the unknown woman in the mission team, she must have been a local. i remember Heiddi telling me that she was the only female that went from moorlands. and don’t you all look young _ mr krypton factor wasn’t so grey thing!!

    March 29th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
  2. Dave says:

    Thanks Sarah.

    Yes, Bill’s enthusiasm for the Old Testament will be the memory that many students will have.

    The unknown woman – perhaps she was from the local church, though it wouldn’t be beyond me not to have remembered someone’s other half who came along with us.

    Sorry to hear you are in hospital – have sent an e-mail about the Facebook question.

    March 29th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
  3. Ian says:

    May his memory be eternal!

    March 30th, 2010 at 3:52 am
  4. Malc says:

    Hi Dave

    Yes, sad news indeed. Bill was a great man, I learnt a tremendous amount from him – not many like him left. Nice to be reminded of the mission trip – the lady in the picture is Ros who lives in Tenerife.

    March 30th, 2010 at 11:10 am
  5. Andrew gray says:

    Thanks for posting this. I was at moorlands until summer ’95, but I thnk I have dropped off their list. My wife and I studied together and bill gave her a higher mark than me in the OT exam. He said it was wrong for us to have the same grade so he gave her an extra 2%for a town on the map exercise which gave me a b and Anne-marie got a b+.

    March 30th, 2010 at 3:08 pm