Rolfe G Martin

Rolfe George Martin

For more than twenty years I have had the privilege, and great pleasure, of knowing this School intimately through its ordinary days of normal work and its gala days, through sunshine and rain. in Peace and in War, in triumph and in disappointment. I have been concerned with, and interested in, the little chaps as they have entered the School and grown through it, and with the big chaps as they have left it. I have watched with pride the growing honours which the School has won —in peace and in war. I have seen, with mingled pride and grief, the lengthening list of old boys who have paid their full and final Tribute to the School which had guided them to the full stature of manhood and had inspired them with the gleam of Truth, and Freedom and Justice and with a passion, unto death, that these should remain inviolate from the hands of the barbarian

In a very real sense, therefore, I share the grief which all feel who are in this School, or have passed through it or are, otherwise, intimately connected with it. And now, at your request, Mr. Chairman, I seek, in words which are all too inadequate, to speak a tribute to the man who, more than anyone else, founded and developed this School, set its standard, inspired its ideals and guided its fortunes for so many years. I speak what I most deeply feel and in terms such as he himself would most desire - terms of sincerity.

Already I have found myself, as of yore, glancing along the line to ﬁnd that keen, sun-tanned face - sun-tanned through all the season – the flashing eyes, the firm but mobile lips, ever ready to shape a school-boy grin, the eager spirit straining at the leash, the tense personality and inventive mind waiting to put to us in precise, but vivid, terms his own appraisement of the School’s health and progress and of some phase, or phases, of educational development.

For more than twenty years I have worked with him, discussed and argued with him, agreed and disagreed with him, laughed with him. I have listened in admiration to his masterly analyses of education, and other problems. l have seen his large and understanding heart fight its battles with his logical and penetrating mind and mellow the precision and restraint of his scientific judgements.

We have agreed, in the main, on ideals and methods of approach, but we have differed – once or twice quite seriously - and it is because we have differed seriously that I can testify that he was incapable, in my experience of harbouring malice or vindictiveness in that large heart of his.

The outline of his achievements has been given elsewhere for all to read. He was the ﬁrst Headmaster of this School. If ever it gets a greater Headmaster it will, indeed, be fortunate.

He has tended it in its growth from the cradle to lusty youth. Within its wooden walls he has created a spirit worthy of comparison with that enshrined in many older and more digniﬁed buildings. Here, in truth, is an exemplification of the saying - all too often used to excuse neglect - “It is the spirit of the School that matters, and not its buildings.”

For some years he had served on the County Education Committee and on its Committee concerned with the admission of pupils to secondary schools. His ripe experience, knowledge and wisdom had won him a position of great inﬂuence on those Committees. How often, when my own case had been made and my arguments spent have I looked for the sparkle in his eye, and the tightening of his lips which indicated that soon the rapier of his brilliant mind would be flashing into action. And this must be said – his forceful case was always made with tolerance, good humour and courtesy, and never left a sting. Here, as in the School, his loss will be most deeply felt.

He knew the spirit and secret of the good colleague and was deeply respected by his staff. Approach to him was easy but not cheap. He understood boys because he himself remained a boy - with mischief lurking in his heart - to the end. He was “Our Mr. Chips” who never really grew up, who lived, and died, for his school.

Today, I am reminded of a remarkable session of the Welsh National Eisteddfod. There the highest literary prize is given for The Chair Poem. The prize is a ﬁnely carved oak chair in which the successful poet sits for his investiture by the Arch-druid. During the ﬁrst Great War, the prize was won by a young poet who was at the Wars. The trumpet blared to North, South, East, West, and when his name was called throughout that great pavilion there was no answer: there could be no answer - except on the wings of the wind - for he had made the supreme sacriﬁce. And so the robes were draped over the empty chair and the songs of the bards were the songs of lament for genius extinguished before it had attained to its full blaze of glory.

Here, this afternoon, there is an empty chair. The prize poem has been written, not on paper but in the invisible and intangible terms of human personality and its potential inﬂuence on this remarkable upsurge of new ideas in the world of today which now tosses us about like little boats on a vast upheaving sea. This poem of Rolfe Martin’s is written in terms of intellectual capacity, real knowledge, sense of service and sacriﬁce, power of leadership and power of intelligent discipleship - in the growing personalities of the boys of this School, and in the achievements of his old boys. In those personalities and those achievements will lie his memorial.

And yet, I trust, it will be found possible to provide, in the present School, and in the ﬁne building which, I hope, will one day take its place, a worthy memorial to his devotion to the School.

From the contemplation of this life of singleness of high purpose, let us then, in this moment of bewildered sorrow, derive inspiration to go forward - masters, boys and friends of the School on the road he led us – and leads us still - with his eager face, and urgent stride, and gown billowing behind.

You remember the words of Abraham Lincoln in his immortal speech at Gettysburg:-

“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honoured dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion."

From the very beginning Mr Martin set out his stall – epitomised when he wrote, in the first issue of “The Azurian” of April 1924:

We must study earnestly that the dearly won knowledge of the great men of the past may be preserved and increased. That knowledge may lighten our hours of labour or beautify our hours of leisure. Remember always that all knowledge, all proficiency, is worthless unless it is used in the service of the community. Here then is a further reason for learning eagerly; to fit ourselves as completely as possible to be of the greatest use to the world.

Be honest in making a real effort; be honest in appreciating the efforts of our rivals; and let every endeavour be for the honour of the School. Play the game hard, and always play the straight game. Then we can bear failure or success with an equal mind. Be honest.

A further tribute to Mr Martin and his work was written in the Azurian by J T Turner, Second Master, who was to replace Mr Martin as Headmaster.

HAIL AND FAREWELL

It is with infinite sorrow and with a profound realisation of irreparable loss to the staff and to the School that I enter the saddest of all records in the volumes of the Azurian since its foundation - the death, at the age of 57, of Rolfe George Martin, MA (Cantab.), MRST, first Headmaster of the School.

After what appeared to be an enjoyable summer holiday he became ill at the beginning of the term, and was admitted to Worthing Hospital on Friday, 10th of October. On the following Sunday it was found necessary to perform a major operation, and although he rallied for a time, he gradually lost strength and died at 1.45 pm on Wednesday, 29th October. He was buried in Durrington Cemetery on Monday, November 3rd after an impressive funeral service in Bradwater Parish Church, which was filled to overflowing by sympathisers from the School, the town, the county and, we are proud to say, from Battersea Grammar School who shared our School during the war.

We have printed on another page the eloquent tribute paid to him by Evan T Davis Esq., MA, Director of Education for West Sussex. The fitting eulogy serves to remind us only too vividly of the magnitude of our loss. In the magnificent roll of achievements of Pupils and Old Boys in the short space of 24 years since the opening of the School will be found the true record of his work. It is a record of inspiration, of indefatigable energy, and of duty done to the last.

Mournfully we laid him to rest on the Downs which he loved. With pride we saluted him; with sorrow we bade him a last farewell.

We shall remember him.

ED: Rolfe George Martin was the first headmaster to be appointed to the newly-established school in 1924. He was still headmaster when I entered the school in September 1947. As a lowly first-former in his first few weeks in the school I had no direct contact with him that I recall, but I do remember well the solemn occasion at morning assembly, just a few weeks after my arrival, when his death was announced by the deputy headmaster J T Turner. In the introductory remarks to my first attempt at writing a portrait of this man, who played such a defining role in the establishment of the school and left such an enduring legacy in later years, I acknowledged that I was not well-qualified to do him justice because of my almost total lack of experience of him as Headmaster. Two Old Azurians of an earlier vintage than mine have since come forward with material which blows away the cloud of uncertainty that cloaked my original effort and lets Mr Martin’s light shine forth. I think that the best thing for me to do now is to begin again by reproducing the tribute spoken at the Speech Day on 6th November 1947, shortly after his death, by someone who knew him well – Mr. Evan T. Davis, M.A., who was, at the time, Director of Education for West Sussex.

A further tribute from a Group of Old Boys, who were at Oxford University at the time, was published in the Worthing Herald on 7 November 1947.

The death of Rolfe Martin is a tragedy for town and school alike. Of his work for the league of Nations Union, the Youth Council and the rest, others are better qualified to speak than are we. But we feel that we owe him, and the school which he built, a special and personal debt. We should like to acknowledge it.

He was intensely curious. By his wide interests he encouraged his pupils to look far beyond the narrow limits of study for public examinations: and, cloaked in a certain amused sceticism, his concern for truth fell upon them, as it were, unawares.

But his chief work was not intellectual. Unfitted by temperament and conviction for the task of imposing discipline, he chose the more difficult and more rewarding course of encouraging it. Under his care a new school developed a sense of unity and a firm tradition of co-operation, which directed our thoughts outwards, away from ourselves, towards our communal responsibility. We found, in him, more than a mere pedagogue; in his school, more than simply a knowledge shop.

Through the growing difficulties of wartime and of rapid post-war expamsion, he never ceased to work tirelessly for his ideals and for his school. His loss will be felt, as a headmaster, and even more, as a friend.

S. ENGLISH, J S GOLLAND, D R E HOPKINS, C A LAKER, S D NEEDHAM, K L M O’HANLON

Rolfe George Martin was born in the Homerton district of Hackney, London on 18 December 1889. He married his wife Gladwys (nee Loker) in Cambridgeshire in 1912.

He was a Scholar and Prizeman at Christ College Cambridge and was awarded an MA 1st class degree in Natural Sciences and Mathematics.

Prior to his appointment as Headmaster of the newly established “County of West Sussex Secondary School for Boys at Worthing” he taught at Cardiff High School 1912-1914 (Jnr Science); Plymouth College 1914-1919 (Snr Science) - during this time serving as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Plymouth College Contingent, Junior Division, of the Officers Training Corps; Macclesfield Grammar School 1920 (Snr Physics); and Alsop High School, Liverpool 1920-1923 (Snr Science and 2nd Master).

Having moved to Worthing, he and his family lived at “Penrose”, Charmandean Road, within walking distance of the school. There were three children Joan K R (b. 9 Apr 1919 at Plymouth) and twins Ian A R and Francis J R (b. 1 Nov 1926 in Worthing).

Group photographs that include him have been posted on the Staff Photos page and the History/ Visit by Hitler Youth page.

He seems to have been an ardent disciple of peace. Evidence of his desire to extend the hand of friendship to Nazi Germany is to be gleaned from the fact that he, together with Max Fuller, took a group of boys to Germany in 1935 and hosted a reciprocal visit the following year. Freddie Feest wrote: Certainly, according to several former pupils, their headmaster and at least one other teacher involved with the trip to Germany were ‘greatly impressed by, and demonstrably sympathetic to,’ many of the Nazi ideals projected during the two-way visits. The other teacher referred to was undoubtedly Max Fuller who would have been in charge of the production of “Twelfth Night” in Germany by our boys, and has been quoted as saying Hitler is looked upon as the saviour of the country (Germany).

It is not to be assumed that Rolfe Martin was a Nazi sympathiser. On the contrary, he was openly critical of the Fascist movement, which was quite active in Worthing at the time, saying at the annual dinner of the Old Azurian's Association in 1934, that he did not expect former pupils to join (the British Union of Fascists) as they had cold common sense among those who had the best education the town could offer.

Whatever his political views were, as headmaster he was widely respected by pupils and staff alike.

Rolfe George Martin died in Worthing Hospital, aged 57, on 29th October 1947. He was survived by his wife Gladwys and children Joan and twins Ian and Francis. He was buried at Durrington Cemetery on the 3rd November following a funeral service at Broadwater Church. The Old Azurians Association donated a lectern to the school in his memory.