Obituary – Nicholas Mitchell

Posted: 1 April 2025

Remembering Nicholas Mitchell (21.10.1946 – 04.03.2025)

When you make a friend later in life it takes time to get to know the whole person. You don’t see the entire picture. But like a jigsaw, over the 10 years that we shot together, many of the pieces fell into place. Below Nicholas’ somewhat blunt manner lay a much softer centre. A kind, intelligent and thoughtful man.

He told of his passion for beautifully engineered timepieces. His cycling adventures. His forays into high-end car dealing and the antiques trade. His decades on Antiques Roadshow. How he learnt to fly and scuba dive. The challenge of creating a dream house on the Thames. And most of all, of his love for his partner, Jeanne.

One thing was crystal clear: Nicholas was a perfectionist in everything he did or owned. The latest Brompton bike (one of the finest designs of its kind in the world) had to go back to the factory to be tweaked to Nicholas’ requirements. The traditional crossbow that was, in his words, “gorgeous”, still needed the ‘Nicholas Touch’ to make it just right.

Nicholas fully espoused the fun and frustrations of instinctive archery. The AFB was his first weapon of choice. He joined Company of 60, moving to Belvedere Bowmen when he relocated to Portland, Dorset.
Then, when cancer tried to put a stop to that by preventing him from reaching full draw, Nicholas stuck two fingers in its direction and moved to Traditional Xbow, which he clearly loved. Arguably even more than AFB.

In adversity he still managed to find fun. He kept going as long as he could while doing everything as well as he could. Because that’s how he rolled. That was Nicholas.
And now that he’s stopped rolling, we salute him and his wonderfully eclectic life. We ask you to do the same.

Let’s all be a bit a more ‘Nicholas’ by always asking ourselves one key question: “how can I do that – or make that – a little better?”

The Boys of the Belvedere