Graham Keith Lott (22 Nov 1949 - 16 Jul 2020)

In loving memory of Graham Keith Lott who sadly passed away on 16th July 2020. Graham will be cremated on the 28th July, in accordance with his wishes there will be no funeral service. It is intended to arrange a garden event in august, in his memory. Please contact the family for further details.

Graham was born to Cyril and Marian Lott in Pontypridd where he spent his childhood and teenage years. He loved climbing the mountains around the Taff and Rhondda and could regularly be found watching Pontypridd Rugby matches.

His university days at Aberystwyth allowed him to follow his passion for geology as well as following Welsh rugby and continuing his love of exploring the countryside. Many of the friends he made there were friends for life and Graham and Alan Pratt’s shared love of rugby saw them travelling to New Zealand for the Rugby World Cup in in 2011 and tracking across Britain for multiple games in the World Cup in 2015. He had many discussions over the relative merits of English and Welsh rugby over dog walking exercise in East Bridgford and spent valued visits to Trent Bridge and Forest football ground with David Phillipson, not to mention more rugby matches with Ceri James and Tony Crosby.

After university Graham joined The Institute of Geological Sciences in Leeds (later to become The British Geological Survey) sharing a flat in Roundhay with Rob Everett and John Lovell and spent many summers on drilling ships in the North Sea with Tony Crosby, Dave Tappin and others. In 1974 he married Beryl, their three children, Nicholas, Cerys and Jaclyn were born in Yorkshire and they enjoyed many forays into their beloved Yorkshire Dales and Lake District. Following the move of BGS to Keyworth they settled in East Bridgford in 1983, spending a few years in Indonesia in the 1980’s where many new friends were made. This foray into the Far East inspired a love of world travelling, both in Europe where many family holidays were spent in France and further afield to the Far East, Australia, Egypt, India, Ecuador, Canada and Miami to mention but a few of the places explored.

Having met Richard (Dick) Nicholson in Indonesia where they shared a passion for volcano climbing Graham and Dick subsequently spent holidays around the world visiting a variety of volcanoes, their dream of going to Iceland was thwarted by Dick’s untimely death in 2016.

In the last few years grandchildren Lily, Theo and Cory have expanded the family and Graham loved to spend time with all of them, scouring beaches in Devon with Lily and teaching Theo and Cory to kick a football. With Nick in Devon, Ceri in Woking and Jaci near Leighton Buzzard lots of family time has been spent exploring different places in Britain, Graham particularly loved time spent with the family.

His later years at BGS saw him develop an interest in the geology of historic building stones and he formed collaborations with English Heritage and Conservation organisations as well contributing to the corpus of Anglo Saxon Sculpture.

Since he retired he continued his interest in building stones, developed a love of bird watching and read extensively on Indian history. His book collection grew expansively!

Unfortunately his diagnosis with pulmonary fibrosis some 6 years ago meant he was gradually less able to enjoy all his interests but our last holiday with friends in Northern Spain last year following the pilgrimage route from France to Santiago de Compostela was a delight to both ourselves and the friends we enjoyed it with. Graham loved his life in East Bridgford and was very sorry to leave his family and friends earlier than he had hoped.