Hoots from the Archive - "Only Connect": Four Great MGS Teachers

This guest post from Jeremy Ward (History 1974 - 97, Archivist 1997 - present) first appeared in the 2008 edition of "Ulula". We have reproduced it in honour of World Teachers' Day

We all remember our schooldays and particularly the teachers who inspired us. Some have faded from memory for mere competence does not tend to linger, some made our lives miserable or put us off their subject forever (in my case Chemistry!), some were so good that they made us want to go on with their subjects and just a very few were so outstanding that they had a lifelong influence on us.

A teacher who can truly inspire and open his students’ eyes to worlds of which they did not even dream before is a rare thing. The histories of the great schools of the world are scattered with names of remarkable educators - Arnold, Thring, Walker and Beale in England for example ; Pestalozzi in Switzerland, Froebel in Germany; Dewey in Chicago and Phillips in New England - but these were all Heads or Principals - great and innovative leaders for sure - but not necessarily inspiring in the classroom. What the histories of education tend to neglect quite shamefully is the great classroom teacher remembered by their pupils to their dying day with gratitude and pleasure.

The published histories of The Manchester Grammar School give assistant masters short shrift. A pitiful few are given more than a passing reference as the emphasis in all four substantial works is mainly on the institutional history of the school dealing with governors, rents, deeds, fees, relations with the Church, Oxford and Cambridge Colleges, the Courts, local authorities and in more recent times central government. To be sure there is also much discussion of the achievements of various High Masters and until well into the 19th Century there were relatively few assistant masters about whom to write. From 1859 under F.W. Walker, however, the staff expanded rapidly and by the mid-Twentieth Century was one of the largest in Britain. Yet as every teacher and pupil knows the real work is done in the classroom, on the sports field, on the stage, at the campsite and at the myriad of other activities where pupils and teachers mix so the exclusion of the assistant master from MGS history is surprising.

It was Dr. Johnson in his Life of Addison who said that not to name the School or the masters who taught illustrious men was a kind of historic fraud by which honest fame was diminished. This essay seeks to pay tribute to the many fine schoolmasters (and latterly but increasingly schoolmistresses) that MGS has employed over nearly 500 years. The vast majority have no doubt been more than competent as the School has usually been able to attract high calibre applicants for teaching posts.

Most have, however, been to some extent reflections of their time. The great beaters of the 18th and 19th century were replaced in the first half of the twentieth century by men of wider sympathy but formal methods. Rote learning and drilling were not uncommon especially in the lower forms until post 1945 and even as late as 1960 the sadists were not entirely absent. H. J. “Puggy” Dakers (1900-1929) was known to smile but once a year and that like the gleam of a coffin lid as Daniel O’Connell once said of Robert Peel! Yet occasionally a teacher emerged who was quite exceptional - often eccentric but utterly devoted to the welfare of his pupils and unconstrained by the imperative of promotion which afflicts so many. It is these men who are the most remembered and the most loved by their colleagues and pupils alike. From a much longer list I have chosen to write of just a quartet.

