Members and former members remember John Seaston, who died recently from a brain tumour (main text by John Hurley)
John was the son of Tony Seaston (see Feb 2024 Newstrack). He attended the Ralph Sherwin school in Derby where he was introduced to orienteering by Roger Wilkinson, who was the geography teacher there. John, together with his brother Paul, both joined DVO shortly thereafter. In March 1982 he completed the M11 course at Clumber Park placing 13th.
John rapidly progressed through the colour-coded system and by 1984 he was regularly finishing towards the top of the blue course.
John made a vital contribution to the DVO team which won the CompassSport Cup in 1986 and 1987. In 1986 running on the Red course he won in 2 of the preliminary rounds and was 2nd (to Mike Jubb also DVO) in the final at Clowbridge. In 1987 running on the Blue course he again won in 2 of the preliminary rounds and also at the final at Witherslack.
John was an East Midlands Champion on several occasions, including 1985 and 1988. In the 1988 JK he was 3rd Brit in M17A and later that year he was selected for the BOF under-19 tour to Norway.
John went up to Cambridge University where he graduated with a starred first in civil engineering. He then worked for Ove Arup, initially working on the new runway in Hong Kong. After other overseas contracts he went to Insead in Paris to study business management and went on to a career in management consultancy in London.
John moved to Surrey where he was active in the Green Party, campaigning to defend the green belt around Epsom. He resumed orienteering, competing for Mole Valley, when his son Ben became interested in the sport. He was regularly competing on Green courses up to May 2024, when sadly he began to suffer from a brain tumour.
Mike Godfree writes: After Tony started taking his sons to events, he got bored waiting for them and took up the sport himself. At that time we were the neighbours of the Seastons who introduced us to the sport and the rest is history. John took up orienteering again when his son Ben became interested and we had met them at several major events last year and this. Ben ran at the Stanton Moor JK Relay for the Mole Valley juniors team but disqualified the team when he missed out the final loop but redeemed himself at the British Relays. John, despite his dodgy knees, and his wife Liz also ran at some events And at the British Relays both John and Liz were persuaded to run for MV teams.
Roger Wilkinson writes: About a year ago, out of the blue, I had a mail from John, saying could he and family call in to see us next time they came to the Lakes, as he “wanted to thank me properly for changing his life”. A little over dramatic, perhaps, but it was quite touching. No mention of brain tumour then, though I believe he already knew.
I was teaching at Ralph Sherwin when John arrived. Paul was already a pupil and had become a regular in my group running in local events. John made straight for me on day 1, desperate to know when the next event was taking place and could he come. Two years of frustration was at an end!
Dave Nevell writes: John, while still a junior and at school, came with us (“responsible adults”) to a couple of the French multi-day events in the late 1980s. I remember that on one of the rest days he and I went on our own for a lengthy walk (2 hours or so) in the woods and we had a long and quite deep conversation about virtually everything, most of it not about orienteering. I was struck by his maturity and intelligence at such an age and it was a pleasure to be able to do such a thing. I can’t make any claim to changing his life but I guess the orienteering club did have influence in many ways, not in the least the way in which it was so age-inclusive.
John Hurley 17/10/2024
