OLD AZURIANS
ASSOCIATION
S H Earnshaw (1926-1968)
Subject: Mathematics
After graduating from Downing College, Cambridge, Mr Earnshaw joined the school in 1926 as a Mathematics Master, a niche he occupied for over 40 years, but that bare statement does not, by a very long way, do him the justice he deserves.
There were many ways in which he made significant contributions to the life of the school. He was Jutes House Master for ten years after W E Rees retired, he was School Treasurer, seemingly since time immemorial, holding the purse strings for numerous clubs and societies. During WW2 he evacuated with half the school to Newark, was an officer in the School ATC, and started up the Rifle Club that ran until the Broadwater premises were vacated.
As a sportsman he is remembered, by those old enough to do so, as a stone-wall batsman at cricket and a fearsome tackler at rugby. He played golf, tennis, badminton and bridge, more for the pleasure and companionship than for winning, though, being a true Yorkshireman, he did not like to lose.
His non-conformist Yorkshire upbringing formed an outer shell beneath which there sheltered a shy and kindly man unwilling to reveal his true self to the outside world. He expected high standards from others, but he was hardest on himself and would offer to others in distress a calm and genial ear, and wise and gentle counsel.
For five years prior to his retirement in 1968 he was Chairman of the Common Room. In his later years he travelled fairly widely; but it was the Isles of Scilly that he loved best, and it was there that he died, quite suddenly, after a happy day on Tresco among friends.
Many of his colleagues, and representatives from the school, the Old Azurians, and the Assistant Masters Association, of which he had been Chairman and long-serving Secretary attended his funeral.
Sydney Horsley Earnshaw was born in the District of Barnsley on 29 June 1903. He married Sheila E Lawson at Steyning in 1934. Their children were Rodney (an Old Boy of the school) and Elizabeth.