Death and Legacy
In the evening of Saturday 21 February 1948, Pyke shaved his beard and consumed a bottleful of sleeping pills. His landlady found his body the following Monday morning. The coroner gave a verdict of suicide at a moment of mental unbalance. Immediately before consuming the pills, he had written some private letters that made it clear that his death was premeditated.
An obituary in The Times newspaper praised him and lamented his passing, beginning with the words:
The death of Geoffrey Pyke removes one of the most original if unrecognised figures of the present century.John Bernal, who knew Pyke well, wrote:
He remained always the knight-errant, from time to time gathering round him a small band of followers but never a leader of big movements. Because of the very greatness of his ideas most of his life was one of frustration and disappointment, but he has left behind to all who knew him and were indirectly affected by him the vision he created for making all things possible.Read more about this topic: Geoffrey Pyke
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