The Headmaster's Chair

The Headmaster’s Chair John Weitzel

LGS Archivist

The Headmaster’s Chair One of the most iconic images we have in archives is of the original school room in the Victorian era.

If you look closely at this picture one can see on the stage the Headmaster’s chair.

As the Grammar School was by far the smallest (in fact it actually didn’t exist in 1852!) of the four Schools in the Churchgate School it seems unlikely that the chair moved with the School, so we can assume it was brand new in 1852.

Subsequent images of the school room indicate that for a long period of time the chair remained.

1930

1915 However by the 1950’s the chair seems to have disappeared.

Thus it seems probable that seven Headmasters - Gordon, Wallace, Colgrove, Kaye, Turner, Stinton & Pullinger - had sat in this chair. However what makes the chair special are the events of the evening of 17th November 1875.

In a subsequent copy of The Loughburian one of the boarders, Frank Wood, recalled the events of that evening.

“I remember that Mr Wallace had a friend to dinner, sitting down with us all, and after dinner I saw Mr Wallace take this person into the School, evidently with object of showing him over it. There is a sort of lobby, in which we boarders kept our play boxes etc. and this leads to one of the large school rooms. The door of the lobby was open and I remember seeing Mr Wallace stagger into the school room from a corridor and he fell across one of the forms. The next I heard was that he was dead. I have a clear recollection also that we boarders were invited to go and take farewell of our old Master as he lay in his study in the coffin….It was the first time I had ever seen death, and I remember how waxen his face looked and how strange it seemed to see his great nose and face so near to me and lying so still. I have never forgotten the scene and I never shall. He was a kind, considerate Master, and I think we all had a great respect and affection for him.”

Today, close to the spot outside G1 where Headmaster James Wallace died, is his memorial.

Shortly after his death this picture of the staff was taken, with the vacant chair indicating the recently deceased Headmaster.

John Cramer (Music)

A.G.Negus

J.Hughes

Carl Lowenstein (Languages) Seth Holden (Drawing)

Rev. James Mountain (Classics)

G.J.Gulliver

Rev. J.E.Hewinson, M.A. (Second Master, Maths)

It seems probable that after 100 years of Headmasters sitting on it it was rather worn and taken out of service. It was on the point of being disposed of when Head of History, W.R. ‘Bob’ Griffiths , saw it and realising its importance saved it. It has always remained in archives and for a long period of time was on display in the archive room in Friesland. However, when the archive room was moved to be close to the library there was no where to display it and it was placed down in the cellar below the library, in a rather sorry state.

There it would have remained had it not been for the appointment of Daniel Koch as the School’s 37th Headmaster in 2022. A historian, the first time he saw it and heard its story he was determined to have it restored. So the restoration by J.B.Green Upholstery, Wigston, began.

The restoration was complete.

Some 70 years after it was last used, Daniel Koch became the eighth Headmaster to sit in ‘The Headmaster’s Chair’.

So 147 years after the chair remained empty it is occupied again.

John Weitzel LGS Archivist November 2022