By: Geoffrey Hutton

Geoffrey Hutton — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 12:07:10 +0000

George Young attempted to teach me English at the CRGS circa 1964/5, and I remember him as a commanding but comforting presence in the classroom. He would use anecdotes from his army days to illustrate the finer points of the language – a fellow officer being bawled out by a senior officer and told to “Function, Warner, function!!” illustrated the meaning of the word! I think he was also involved in producing and/or directing the school play, but since I had no aspirations to become an actor that side of George’s input to school life passed me by. He did, however, try and teach us some aspects of athletics at the school playing fields at the end of Queens Rd. I remember him staring balefully at me when I made a mess of the triple jump once again. Out of school I think he had some involvement in children’s charities as he attended a fund raising event in my parent’s back garden in Errington Rd. I was probably unique in that I sometimes saw him in his pyjamas as I was his paper boy when he lived in Salisbury Avenue. Hearing me struggle to get both the Daily Telegraph and the Essex County Standard through his letter box on a Friday morning, he would open the door to save me shredding his newspapers on the edges of the aperture. My brother John was sixteen years my senior and had also been taught by George Young in the late 1940s. Leap forward to the first decade of the 21st century, and John and his fellow Old Colcestrians were still visiting GY in his retirement – indeed, the whole group would also have all have been retired!
George Young was a teacher who inspired great affection amongst his pupils.

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By: Geoffrey Hutton