Evans T A | old-azurians

T A Evans: (1958-1968)

Subject: Mathematics

3rd Headmaster

Mr Evans came to the school in 1958 as its third Headmaster. He brought with him an impressive array of academic and other experience. The son of a schoolmaster, Mr Evans was educated at Nottingham Grammar School and Fitzwilliam House, Cambridge where he read Mathematics and was President of the Boat Club. His teaching practice, while obtaining his Certificate in Education, was carried out at Oundle. From there he taught at St Albans School, and, as Senior Mathematics Master, at Trent College.

Having entered the army in 1940 he served in the Royal Artillery, rising to the rank of Major. In the latter part of WW2 he worked in a Scientific Operational Research Unit engaged in developing counter-measures against German V-weapons and then moved to logistics for the Army and RAF in the Far East and Germany.

In 1947 he entered industry, becoming Director of a Field Investigation Group of scientists working for the National Coal Board on problems concerned with mining and the economics of coal production. In 1951 he returned to education when he was appointed Headmaster of King Edward VII Grammar School at Coalville, Leicestershire.

With that background he was well-equipped to deal with the turbulent years that followed his appointment as Headmaster of WHSB in 1958, in succession to J T Turner. He was immediately faced with dealing with a school community that was expanding in a space that was contracting as workshops and laboratories were being built on the school playing field for the College of Further Education. Then there was the uncertainty while the Ministry of Education dithered over the decision to provide a new building for WHSB and, eventually, the planning of the move when the decision was finally made. The carefully phased strategy of the move and the smoothness with which it was carried out bore the hallmarks of a master of logistics.

A far-reaching change, that Mr Evans first introduced at Broadwater, was the re-organisation of the curriculum which resulted in each boy, from the middle school upwards, being given a wider choice in the subjects studied, and, as a probable consequence, in the increase in successes in Public Examinations, the increased proportion of boys entering the Sixth Form, and of those going to University.

While all this was going on Mr Evans managed to maintain his direct participation in the educational side of the school. He assigned to himself an unprecedented number of teaching periods and made great efforts to get to know each and every one of the750 boys in the school prior to signing off their reports.

He soon won the respect of staff, school, parents and old boys; he was always ready to listen and his strong, though never dogmatic, convictions were respected. He was held in esteem on a wider front as shown by his appointment to the Worthing and West Sussex Education Committees, and his invitations to serve on the Air Ministry’s Officer Cadet Selection panel and the Court of Nottingham University.

The contributions that he made towards the everyday life of the school and its amenities were numerous and were a lasting legacy to the school, along with more tangible assets such as the school organ and the collection of original pictures that adorned the walls.

He left in 1968 to take up his appointment as Headmaster of Steyning Grammar School.