Perhaps the first Assistant Master to emerge as a great teacher in his own right was Richard Thompson (1834-56). His boss, High Master Nicolas Germon , was tall, stern and austere whereas Thompson was a kindly man of great intellectual vigour. Physically he was unimposing with “a rich port-winey complexion”. Refusing to wear spectacles he wielded a large square shaped magnifying glass through which he viewed the world. He could only read a book within three inches of his nose and in later years had little idea what the boys in his classes were doing. Some took full advantage and slipped out to the playground or local coffee houses during lessons when they should have been preparing their work. However cribs were readily available and poor “Old Tommy” as he was affectionately known, had no idea of their existence! If this description hardly fits with the concept of a great teacher there is another side to the story. Thompson was a liberalising influence at a time when the School was facing serious difficulties both legal and financial. The son of a ropemaker and an old boy of the school who became School Captain, he won a Scholarship to Brasenose in 1829, took a First in Classics (BNC’s first First for five years) but missed out on a Fellowship as a result of “a youthful indiscretion” the nature of which remains a mystery. However BNC’s loss was MGS’ gain as he returned to teach at his old school in 1834 and was promoted to Second Master in 1841. A true bibliophile he reconstituted the School library in 1845, was the first to catalogue it and bequeathed his own 1000 book collection on his death in 1863. He encouraged the study of English, German and French Literature at a time when only Latin and Greek Literature was being taught, often lending or giving a volume to a boy who showed interest. Among the volumes he purchased or received for the Library were contemporary works such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin and several of Harrison Ainsworth’s novels. Above all he was loved by the boys. “MGS Tracts”, a collection of boys’ writings published by the Fifth Form in 1845, is dedicated to him; a collection of Bacon’s works was presented to him by one of his forms and on his death former pupils collected enough money to endow the Thompson History Prize still awarded to this day. It was very rare for boys to honour their teachers in this way at this time. It was also during Thompson’s time that the first productions of Moliere at MGS were given (Le Mariage Forcee in 1847 and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme in 1848) an honourable tradition continued to this day. If Thompson was not always the ideal classroom teacher he was nonetheless a breath of fresh air and looking back to over a century and a half ago his liberal and civilized eccentricity seems all the more remarkable. A bachelor he lived quietly with his sister and retired to the seaside near Morecambe where he died aged 51 and is buried in the local churchyard. His obituary in The Manchester Courier serves him well:

"The School will wait long before it produces a better scholar or a more effective master."

Hyman (“Harry”) Lob is probably one of the two most notable masters to teach at MGS. A Londoner by birth and upbringing he won a Prize for Maths at Kings, Cambridge and graduated in 1908. He also represented the University at Chess. J. L. Paton appointed him to MGS and soon he involved himself in a myriad of activities. On the outbreak of war he was one of the first to join up serving as an Engineering officer from 1914 to 1919, the last four years of which were spent largely on the Western Front. He emerged physically unscathed from what must have been a horrendous experience to resume his post at MGS. His legendary status was established between the Wars for no master gave more time or energy to his job. First to arrive in the morning, he was the last to leave for his lodgings. A bachelor he relished the company of boys and colleagues who constituted a surrogate family. He kept up his scholarship submitting several learned papers on geometrical problems to scholarly mathematical Journals. As a teacher he was good, as a Schoolmaster he was outstanding. In the classroom his main interest was the welfare of his pupils. He was no fan of teaching to a rigid syllabus nor was he interested in producing a long line of successful examinees. He loved the artistry of a neat mathematical solution and imparted this to pupils whether pulling some unfortunate little lad out of puzzled incomprehension or providing far beyond the needs of his most exacting Sixth formers. He also taught his form History, Geography and English when the same relaxed atmosphere obtained. In the view of one of his colleagues the free and easiness of his lessons reached lengths at times which only Lob could have got away with!

                                                                                                                    Hyman Lob

Lob was remarkable in that he only possessed real talent as a mathematician and as a chess player but was willing to try all sorts of other potentially difficult tasks with considerable success. He was not a natural sportsman yet he more or less ran junior sport at MGS single handed. From 1919 to 1939 the Under 14 Soccer and Cricket teams were synonymous with Lob. A rabbity cricketer, he somehow coached his boys to play well and made sure every member of his large squad got their turn while at Soccer his fair turn of speed was not matched by skill on the ball! The enthusiasm of his teams reflected his own. Even more remarkable was his support for music in the School. There were no full time musicians on the staff and concerts and musical productions were in the hands of amateurs like “Dickie” Radford and Cyril McGuire. Lob took charge of the Music Society which presented boys with recitals by professional visitors and encouraged them to listen to the classics especially Mozart and Schubert. He took up the cello and was good enough to play regularly in the School Orchestra. Solo playing, however, was probably a step too far. On one occasion he was due to perform Le Cynge from Saint-Saens Carnaval des Animaux with two other players. On the night neither of his fellow performers turned up and in an agony of nerves Lob played the work on his own. Inevitably there were mistakes and at every false note the audience heard an unseemly epithet coming from the lips of their soloist!

