Past members of the College who remember Eric will be saddened to learn of his death in his ninety-second year. Eric was a teacher of Mathsd and a House Tutor in Orchard and Everett Houses. He left Shiplake in 1992.
In retirement, he lived in the family home in Emmer Green until his final two years when he moved back to Brecon in South Wales which was, without doubt, his spiritual home.
Eric was a Lancastrian by birth, though there were maternal family connections with Norfolk. His family moved from Blackpool to Reading in 1943 where his father was a member of staff at the BBC monitoring station at Caversham Park, which had moved from its original location in Worcestershire. It had been arranged by both education authorities that Eric would transfer from his school in Blackpool to Reading School. However, on his first day at Reading, nobody was expecting him or knew who he was and he was placed in the wrong class. This was soon righted when he was producing work of a significantly higher standard than that of any of his classmates. Coming from Blackpool he, naturally, had a Lancastrian accent which also confused everybody and this led to some initial teasing by both boys and masters. Despite this inauspicious start, Eric remained very proud of his association with Reading School.
In 1944 Eric paid his first visit to Shiplake Court which would become Shiplake College some fifteen years later. At that time, the main building was a residential annexe of the BBC monitoring station and he was taken there one day by his father to have lunch in the Great Hall. Little did Eric appreciate then that he would be back having lunch in that same Great Hall in September 1983 when he returned to teach mathematics at the College.
Eric moved on to Reading University from the sixth form at Reading School to take a degree in mathematics. Shortly after graduation, he was called up for National Service with the Army and, after basic training in Brecon in South Wales, he served with the RAEC and was posted to the Far East. On his return to civilian life back in England he was appointed to a position in the Civil Service but being office bound was not to his liking so he decided to use his mathematical skills to pursue a career in teaching.
Following a spell teaching mathematics at a boys’ school near The Oval cricket ground in London, he was given the opportunity to apply for a mathematics post back at Brecon, at Christ College. His interview by the headmaster, and his immediate offer of the post, were conducted entirely by telephone. By an unusual coincidence, Christ College Brecon and Reading School shared the year 1541 as the foundation date of the former and the re-formation date of the latter by King Henry VIII.
Brecon, the Beacons and Christ College would always hold very fond memories for Eric and it was appropriate that he should spend his final days there with wonderful views of the Beacons from the picture window of his drawing room. Here at Christ College, he was Head of Mathematics and a rugby coach. He was a keen sailor and had been a sea cadet instructor in Reading so he joined the CCF as the officer commanding the Royal Naval section and, in time, he became Contingent Commander. He ran the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme and the shooting and sailing clubs. He was also appointed housemaster of one of the boarding houses, so he led a very busy and active life there. However, it was his mother’s failing health which eventually led him to leave Brecon and move to Lord Williams’s School in Thame as it was much closer to the family home in Emmer Green. Subsequently, in 1983, he moved even closer to home, to Shiplake and to the next very busy chapter in his life.
Graham Vick, Eric’s head of department, writes:
Eric taught the full range of mathematics courses at Shiplake. He was particularly skilled at teaching the A-Level pure maths syllabus. He was always able to make the subject interesting and relevant and he was very successful at helping weaker pupils understand the wonders of calculus and trigonometry. He would often find a novel approach to help a struggling pupil succeed and he always seemed to have infinite patience. His exam results were consistently good.
In the Senior Common Room he was a very keen bridge player who played intuitively and enjoyed the analysis after the match but, above all, playing bridge with Eric was always really good fun. He just used his long experience of the game to overcome his opponents, even if they were more aware of the latest bidding conventions. He was a great conversationalist who enjoyed politics and politicians as well as current affairs and military matters. The Common Room morning newspapers always provoked much comment from Eric.
In addition to his teaching role at Shiplake, Eric ran the Royal Naval section and the shooting range. He spent much of his summer holidays running residential sailing and powerboat courses at HMS Raleigh at Torpoint in Cornwall for cadets and CCF officers from all over the country. He was a qualified RYA instructor and examiner and, during term time on one evening a week, he ran an RYA Day Skipper course at a local, Reading college. The compiler of this appreciation still has both his RYA Powerboat certificate and his RYA Day Skipper certificate, each signed by Eric.
After his retirement from Shiplake, Eric lived at his family home in Emmer Green, directly opposite the entrance to the BBC monitoring station in Caversham Park. It had proved to be a most convenient address for his family in earlier years as both Eric’s mother and sister also had careers at the BBC. He still kept a yacht moored in Portsmouth Harbour and he enjoyed many days out on the Solent. He also enjoyed a succession of holidays in cruise liners. On one occasion he was invited by the Captain up to the bridge of the liner he was holidaying on. The navigation officer was enthusiastically explaining the course he was plotting for the next day’s cruising when Eric spotted a mistake in his calculations. He was not invited up to that bridge again but he certainly enjoyed dining out on the story afterwards.
Eric continued to be active in retirement. He was a loyal supporter of the Royal British Legion and of The Royal National Lifeboat Institution and he was an avid newspaper reader. His interest in current affairs and the ways of the world around him never abated. But, eventually, time gradually began to take its toll on his health. He was invited to return to Brecon by an Old Boy of Christ College who he had once taught and he took up what was, initially, planned to be a temporary stay in the town. He continued in Brecon as his health declined and he died peacefully there on 21st March, 2022.
During all the years Eric had spent as a schoolmaster, he had never missed a full day’s teaching or a housemaster’s duty because of ill health. That is some record!
With thanks to former staff member Ian R Lowry for providing us with this obituary.
