Biographies (click name to view):

• Arthur Cecil Brown (Geography/History 1920-1960)
• Brian Luckett (Chemistry 1963-1975)
• David Mart (Mathematics 1971-2005)
• Dennis Grimsley (Chemistry 1956-1961)
• Ellick Ward (French 1944-1973)
• Geoffrey Henton (Geography 1953-1984, Deputy Headmaster 1968-1984)
• George Cooper (Mathematics 1926-1968, Second Master 1950-1968)
• Harry Smith (Mathematics 1949-1953, 1958-1979)
• Herbert Pitchford (Geography/History 1926-1950, Headmaster 1950-1958)
• Norman Jones (Chemistry 1945-1979)
• Raymond Crowther (Biology 1948-1973)
• Robert James (French/Latin 1970-2006)
• Ronald Illingworth (Geography 1936-1973)
• Victor Roebuck (Physical Education 1952-1972)
• William Gillion (Headmaster 1958-1973)

Burton Grammar School Master (Chemistry 1963 – 1975)

Brian Luckett was born in 1940 in London, and evacuated first to Newquay, Cornwall and then in 1944 to the very contrasting Colne in North East Lancashire.  He was to remain in Lancashire and, during his teenage years, lived close to Pendle Hill where he attended Colne Grammar School. He was a very keen Burnley supporter at this time, always watching them play on a Saturday afternoon, often having played rugby in the morning at school. To this day, despite no longer being able to name any of the players, he finds himself habitually checking on Burnley’s results.

Brian had a very influential chemistry teacher, who made chemistry very interesting and exciting and he opted to take it at ‘A’ Level with a view to reading it at University. It was working in the textile mills of Colne during his school holidays that made him want to specifically read Textile Chemistry . In the noisy environment of clattering looms, spinning and carding machines, he became a very good lip reader which, he claims, helped him on numerous occasions in the classroom!

Brian obtained a BSc (Tech) degree in Textile Chemistry at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. At this time, the textile industry was going through a crisis and he decided to do a one year Postgraduate Certificate in Education at St. Luke’s College, Exeter. He had little chance of making the college rugby team though with the likes of Don Rutherford and Mike Davis (both future England captains) securing places. It was a much higher standard than the rugby he had enjoyed at school and university. His main teaching practice was at the Technical High School in Torquay.

Mr Luckett had anticipated working in the south west but was attracted by a post at the Burton Grammar School in 1963 to replace the departing Dennis Grimsley which he applied for and was successfully appointed.

The Head of Chemistry was Norman Jones. Also teaching chemistry at the time was Gareth Woods with whom Brian found himself sharing a flat in Blackpool Street. Before long however, Mr Woods was to accept the post of Head of Chemistry at Soham Grammar School in Cambridgeshire meaning that Brian was promoted to second chemistry master and Mr C. Heighington was appointed third.

Shortly after starting, he was persuaded by Headmaster, Bill Gillion, to take charge of Cross Country. It was a burden he was never really happy with although he can recall many fond times with the likes of Peter Rose, Robert Barningham and David Van Der Merwe in the first eight. In particular, he remembers “a small spindly lad called Chadfield” being a superb terrier who joined the Royal Navy and was found to have TB. He could well have competed at international level had he been treated earlier.

He never actually ran round any of the courses, instead, he used to drive to the back of Newton Solney to shout support at the poor unfortunates (eminently more sensible). He even sympathised with those that took short cuts as he had done the same at his school, once falling in the canal. Brian was also happy to occasionally drive some of the chess team to away matches at other schools such as Bemrose, Derby School and Repton.

Brian recalls almost being expelled whilst in the 6th form for nearly setting fire to the school chemistry Lab!  Having read that if you wrapped some sodium peroxide in wet newspaper it would ignite, he and a friend tried it but with little effect. The teacher, Mr ‘Aldophous’ Smith, shortly came into the laboratory and they threw the paper under a desk close to a radiator. Part way through the lesson, flames suddenly appeared as the correct moisture content was achieved.

With this in mind, he smiles at some of the ‘unofficial chemical experiments’ by pupils at the Grammar School during his time: The banned carbylamine reaction, on putting the constituent reactants down various sinks around the lab, when they all met up in the main drain, the really awful smell was generated in the lower corridor; the manufacture of highly explosive nitrogen tri-iodide powder to be distributed around the school. The staff had to pretend to be cross but couldn’t help but smile.

