The Staff
Richard Merelie (S/Y 1956) admits to tampering with the school skeleton in the Biology Lab. He got detention at the time so he cannot be punished twice for the same crime. The likeness to Mr Cassius " He hath a lean and hungry look" Black, (Chemistry) is striking. Or Skinny Liz, perhaps. Or was this a member of the Skeleton Staff that kept the school going in the War years?
Staff 1900's
Staff 1921-26
Staff 1929
Staff 1933
Staff 1937
Staff 1947
Staff 1949
Staff 1951
Please email if you can add to the 'names to faces' knowledge.
"Few things are more distressing to a well regulated mind than to see a boy, who ought to know better, disporting himself at improper moments" The famous Fifty Few of Jimmy Petherbridge, Physics, These lines were impossible to write three at a time because each line was three lines long but after only a few months after Pethers arrived, no one ever had to write them again. You just had to buy them from the Fifty Few black marketeers. When lines were handed in to Pethers he threw them undamaged into a waste paper basket. These were recovered and recycled. Well done boys for reducing the School's carbon footprint!! 
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Louis Theakstone
and his more hirsute brother Anatole were brought up in St Petersburg and had started courses at Moscow Uni. Come the Revolution, they went to Scotland and took degrees at Edinburgh University. Both brothers joined the staff of the Royal Grammar School in Newcastle in 1931. Anatole stayed for the whole of his career but Louis was poached in 1954 by Gateshead Grammar to head up the Maths Dept. He collapsed at the school while still in harness and died shortly thereafter.
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Bill James, deputy and G L R Brown, Headmaster photographed in 1961
This dynamic duo were around from at least 1947 until 1961, (Before Bill James was Deputy Head it was 'Foggy' Coates) per Old Boy Dr Miller. In 1961 James became Headmaster at the new coed Heathfield Grammar and G.L.R. Brown retired
This, by comparison, is the sprightly G.L.R. just 10 years earlier in 1951 and see the very young James and Brown in 1949 used as the logo to this website..top of each page
And here he is 1937. Hands up all those who knew that Geoffrey L R Brown had a glass eye
Dr. Caffrey came from a Borstal and took over as Head in Sept 1961 on the retirement of G L R Brown
Photo of staff about 1960-61 supplied by Brian Harrison (1958)
Tribute to Mr Rimer and Mr Doxford
Eric Rimer was an Old Boy and teacher and was associated with the school for almost 50 years. Old Boys becoming teachers at the school is not that unusual but, so far as has emerged, Mr Rimer is unique in spending his entire career at the school. He retired Christmas 1964. Elsewhere it is said how stern he was. In this tribute, written by Mr Howe in the Autumn 1964 edition of The Caprian, a distinquished Old Boy is reported to have said "I suffered under Mr Rimer at school ...and have been grateful ever since" Mr Howe talks of the side of Mr Rimer, seen by his colleages in the staff room but not seen by pupils in the class room
Mr Doxford retired in the Summer of 1964...he became Head of the Art Dept in 1945, having previously been the Principal of Art Schools in Bridgewater and Barnstable. Born a Northerner but he retired to Canterbury
The 1964 edition of the Caprian also reports that in 1964 Mr Potts and Mr Black left for new posts and incoming were Mr Robson (Art), Mr Mitchell (French), Mr Doran (English), Mr Hawkins (Physics) and Mr Cook (Chemistry). Monsieur Bereyziat (French) and Senor Ribelles (Spanish) also came for a year
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Lyne Mock
known, incorrectly as Jasper Masculine Lyne Mock
Bill Hodgson writes
"It is said by a former pupil that his initials stood for Jasper Masculine Lynn and that he had been an Oxford Blue. Neither of these is correct.
The former is an 'urban myth'. The GRO (General Register Office) birth indexes show his first name as Maskelyne (not Masculinej) Mock. He seems to have added two further initials, because in the GRO marriage index he is listed as both Maskelyne and John M. L. Mock. In the GRO death index he is listed as John Maskelyne L. Mock.
He was always known as Lyne Mock (note the spelling) - try doing a Google search - and I assume this was the last part of the name Maskelyne. One would have to obtain a copy of his marriage or death certificate to find out what the final initial initial L stood for.
There was, of course, a famous individual called Jasper Maskelyne, who was a magician and responsible for organising various deceptions during World War 2 to fool the Germans. Having discovered that the M initial stood for Maskelyne (which they assumed was Masculine) some schoolboy must have assumed that the J stood for Jasper, and the urban myth began.
He actually attended Durham University, not Oxford, where he spent much of his time playing bridge.
I actually attended Heathfield, from 1963-70, where Mr Mock was Head of Mathematics. It was believed there, too, that he was Jasper Masculine Lynn Mock. I have always been curious about the name, so did a bit of digging, and found your website in the process."
Glad you did, Bill. He was certainly an interesting guy. It is my understanding (from a very reliable source) that he was plain and simple Lyne Mock and admired this guy and so, by deed poll, he added the Jasper Maskelyne....an allusion, after his namesake.
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This Athletics Meeting poster is included here as this would appear to be an almost complete list of staff as at July 1961. Once again, note the name of the school Gateshead Boys' Grammar School. A short while after this we were instructed, on pain of death...and capital punishment was allowed in schools back then... always to call it the Grammar School for Boys, Gateshead. Could this have been a Caffreyism?
38 Teachers
Geof Addison, M.Armstrong, K. Bennett, B. Bird, Peter Brewis, J.R. Brown, T. Clayden, R. Cleasby, A. Curry, R. Davidson, Mr. Doxford, D. Dyer, R. Errington, E. Fawcett, J. Foster, D. Gilchrist, R. Gosney, I. Graham, T.L. Hall, J.Howe, Frank Lamb, W. Matthews, R.S. Myers, K. Noel, Tom W. Maddison, Jasper M. Lynn Mock, D. Moore, Mr Oyston, J. Prest, A J P R Reed, C. Ridley
Eric Rimer, J.G.C. Robertson, L. Ure, P. Watkinson, R. West, W. Wilson
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Non Teaching Staff
of "The King is deed, The King is deed" fame.
You have to read the "Memories" book to learn more
WARNING: The Internet is the misinformation superhighway...scholars, in a poor attempt at comedy there are two bits of misinformation on this page
That's a picture of Mr Doxford, not Mr Theakstone's brother Anatole and there wasn't capital punishment (killing) allowed in schools but there was corporal punishment (half killing)