Tributes Tributes to Phil Philip Dance was the creator of the website Modern British Surnames, which was the forerunner, and provides over 99% of the content, of this Modern British Surnames section of the Guild’s website. The first tribute is re-printed here from Libraries and Information Update, the in-house news sheet of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (by kind permission of the author.) Further comments follow below. An erudite and humuorous man, Philip Dance was Technical Services Manager at the University of Portsmouth. PHILIP WORKED AT the University of Portsmouth, formerly Portsmouth Polytechnic, for just over 30 years. Born in 1949 and educated in Wolverhampton, he studied history at Keele University before joining the Isle of Wight Library Service in 1972 as a trainee. Following his year at library school in Loughborough, he returned to the island as Assistant Cataloguer and progressed to become Librarian in Charge of the Bibliographic and Cataloguing Department. In 1978 he crossed the water to Portsmouth, where he took up the post of Assistant Librarian for Acquisitions. He later became Technical Services Manager, a post he held until his sudden death at the end of October 2008. Phil’s death leaves a shocked and saddened department behind him. He was popular with colleagues both within the library and beyond, and the suppliers with whom he worked have talked of his exceptional knowledge, professionalism and helpfulness. To his close colleagues and family, he was also an erudite man with a love of language – he was mentor to a library group which tackled The Times crossword daily – and a mischievous sense of humour. In recent years he developed an interest in family-name history and established a respected place in that community of interested scholars. Philip was for many years carer to his wife Jo who suffered from a rare and debilitating illness. Colleagues were continually astounded by his stoicism and determination throughout this period. Philip’s qualities were much admired and, above all, he will be remembered for his enduring support and unfailing kindness. Ian Mayfield Associate University Librarian University of Portsmouth These further tributes were contributed spontaneously to the on-line Guild Forum of the Guild of One-Name Studies. Sad news indeed, both for his family and friends and for us, and a loss to the Guild community. Wendy Archer Forum Manager Guild of One-Name Studies That is a wondrous site, full of information and a labour of love, as well as a superb resource for anyone interested in surname research, bringing all the strands together… I had some generous and enlightening email exchanges with Mr Dance, and would like to see his labour of love preserved. If anyone is in touch with his family at this sad time, I would like to let them know how he enhanced my life with his work. Penelope Burton I recall a fascinating exchange of emails with Philip. A lively mind of diverse interests, with a ready wit. Steve Tanner Though we’d only met on three or four occasions, I’d swapped many hundred of emails with Philip over ten years or more, and I shall miss the contact. He would always take an interest in my various surname-related projects, and often provided information and/or web links that I’d missed… Philip was a good and reliable correspondent. He would frequently alert me to new developments in the field of surname studies, making me aware of new websites etc. He was also a great supporter of the various projects in which I’d become interested, some of which have seen the light of day as ‘products’; others not. He was always exceptionally generous in giving his time, and was able to find numerous obscure references that had eluded me – on the web and elsewhere. For instance last year I was working on a new surname matching system, and in the space of just a few days came up with various academic papers that I’d not seen. Over the 10 or 11 years we were in touch we swapped hundreds of emails. Steve Archer