29 minute read
Briefings
Pauline Memories
Nicholas Parsons – you have Just a Minute on your time at St Paul’s
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Paul Ganjou (1960-65) met Nicholas Parsons CBE (1937-39) in the last year of Nicholas’ long life. They talked about his time at School.
The happiest days: ‘there is an old saying “School days are the happiest days of your life” and this was certainly true of my time at St Paul’s and Colet Court (St Paul’s Junior School). I was usually the last boy in the playground to catch the tram home, which was then in Clapham. Later we moved to Hampstead and then it was just a short walk from Olympia and the number 28 bus – much easier.’
Teachers: ‘I have a theory that those who take up teaching as a profession either do so because it appeals as a pleasant job, or they are committed to passing on knowledge and learning. I was fortunate enough to have 3 teachers with this latter gift – all classics masters so I happen to excel at Latin and Greek.’
‘Tommy’: ‘In my final year, before I was moved away from the school early, dictated by the outbreak of war, I was taught by TL ‘Tommy’ Martin, as he was affectionately known by all. He was a slightly larger than life character of corpulent build, but had a real gift for teaching and imbuing his pupils with a desire to learn. I often think that whatever self-education I may have acquired since that the foundations were laid by this exceptional teacher and I still remember him with great affection.’
Sport: ‘I am not an academic; my great love is sport and my two schools gave me the chance to express myself in various activities, including cricket and fives and rugby. It was the latter game where I excelled and I was selected to play for the 2nd XV when I was only 15 and then for Glasgow University and reached a very high standard.’
Boxing: ‘I also boxed – as did most boys at the school – under an amazing teacher called Bo Langham. St Paul’s was then the premier boxing school in the country and the 1st Team often beat Sandhurst.’
Paul Ganjou was at School 21 years later and was also taught to box by Bo Langham. Both he and Nicholas won boxing ‘Colours’ and shared 2 other coaches – Bill Williams and ‘Buster’ Read, both ex-pro boxers.
WW Cruikshank (Master 1947-73)
Wally Cruickshank was part of a double act. Whereas Pat Cotter was almost always clearly in view, open for business, Cruickshank was the introvert.
This did not prevent him from exercising a profound influence on my generation of classicists. He habitually looked serious and cautious. Boys approached him with care. Yet underlying his aura was a determination to help us succeed and there was a delicate humour that was very winning when it was carefully teased out.
His voice was unusual. It was guttural and his r’s were elusive, sometimes almost disappearing. Occasionally I paid so much attention to how he was speaking that I missed what he was saying. This led to embarrassment.
He was strongly influenced by his wartime experiences and his military life. He had the gift of natural control over his class, reinforced by glowering eyebrows and a luxuriant moustache, which earned him the nickname ‘Fuzzybristle’. (A few also referred to him as ‘Crookers’ but that was less common.) He realised that control in itself was not enough. It had to be combined with politeness, encouragement and an eagerness to offer new angles to inspire attention and interest.
Referring to wars in ancient history he once demanded, “What made some countries or city-states stronger than others?” Some of us suggested superior weaponry, tactics, or Spartan upbringing. He nodded politely. Those were the aspects favoured by Livy, Herodotus and other historians. But “portable protein” which could last longer than a campaign or a siege was the answer he proposed. Cheese that had a long wallet-life made all the difference. Famished troops could be swept aside. This unromantic but pragmatic opinion caught our imagination. He pointed out that ‘Kraft’ was a very appropriate brand namethinking of what that meant in German. His humorous remarks were never flashy. His eyes twinkled, his moustache quivered, but he rarely laughed aloud. He could be very entertaining, but strictly on his own terms.
One of his preferred approaches towards somewhat smug Pauline classicists was to make seemingly impossible demands on our versatility. In those days translating English poetry into Latin verse composition was expected of all classicists regularly, every two weeks with a week for Greek verse in between. Once he proposed a poem by Robert Fuller Murray that begins:
He brought a team from Inversnaid To play our Third Fifteen...
