OLD AZURIANS

Ralph Cowley was born in Rugby, Warwickshire on 16 May 1908. He was educated at the Lawrence Sherriff School, Rugby and University College London. He then taught at Drayton Manor Grammar School, London, following which, in the 1930s, he held the Senior Physics teaching post at George Dixon Boys’ Grammar School, Birmingham, and Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School, Sutton Coldfield.

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During 1941 and1942 he was seconded to Birmingham Central Technical College as an RAF radar instructor. He arrived at WHSB in the summer of 1955 to take over the Senior Physics post vacated by the retirement of George Coombs.

 

Mr Cowley demonstrated immense versatility and energy throughout his career: he produced plays and operas, assisted with overseas trips, and took charge of the school’s first teams in Rugby and Association Football, Cricket, Athletics, Badminton, Cross-Country Running, Swimming and Life-Saving. He had also played Cricket and Hockey for his University.

 

Perhaps it was because he suffered more than his fair share of physical illness that he seemed to generate so much energy and enthusiasm in order to extract the maximum possible out of each day. After a heart attack in 1956 he was no longer able to take an active part in sport, but the legacy of earlier years of so much participation emerged in his neatness, organisation and attention to detail and his ceaseless quest for new knowledge to further his students’ ambitions.

 

He played the fullest of parts in the general society of the school, in Saturday games and school functions, and in the Worthing Science Society. As a teacher he stimulated the very intelligent, raised the sights of the average, and bolstered the hopes of the remainder.