No. 140 The Trusty Servant our picture of Matthew this is a large red flag, the people’ s flag, emblazoned perhaps with a hammer and sickle. It is a reminder of his service as a trade union representative, a position he filled diligently for five years. Finally, in the background, are two great mansions – Sergeant’ s and Kingsgate House – where Matthew spent his time as a tutor and( in Phil’ s) assistant housemaster. Boys in the house most often mention Matthew’ s teleporting powers – an ability to appear anywhere, at any time, seemingly without warning. He ran a tight ship on his duty nights but always had time for pupils. He is regarded with great fondness by Philites and Beloeites alike.
Matthew leaves us to be Head of Chemistry at St George’ s Weybridge. They are highly fortunate to have acquired a teacher of such skill and dedication.
Laurence Guymer( as above) writes, with the sympathy of one Head of History for another, in praise of James Hallinan( CoRo, 18-25): When Ralph Townsend asked me to be Head of the History Department in 2012, it was, I think, because I was the only member of it who read and replied to e-mail. As a new Head of Department in 2018, James Hallinan was expected to have‘ vision’ and a‘ strategic plan’. A tentative grasp of Outlook was no longer the single qualifying factor for high office. Before James had a chance to focus his eyes and to think strategically, however, the Covid crisis took hold and forced him and his HEad of Department colleagues to master a whole host of acronyms and to tinker endlessly with vast spreadsheets of data.
James was a true leader during that historic period. He took care of his charges; he was parental. He navigated the department through an incredibly tricky, stressful, and tough eighteen months. He was calm and considerate; he was incredibly informed, open and patient, and he consulted the History dons at every step. He left no one behind. And he always knew exactly how to handle the big, and potentially tricky, personalities that gathered together in A3( or on Teams) every week. James’ s‘ reward’ for his excellent stewardship during the Covid years was responsibility for the EPQ – production logs, chasing Div dons to fill in boxes, and reading and moderating diverse and varied projects about, for example, making skateboards, the impact of Tik Tok on toxic masculinity, and corruption in the pharmaceutical industry.
It was from the old Oxfordshire school, Abingdon, that we acquired James in 2018. It was clear that this was the man to run the crack team of disappointed academics that is Drs Webster, Romans, Foster, Townson, Galliver, and Guymer. He taught a huge variety of topics and periods – from the Mongols to the Nazis, from African kingdoms( examining the non-western world on its own terms, including before the arrival of European explorers and imperialists) to the seventeenth-century witch hunts. He encouraged his pupils to think about how to understand the past in different ways and from a range of different perspectives and intellectual traditions. He globalized the history syllabuses at Winchester, but never made the study of the past a ratification or attack on the present.
With his suave pepper-grey locks and musketeer goatee, he cuts quite a figure. And there is a hint of unknowability and mystery about him. On one occasion, when his pupils were trying to guess his age( a game all teachers d1read and fear), estimates ranged from mid-twenties to sixty-one! Anyone who saw him coach the young badminton players by gliding gracefully across the court and whip a shuttlecock into the corner of the opponent’ s half, however, knew for sure that he had the energy and spirit of a spring chicken.
James’ s greatest gift is his ability to empathise and to communicate effortlessly. For seven years, he has
helped his colleagues, pupils, and tutees through rocky times and always in his usual self-deprecatory self-effacing, way. He is a much-admired tutor who inspired and guided the Beloeites, and with doughnuts and coffee cake, he always offered a safe and comforting space for his tutees. And Beloe’ s loss is now Winchester’ s, for he is set to return to Abingdon to be Head of Politics. We wish him and his husband, Ben, well, and hope that he is not a stranger to this old place. He made a great difference to it, and will be missed in every corner of it.
Footnote from William Poole( GoBo, 15-)
The attached is a curiosity at the very least: I edit with James Willoughby( CoRo, 25-; see Salve) the oldest and most distinguished journal in bibliography, The Library. We have just had the title page changed to state the addresses of the two editors as now New College and Winchester College. This is an absolute first, as the journal has never been co-edited before, and to get both Wykeham’ s places united in this way is a fine thing – and places the school on the front cover of the major journal in its field, which may also be a first.
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