PILTDOWN NEWS ~ ANDREW KEITH
Andrew was born in Epsom on 20th June 1937, precisely to the day a hundred years after Victoria ascended the throne. His father was director of a firm that built the steel walls that protected the Underground and other air raid shelters against incendiary bombs; this exempted him from military service so he joined the Home Guard. By 1939 the family had moved to near Northolt aerodrome, a vital fighter station which was heavily bombed, resulting in Andrew and his elder brother being evacuated with several other children to a large house near Oxford. By 1943 it was considered safe for children to move back to their London homes.
After the war Andrew boarded at a prep school at Epsom, which he thoroughly enjoyed – partly because the Head was a DIY enthusiast skilled in many crafts which Andrew was keen to pursue, notably carpentry and printing. He made his stage debut as Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance and sang in the school choir. He went on to board at St John’s, Leatherhead. He did well there and was lookingforward to a happy Sixth Form when his father dropped a bombshell: a business enterprise had failed and he could no longer afford the school fees. After a few days of abject misery his father said “Why don’t you go and see the world at someone else’s expense?” So he applied to the Blue Funnel Line. After a rigorous Outward Bound course at Aberdovey, which he loved, he began a four-year apprenticeship as a Midshipman. In six years at sea he covered the globe. Promotion to Deck Officer gave him time for the studies which he’d had to miss, and he won a place at Emmanuel College Cambridge to read Geography. In his second year aged 25 he joined a scientific/geographical research trip to the Maldives, where he learnt deep-sea diving and shark dodging.
A spell as an instructor at the Aberdovey Outward Bound School had given him a taste for teaching. He first taught at Felsted, where he met and later married Susan, the Headmaster’s daughter. After two years there he joined a graduate teacher-training course in Uganda, promising to spend at least two years teaching in East Africa. A highlight of this period was hitch-hiking a few hundred miles to Kilimanjaro with five others and climbing that monster, without porters or guides. After the course he became Head of Geography at a large Teacher Training college in Nairobi. He also did some broadcasting and journalism, and published “A Mapbook of Eastern Africa”. Meanwhile Susan was occupied in a secretarial job, and producing their first child, William.
Back in UK in 1973 Andrew took a post at Temple Grove School in Sussex. Two happy years there included adding Philippa to the family. In 1975 he took over a prep school in Cheshire, Terra Nova, where the staff and the facilities needed some attention. To raise money for a hard tennis court Andrew did the London Marathon, in which he found himself running alongside the great Welsh rugby full-back JPR Williams who, hearing that the school had had an unbeaten rugby season led by future England captain Will Carling, obligingly accepted an invitation to be Guest of Honour at the next Speech Day.
Andrew seems addicted to tough challenges. Some more must be mentioned to give the full flavour of the man: in 1990 he and a fellow Headmaster cycled from Land’s End to John O’Groats to raise money for disadvantaged children. For many years he took part in the London to Brighton cycle race. He seems to en- joy feats that would terrify most of us – not long ago he abseiled down the dizzy- ing 162 metres of the “i360 Tower” in Brighton, for the benefit of St Peter and St James Hospice.
In 1991 Andrew withdrew from the headship scene and moved to Cumnor House School as Director of Studies. Susan became the HM’s secretary. Sadly her health was declining – she needed a breathing machine at night – but she battled on stoically, always giving her husband whatever support he needed. She died in 2008 after forty years of marriage. The children, now three in number with the addition of another daughter, Anya, had left home, so Andrew moved into the charming cottage known as Little Hobbs, opposite the golf clubhouse. Always eager to be useful, for years he raised the golf club flag every day, and one afternoon every week he reads to the residents at a local care home.
Dick Glynne-Jones