Oliver Popplewell vice-chairman of the Parole Board, and a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. In 1975 he defended his godson Stephen Fry, who was 18 at the time, at his trial for credit card fraud. Popplewell and his wife had long been friends of Fry's parents. Stephen Fry writes about the event in his autobiography "Moab Is My Washpot". Following the fire at Valley Parade, the Bradford City stadium, on 11 May 1985, Popplewell was chosen to chair an inquiry held under the Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975. Following this inquiry, he was chosen to chair a Committee of
Moab Is My Washpot Jo Wood (his best friend at Uppingham), and Oliver Derwent (a prefect who "seduces" Fry). The title, never explained in the text of the book, is a verse found in and . Through wearing sandals, people's feet would become filthy in the dusty desert environment and upon entering a home feet would be washed with water by pouring water over them into a washpot. Moab, which had threatened Israel, was to be so completely subdued, and so became likened to a wash pot or basin. This title was selected because Fry saw the book as "scrubbing at the grime of