Colleagues
Mike Cross
Full obituary, originally published in the Journal of the Old Caldeian Union
Eric William Hawkins, CBE, MA
Born Heswall, Wirral, 8 January 1915;
died 31 October 2010.
Educated: Liverpool Institute; Trinity Hall, Cambridge.
Calday was immensely fortunate to have such a distinguished person as Eric Hawkins serve as its Headmaster. Joining the school in June 1953 after four years as head of Oldershaw Grammar School, his persistence and enthusiasm created a dynamic period in Calday's history, the momentum of which continued after his departure to York University in December 1964. His qualities of leadership, his openness towards new ideas and his sheer drive enabled the school to overcome the disastrous legacy of the years of Dr R Eldred Witt. (Witt had taken over from the revered R T B Glasspool who retired in 1945. Indeed, one will look in vain in the school history for mention of classicist Dr Witt, such was the desire to forget him.)
By all accounts, Eric Hawkins found a staff room that was united - united against the ancien régime, of course - but receptive to change and willing to work with him in the development of the school. His sheer drive and energy fostered a collegiate ethos amongst a well-qualified staff, and inspired "an era of spectacular growth and progress". One of the joys of working at Calday with him was that he actively encouraged innovation at all levels. Hawkins was appreciative of the work of his colleagues, and backed them to the hilt - with the result that the staff as a whole gave him their unreserved allegiance.
It was not plain sailing. Hawkins was faced with a challenging environment. In those post-War years, pupil numbers had increased considerably and the fabric of the school, parts of which dated from the 19th century, was inadequate for its needs. There were not enough classrooms, laboratories, cloakrooms, staff facilities and toilets, let alone teaching aids. Kitchen and dining facilities designed to serve 350 meals daily had to serve far more than twice that number. The antiquated heating system, particularly in the old sandstone building (long since demolished), would today cause its immediate closure on "Health and Safety" grounds!
Supported by his governing body, under the leadership first of Col. Turner and then of ever-loyal old Caldeian, Stan Tomkinson, Hawkins fostered the development of a liberal and diversified curriculum in times when the heavy hand of government "guidance" and bureaucratic control was decades away; times when officials of the former Cheshire County Education Department wisely kept their distance. It has been said that on answering the telephone and hearing the words, "Hawkins here", the first reaction of officials at County Hall was, "Oh, my God! What have we done wrong now?"
In his time at Calday, he saw the building of an engineering block (1956), and several supposedly temporary "demountable" buildings: a classroom (1958) and Physics laboratories (1960); followed (1963) by a language laboratory - one of the first in the country. He also played his part in the drawing up of plans for a long-overdue new school building (the Walker Building). The years 1963 to 1965 witnessed work to replace the leaf-strewn, frog-breeding open-air pool of the 1920s and the building of the covered, heated pool which replaced it - after he had put further pressure on Cheshire. Prior to that, Eric had successfully challenged the authorities for the return of what is now Glasspool Field which had been requisitioned for agricultural use during the Second World War.
A second-hand 29-seater Bedford bus which, let it be said, had seen better days, was bought for the school in 1956. Along with several of the staff, he learnt to drive it and gained his PSV licence. As well as taking field parties, sports teams, and groups on camping trips to the Continent, it was used (as was its larger successor "Linda") to transport old people and disadvantaged children on outings; thus fulfilling his belief in encouraging a school's pupils to be aware of and, where possible, help the wider community.
Eric Hawkins thus shamed the Education Authority with his "self help" approach. Aided by the Parents' Association, governors, staff and pupils, he raised the money for and oversaw the building of a new Pavilion and Music Room (1963). Fund-raising took place over several years with help from the Amenities Fund and Open Days ("Be a brick and buy a brick!" was one money-raising slogan.) Not only that, but he also joined in the regular parties of staff, parents and pupils which worked on the building to save costs. Its upper room was used for Friday evening meetings of the "61 Society". (This society which he encouraged consisted of sixth formers from Calday and West Kirby Grammar School, together with staff and their wives, who heard guest speakers on a variety of topics.)
Receptive to staffroom views and opinions, in addition to the regular staff meetings, he introduced a programme of Steering Committee meetings. These were open to all colleagues, and even the most junior were at liberty to raise topics of interest and concern for discussion and possible adoption. He also fostered pupil representative meetings, which he attended and took account of the views expressed. Thus all could feel that in some way they could be in touch and play their part in the life and development of the school.
He rid Calday of the traditional grammar school division of pupils into A, B, C and D streams, instead introducing, with the aid of the Department of Psychology of Liverpool University, aptitude testing for practical abilities. These tests enabled the identification of those boys - including especially the most able - suited for a unique course of engineering-based subjects combined with Industrial Studies on a specially devised syllabus. Such a cross-curricular approach was years ahead of its time.