It was for trekking and camping that Lob is most famous and his legacy is strongest. He fully embraced Paton’s enthusiasm for getting city boys out into the fresh air. For twenty years he was the mainspring of the major Whitsuntide standing camp held at Alderley. As a Londoner, however, rural camping was not his natural habitat. He was particularly wary of al fresco cooking, mistrusting his own capabilities as a cook and suspicious of the inherent cussedness of camp fires. He was much happier with the free and easy social side of camping leading the sing-songs and editing the scurrilous camp magazine “The Alderley Chatterer” with great glee. He delighted in composing limericks about his colleagues. R.A. Crawshaw, an Olympian and school swimming coach was one victim:

"An eminent swimmer named Crawshaw

Stood by to make non-swimmers more sure

When he first saw the mere

He mistook it for beer

And now there is nothing but foreshore"

But it is “trekking with Lob” for which he is most remembered now. None of the colleagues who journeyed with him is still alive but the eyes of elderly OMs become misty at the thought of those remarkable treks. Lob led all twenty of the inter-war treks which alternated between a far flung part of Britain with an ever further flung part of Europe. As with sport, music and camping he was not a natural “trekker” - while he worried himself sick about the finances, the routes, the food supplies and the cooking, he had little interest in the scenery as an obvious compensation. Yet trek was probably more important to him than anything else he did. Although not a natural walker let alone mountaineer, he showed great courage in crossing dangerous screes, narrow cols, slippery slopes, fast flowing streams and treacherous ice fields often stumbling under his mountainous pack and sweating profusely as he always kitted himself out for cold weather even in a blazing August! It is amazing then that he would not have missed a trek for anything! As with camp it was in the social side that his pleasure lay. Delighting in lazy after dinner chats at the nearest hostelry to the campsite and with the help of his ever present curved stemmed pipe which he could never keep alight, Lob reminisced or discussed on any and every subject imaginable. For him this was heaven on earth. Lob on Trek anecdotes are myriad. “We are approaching Vallorbe!” was his cry at five in the morning on the night train from Paris. Weary trekkers awoke to find that Vallorbe was still two hours away! His battle with the ferry Captain at Kinlochetive in 1932 when the culprit failed to ferry the boys kit to the head of a roadless loch. Lob’s argument took place on a narrow jetty surrounded by 12 foot of water with an angry man twice his size - foolish he might be, brave he certainly was! J.H. Doughty who accompanied him on nearly every trek wrote of El Capo as Lob was known:

"A paradox of a man. Capriciously methodical; indulgently severe; swinging with disconcerting suddenness from black despair to extravagant optimism; now distributing largesse to railway porters or holding up the traffic in a European capital while he disputes a tram fare."

There is so much more that could be written of Lob - his brilliance as a chess player, his eternal generosity which meant that no beggar passed in any street went unrewarded and his fear and horror at the growth of Nazism in Germany in spite of which when members of the Hitler Youth visited MGS in 1936 he made every effort to make them feel welcome. The coming of war robbed him of the annual pleasure of trek but it is no surprise to find him leading a fruit picking work camp in the summer of 1940. His trusty pipe, however, was seen by the local ARP warden as a threat to the security of rural Worcestershire and he was brusquely told to extinguish it! Only a few months later on Fire Warden duty himself in Withington he was blown to smithereens by a landmine - the only teacher or boy in the school community to die at enemy hands during the entire war. He was 56. In the words of his friend Hubert “Haffy” Field:

 “Some men are remembered for what they have done; Hyman Lob will be recalled for what he was.”

If Harry Lob was a superlative all-round Schoolmaster, Bob Bunn was supreme as a Sixth Form teacher. His informal almost anarchic approach both in and out of the classroom was well ahead of its time yet it paid extraordinary dividends both in terms of results and the affection in which he was held by former students and colleagues. Appointed as Head of the burgeoning History Side in 1933 by Douglas Miller, Robert Frederick Ives Bunn had been born in 1899 and educated at Chatham House GS, Ramsgate - a little before future Prime Minister Edward Heath with whom he would have had little in common and well before another long serving and talented Head of History at MGS - John Shoard. Strange that a small grammar school in the Garden of England should produce such talent!

