Obituaries in Brief

Col Egar

The Australian cricket umpire Col in "Col" Egar, who died on 5 September aged 80, presided with ColHoy over the first tied Test match, between Australia and West Indies in Brisbane in December 1960, when Hoy adjudged Ian Meckiff to be run out in the penultimate ball of the game.

Egar, who was born in March 1928, and officiated in 29 Tests, later received death threats after a controversial decision. In December 1963, in the first Test between Australia and South Africa, he no-balled Meckiff for "throwing" (bending the elbow more than the regulation minimum when bowling). The home captain Richie Benaud withdrew Meckiff, who never played in another Test. During the second Test, played in Meckiff's home town of Melbourne, the death threats against Egar meant that he was escorted by police to and from the ground.

After umpiring, Egar went into cricket administration, acting as manager to several Aussie Test sides.

Horst Stein

The conductor Horst Stein, who died on 27 July aged 80, was a fixture at the Bayreuth Festival from 1969 to 1986, establishing himself as one of the leading interpreters of the operas of Wagner. The son of a mechanic, at school in Frankfurt he studied piano, oboe and singing, and after lessons in composition at Cologne University he conducted the Berlin State Opera, Hamburg State Opera and Vienna State Opera. In all at Bayreuth he conducted 76 performances, including the 1983 Bayreith centenary production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

Harry L Kozol

The neurologist Harry L Kozol, who had died aged 102, was best known for evaluating defendants in high-profile criminal trials. In 1967 he assessed Alberto DeSalvo, "the Boston Strangler", who had confessed to 13 murders. Later he was called on to examine the heiress Patty Hearst, who had been charged with assisting her kidnappers, the Symbionese Liberation Army, in robbing a bank. Kozol was asked to assess whether she had been coerced into helping in the bank raid. He concluded that she was "a rebel in search of a cause" and had taken part willingly.