Brian reflects on what current day health and safety inspectors would make of boys sitting on their stools on top of the benches to watch the practical demonstrations without a safety screen. At the same time, he feels that the complete sanitisation greatly diluted the excitement of the subject that had encouraged previous scholars to take up careers within the chemical industry.

In 1966, Brian married Shirley, the Secretary of the Girls High School, at All Saints Church. Michael Thompson a pupil at the Grammar School played the organ at their wedding. The thought of this leads him to again reflect on many aspects of his time at Burton Grammar School which would seem incredible in the light of today’s educational system but which may well have defined the ethos of the school at that time: How well he, and other members of staff, got on with the boys and their families; how most teachers lived fairly close to the school without any thoughts of being in any way harassed by any of the pupils. He is sure that the chance meeting of boys and parents out of school was very healthy for the discipline and behaviour of school life. To this day, some forty years later, the Luckett’s are still occasionally visited by pupils or their parents, such as Peter Rose’s mother. 

Like a number of schoolmasters, Brian also references the Burton Rugby Club as a bonding influence. Staff and pupils were given time off on numerous occasions to, for example, go and watch Burton play an Oxford University XV at Peel Croft, often featuring ex-pupils. It was also host to the Old Boys matches which kept the school’s rugby tradition alive.

On a couple of occasions, Mr Luckett tried to leave Burton Grammar School for higher posts in other schools but Bill Gillion, countered with the offer of a rise in the grading of his current post. He was never quite sure whether this was because of how highly the young staff were valued or whether the headmaster preferred the ‘devils he knew’.

In the early seventies he started the Wildlife Club on the request of pupils Beard and Eaton and, together with Colin Bagshaw, took boys on bird-watching trips to the Norfolk Broads, Slimbridge and other reserves – another “wouldn’t happen today”! ‘Plant a tree in 73’ was one of the catch phrases that helped the small group plant hundreds of trees at the RSPB bird reserve at Coombes Valley in North Staffordshire. To this day, he vows to one day go back to see how they have grown.

He left the school at the end of the final year of Burton Grammar School in 1975 after an offer by Jack Adams, who was a good friend of Norman Jones and the husband of Peggy Adams, head of Physics at the Girls High School, to be Head of Chemistry at Shelton Senior High School in Derby which he accepted. He had been offered the same post two years earlier but had been persuaded to stay.

Brian was to remain there for fourteen years, before transferring to Wilmorton Tertiary College in 1989. He finally retired from teaching in 1995, but  carried on marking ‘A’ Level Chemistry papers for  the Cambridge Board for a further six years.

He looks back at his twelve years at Burton Grammar School as being the happiest of his thirty-two years in teaching and has never regretted taking up the post. The Lucketts and Bagshaws remain good friends together with the once assistant secretary of Burton Grammar School who was largely responsible for his meeting his wife.
 
Brian enjoys an active retirement being very keen on reading naval fact and fiction, pottering on his allotment and snoozing in his shed, family history, toy and model making and, at the time of writing, is President of the Ashby Rotary Club.

Burton Grammar School Master (Biology 1948-1973)

Raymond Crowther was educated at Heath Grammar School in Halifax. He qualified from here for a degree at University College, Durham but, during his time there, war broke out which meant that he was to join the RAF. During the war, he spent most of the time with the coastal command in Iceland. At the end of the war, he made the decision not to go back and complete his degree but rather, to complete teacher training.

He was appointed as Biology teacher at Burton Grammar School in 1948 and was to go on to complete over 25 years there. He was affectionately known as ‘Joey’, for which reason, I had always assumed that his name was Joseph. It was only in the preparation of this website that I was corrected to the fact that his name was Raymond which just didn’t seem to fit after all those years!

Raymond always had a strong interest in microbiology and in physiology. He had a contact at Birmingham University who supplied a whole range of bacterial cultures which were maintained in the small sanctum off the Biology laboratory at Bond Street. The Grammar School had what would nowadays be considered a quite frightening collection of pathogens. The marine tanks also had an interesting origin. Raymond sourced them from contacts at the Marine Biological Station in Plymouth who supplied carboys of seawater and the specimens of marine life – which were far from easy to keep thriving!

Michael Tanton was one of the first monitors for the Biology lab and remembers the mammoth task of operating the Roneo machine to produce the mountains of typed notes from the stencils he typed out on his portable typewriter. Michael was the first of a number of his students to go to Imperial College, London, to study Zoology, Applied Entomology and Parasitology.