                                                                                                                     Bob Bunn

Bunn had been old enough to see service in the war with the Artists Rifles and after Oxford taught at Bury GS before a stint as Head of Department at Newcastle RGS where one of his grateful pupils was Richard Southern, later to become one of England’s finest historians as well as a delightfully hospitable and supportive President of St John’s College, Oxford. It was Sir Richard who wrote Bunn’s obituary for the Daily Telegraph - one of the few assistant teachers from any school to be accorded such a distinction. At MGS he set about building up History Sixth -it was the smallest and least intellectually gifted Sixth when he arrived - by the time of his retirement it was the largest of the non-Scientific Sixth Forms and was gaining more than its fair share of academic successes. As with Thompson and Lob he was never tempted to move into the loftier reaches of academe - the classroom was his milieu. A chainsmoker with his straight stemmed pipe never far away, he abhorred routine and favoured unorthodox methods. Lying back in his chair with his feet up on the master’s desk Sixth Form historians were encouraged to think for themselves and to embrace the study of music, art, literature, architecture and science in their study of past societies. The most capable were told not to bother to come to his lessons if they could achieve more on their own although few took him up on his offer! His extraordinarily lucid explanations of the topic in hand were too valuable to miss. Boys of promise were also invited to leisurely lunches in the Midland Hotel to discuss ideas of mutual interest. In the Thirties his Department was one of the strongest in the country as he was joined by Denis Richards later to be Principal of Morley College and the distinguished official historian of the Royal Air Force. Also teaching history were Donald Lindsay, future Headmaster of Malvern, Cuthbert Seton in his younger and more dynamic days and Ike Tenen writer of famous textbooks. After the war such talented teachers as George Cooke, Ian Bailey, David Smith and John Roberts joined Bunn’s History Side. As one of the outstanding history teachers in the country he was officially recognized by his membership of national committees and being chosen by the Foreign Office to represent the UK at Anglo-German Conferences on history teaching. Yet it was as friend and mentor that Bunn is rightly remembered. One young man who owed a great deal to him was Robert Bolt. The future Oscar-winning playright had a chequered start to his career. At MGS he was a notable underachiever languishing in the bottom form and failing his School Certificate. He also got into more than his fair share of trouble. On leaving he took an undemanding job with Sun Alliance in King Street and made a mess of that - he was going nowhere. Then quite by chance he met Bob Bunn in the street who enquired of his progress. Saddened by Bolt’s manifest unhappiness, Bunn who had clearly seen something of Bolt’s potential when others had dismissed him as a trouble maker, immediately offered to give him private tuition and a helping hand to get him into Manchester University. After a few months Bolt retook his School Cert and passed into the University with flying colours. Bunn had taught Robert the art of wanting to learn and of using his mind. In the words of Robert Bolt’s brother Sydney “Bob Bunn was the making of Bob”.

Bunn’s wicked sense of humour was legendary. He hated pomposity of any kind let alone the abuse of power. On one occasion the young John Horsfield, later to join the MGS History Department, was on begowned Prefect duty in the corridor. He was startled when someone crept up behind him and hissed “Boo!” in his ear. The culprit was Bunn. On another occasion a pair of MGS parents were chatting to their respectable neighbours in Levenshulme when a bus passed by. An elderly man was seen thumbing his nose at the quartet. “Who is that disgusting old man?” enquired the neighbours. “Why! That is the Head of History at Manchester Grammar School” came the reply.

Bunn retired from teaching in 1961 and moved with his hospitable wife Bridget (nee Coulson - daughter of a distinguished Mediaevalist) to Cambridge where they were always welcoming to former pupils, friends and colleagues. He died in 1991 aged 92. High Master James, whom Bunn served for 16 years, only wrote one valete notice for departing staff in Ulula. It was for Bunn. His words sum him up best:

“Fortified by his own devotion to learning and the arts, Bunn has passed on a real enthusiasm for culture, in Arnold’s sense, not only to generations of his pupils but to his colleagues and there can have been few men in the history of MGS who exercised as much real influence on their friends in the Common Room, not least on the young ones. Bunn has retained a sensitivity, a zest, a receptiveness and a willingness to talk and argue that is usually a characteristic of the young.”

