TRIBUTE has been paid to a teacher who inspired generations of pupils in the school in which he was born and succeeded his father as headmaster.

On a January day in 1927, Lieutenant Colonel William Harold Colley, headmaster at St Aubyn’s school in Bunces Lane, Woodford Green, was forced to interrupt the Latin lesson he was teaching when he was told his wife was giving birth next door.

Shortly after he returned to the classroom, proudly announced to his students that he was the father of a son, and promptly asked his students to turn to page 42 of their exercise books.

Lt. Col. Colley’s son, Harold, went on to become a pupil at the school then, after serving in Palestine during the Second World War and studying modern languages at Cambridge, succeeded his father as headmaster and over more than four decades taught generations of students.

Mr Colley died on August 4, aged 84.

As a teacher of Latin, French and English, Mr Colley is remembered by pupils for his adventurous school trips to Europe and the Middle East and his traditional teaching methods.

Nicholas Dixon, 18, first met Mr Colley when he was 14 and researching a school project on the history of the school.

Remembering Mr Colley, he said: “When I first met him he was kind and open in a way you would not expect. He was very generous with his time and the project would never have been realised without his help.

“He did not just teach the facts, he was interested in character building. He thought that was more important than getting people good jobs and getting people in to university. That made him more respected as a teacher.

“His self-confessed ‘strong sense of wanderlust' lead him to lead countless journeys with pupils across Europe and North Africa.”

“He also had a great love of comic verse and wordplay and which he gave full expression to in his monthly newsletters for the Woodford Rugby Club, which he was a lifelong member of.”

Mr Colley never married and was the last member of his immediate family, devoting his life to the school.

In 1975 he formed St St Aubyn’s School Trust, which ensured that despite owning the school he would not profit from it, with all money it raised going back to the institution.

Mr Dixon, of Warwick Road in Wanstead, said: “It is no exaggeration to state that the School owes its survival to Harold’s selfless foresight.”

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