Raymond’s enthusiasm for his subject was considerable. From somewhere he had acquired a dead dog, and decided that the skeleton would be an excellent teaching tool. The problem was, how to get rid of the flesh? The solution was to ‘let nature take its course’ by allowing natural bacteria and flies to do their job! The dog was ensheathed in chicken wire and suspended out of the lab window, more or less above the door into the cloakroom area and opposite the door to the woodwork room.

The next problem, after a week of so, was Mr Redfern the school janitor objecting strongly to maggots falling from above. A school monitor was despatched up a ladder to deposit the dog on the roof, out of site and out of mind. That is, until complaints from the staff room about the smell pervading the upper floor. At that point, discretion played the better part of valour, and the dog was brought down and ‘spirited away’.

After a stint in hospital, he married Mary, one of the nurses he met there and they moved to a house at the bottom of Ashby Road as their home.

He corresponded with many other educational biologists in schools and universities, including London, Oxford, Cambridge and Aberdeen, who held him in high regard. He was also on the national committee for the constant reform of the ‘A’ Level Biology syllabus to reflect the needs of the microbiology industry.

He established the Field Club by popular request and in 1950 took a group to the New Forest, where they camped on the edge of heathland and in sight of the Balmer Lawn Hotel at Brockenhurst. The trip down had been organized ahead in typical Raymond Crowther style, and to students the arrangements just seemed to happen with no regard for the much time and correspondence required by Mr Crowther to ensure that the trip was very successful.

The following year, 1951, the Field Club went to the Lake District and camped for 3 weeks near Watendlath Tarn, again by train and with much man-handling of equipment. In 1952 and 1953 Raymond found a different venue for the Field Club – Flatford Mill Field Centre. Different courses were attended in the two years. The first was on freshwater biology; the following next year was on estuarine biology. They were a valuable learning experience and we were able to make the most of the good weather in both summers. Best of all, they didn’t need to transport all that camping gear of previous years!

Significantly, almost all of the involved groups followed careers in one area or another of biology. Greater detail of these trips may be found in the School Trips section.

At the Winshill School, Mr Crowther always seemed to be a little detached from the rest of the staff, apparently preferring the solitude of the small side-room at the back of the biology laboratory to the staff room. His success as a teacher cannot, however, be denied and many of his pupils went on to start careers with degrees in such fields as microbiology, medicine and dentistry. He also very avidly corresponded with other biology teachers and had some influence on the content of ‘O’ Level biology papers.

He is probably best remembered by many he taught for ‘Percy’, his faithful baton. When the class was being rowdy, he used to stand an old table leg on the front bench, lay ‘Percy’ by its side and utter the Latin phrase “signum bellum sto” (Symbol of war stands) as a warning that the next offender would receive a lump on the cranium with a size proportional to level of misdemeanour; the worst offences being punished by a ‘Crunchie’. This was fairly effective but it is unlikely that the tradition would have survived today!

He was very interested in classical music and a fairly accomplished player on the piano, organ, violin and viola.

Unfortunately his wife Mary suffered from severe arthritis and Raymond relentlessly researched the latest cures and reliefs. In 1973, after a normal day at school, Mr Crowther died very suddenly and without any real prior warning, suffering a heart-attack while helping his wife from the bath. They did not have any children.

Burton Grammar School Master (Geography 1953-1984, Deputy Headmaster 1968-1984)

Geoffrey was born in Radcliffe-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire in 1928. He was educated at West Bridgford Grammar School from which he gained a place at Hull University College to take a London BA Honors in Geography from 1947 to 1950.

After graduating, Geoff continued at Hull for a further year to complete his teacher training having already decided that he wanted to pursue a profession in teaching. During this period, he met a girl in fencing classes. Daphne, who was also studying at Hull, was from Stapenhill, Burton-on-Trent. In 1951, they were married but almost straight afterwards, Geoff was to start his two years National Service with the RAF where he served in UK and in Berlin.

In 1953, Geoff and his now wife decided that they would like to move back to the Midlands somewhere near Burton or Nottingham.

In the same year, Mr Pitchford the Headmaster at Burton Grammar School, then at Bond Street, was taken ill and George Cooper, the maths teacher, was to take on the role of acting Headmaster until Mr Pitchford had recovered. This left a temporary vacancy for a maths teacher. Although ideally looking to teach geography, Geoff applied for the post and was successfully appointed. As luck would have it, during this brief period, the geography teacher announced that he wanted to leave the teaching profession and that he would like to leave his post at the end of the term.