And John Horsfield adds:

"I remember him, as I remember all great teachers, as an intellectual exemplar, a guide, a philosopher and friend but above all as a friend."

Ian “Basher” Bailey was the only one of my quartet whom I knew personally which makes it all the harder to write about him! He holds the record for the longest association with the School. He entered North Manchester School as a six year old in 1919; went on to Long Millgate in 1927 and left from Rusholme in 1932 having served his final year as School Captain. Although away from MGS for 17 years he kept in touch through the OMA before joining the staff in 1949. He retired from full time teaching in 1973 but continued to teach part-time and act as School Archivist until his death on January 1, 2007 - an 88 year association with his school! Like Thompson and Lob he was a bachelor and there is no doubt that after the death of his beloved sister Dorothy in 1975, MGS was his family. His commitment was second to none as the vast range of his activities and contributions indicates. A superb sportsman he represented the Common Room in more sports than anyone else in addition to coaching the School Soccer XI and Athletics team - the former producing many Oxbridge blues and the latter several Olympians. An enthusiastic trekker and camper, he went on foreign trek from 1950 to 1955 before founding Scottish Trek which like its foreign counterpart runs to this day. After the age of 60 he turned to camping and was an ever present at Grasmere until well into his 80s. He organized School Prize Day in the Free Trade Hall for 14 years, was successively Secretary and Chairman of the Common Room etc etc!

                                                                                                                    Ian Bailey

His war service had been just as distinguished. Apart from the famous incident when he guarded the recently captured Rudolph Hess, he performed secret work for 4 years with SOE - I could never persuade him to reveal all the details of this but it undoubtedly involved training mainly foreign agents to engage in murder and mayhem behind enemy lines both in Europe and Asia. Ian was the gentlest of men but that iron Scottish jaw suggested that if an enemy deserved retribution he would be prepared to dish it out.

Like Lob Ian Bailey made an enormous contribution to all manner of aspects of school life but as with all my subjects it was as an inspirational human being that Ian is remembered best. After his death the School received well over a hundred tributes from former pupils and colleagues which give some indication of his legacy as a fine schoolmaster and I will use their words to paint a picture of Ian:

As a teacher:

"You painstakingly guided my journeys through English and History. I recall vividly the passion in your oratory as the class relived through you the great events of former times and the timeless prose of the “greats”. We all had one thing in common, our shared belief that you were the most outstanding teacher of all our schooldays and the one with the most influence over our personal development." (Len Brown OM)

"I look back fondly on all those lessons on Scottish history that “Basher” gave us around 1970. Much of the information has stuck to this day - the sign of a great teacher who was able to instil information quietly and painlessly!" (Roger Brugge OM)

"On one parents’ evening my father asked Ian about Robert Browning and the reasons why we were reading his poetry. Ian gestured with his hands as if bending a tough piece of metal and replied “Mr Rutter, it bends the mind.” That for me has been the touchstone of what MGS is all about." (Keith Rutter OM)

“Basher” Bailey was one of two teachers who had considerable influence upon my future life - the other was a mathematician. I was in Maths Sixth but remember his English and History classes vividly from lower years - I inherited his enthusiasm for Lamb’s “Essays of Elia” (Professor John Hubbuck OM)

"Ian was a model who impressed upon me that whenever possible academic interests should combine pleasure with scholarship!" (Geoff Fox OM and MGS Staff)

"Mr Bailey must have touched hundreds if not thousands of lives and I am deeply grateful to him. His English lessons were a treat. We read through goodness knows how many plays. Ever since I have a liking for live theatre. From being a thirteen year old with low esteem, I came to be, with his guidance and encouragement, a confident fifteen year old who came top in English. -the only time I was top in anything!" (Ian Rowbotham OM)

