Max Haydn Fuller

MAX HAYDN FULLER: 1902-1992

Subjects: English & Music

Max Haydn Fuller (not many of us knew his second name) was born on 7 September 1902 in Sawston, Cambridgeshire, the son of a hairdresser who lived in High Street Sawston. He was educated at Sawston village school and a secondary school in Cambridge. He gained teaching experience at Sawston village school, living with his parents until at least 1924. In 1922 Max entered Fitzwilliam House, Cambridge (a non-collegiate establishment which catered for students who could not afford collegiate life), where he read English and graduated BA and MA.

It is less well known that Max edited several books of collections of one-act plays for amateur production, a book on play production, and several plays, some written under the nom-de-plumes "James Hesketh" and “Philip Dale”.

With a strong sense of what was right and what was wrong, Max championed the interests of the teaching profession. He was, inter alia, an active member of the Assistant Masters’ Association, Chairman of the Sussex Branch, and a frequent delegate to Council. He was popular amongst the staff as an entertaining and kind companion, never sparing of his time and energy whether for pupils or colleagues.

Max retired at the end of the summer term 1968 after more than 40 years of service to the School and the teaching profession.

He married Gladys M Fordham, whom he had met when they were both teachers at Linton village school Cambridgeshire, on 2nd September 1930. They started their married life in a rented flat at 23 Marlow Terrace, Broadwater and a few years later moved into a newly-built house in Offington Drive. which they named "Linton". They had two children, Joanna and Juliet born in 1936 and 1946. After Gladys died in 1987 Max spent his final years in Parkside Lodge retirement home, Wykeham Road where he died on 29 November 1992. After cremation some of his ashes were scattered from King's College bridge into the river Cam and the remainder were buried with a winter-flowering cherry tree in Great Abington churchyard, Cambridgeshire where the roots of the Fuller family went back some 300 years.

As an English teacher he taught at King Edward VII Grammar School in King’s Lynn, Norfolk Queen’s College, Taunton (resident house master) and Brockley Grammar School, London before coming to our school in 1927 to teach English, Drama and Music. Like his father, Max was an accomplished pianist and organist. Without a doubt Max was one of those teachers who stood out from the crowd. His style of teaching has been described as stimulating, scholarly, sensitive, humorous and witty, but above all demanding. His standards were high: there must have been more than one boy who never achieved a mark of more than seven out of ten for his work from Max, yet went on to gain the highest grade in the Ordinary Level Examination.

A Max Fuller School production of "The Man Who Married a Dumb Wife"

Max is also remembered for the school plays he produced. Over his 40 years or so at WHSB he produced over 100 highly regarded plays and took the Dramatic Society on a tour of Gemany with his production of "Twelfth Night" in the pre-war years.

Outside school Max was, for many years, the Chairman of the Drama Advisory Committee to the West Sussex Youth Organisation for which he devised and ran vacation and week-end courses, and produced plays that toured youth clubs. He also took charge of vacation drama courses in Glamorgan, gave lectures on drama for the Welsh Ministry of Education, and was drama tutor at residential courses organised by Southampton University. He also became a well-known adjudicator at drama festivals throughout the country, renowned for his forthright but fair criticism of performance.

The "Twelfth Night" company tour of Germany

My thanks go to Joanna who has provided material for this tribute.