Having been pleased with Geoff’s performance, he was a natural successor so at the start of the following term, Mr Pitchford returned, Mr Cooper resumed to teach maths and Geoff Henton was permanently appointed as geography teacher. All could not have worked out better!

Geoffrey was to hold this post from 1954 to 1968 which covered the period of Bond Street School relocating to the ‘new’ Burton Grammar School in Winshill. During this period, he was also very active outside of school hours and happy to assist with rugby and cricket where he was involved with the school teams and acted as referee and umpire. Eventually, he was on the selection board for Staffordshire and Midlands rugby.

In 1968, George Cooper retired as Deputy Headmaster. At this time, Geoffrey was still second geography teacher under Ron Illingworth as Head of Geography. Harry Smith had not too long earlier returned to the Grammar School to take over the maths department. Although thought of as being the most likely candidate, Harry had made it plain that he had no interest in such a position wanting instead, to concentrate on mathematics and the open scholarships which were his passion. Speculation was that Mr Hugh Wood, Head of the languages department, would be likely to succeed above other heads of department. Nonetheless, Geoffrey decided to formally apply and was interviewed.

Geoff clearly made a very strong impression. He was young, very committed and had an excellent reputation for maintaining discipline whilst achieving high results and emerged the victor. A few expressed surprise at his appointment but no-one could deny that he very quickly established himself as a very able and successful ‘second in command’. He also continued to teach geography.

During this period, his son David became Burton Grammar School Head Boy. Each year, there was a football match between the prefects and staff. For the only time in the game’s history, two opposing teams were captained by father and son.

In 1973, William Gillion was to retire as Headmaster in the middle of the year due to external pressures and Geoffrey was appointed acting Headmaster for the remainder of the year until Brian Harris was instated, having been moved from Horninglow Secondary Modern School to oversee the ‘smooth’ transition from Grammar School to Comprehensive. At this point, Geoff reverted to Deputy Headmaster for what was probably going to be the most disruptive period in the school’s history. Geoffrey earned much respect in this period for his strong focus on making sure that the now mixed school students got the best possible education out of the situation as it now was without getting drawn into the politics of either side.

He continued as an effective Deputy Head and geography teacher until he was forced to take early retirement in 1984 due to poor health.

Post-retirement, Geoff engaged himself in a lot of charity fund-raising activities, most particularly for Oxfam for whom he became Chairman of support and fund-raising. This continued while he was wheelchair bound until 1988, when he became paraplegic.

He finally passed away in 1989 and was survived by his wife Daphne, two daughters Val and Tricia, and son David.

Val B.A, M.A (Applied Linguistics) became Head of General Education Programmes for Higher Colleges in the United Arab Emirates. Tricia B.A. (Music), worked with the London Symphony Orchestra before moving to Australia and joining the Australian Chamber Orchestra as Operations Manger.

David achieved B.Sc Hons. first class (Civil Engineering) at Imperial College, London and spent twelve years working in Kenya before much travelling and finally setting in New Zealand where he started an International Communications Training Company.

Sadly, Geoffrey only knew two of his seven grandchildren.

Burton Grammar School Master (Mathematics 1949-1953, 1958-1979)

Harry Smith, affectionately known as ‘Brab’, was born in 1923 in Taunton, Somerset. His Grandfather was the pioneering founder of the Ramblers Autobus company which was to establish routes throughout the West Country. Harry’s father eventually took over the running of the company and they had sufficient means to send Harry to the well esteemed Taunton Public School. To this day, Harry can clearly remember the maths teacher, Mr John Evans, who was to have the strong influence on his life that Harry was himself going to eventually have on so many others.

At the outset of the war, all of the company’s buses were ‘requisitioned’ for the war effort. In 1940, Harry had been due to commence at Bristol University but instead, found himself as a private soldier in the Gloucestershire regiment.

Harry still managed to complete some higher Maths education but in 1941 was transferred to the Royal Artillery and, with the 21st Anti-Tank Regiment, saw some very active service in North Africa and later in Italy. On one occasion, he was subject to such heavy bombardment that he suffered from shell-shock and was found with blood running from his ears. He was to lose most of the hearing on his left side which most Grammar School pupils would have been aware of but without due thought.

Towards the end of the war in 1945, Harry was made an Educational Officer and sent to Perugia College in Italy to re-educate troop in preparation for their return to normal life. By sheer co-incidence, he found himself teaching alongside his old Chemistry master from Taunton Public School.

By now a Captain, he was later sent to Austria where he was involved with the re-alignment of National borders. Addressing locals in Austria, Harry asked for someone to translate. An attractive girl, Helen, was to reluctantly volunteer if he spoke slowly. Not long afterwards, she became his wife!