"This email is inspired by Basher Bailey. Gee how clever we lads were to get him to demonstrate marching cadences up and down the corridor instead of doing boring old history. And in hindsight how wonderful he was in letting us believe that, while in fact bringing history to life for us. In my case inspiring a love for it that persists to this day." (Colin Jevons OM)

As a public speaker:

"Just a word of thanks for your Assembly yesterday. Rather grand and sombre, I found it - AND we listened." (David Hutton - Head of French)

"Over the years I have regarded your talks in assembly as one of the very best things that happen in this place and your talk this morning (Armistice Day), was of these memorable occasions - the most impressive and moving I have ever heard. Quite simply it was the best public speech, from any platform at which I have been present and it will stay with me for the rest of my life." (Bryan Bass - Head of Modern Side)

"I remember the historical stories in Assembly which always kept our attention (even the naughty buggers at the back!)." (Russell Newlove OM)

"For me his speech as Senior Steward (at the Old Boys Dinner) in 1994 was particularly memorable, vigorously delivered and attracting a spontaneous standing ovation from all present - it brought together those ingredients - the School, soccer, Scotland, war, trekking -which Ian embodied so well." (Ian Elliott OM)

My own favourite was the masterpiece he delivered annually to the Sixth Form leavers.

There were similar plaudits for his leadership of treks, camps and sports teams and a pleasingly high number of recently departed OMs who saw in Ian not an old buffer wandering round the School but perhaps its greatest living member:

"Although I left MGS in 1994 I remember Mr Bailey as an inspiring figure; one that both encouraged pride in one’s school and in oneself. He helped to shape my character for the better and for that I am truly grateful." (John Taylor OM)

"Mr Bailey was an absolute inspiration during my time at School, and was surely the strongest and most magnetic personality within the Common Room." (Jonathan Marshall MGS 1989-96)

"It’s a shame that future generations of students won’t have the brilliant experience of seeing him around the School and hearing stories from our past." (Imran Khan MGS 1996-2003)

There is so much more that could be said of Ian - of his phenomenal memory for all things MGS - of what a superb raconteur he was - of his piping especially at Grasmere- of his work in the School archives and his maintenance of contacts with OMs all round the world but somehow I must sum him up. These are the words of a Poynton neighbour who had no direct connection with the school but whose acquaintance with Ian revealed so much:

"For about the last 5 years we were lucky enough to get to know a gentleman called Ian Bailey. He would walk for his daily constitution and come about as far as our house where he would stop to sit on the bench at the end of the road in order to get his breath back. We would talk very often about flowers and trees and then move on to so many of his interesting stories told with great gusto and humour. It was a joy to listen to tales of his life as a teacher at Manchester Grammar School. I am convinced that he has left a great legacy with those who were lucky enough to know him. I shall remember those amazingly blue twinkly eyes, his kind and intelligent face and his ability to see the best in whatever situation was presented to him."(Meg Marsden - Lostock Road, Poynton).

When E.M. Forster used the words “Only Connect” at the start of A Passage to India he was probably thinking of the gulf that divided the British Raj and the native Indians but equally the words are appropriate to education. Great teachers who truly connect with their pupils are comparatively rare although others deserve to be included in this essay. I regret the absence of Francis Jones, John Broadhurst, Hubert Field, John Lingard, R. T. Moore, Arthur Kahn and Philip Hill among others and from more recent times Lester Shaw and Bill MacGillivray let alone the talented men and women who still teach or who have just retired. Of these Paul Ponder stands out. He possesses Thompson’s scholarship, Bunn’s cultured erudition and Bailey and Lob’s humanity in abundance so it is appropriate that this essay is dedicated to him. As Wordsworth might have said of them all:

Great men have been among us; hands penn’d

And tongues that uttered wisdom - better none.

Jeremy Ward (MGS Staff 1974-97 and Archivist 1997 to present)

(I am grateful to Gordon Harris, David Jennings, Geoffrey Stone, Sidney Rose, Robin Griffin, John Horsfield and all those who have been quoted above as well as the late Malcolm Ricketts, “Haffy” Field and Ian Bailey for their thoughts and writings which have been of so much help in putting together this essay.)