He encouraged his staff to innovate in many ways. Geography developed a full programme of field trips which was in itself unusual for the times. The Mathematics curriculum was revolutionised with the adoption of "New Mathematics" based upon the then-pioneering Thwaites Project. Biology was offered at Advanced Level and taught also in the first three years. Economics, Music and General Studies at Advanced Level were introduced. The hitherto rigid division into "Arts" and "Science" in the Sixth Form began to be broken down. In 1953, he had presided over another innovation: the first Careers Convention, an idea lauded in the press and swiftly taken up by other schools. The "modern" idea of work experience was something that Hawkins encouraged in Calday soon after his arrival.
Languages were his passion, and it was fitting that the language block opened in 2000 should be named in his honour. In 1957 the Foreign Office invited him to organise a course in Berlin for German teachers; in 1961 he chaired a working party set up by his headteachers' association, the result of which was a report on the status of foreign languages in grammar schools. Meanwhile at Calday, exchange visits of both long and short duration for staff and pupils enabled the development of links with the Goethe Gymnasium in Frankfurt; with the Lycée de Compiègne in France and with a school in Copenhagen. He firmly believed that the study of foreign languages was key to an understanding of the cultures and outlooks of people of other countries. In 1958, at the height of the Cold War, Russian was introduced as a first language alongside the traditional French. In the same year, the school invited pupil players from the Schiller Gymnasium in Hameln, Germany, to perform Hameln's traditional Pied Piper play at Calday. This encouraged Eric, who also had a great love of music (he played piano, clarinet and cello), to arrange a return visit to Hameln by singers and musicians from Calday and West Kirby Grammar School.
In his time, there were a host of musical initiatives throughout the school community; the annual House Music Festival began in 1954, and there were inter-school productions of the "Messiah" (1954) and Haydn's "Creation" (1957). The Calday Orchestra held its inaugural concert in 1956 and subsequently concerts became frequent. In 1962, he made it policy for all first year boys who were not already learning an instrument to receive free tuition.
In other ways, he wished to encourage his pupils to look outward to the wider world. No doubt this was a reflection of his experiences in Spain during the difficult times of the 1930s and the Spanish Civil War when he helped refugee Basque children to safety in Britain. It was in Spain in 1935 that he met Ellen Thygesen from Denmark who was to become his ever loyal and supportive wife. His principles of freedom and justice were further sharpened when, as a recent graduate, he spent time teaching in Germany while living in the house of a Nazi-supporting German family prior to World War Two. During the War he served in North Africa and Italy, was wounded in 1943, mentioned in dispatches in 1945 and rose to the rank of Major. He had the added burden in wartime of being separated from his wife and daughter Anne who were trapped in German-occupied Denmark.
The outlook on the world these experiences gave him informed his belief that young people should look outside the confines of their own community and country into a wider world. He saw the value of voluntary work by young people and encouraged this, both nationally and internationally. In 1959, the first of a number of sixth formers went on from school to undertake Voluntary Service Overseas. A firm believer in the influence of the then relatively recently formed United Nations in promoting world peace, Eric was an active member of the local branch of the United Nations Association, and encouraged the school's participation in the activities of the Council for Education in World Citizenship. As a result of a professional visit he made to West Africa in 1962, two Calday sixth formers spent a year teaching in Nigeria and in return we welcomed three students from Nigeria to complete their schooling here.
For Calday and those who were privileged to learn and to teach there, the Hawkins years were golden years. But a wider world called him. Towards the end of his time at the school, he was appointed with other persons of distinction to serve on the Plowden Commission which produced the report that shaped primary education in England and Wales for decades to come. Also in the early 60s, the Robbins Report recommended the expansion of the number of universities in the UK. York University was founded and, in December 1964, Eric left Calday to take up the post of Director of its new Language Teaching Centre.
For the next half century, Eric's contribution to education in general and the teaching of modern languages in particular was phenomenal. Even at the age of 90 he published a paper on school language teaching. In between, he served on and chaired numerous committees, some at the invitation of government or industry, committees concerned with, inter alia, curricular development, examination reform, educational needs and provision in areas of social deprivation, modern language requirements in industry and so on. Invited by the British Council, he taught in China at Nanking University shortly after he retired in 1979. He published learned papers, co-authored a series of school text books on French and even wrote his own autobiography. He was showered with well-deserved honours: elevated to a professorship; made a CBE (1973); awarded the Institute of Linguists' Gold Medal (1975); became first Honorary President of the Audio-Visual Languages Association; was President of the Modern Languages Association; and, in 1985, was made Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Palmes Academiques of France.
After Ellen's death in 2009, Eric's final months were spent in a nursing home before he too died on 31 October 2010. There was no funeral - he donated his body for medical research and teaching, which was typical of the man that many of us felt privileged to know.