MEMORIES OF RGS ANDREW FITTON

MEMORIES OF RGS

BY ANDREW FITTON (64-75)

I remember the day in the late 1960’s that it happened. Back then, those of us who couldn’t keep up with the classicists, or who had no interest in trying, were offered the opportunity to take the “easy” route and study Economics instead.

Andrew the young rally driver, 1981

Below: Andrew in his role as Chairman of Swindon Town FC, 2009 A t best a poor Latin student, the school had written during the holidays to offer me an escape. But the choice was not to be mine because my Mother, a formidable widow who had enjoyed a war serving with the Intelligence Service in far off places, had already made that decision. The box had been ticked and the letter returned; fortunately our stars were aligned and so my tenure in Room 9 (for that was where most Economics was taught) commenced.

We were a small group of “second-class citizens”, a “Dirty Dozen” led, in our case, not by Lee Marvin but by David Whitehead (Staff 65-72), a young (by RGS standards at the time) thoughtful man who loved his subject and who along with Roger ‘Rash’ Hennessey (Staff 62-73) drove the wedge to make room for this most important of subjects. In most disciplines, whether sporting, musical, or academic, success has more to do with inspiration than pure talent and David Whitehead lit the fire for many of us.

The ‘AO’ Level syllabus at the time was titled something like “Principles & Institutions” and to its eternal credit it offered a wide ranging canter through, not only the basic principles of micro and macro but, just as importantly, the organisation of financial institutions, manufacturing, co-operative societies, unions, friendly societies, etc. We were guided by a man who wanted us to understand that there was a reason that Economics was a social science; the study of the satisfaction of needs and wants, scarcity and choice, not the mathematical modelling exercise that it

has so often become but instead capitalism with a conscience. Geographers like to remind us of the importance of their studies by saying “geography is all around us”; aspiring economists could learn a lot by understanding that “economics touches everyone”. Despite the quality of those who followed, the school lost a guiding light the day that David announced that he was leaving to teach at a college in London where he also had some involvement with the left leaning think-tank the Fabian Society. He had left a mark on all those that he taught and he remembered each one of us. The last time I heard from him was a letter on the eve of my A Level exams wishing me and my fellow students “Good Luck”. David died too early only a few years later.

The study of Economics was a “light bulb” moment for me. In my early years at the RGS I was not a good student, my maverick nature compounded by academic laziness had already caused the headmaster WD ‘Bill’ Haden (Staff 60-72) to implore my Mother to give me the opportunity to blossom somewhere other than Eskdale Terrace (I think that banishment to Fettes may have been suggested). But, she was not a woman to be messed with and she stubbornly resisted his entreaties while simultaneously threatening me with the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth. It wasn’t either of these that “lit the fuse” but instead that I had, at last, found a subject that I not only enjoyed but that I was good at. Suddenly, and without apparent effort I was “top of the class” in something, and that gave me a position to defend. It’s an important motivational point - looking over your shoulder at the chasing pack is so much more compelling than sitting at the back of the field and wondering how on earth you are going to overtake them all. And success breeds success. “At 18 and by this time Deputy Head Boy, Bill Haden (by then retired and not a man noted for apologies), invited me to join him for a lunch, where he said "I wanted to tell you that I was wrong about you” – as Bill Shankly is credited with saying “Form is temporary, Class is permanent”.

David was followed by Nigel Tree (Staff 72-82), a good teacher and a nice man and then joined by Trevor Regan (Staff 74-90) who as a young recently qualified graduate “connected” with his students; they were good people who helped to expand the department and raise its profile in the school and they certainly helped me to fall further in love with “my” subject. But, they also did us all a disservice – they taught us too well!

My Mother died around the time of the Oxbridge Entrance Exams and, though I shan’t embarrass the institution concerned, influenced by that, my choice of university was a mistake. Trevor Regan had suggested that with nothing to keep me in the UK, I should drop everything and head to Princeton NJ - I wish that I had. Instead I ended up in a department where there was open warfare between opposing professors from Keynesian and Monetarist camps; out with the old and in with the new. The study of Economics is, in my opinion, worse for the fact that has become so mathematical and I think that this period was critical in that shift. Back then few people studied Econometrics but now, and with the advent of such computing power and the associated programs and models it has sought to become a quasi “pure” science. Too well taught at the RGS, I learned almost nothing in my first year of University and

Above: Andrew as John Proctor at Central Newcastle High School, 1974

little in the second. By now cars, which had always been a passion, looked far more exciting and so, it was all too easy to turn my back on university and buy a near bankrupt garage business in Whitley Bay from where I could indulge myself racing and rallying.

Some are envious of the breadth of experiences that I have had since then but as I have told my children (all much more successful academically than me), with only A Level Economics, an International Rally Drivers Licence, a Diploma in Sports Psychology, and a UEFA Football Coaching Badge to my name, there is no conventional career path. I have travelled widely across the globe, loved life living in the USA (Austin, TX is simply the greatest city in that country), managed race and rally teams at a high level, run businesses in a multitude of industries (from Computers to Communications and Heating to Healthcare) and even found time to be Chairman of two football clubs – as Alister Cox, Headmaster from 72-94 commented when I spoke at his retirement dinner – I was always searching for something, and I still am!

But in closing, from the first teachings of David Whitehead, I never lost a love for the subject. When asked what I do I still say (despite a lack of qualifications) that I am first and foremost an economist, I write occasional articles and papers under the pseudonym “The Elevator Economist” and now and again someone feels that they are good enough for publication –they are always practical and I try not to forget that this is a “social” science –capitalism with a conscience!