He smiled at the combination of horror and bewilderment on our faces. A classmate whispered to me, “Did Virgil ever play rugby?”
This improbable task was one of many he conceived to correct incipient over-confidence and to make us prepared for anything when aiming at a university scholarship.
He was a devout defender of the English language. This was a losing battle, I am sure he realized. Yet he urged us to fight on. Classicists, he felt were one of the last important bastions.
Once he looked at our class as if rallying troops in time of war. We were translating some Pliny aloud, one by
one. Somebody used the word “chided”. Cruickshank intervened. “Excuse me,” he said. “The correct form is ‘chid’.” The old past tense was to be used whenever appropriate. Its fate was in the balance and it needed our protection. Similarly – sped and bled. Even at the expense of sounding a tad archaic.
He warned us against neologisms of any kind. He accepted that as scientific knowledge increased, suitable new identifications were inevitable. But as classicists our task was to play defence.
When I played for the 3rd XV Cruickshank was its coach. He somehow guided our not very talented crew towards winning some matches. This he achieved mainly by applauding things we managed to do right. He could also be sly. One Friday we were roped into a futile mini-match against the 1st XV. I was playing hooker and he tapped me on the shoulder before a scrum. “Tell the others, this time hold it in front and wheel left,” he ordered. “You might surprise them.” We did. It worked and we scored a try, which was instantly disallowed so as not to demoralise the 1st XV. Cruickshank smiled quietly. He never crowed. He remained in his private space. Over time we appreciated and learnt from that.
Pauline Music Pauline Books
Fearful Symmetry
Jeremy Shotts (1968-1972) shortly after his 64th birthday, along with his supremely musically talented cousin Suzi James and collectively known as 'Fearful Symmetry' released his first album. It is in the progressive rock style of the late 60s/early 70s but with more recent influences too – inspired by and dedicated to the Life and Works of William Blake. It is called 'Louder than Words'. To the band’s surprise and delight the album has been universally well received in the world of 'progrock' enthusiasts.
Summer Serenades
OP violinist, director and conductor Adrian Butterfield (1978-83) has a series of summer concerts lined up for the Tilford Bach Festival of which he is Musical Director. The Festival will be held at All Saints’ Church, in the pretty wooded village of Tilford, near Farnham in SW Surrey, and will run from 5-7 June. Highlights will include virtuoso concertos by Bach, Vivaldi and Leclair, played by the London Handel Players; Baroque violin students from the Royal College of Music performing a selection of movements from Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin; J S Bach Mass in B minor BWV 232 with the Pegasus Choir; and Bach’s comic operas, again with the London Handel Players.
On Saturday 13 June, Adrian will be performing concertos by Bach, Telemann, Handel and Vivaldi, including Brandenburgs 4 and 5 and the Bach Double with the London Handel Players at Wendover Music, Buckinghamshire.
See adrianbutterfield.com/diary for more details given current uncertainties.
Bruce Howitt The End of Terror
Bruce Howitt’s (1952-56) first novel was published in November 2019. After school, Bruce emigrated to Canada attending McGill University. Following a successful business career, he semi-retired in 2015 to focus on his writing and family.
The End of Terror is the account of how a small group of skilful and determined men and women counter a terrorist threat.
Josh Morris’ (1987-92) journey to being a novelist has been a winding one. Days from starting law school in 1997 he quit in what he later described as a moment of clarity. He then spent the next 6 years working in youth homelessness and international development – most notably working with young offenders in The Gambia. After that he returned to Exeter University and has since spent 14 years teaching Geography in Thailand, Vietnam, India and Chorleywood. Josh is currently on sabbatical and his second novel has recently been published under his pen name, Zach J Brodsky. The Mysterious Case of the Missing Tuk-Tuk has been described as quirky, humorous, odd and definitely an easy read. Josh currently divides his time between South Devon and South East Asia and is writing and pondering a return to full-time employment.
