Headmaster of LCGS for Boys
The Opportunity to Make his Mark
OW
that he had been appointed headmaster of Lewes
County School, a brand-new school that was a grammar school in
all but name (it was to take many years before the LEA would
allow him to change the name to Lewes County Grammar School), NRB
had to start from scratch for there was no previous old
foundation school or previous headmaster or staff. It is true
that the opening of the school coincided with the closure of some
smaller grammar schools, notably Uckfield Grammar School, but the
only thing that he inherited from these schools was that most of
the pupils were midway through their school education when the
change took place. He was starting, in effect, with a clean
slate.
Somewhere in the East Sussex County Record Office there will
almost certainly be the records of the various conditions imposed
on him by the Local Education Authority and also the minutes of
the school governors which (judging from my reading of the HGS
minutes) will have a wealth of detail about how the original
staff were recruited and much else. Perhaps some OL with an
interest in such matters and who lives in the Lewes area will one
day research this topic with a view to adding further detail to
this account of his life. I would like to do it but it is too far
away for me.
Some of the detail of NRB's early days at LCS are to be found
in several other places on this website, notably "Alma Mater",
"Prospectus" and the early Barbican magazines.
In some sense the whole of this website is a part of his life
story for it was his influence that set the tone for the all of
its short existence. His influence was pervasive and no doubt has
had an effect on many of his pupils, just as Mr Dickinson had on
his.