Albert Harold Cawood
| Albert Harold Cawood | |
|---|---|
| Born |
1835 Leeds |
| Died |
07 April 1913 (aged 77–78) Boston |
| Roles | French and German Master |
| Years at BGS | 1881-1905 |
| Departments | Modern Languages |
| Subjects | French, German |
Albert Harold Cawood was French and German Master at Boston Grammar School (1881-1905).
Cawood was born in Leeds. He had spent considerable time in India, Syria and at Mount Lebanon, had lived for five or six years in Switzerland and then in Paris. He had undertaken a pilgimage to Mecca, travelling in disguise, but was laid up with fever after reaching the Red Sea and did not complete the journey. Later he was "attached to the suite of " the Maharaja Duleep Singh.
Cawood, who had taught at Rossall School between 1872 and 1880, was a prominent member of the Alpine Club. With a companion, he "accomplished unaided the ascent of the Jungfrau", and shortly afterwards in 1876 with two Rossall colleagues, John Brise Colgrove and Arthur Cust, he made the first ascent of the Matterhorn without guides.
He "had a delightful habit of giving nicknames to the boys", and:
held a kind of circus in the room where he made "whoopee" in the French language. Many would remember him as the originator of the "pole-squatting" business, which meant that if you did not behave yourself you were made to stand on a form, and if you went further you were lashed about the legs with a stick, the idea being to jump and miss the stick and land on the seat.
Sam Marjason (BGS 1903-1909), Old Bostonian Association Annual Dinner 1932
Cawood proved a loyal and long-serving member of staff, but his career at the school had a less than happy outcome.
The first ever inspection of the school by HM Inspectors of Secondary Schools took place in 1905. As the governors' minutes reveal, the findings of the three inspectors gave cause for concern.
...most of all they wished to impress upon the governors the thorough reform which in their opinion was needed in the teaching of French. The existing system they condemned, and urged the governors to at once face the question and effect without delay the needed reform.
This was done. Cawood, who had been the school's French master for twenty six years, was given notice "to expire at Christmas next". However, though he left under this cloud, the governors saw fit to mark his long service with a pension of £30 a year. This, as was pointed out by the team of HMIs who carried out another inspection four years later, was entered into the accounts under "salaries", as being paid to a German master. But, they noted, no German was taught in the school, and the payment "would appear to be in the nature of a pension to a retired modern languages master". There was, they added, no clause in the scheme empowering trustees to give such a pension. It was decided to reply that
the governors quite admit that such payment is in the nature of a pension, and if the Board insists on its objection the payments will have to be discontinued. At the same time it is hoped, in view of the long (over thirty years) and diligent service of this superannuated master, that the Board will, under the special circumstances, sanction its continuance.
In retirement Cawood (who had no living relatives) resided until his death at Anderson's Hotel, in the Market Place. He died on 7 April 1913, and the next year the governors agreed to a request by the Old Bostonian Club - forwarded by its secretary, Joseph Langley Burchnall - that a brass to Cawood's memory should be erected in the school. The plaque reads:
To Albert Harold Cawood traveller and mountaineer, foreign language master in this school from 1881 to 1905, the friend of all the boys, and to an older generation the best of companions and story tellers, this tablet is erected by the Old Bostonian Club. 1914.