Wynn Wheldon The Fighting Jew
Wynn Wheldon (1971-76) has recently had The Fighting Jew: The Life and Times of Daniel Mendoza published.
This follows the publication of Private Places in 2015, Kicking the Bar: A Filial Biography of Huw Wheldon in 2016, the foreword to Dear Mona: Letters from a Conscientious Objector by Jonah Jones in 2018 and Daniel Mendoza for the volume Jewish Lives: Sport for the Jewish Museum.
Alex Edmans Grow the Pie – Purpose and Profit
Alex Edmans (1993-98) is Professor of Finance at The London Business School. He wrote Grow the Pie out of concern for the increasing polarisation between business and society. Some businesses see exploiting society as the best route to profits – cutting worker wages, hiking prices for customers, or polluting the environment. Equally, some reformers see businesses as the enemy of society and attempt to straitjacket them through regulation.
This polarisation is an example of the pie-splitting mentality. The value generated by capitalism is a fixed pie – any slice given to stakeholders reduces profits; any profits represent extractions from society. This book is about the pie-growing mentality. The pie is not fixed. In the face of the conflict between business and society, this is a fundamentally optimistic book. Yet this optimism is not based on blind hope, but on rigorous evidence that this approach works for both investors and stakeholders.
Pauline Appointments
OPs at the Guild of Mercers’ Scholars
Richard Thompson (1973-77) OBE was installed as Guild Master in 2019. Tim Cunis (1955-60) has handed over the role of School Court Assistant for St Paul's School to Simon Rooms (1973- 78). Tim had been in the post for more than a decade. Few OPs were involved at the Guild when he started but there are now 65 OP Guildmen as well as 12 Indentured Apprentices.
OPs in the Commons
Robin Walker (1991-96) was appointed Minister of State at the Northern Ireland Office on 13 February 2020, having previously been Under Secretary of State at the Scotland and Northern Ireland Office.
He was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union from July 2016 to July 2019. He was first elected as the Conservative MP for Worcester in May 2010.
In 2015 Tom Tugendhat MBE (1986-91) was first elected as Member of Parliament for Tonbridge, Edenbridge and Malling and was re-elected in December 2019.
In Parliament, he has sat on the speakers’ Advisory Committee on Works of Art of the House of Commons and in July 2017 was elected chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, which he continues to chair in the current Parliament.
OP Chairman of The Queen’s Club
Andrew Lowenthal (1966-71) has been elected Chairman of The Queen’s Club. Andrew first visited Queen’s while at School in West Kensington; St Paul’s did not have tennis or squash courts on site and played both games at Queen’s before moving to Barnes with its own courts. He was captain of tennis and squash at School.
In the picture Andrew (second from the left) admitted that it was the only time he was ever likely to share a tennis court with Andy Murray, with whom he shares a birthday.
Paulines on Tour Pauline Boarders
q High House on Brook Green q H. Cedric Cunis pictured outside Colet House, c. 1918/19.
OPs at the 2019 Rugby World Cup
Stuart Hardy (1963-66) and his brother Chris (1969-73) (resplendent in their OPFC blazers) are seen here with Richard Freeman (1977-82), a former captain of the rugby club, at the final in Yokohama. Richard who lives and works in Japan as a rugby journalist contributed an article to the final programme.
Boarders at St Paul’s
Tim Cunis (1955-60), Archivist to the Old Pauline Club, has shared his research on boarders and the Club system at St Paul’s.
Dean John Colet founded St Paul’s for dayboys in 1509 next to St Paul’s Cathedral. In 1884 it moved into its fourth building in West Kensington.
By the 1890s it had two off-site boarding houses for 30 to 40 boys each. These were 'High House' on Brook Green and 'Colet House' near to Barons Court station. When the
Talgarth/Cromwell Road was widened in 1956, 'Colet House' was demolished and its boarders were moved on-site into 'School House', a building that was originally the High Master's residence and is now the independently owned St Paul's Hotel. When the school moved in 1968 to its fifth site in Barnes, the 'High House' and ‘School House' names were retained for its two on-site boarding houses. Those two buildings have since been demolished to make way for a concert hall and theatre and there are now only 20/30 boarders in a single boarding house.
