Ken Whittle
| Kenneth Harold Edwin Whittle MSc | |
|---|---|
 Ken Whittle | |
| Nicknames | Ken, Kenny, Bunny, Jet (after Frank Whittle, inventor of the jet engine) |
| