Mr. Hamilton

To mark his twenty-fifth year at Hemsworth Grammar School, the Headmaster was interviewed towards the end of the Spring Term. The tape-recorded interview contained much more material than space permits to be reproduced; it has therefore been edited and the more important extracts are printed below.
Our grateful thanks are due to Mr. Hamilton for allowing us time for the interview and for giving us permission to print his opinions. They should be of particular interest to junior members of the School who have not yet had the opportunity of meeting Mr. Hamilton outside the academic sphere.

Q. Why did you choose to come to this area?

A. I didn't choose to come to Hemsworth Grammar School - Fate directed me here. I had been head of my own department for five or six years, and the only prospect of promotion was to apply for a headmastership. I applied for every vacancy that looked at all reasonable, and Hemsworth was just one of them. When I was told by my headmaster that enquiries were being made about me at a place called Hemsworth, I had to admit that I just did not know where it was. My being here is the work of Fate rather than my own choice.

Q. What are the main changes that you have seen in pupils over the last twenty-five years?

A. Whatever changes have taken place have happened to all young people over that period. We are taking twice as many pupils now as we did in 1937. That means that from an academic point of view we are admitting some who are not as quick as even the poorest we used to take in earlier years. We accept people who require six years to reach 'O' level, whereas twenty-five years ago those people did not come to a Grammar School at all. Another consequence of taking in such a large number of pupils is that it is not so easy these days to know every child in the School, whereas when I first came I knew practically every pupil.

Q. What do you think the School sets out to do for its pupils?

A. Two things. Firstly we try to educate in the sense that when the pupils leave School they will take with them the ability to get the most out of life. Some boy's great interest in life may be sport. We hope that when he leaves we will have given him a slight insight into music, for instance. Another boy's sole interest may be music. We hope that when he leaves he knows something about sport and understands why people can be enthusiastic about games. We hope that the individual will have an interest in far more things than the particular side he is good at naturally. Therefore, his potential for having a really full life is as great as it is possible for it to be.
Secondly, the School gives him an opportunity to acquire those qualifications which permit him to take up careers which would otherwise be closed to him. We have an eye to the career of a pupil, but we never forget that the real job of the School is to educate him in the widest sense. To fit him for a career is secondary to this.

Q. What would you say are the main advantages of co-education?

A. My own feeling is that a co-educational grammar school gives a better education than a single-sex school. A boys' school is too masculine in its approach - it is rougher and tougher; whereas a girls' school, I would imagine, tends to be gentler and softer in its approach. In a co-educational school you get the mean, the best of both worlds. The boys become a little more gentlemanly; the girls rather tougher.
In a boys' school, the teacher has to drive a lot harder than in a mixed school. the combination of the sexes in the classroom makes the boys settle down and eventually overtake the girls.
I'm always for a mixed school, having had experience of both. And when it comes to social life - plays, dances and that sort of thing - the mixed school has it every time.

Q. What importance do you attach to sport in the curriculum?

A. Not as much now as in my earlier days. Then I was very active in games and attached greater importance to sport than perhaps it ought to have. Even now, I say that sport is very important in a school, but I think that the other things are important too. I would devote more time now to the fostering of music and drama and other cultural pursuits than I would have been prepared to give when I was young. All my time was taken up with sport: I knew nothing of acting, nothing about music, and even less about art. I think that my life has been the poorer because of this, I missed an awful lot, but I didn't worry about it at the time. Now I realise how much I missed and I have been trying in various ways to make up for it.
Of course, I would not like to see these other things fostered at the expense of sport. Games teach you to give every ounce of physical effort, to take knocks and to give them. They teach you to control your temper and to respect the other person.
These things are valuable because the boy who becomes a good sportsman, even when his playing days are over, knows what is meant by good sportsmanship, and he carries over these ideals into his other walks of life.
There are those who think that we have overplayed this idea in this country. I wouldn't have thought we had. However, I wouldn't like to think that in any school I was connected with, games were the thing and other activities didn't matter.

Q. If you had a sum of £10,000 to spend on the School, what would you do with it?

A. One of the things would be to provide the School with its own swimming bath. Another thing which will have to come in time is a really good sports pavilion which will accommodate both winter and summer sports. I think if we had both these, the £10,000 would be more than accounted for.