All boys were originally allocated to one of six Clubs in West Kensington, A, B, C, D, E, & H or 'Houses', which was for the boys in the two boarding houses. F & G were added later in order to simplify arrangements for knockout competitions between eight Clubs.
Pauline Polymaths
Korn, Miller, Sacks: from The Independent’s obituary of Eric Korn in 2014
“When Stephen J Gould wrote that "...every classroom has one Sacks, one Korn, or one Miller, usually a lonely child with a passionate curiosity about nature and a zeal that overcomes pressures for conformity," he was warning of the danger of overlooking individual merit while purging elitism. He was also making a private joke; for one remarkable classroom did once hold Oliver Sacks (1946-51) (neurologist and author of The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat) Jonathan Miller (1947-53) (Beyond the Fringe, The Body in Question, and celebrated director) and Eric Korn (1946-52) (doyen of The Round Britain Quiz and antiquarian bookseller).
Korn, Miller and Sacks attended St Paul's School in London, where they became the heart of a group of Jewish intellectuals on a quest for a secular gnosis. Under their inspirational master Sid Pask they shared a love of biology and a passion for Darwin. They formed a literary group that was banned for sedition by the school authorities, and a lifelong friendship. All three pursued a study of science, but were all perhaps more romantic than practical scientists, finding the search for truth in the world of the mind more than in the microscope lens”.
Editor: Michael Simmonds remembers Jonathan Miller and Oliver Sacks being drawn to fight in the Green Cup (a boxing tournament involving every boy at the school).”The two of them camped it up horribly, turning it into some kind of contest between prehistoric monsters with loud grunts and groans. Not a punch was landed. Bo Langham and Bill Williams were not amused”. Perhaps Eric Korn was the timekeeper.
Pauline London
OPs are invited to share their favourite places to eat, drink or visit in the capital. Please send your suggestions to: jeremy.withersgreen@gmail.com
This selection is by Henry Dyer (2010-15)
WHERE TO DRINK The Crown & Anchor, Stockwell
Equidistant from Brixton and Stockwell tube stations, this pub on the bustling Brixton Road, just down the road from the Brixton Jamm, has a brewery-like decor and a range of beers to match. A freehouse which flies the flag of the Camra movement without its pub bores. It combines a range of real ales, ciders, and craft beers with its achingly young clientele. The Crown’s jaunty mixture of reggae music, exposed original brick walls and the cash-free policy is a real delight. You still have to pay, of course, but two quality pints will leave you with change from £10.
OP military awards
The front cover of the recently published For Conspicuous Gallantry by Neil Thornton has a photo of three officers, one of whom is the Old Pauline war poet, Lieutenant Ewart Alan Mackintosh M.C. (1909-12) of the 5th Seaforth Highlanders. He was killed in November 1917. The officer on the left is Siegfried Sassoon. Other Old Paulines awarded the M.C. in World War 1 include the cricket and rugby international Major Reginald Oscar Schwarz M.C. and the rugby international Major Sir Laurence Pierce Merrian, M.C., ‘Toc H’ Founder, The
p The Crown & Anchor, Stockwell
WHERE TO EAT Booma, Stockwell
But why limit beer to a pub? Situated right opposite The Crown & Anchor is Booma, a curry house which develops the staid “pint of Cobra with a chicken korma” into a tapas-style meal of small plates with schooners of craft beer to match. 15 dishes and 10 beers make up their menu. Familiar dishes such as wonderful onion bhajis and a delicately spiced curry with succulent chicken tandoori nestle next to unconventional but delicious options like pulled duck in a garlic naan roll or slow-cooked spare ribs drenched in a spicy masala. Fancy a curry? Go to Booma. Reverend Philip Byard ‘Tubby’ Clayton D.S.O. M.C. and Lt General Sir Humphrey Myddleton Gale K.B.E. C.B. C.V.O. M.C., who later became Deputy Chief of Staff to General Eisenhower. In the South African War (1899- 1902) Old Paulines were awarded 15 Distinguished Service Orders, 3 Distinguished Conduct Medals and 30 were Mentioned in Despatches. The South African War Memorial commemorating those killed unveiled by Field Marshall Lord Roberts in 1906 was designed by Old Pauline architect, Frank Chesterton who himself was killed on the Somme in 1916. The
WHERE TO VISIT The Ritzy, Brixton
Finding a good and relatively affordable cinema seems to be an increasingly difficult task. But handily a short walk (or stumble, if visiting post-pub) from Booma and the Crown is the Ritzy, which has stood for over a century despite WW2 bombing, a 1980s reputation as a lefty cause, and recent strikes and pickets over employees’ low wages. A Picturehouse cinema with great films, cheap tickets especially on Mondays, and a
Pauline Gallantry
discounted bar for members.
