You were at Concord College as either teacher or Principal for 40 years – how were the two jobs different and which did you prefer? 
I was teacher at Concord for the first ten years of my career then I became Principal in 1975.  I don’t think I liked one job more than the other but I was lucky because I was able to carry on teaching even when I was Principal which, in many Head Teacher roles you just can’t do to the extent I did. 

Over the years the teaching side had to get less and less but I was still teaching up to my last day as Principal – I would have hated to have given up teaching so I guess that really was and is my passion.  I loved the contact with students in the lessons and I felt that my teaching background also helped me when I became Principal because the student knew me because I was still teaching some of them. 

When I became ill about ten year ago loads of students got in touch with me even ones I had never taught but I think this is because I was close to them all, even those I was not teaching as the ones I was teaching spread the word that I was actually quite a nice chap!
The school grew whilst I as there from around 60 students in 1965 – it was when we moved to Shropshire that numbers jumped to around 110 in 1973 reaching around 200 just before I retired.


What was the reason for moving from Tunbridge Wells?  How did the students react?
We need to expand the college and the facilities at Tunbridge Wells site were just not big enough – only five acres.  We desperately needed more building and in the property boom in 1972 we were offered what was considered a fortune for the Tunbridge Wells site – around three quarters of a million.  When you consider we then bought Acton Burnell for £150k it was a considerable amount and too good an opportunity. 

The Acton Burnell site has been empty for a while and needed a considerable amount of work doing to it which took several months to get it ready for us to move into.

All the additional money we had made on the sale of Tunbridge Wells was put into the new college by Frank Bell – the only thing I remember him buying from the proceeds was a record player.

The students thought it was a bit of a leap in the dark moving up to Shropshire - particularly as they liked being near London – Tunbridge Wells was only 45 min by train into Charring Cross. Moving up north was definitely a challenge but all of the students came and so did all the teachers apart from two and that was only because they had family commitments down south.


If you could pick just ONE memory of your time at Concord what is you biggest memory or made you laugh the most?
I think it has to be the first time Concord College got students into Oxbridge.  There were three in 1990 who achieved this and we were so happy and proud of them and the college.  It was a great achievement and one I will always remember. 

You spent the whole of your career, 40 years at Concord College – when you retired in 2005 did it take you long to adjust to a life without Concord?
You are right – Concord was and to some extent still is my life.  It’s always been Concord College for me.  Unfortunately I was forced into early retirement after suffering a cardiac arrest and other heart problems when I was just 62 years old.  Without this I think I would have gone on until I was at least 65 if not older!  When I did retire, after Neil Hawkins was appointed, all the staff thought I would find it impossible to adjust to retirement and thought they would suddenly find me sitting in the staff room having a cup of coffee or turning up to say hello! In fact I adjusted really easily – more easily than even I thought.  I think moving to Shrewsbury helped and of course by that time I had grandchildren to keep me busy.

If you could live your life at Concord all over again what would you change?
I don’t think I would change much – I felt very fulfilled and happy at Concord and even in retirement I am continuing to see and visit alumni friends and their children all over the world.

More of a worry than a regret but I used to worry that my family sometimes felt that Concord always came first.  I remember once when Kate was a little girl and I was tickling her and I said to her as fathers tend to say to their children “Who does Daddy love”…she was so young at the time but she looked me in the eye and said ‘”Concord Daddy”.  At the time it broke my heart but now my girls Kate, Julia and Emily have grown up I have asked them if they felt that I neglected them for Concord and they have all told me no.  In fact, whilst Concord was always there for our family as we lived on site it did mean that I was always there too apart from when I want abroad on trips.  They say they would not have ever wanted it any different so I am happy with that.  In fact I am honored to have been able to have taught all three of my children and even some of my grandchildren.  I can honestly say that I too would not have had it any different.


This interview took place February 2016.