Not only was Mr. Hamilton an excellent organiser, but an able participant in all School activities. A good all-round games player, he excelled in Hockey and in Cricket, and captained Staff teams in countless matches. His example was an inspiration to all our teams. At the annual Folk Dancing Festival, he and Mrs. Hamilton always led the procession as pupils from all schools in the area took up their positions for the opening dance.
Mr. Hamilton's talents were not, however, confined to the field of sport. Music he always encouraged; Drama was constantly to the fore, as was shown by the annual School and Staff plays; the establishment of Esperanto both as a Club subject and also as part of the curriculum was another of his many achievements. Nor was Social Welfare overlooked. With the Headmaster's encouragement, regular help was given to the Save The Children Fund, to the Lord Roberts Memorial Fund, and to other deserving causes, local, national, and international.
Mr. Hamilton has left his mark on the School. During his long term of office, he "upheld its best traditions", and won the respect and affection of Staff and pupils. His retirement at Christmas was truly the end of an era.
We are proud to have this opportunity of paying our tribute to Mr. Hamilton, and of thanking him for all he has done for the School. To him and to Mrs. Hamilton we wish good health and happiness in the retirement they have so well earned.

The article comes from Insight 1968 courtesy of Fred Johnson. Thank you, Fred.

If you have any particular memories of Mr. Hamilton, please send them in.

I was fortunate to be captain of the Hilmians cricket team in Mr. Hamilton's last two summers at HGS. He played in almost every game Saturday and Sunday, home or away, during that time as well as for the Staff team on Friday evenings. Everyone called him Head. He bowled his 8 to 10 overs when required, generally getting a few wickets with his leg spin and could be relied on to get some runs in the middle order when needed. He was reliable in the field, not bad for some one of retiring age.
My last memory was seeing him at the top of the stairs by room 10. It was the last day of the Christmas term 1967 and everyone had gone home. I think I may have been the last person to see him looking down over what had been his pride and joy for 30 years. I suspect he was thinking how it had been and not how it was at that time.
Terry McCroakam

Headmaster's House

Does anyone have any stories about a visit to this building?

Dave, 
RWH lived here followed by the new Head Roland Ablett. He only stayed there for a couple of years or so before moving away. The house then became a home for a teacher who took care of pupils with social problems. When he left the 6th form spent time in there for lessons with small groups and A level exams were done there also. I taught and supervised in there. Later it was used as a base for "difficult" pupils and became known as Hector's after the childrens TV programme at the time.
Hope that fills in its history as I knew it.

Terry McCroakam

I want  to bring to your attention the meticulous coverage by RWH of events, incidents, Staff, games, pupils, and games results that he had tabulated for each year of his 'reign' in the exercise books of the day. I know he did that as I went to him about a subsidy to take the lower sixth to Malham Tarn which of course he granted, and waiting for him to enter the Saturday results in one of his games books for the year. This is why he was able to churn out a wondrous mass of data at the annual Speech Day where school prizes were distributed by 'famous' personalities at the time. He returned the book to a cupboard behind his desk to the right of the chair where I was sitting to discuss with him. There on various shelves he had amassed a mighty archive of information. What would be interesting is to inquire if such books are still around on a dusty shelf somewhere in the school. It is only a thought but he knew, believe it or not, all his pupils individually, where they lived, their parents, addresses, when they entered the school, their individual successes and achievements - including the Staff, and external examinations. He had an enormous database even before computers all written by hand. For me he was an object lesson which I never forgot. No pupil was allowed to be anonymous. To permit him to perform the enormous admin role that he had, people like Les Collette and Cyril Owen constructed the mighty tasks of timetable admin after being instructed by him of the criteria that were to be followed.

Ken Sale, HGS Staff 1955-61

Image from Stephen Batey. Thank you, Stephen.

Mr Hamilton helps at half time on the 15th October 1966 in a Hockey match against Nunthorpe G.S.

Mr. Hamilton as a Headmaster
	"I kept in touch with Mr. Hamilton during his retirement in Exmouth until he became too ill to continue. He was a terrific Head. To parody Louis XIV, his leadership was a case of "L'ecole, c'est moi." He worked at it "morning, noon and night". The School was his life. He was great to work for. If you needed help professionally or personally, it was, "Come in, sit down. How can I help?" If you fell below the standard he expected of you, it was: "Mr. Hodson, you missed Assembly this morning", or, "You were two minutes late for the third lesson," or, "I didn't see you at such and such an event." Whatever was going on at School he made a point of being there, if only for a short time, if he was busy.
It mattered to him that the Staff knew that he knew what they were doing, or not doing, and that he appreciated their efforts and offered them thanks and encouragement. It mattered to him that the pupils knew who he was, and that he cared. This dedication did not prevent him from friendly circulation up in the Staff Room, having a chat or a joke over a cup of coffee, or on the touchline, at a Music Concert, or whatever. R.G. Hodson, HGS Staff 1956 onwards