Wallace ( Wally ) Eyre (27 Mar 1927 - 14 Oct 2014)

Mr. Eyre has been on my mind a lot over the past few weeks, but only today did I learn of his recent death.
As a kid at his school and for years afterwards, I regarded him with a mixture of awe and abhorrence, but that's par for the course for an old-school headmaster. As I've grown older (I've recently turned 50) I've come to understand something of where he was coming from. He taught me many lessons - though perhaps not all of these were intended - and I owe to him my love of Coleridge. I vividly remember his recitations of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" would send shivers down my spine - not least because he once grabbed me by the back of my neck as he got to the part about the "frightful fiend"! He was clearly a man of deep integrity and gritty determination, who touched the lives of many. May he rest in peace.

Wonderful memories of a great headmaster who shaped the lives of many and gave me my best years at school (Gartree High School) xx