monument was disposed of from the Barnes site in the 1970s and languishes in a garden in Sussex.
Professor Mark Bailey
Journalist Mark Lobel (1992-97) talks to High Master Mark Bailey who returns to the University of East Anglia later this year.
We are sitting in an executive portacabin currently parked on the school’s tennis courts – in a makeshift room masquerading as his study – overlooking the river. It is the High Master’s last day holed up here before moving back into his newly renovated office. Bags full of waste – the fallout of any office move – surround us.
I was keen to hear Mark’s views on Sally-Anne Huang, the next person to occupy his chair. She will be the School’s first-ever female High Master in its 510-year history when she steps down as Head of James Allen’s Girls’ School in Dulwich.
I was originally meant to be interviewing her until she was hit by the flu. Atrium has been assured that Sally-Anne will speak to us when her feet are firmly under her new desk.
The current High Master stepped up and quickly explained why her arrival is so keenly anticipated by the School. “Staff and parents have said that the relative under-representation of senior female role models in the senior school is one area for improvement. Also, she has significant experience of a number of schools to draw upon.”
Mark also thinks Sally-Anne’s media profile and upcoming role as Chair of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference will help put St Paul’s “back onto the national platform in educational debate” – a move he concedes is now “overdue”. He also expects her to focus on “academic provision” within the school, having spent less time on it himself than he would have wished to over the past nine years, alongside continuing the focus on “rebuilding, bursaries, safeguarding and pastoral welfare”.
As we now know, it may only be three years until we see the first female students at St Paul’s too. Mark says it can not come too soon. But plans have yet to been signed off.
Some parents and boys remain concerned about the “cultural change” that it may bring.
The entrance of girls is likely to be restricted to the 8th form but there is also a desire for a “critical mass so that girls make up to a third of the pupils in those years, so that they feel an integral part of the senior school and not just an afterthought”.
But for many future parents of sons – or daughters – who are at the School, the biggest hurdle remains the cost of an education.
In 2016, the High Master famously set alarm bells ringing by saying it had become “unaffordable”. What he actually said was the fees – which were over £22,000 then and for the Senior School are now over £25,000 a year – were “increasingly unaffordable” for middle-class parents.
He says he would still describe current fees as “certainly unaffordable to certain groups of people” but is pleased that fees at St Paul’s have increased at a lower rate than the peer group London average over the past four years.
But now he thinks that the School needs to “flatline” fees as much as possible over the next decade.
“We’re going to have to promote commercial revenues to keep those fees flatlining and raise other money for bursaries and building projects.”
As a bursary student himself, Mark Bailey could not be more in favour of expanding them at St Paul’s and is delighted to have seen more bursaries over the past few years, which includes children of parents with a joint income of £120,000.
Perhaps Mark’s legacy will be having turned a school that was previously focused on excelling in sport and academic studies into one that puts the safety of pupils above all else.
