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FINDING ROGER DAVID GOLDWATER
FINDING ROGER
BY DAVID GOLDWATER (51-62)
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The theme for this issue of ONA Magazine is Economics and one man is responsible for its foundation at the RGS, Roger Hennessey (Staff 62-73), 60 years ago. Fortunately, an enquiry through the Stephenson Locomotive Society led me to contact and subsequently interview this iconic and important School staff alumnus.
Roger Hennessey Picture by AJ MacManners (Staff 64-73)
DFG: Roger, as the pioneer of Economics at the RGS, it’s excellent to have made contact. Tell us about your Education.
RASH: After a ho-hum GCE O Level career at Epsom College, I took off in the Sixth Form largely because of the excellent teaching by two contrasting characters, teachers of history. Eventually off to National Service and then Downing College, Cambridge to read History. Tutors of some fame, included Geoffrey Elton and Dennis Brogan, but I owed much to Reggie White, my Supervisor at Downing College, a man with a great turn of phrase. My specialism was the British Economy 18701940, and within that, a study of the electricity industry (see below). This involved economics and therefore some acquaintance with its Tripos requirements.
DFG: How did you arrive at RGS?
RASH: During my post-graduate year (also at Cambridge) for the Certificate in Education (1961-62) I applied for various posts as a starter. WD Haden (Staff 60-72) of the RGS invited me up to Jesmond for a grilling, joined for part of the time by George Dean (Staff 24-67), Second Master. WD Haden was out to modernise the RGS and thought that a broader curriculum, geared to the (then) mid-20th century economy was called for, hence economics. But he envisaged it as a purely Sixth Form subject, not enough to justify a full member of staff by itself. The second string to my bow, History, fitted in with the school’s needs, so he took a punt and appointed me. Haden’s start was ‘controversial’ and some were to perceive me as an agent of the new order, but that phase soon passed and I slotted in, making many lifetime friends.
DFG: How did the Economics Department begin?
RASH: WDH left it to me to select the appropriate syllabus from the A Level requirements of the Oxford and Cambridge Universities Joint Examinations Board. Front line work commenced in September 1962 with a set of about 15. This included Ian Gardhouse (54-64), later a luminary of the BBC, Messrs R Bainbridge (54-65), JR Manley (54-64), CJ Sugden (60-64), H Gleave (57-64), D Oliver (57-64) et al. I had no single room for teaching, leading a nomadic life in the chalk dust left by my colleagues. Later I was given Room Nine, later still the former Plender Library. Over the years the A Level results were good, thanks largely to the impressive application of my charges. The department grew in size. I was joined by David Whitehead (Staff 65-72) and we expanded the syllabus to include economic theory. Further growth was aided by Joe McDonald (Staff 66-72) who added political theory to our offer. The subject spread into the Sixth Form, eventually into the Removes.
DFG: You revolutionised Novo Magazine and made some very positive changes.
RASH: This had been managed for years by Maurice Robinson (Staff 34-72), therefore to exceedingly high literary standards. Maurice relinquished the post to Raymond Bratt (Staff 61-67) who ran it for a short while before departing to Portsmouth GS. WDH asked if I were interested in succeeding, possibly because by then I had authored some books and papers, I have long had an interest in typography and printing. I was aided by a fine and skilful team of editors, mainly from the Sixth Form. We started a gossip column, written by various members of the team under the by-line name of Kasimir (thought to sound exotic, East European, enigmatic). Costs of production were high, but my interest in reprographics led me to a new set-up in Jarrow that was into computers and photo-typesetting, and over we went at once reducing costs and raising graphic standards. The entire editorial team came to my abode in Gosforth, cutting, pasting and rearranging material under the new dispensation. After a struggle with WDH we took on advertisements to further reduce costs. So, in a short time, we shifted from lead type and copper blocks to the new technology.
DFG: You mentioned your Authoring. How did this come about?
RASH: I started with a series of economic history textbooks for the publishers, Batsfords, and then moved to the heavier
George Dean Patsy Gordon
stuff. My first such foray was The Electric Railway That Never Was, York-Newcastle, 1919. Thanks to the help of Arthur Howell (Governor c47-72), then Deputy Chairman of RGS Governors and an eminent electrical engineer, I had the run of the archive of Merz & McLellan, consultant engineers, where I found the necessary gems. Next was a general history of electricity supply in GB: ‘The Electric Revolution’ (1870-1940), kindly adopted by the Science Book Club. One work, somewhat out of my ordinary was Worlds Without End, a survey of thoughts and philosophies about extra-terrestrial life.
DFG: What are your recollections of RGS colleagues?
RASH: Too numerous to mention, really. We were a harmonious band of brothers with some impressive sisters who added their civilising style to the Common Room: Patsy Gordon (Staff 59-85) and Joy Knowles (Staff 52-84). When I arrived, one or two colleagues had commenced work in the 1920s. Coming strongly to mind are my Common Room neighbours whose desks juxtaposed mine: a Scot Chemistry teacher, Charles George (Staff 50-78) and Bill Cuthbertson (28-35, Staff 47-74); the latter a man of many parts and deep religious faith: boxing, rowing, history and a fine photographer who taught me many related techniques. Each day I returned home across the Town Moor with Head of Mathematics Frank Budden (Staff 62-82), then engaged on writing his definitive work on group theory. He liked to hold forth on our walks against that which these days would be referred to as ‘wokery’. He had quite a menagerie of bêtes noires. Fred Galbraith (Staff 30-31 & 49-68) Head of History looked at me askance at first as a Haden ‘plant’, but we soon got on well. Laurie Meaken (Staff 31-74) and Head of Physics Howard Burchell (Staff 66-99), were fellow-members of the railway mafia as was perhaps unexpectedly the scholarly Head of English Maurice Robinson (Staff 34-72) who was son of a railwayman. Colin ‘Jake’ Nicholls (Staff 53 -86) eventually Second Master, was a strong ally in Sixth Form management. A notable member of the Common Room was Jimmy Doull (Staff 5267) a music teacher. He had served in the Army during the occupation of Constantinople (c1920) and the subsequent British intervention in Thrace. We set up a joint talk for pupils; I outlined the politicking and diplomacy, Jimmy described life on the Maritza front. A living primary source!