At the end of the war, Harry was deemed DOV (Deferred as Operationally Vital) and was prevented from returning home, missed his London University place. Taking a teaching certificate in the interim, he was somehow able to later catch up and complete the three year degree in two years.

Hearing about a post at Burton Grammar School from his lecturer in 1949, Harry applied and was appointed by the then headmaster at Bond Street Grammar School, Mr Moodey. His remit was not only to teach his main forte of mathematics, but to also teach Physics and Chemistry. Soon after starting, Harry also found himself in charge of School Rugby. This was in parallel to Norman Jones being in charge of Athletics. Victor Roebuck was soon to join the school as Head of Physical Education but, although also a keen rugby player, his weekend interests were with Burton Rugby club. He was also a Captain with the school’s Army Cadet Corps. along with Major D. Davies. 

Harry put a great deal of time and effort into this and spent his Saturday mornings on the school rugby field. He was slightly perturbed to discover that Norman Jones received an additional allowance for his running of the Athletics whereas he received nothing. He took up the issue with the Headmaster, Mr Herbert (Horace) Pitchford, who had been appointed to replace Mr Moodey after is tragic recent death. Harry was declined which led to a feeling of resentment for which the school would pay dearly.

In 1953, disgruntled, Harry applied for a vacancy at Derby Technical College in the Department of Mathematics where he was enthusiastically appointed. Harry enjoyed his time there because, being a college of further education, there was a link to local industry which led him to involvement with ‘real world’ mathematical applications with companies such as Midland Rail and Rolls Royce, both based in Derby. He was to stay there for six years during which time, Bond Street School was closed to be replaced by the ‘new’ school in Winshill.

Shortly after the Winshill school was opened, William Gillion was appointed as Headmaster. Mr Gillion, himself a Cambridge Graduate of Mathematics, was a strong advocate of academic excellence and felt that the Mathematics Department at the school, then headed by George Cooper, did not offer provision for the most talented students. He was aware of Harry Smith and had received numerous accounts that he should never have been allowed to leave. So, in 1958, he wrote to Harry asking if we would consider taking over as Head of Mathematics and to run the Open Scholarships, which went beyond ‘A’ Level to prepare the most gifted students for places at Oxford, Cambridge and other Universities of Excellence.

The latter proved sufficient enticement to attract Harry back so he took up the post; George Cooper was to retain a position as a Maths teacher as well as Deputy Headmaster.

Harry also worked for the Welsh Joint Education Committee for 40 years from 1957 during which time, he composed a new ‘Ordinary Alternative’ maths paper every year which was somewhere between ‘O’ level and ‘A’ level. This entailed several trips a year to Cardiff. He was thought of with some affection and on the occasion of him arriving there after 40 years service, they had prepared a special ‘maths’ cake with forty candles on.

In 1960, Harry helped Bill Gillion to inaugurated a new form 5X to allow the most gifted pupils of form 3A to jump a year so that they would be able to study for Oxbridge entrance exams in their Upper Sixth without having to spend an addition year there. This proved to be tremendously successful and in their out-take year, the class achieved a record number of Oxbridge places, including Scholarships and Exhibitions, actually out-performing Repton Public School!

Sadly there was strong pressure, both internal and external, to look after the lesser able pupils rather than the brightest so the exercise was never repeated. Harry and other of the school’s most senior teachers saw this as the “start of the rot”.

With a degree of frustration, Harry continued at the Grammar School for a further eighteen years. During this time, he moved house from Scalpcliff Road to Repton and, co-incidentally bought the house from Mr Leech, headmaster of Dovecliff Grammar School and a good friend of William Gillion.

Very tragically, in 1971, his wife Helen, who taught German at the the Technical College and Girl’s High School, was killed in a car accident. He was to mourn for over seven years, unfairly blaming himself, before eventually meeting Diane Bates, an English teacher at the Girl’s High School in 1978 and she became his second wife.

Harry’s time at the Grammar School also included the period where it was to be abolished in favour of becoming Abbot Beyne comprehensive school which led to much greater frustration. Harry himself sees this as “one of the greatest howlers the government has ever made”. His pleas for early retirement were declined so he was to continue at Abbot Beyne for a further three years by which time, he felt that we couldn’t have stood it for a moment longer.

Harry’s son, Michael, was also educated at Burton Grammar School until 1969 went to Leeds University and is a very accomplished linguist.