The aim is to increase the current 115 bursaries initially to 153. There is a debate about whether fundraising efforts should focus solely on bursaries now and omit building work (see Letters page 03). Simply put, to prioritise poorer people over grand construction projects. But, according to Mark, there are issues with this for a number of reasons.
A recent confidential survey of donors found a “sizeable minority” would prefer their money goes towards buildings and not bursaries. That is why buildings are part of the ‘Shaping Our Future’ campaign.
From an ex-pupil’s perspective, speaking for myself, one of the things I most remember from the 1990s was in fact the buildings – such as the boathouse. Perhaps this is simply sentimentality and that is what explains our fascination with buildings.
A thought with which I appreciate many readers may disagree.
The High Master makes an even simpler point.
“The school does not have any provision for replacing the boat house or cricket pavilion, both of which will have to happen sooner or later.”
He concedes that a new boathouse could, for example, be built for less than seven million pounds, but at that cost it reflects the sensitivity of building on a river-front and also provides for a new hospitality suite on the second floor, which opens up any number of commercial possibilities that would then bring in regular income. Much needed if fees are to be fixed given continued cost pressures.
How does one respond to historic abuse in a way that is right for everyone within a school community? This is an impossible question, but it is hard to imagine how anyone could have faced up to this challenge more assiduously than Mark.
When the High Master was finally allowed to meet with a sexually abused former student face-to-face, years after the allegations of historic abuse at St Paul’s surfaced, he was so shaken by what he heard that he had to step outside his own office.
I ask if that meant he had shed a tear. “Yes,” he says, looking in my direction but not quite at me, rather through me, as he fell silent.
As Mark eventually regains his voice, it is clear that the past few years of having to deal unexpectedly with the worst scandal in the history of the School (much of which was spent without knowing the identities of the victims) has taken its toll.
“I had to remove myself from the room for ten minutes. I think it was just seeing the impact on the victim, the enormity of it and also coming to terms with the responsibility of dealing with it on behalf of the community.”
He speaks highly of the “typically Pauline” response of the victims he met. They were “brisk, open and analytical” about their “life-changing” events, as they bravely described to him the “distressing, moving, excoriating” effect the abuse had on them and their families. It proved “invaluable” in helping senior staff actually understand how grooming can happen at school and how to best prevent it ever happening again.
Our interview falls on the day the American film producer Harvey Weinstein’s grim face adorns the newspaper front pages. It is the moment the man, whose grotesque actions
QUICKFIRE
Did you watch the Brits? No – what are they?
Did you vote Leave or Remain? Remain.
What can Later Medieval History teach us about exiting the EU? (Laughs) Do it.
Is Boris Johnson good for Yorkshire? Yorkshire is convinced that he is good for it.
Would you prefer a Canada or Australia-style trade deal? Canada.
Greggs or Pret? Ugh, grief. Greggs.
Should mobile phones be banned in schools? No.
Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump? Bernie.
Who should lead the Labour Party? Keir.
Have you met Boris Johnson? No.
What’s the last thing you saw on TikTok? On what?
Will you miss Harry and Meghan? No.
What attracted you to Later Medieval History? The Black Death. Mortality. Read my book!
unwittingly gave many victims of abuse the strength to come forward and sparked the #MeToo movement, is finally charged for his sexual crimes.
One lesson from the Weinstein case was not just that he was bad, but that those around him let it happen.
After reading through Richmond Council’s report on St Paul’s dark past – that heard from 59 ex-pupils – I wonder out loud, in front of the current High Master, whether that same lesson, that others who should have known better but instead fell silent, has been addressed.
The SCR reported that one unnamed High Master destroyed pages of a diary detailing abuse and quoted a view that teachers had a “licence to terrorise” and that things were “Darwinian in that the weak and frail were preyed upon the most”.
I pressed Mark on whether former High Masters and Heads of the Junior School should have been found culpable, in addition to the five former members of staff so far convicted of sexual offences.