DFG: What attracted you to railways and electricity?
RASH: No idea why I became interested in these subjects –mysterious chemistry. Except I had many relations in both industries, a grandfather on the Great Western, another grandparent and many uncles who were ‘electricals’. A good study of the history of electricity supply would throw much illumination on the achievements and woes of the UK over the years. My research into its history was greatly aided also by a large archive in the Lit & Phil, of which I was for a while a Committee member.
DFG: What are your enduring memories of RGS?
RASH: Many expressed above, so I will fire off some brief notes, I hope not too laconic.
… WDH’s office, wood panelled, with a curious suite of green leather chairs, from the cusp of Art Deco with a matching green telephone which, for some reason, he preferred to keep hidden in a desk drawer…
… as Common Room Secretary I was the nearest thing to a shop steward in that august company, occasionally having to deliver slightly unpalatable messages to WDH. The Common Room had a marvellous communications system arranged in a battery of pigeon holes for messages and mail, all very pre-internet…
Freddie Galbraith Maurice Robinson Clara Teunon
… MGR’s economically elegant reports on pupils. I recall one that said it all in two words: ‘He falters.’…
… the culinary genius of Mrs Teunon (Staff 57-72) her kitchen team producing waves of lunches every day, cuisine of an unusually high standard. I write as a qualified cook, at least in Army terms!
… the installation of a tea urn in the Common Room…
… arranging a course of general lectures for the Sixth Form, held in the amphitheatre of Room M…
… long before it was part of the national cultural debates, Fred Galbraith insisted that the members of his department attended a short set of lectures on the history of ‘Black America’ so that we became familiar with the works and achievements of such as Booker T Washington, and Stephen Douglas, and the National Association of Coloured Peoples…
DFG: You mentioned you’d had a role in setting up the School Archive.
RASH: When the new Bursar Jack Thompson (Staff 65 to unknown) arrived, he made a drastic clear-out of the accumulated papers of the Padgham era. I noticed a dozen or more tea chests stuffed with this unique documentary memory of the RGS lurking for skip collection, behind the great organ. Riffling through I found a vast stock of old photographs, some going back to the mid 19th century; stocks of books covering the history of the school, an early tasselled RGS cap, even a 17th century invoice sent to a parent, reminiscences of Old Novos in the Great War, and much else. I had a quick word with the Bursar who said I could keep the lot if I found space for it. Storage was supplied by Bill Thornton (Staff 49-76) amongst his props for school dramas. Later, the Bursar gave us space in a stationery store and with the invaluable assistance of some pupils led by Mike Pullen (Staff 62-70), we catalogued and distributed it all on shelves. Haden became an enthusiastic supporter and we compiled a large album containing the photographic history of the RGS which he liked to show to visitors.
I gather some of the collection was lost after a flood in later years; given that Archivists ensure that such material is stored safe from fire, flood and damp, perhaps someone had nodded off. If this is so I hope some stock remains, it was a powerful record in its day.
DFG: Some ONs will no doubt remember outings or excursions with nostalgia?
RASH: Outside visits were a prominent feature of RGS life in the 60s. David Whitehead arranged an ‘Economics Camp’ down South, with visits to the Houses of Parliament and the Bank of England. Nearer to home there were conducted visits by economists, or enthusiasts of the RGS Transport Circle (or both) that read like a roll call of the lost industries of the ‘carboniferous capitalism’ era: Redheugh Gasworks; Dunston Power Station; Consett Steelworks; Royal Ordnance Factory, Birtley; Anglo-Great Lakes Graphite, Lemington, and the near-legendary Harton Electric Railway, South Shields. This was the last visit that I took part in; the first was down 1,200ft at Weetslade Colliery, near Gosforth.
DFG: Can you tell us something of your post-RGS life and North East reminiscences?
RASH: I left the RGS in 1973 on appointment as HM Inspector of Schools. Within a year I was District Inspector for Gateshead, later also of Sunderland. I moved South in 1978 (Kent) and later became senior HMI for history, at the time the National Curriculum was being established. I retired on the establishment of Ofsted, 1992.
My late wife and I were keen and regular visitors to the North East (she had lived in Darlington for many years) and we often came to Newcastle. In 2002 the ONs invited me as guest speaker to their Dinner, celebrating 40 years of the Economics Department, which seemed to have grown mightily by that time. Joe McDonald also came, but alas David Whitehead had passed away by then after a distinguished career as lecturer and tutor at the University of London School of Education, where I occasionally met him. Various former pupils were there on that occasion, including current President Paul Haggie (60-67) of the Foreign Office and others. Other charges who have kept in touch include Paula Coningham (Staff 2007- present) of the Classics Department who is married to one of my nephews. Alister Cox (Staff 7294), former Headmaster, met in late 2021.
Alas, my wife contracted dementia so our visits faded after 2007; recent plans to return to the North East were torpedoed by Covid-19 lockdowns, but they remain ready to spring into action as and when.
