Old
Farnhamians' Association
George Baxter MBE
1st
August 1913 to 5th January 2005
Headmaster of
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Thanksgiving Service Held at St Andrew’s
Church, Farnham
on 14th January, 2005
Farnham’s
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Eulogies Recorded
at the
Thanksgiving Service
Rev D.K. Jameson Col Robin
Crawford Rev Andrew Tuck
These are wma files that should play
automatically in Windows Media Player or Real Player if you also have
broadband.
If your internet connection is too slow to allow streaming audio, you can save
the files and then listen to them
(right click, Save target as…, then navigate to a folder for saving.)
We thank Peter Wisbey
(1951 – 1957) for making these recordings
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Click on photos to
enlarge, back to return
We thank
George’s family for making these photographs available
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Following the announcement of George Baxter’s death sent
to our web members, I received an email from Royston Snart (1954 – 1961) who
says that to him, as a small boy starting at
This sums up the view of all new boys in those days. The
head was an awe-inspiring person in the 1950s. Extremely good looking (according
to our mothers), he was a tall man with an upright bearing, whose black gown
would ripple as he strode. His most impressive stride was a daily event as he
entered a hushed school hall for the morning assembly. The school captain,
whose duty it was to arrange for all boys to be in their required ranks, would
descend from the rostrum and headmaster and head boy would bow to each other as
the assembly was solemnly handed from one to the other.
A hymn, robustly sung if it was a favourite,
was followed by a reading and set prayers, read by Mr Baxter
and rotated at his choice. They included prayers such as the General
Thanksgiving and the Prayer of St Francis but also a special School Prayer
which gave thanks for the benefactors of the school.
With the brief act of worship complete, there might be
announcements, which could be good or bad news. Perhaps news of some great
attainment by a present boy or old boy of the school or, occasionally, news of
some bad behaviour or disgrace that had occurred and would be, or probably
had been, dealt with. After the departure of the head, other announcements
would be made and the school would dismiss to first period lessons. This daily
ritual stamped both the role and the personality of George Baxter on the minds
of the entire school.
Unfortunately, I never had the chance in recent years to
ask him if he had revised his views on the wisdom of corporal punishment. John Crotty
and I were planning a filmed interview with George just before he had the
illness that eventually took him. He had agreed to this and corporal punishment
was a matter he was going to discuss with us.
George Baxter seemed to us to be greatly respected by his
staff. Of course, they really had little choice but to respect the authority he
had. Not very many seemed to leave FGS other than to retire or go to more
senior jobs. He inherited an excellent team from his predecessor, F.A. Morgan,
and he built well on it. The school offered a good curriculum, though for many
years it sadly lacked facilities for natural sciences. Consequently, up to the
1960s FGS produced only a few aspiring doctors but a good number of
accountants, bankers, lawyers, mathematicians, physicists etc. The little
biology that was taught to selected boys was by George himself as he was the
only qualified teacher of this subject until September 1962.
It was a great advantage that FGS was a relatively small
school. George made sure that he got to know every boy by taking a period of
English with the first form and we all recall the way he manoeuvred
the lessons to a set of periods in which he revealed the secrets of human
reproduction, to ensure that every pupil had knowledge of the basic facts. At
sixth form, he took a weekly period of comparative religion in order to give us
some understanding of both religion and ethics. As a teacher, he held your
attention by being very clear and allowing some laughter (but not too much).
It is to the credit of George Baxter that he encouraged
music, through his strong support of Alan Fluck, that creative and innovative
music master who had been appointed just before George arrived on the scene. As
a result, FGS produced many keen musicians and a few outstanding ones. George
was not a musician himself, but enjoyed music, saw the value of nurturing it
and was proud of the musical achievements in the school and by individual boys.
Did George enjoy his job? My view is that he found it both
very challenging and stressful even though he appeared to us to be completely
in control. He seemed somewhat aloof to us in our school days, but that was
completely normal at that time – informal pupil-teacher relationships and the
use of first names were still decades away.
George himself recounted to some of us a few years ago
how, in the 1970s, he had been in Farnham and an old boy from the 1950s had
suddenly seen him and said “Hallo George” in a loud voice. He was taken aback
not to be addressed as “Mr Baxter” or “Sir”, but realised that things were
changing. He went along with such changes and, in later years, he became very
relaxed and informal with his former pupils.
George succeeded the legendary F.A. Morgan, who had been
the dominant force in FGS for decades. Since Mr Morgan, when he retired, only
moved about 300 yards from School House to
A few years before George resigned from FGS in 1971 to
join the Surrey Schools Council, he moved from School House to a nearby house
in
George was very keen to perpetuate the traditions of FGS
and was a very strong supporter of the OFA. He probably did as much as anyone
in recent years to ensure the strong survival of our association by his regular
attendance at our meetings whilst his health permitted it. He said at a recent
annual dinner that he knew of hardly any defunct grammar schools that still had
such an active association. It was clear that this was another matter of
considerable pride to him and all old boys owe him a great debt for that.
George was a great family man. He was absolutely devoted
to his wife Peggy, who died quite suddenly in 1991, and it has been apparent to
many of us in recent years that he yearned to be reunited with her. But of
course he also cherished his own children and the grandchildren and great
grandchildren that he lived to see. He was still very glad to be alive.
When I returned to Farnham in 1992, after living abroad
for almost 24 years, I was pleased to find that we were living near George and
meeting him at local concerts and OFA events. He became a friend and we both
enjoyed recalling school days. I visited George in hospital and his care home
in the last months of his life and it was, of course, sad to see his decline.
His self-awareness remained good and his short term memory deteriorated, but
his memory of the old times remained clear.
The death of George Baxter is a significant event for me
and approximately 1500 other old boys of
When we talk of our ambition to “make a difference to the
world” this can only mean making a difference to the lives of other people. Success
can only be measured in terms of what that difference is and how many people
are affected. On this basis, George Baxter had a very successful life and we,
the old boys of the school, benefited greatly from it.
God bless you, George!
20 January, 2005
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More Tributes
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