“If there was any criminal responsibility, even by the laws of the time, the police would have picked that up.” He suggests there may have been a culture of “incredulity” at the time, adding, “I just don’t know how much information was passing up to senior members of staff.”
Looking back, it seems like teachers were woefully unpoliced.
“My sense is that the school permitted autonomy in highly-able teachers, both as pedagogues – what they taught, how they taught – and how they interacted with pupils. With close interaction, then the boundaries become blurred and that’s where there were dangers, particularly for the charismatic who sought to abuse.”
Now that the school has publicly apologised and taken full responsibility for all past abuse, Mark’s sense is that after all the “publicity, passage of time and openness” will have encouraged people to come forward, although two former staff members are still under investigation. He thinks parents are reassured with the “multiple levels of deterrents” and specialist training for teachers now in place.
As we continue our conversation in the temporary office, through the windows I can see a row of elegant but rare black poplar trees – once a staple of the British landscape – now difficult to find. At one point it looked like private schools could go the same way. Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour was intent on scrapping them.
“The debate isn’t over,” Mark insists.
“It’s linked to the societal shift against elitism,” he warns, adding, “it would be better if we could engage in a more informed and empathetic way in what we mean by elitism, because at the moment the debate seems to be dominated by crude stereotyping.”
Regarding this “threat” as an opportunity, Mark thinks independent schools need to make themselves more “relevant” and to engage with wider society through bursaries and state school partnerships.
But if independent schools become a token target for anti-elite sentiment or the cost takes it out of the reach of more parents, he predicts the “future of British independent education is, ironically, abroad,” where it will thrive among increasingly affluent middleincome families, especially in Asia, and thus make British education “exportonly”.
As for what to teach pupils in the future, Mark thinks the School needs to refine its skill sets to ensure the “employability” of its pupils, with more emphasis on “social awareness and more collaborative ways of working”.
While St Paul’s thrives with small classes and the “dialectical and disputatious element of discussion” he would like to see improvements in “community engagement and utility” by enabling boys to undertake voluntary activities, such as the current work helping the homeless with their literacy skills and applying for credit. “If we promote good citizenship and boys with a social conscience then I think we are going to be preparing them well for what on earth the mid-21st Century employment market throws at them.”
There is also the issue of “identity” to grasp.
“A small number of pupils have expressed a desire for a different identity and we’ve accommodated that. We have systems and a culture that is sympathetic. Those boys have continued to be integrated into the life of the School. I attended an LGBT meeting last term, there are posters around the school encouraging boys to attend societies which promote discussion of these issues and access to appropriate changing rooms and toilets is made available.”
But soon Mark will have to leave all these issues to his successor.
Next for him, is a return to the University of East Anglia as a Professor of Late Medieval History. There, he is to launch a new course for first year students and improve the University’s pastoral side.
“I’m greatly looking forward to teaching Medieval History and trying to persuade first year undergraduates reared on the 20th Century and 19th Century revolutions that there is something really worth understanding about modernity from the Middle Ages. It is a passion and for as long as I can read and write I will be lecturing and writing on Medieval History.”
He has a book entitled “After the Black Death: Society, Economy and Law in 14th Century England” coming out at the end of the year.
“If that doesn’t cure insomnia, nothing will.” His words, not mine.
Does that leave a gap for anything else, a new hobby or sporting challenge for the former rugby union international winger? “The last nine years have been exhausting. I’ve now been 21 years a head teacher. I’m not immediately looking for new avenues and opportunities. I just need to take stock.”
When the interview is over, the School’s 34th High Master is asked whether he would have taken the job in the first place, if he had known what was coming.
“Absolutely,” he says without blinking. “It’s made me a much better person. I won’t live as long now, that’s for sure, but I wouldn’t change a thing.”
Autumn’s THE INTERVIEW will be with Sally-Anne Huang, the next High Master of St Paul’s.
