Life Stories
Timothy Axson Charlesworth
Timothy Axson Charlesworth (1973 BA Geography) died on 30 July 2023 aged 69.
Tim read Geography at Keble under the care of Gordon Smith – part of a long succession of able Keble geographers. He played hockey for the College and was general manager of the Cherwell, Oxford’s oldest student newspaper.
After Oxford, Tim became a distinguished figure in advertising, joining Ted Bates and then moving to Reeves Robertshaw Needham. Tim’s last ad agency and perhaps the most high profile one was Leo Burnett, where he was a board director and in charge of the Kelloggs account (a huge budget shared with J Walter Thompson) and HM Government in the form of the COI (Central Office of Information).
In the 1990s, Tim decided to change career, becoming a Geography teacher in the state sector. His first post was St Marys RC Grammar School, Sidcup and then Coloma Convent in Croydon. He was a great success.
He had an interest in urban planning and architecture his whole life and was a keen member of the Peckham Society. He wrote two books: The Architecture of Peckham in 1988 and then in 2000 The Story of Burgess Park, a history of the post-war creation of a linear park and housing estates between the Old Kent Road and Walworth Road.
Tim died as a result of a fall in July 2023, leaving his wife Jane and son Theo.
Kindly provided by contemporary Barnaby Lenon (1973)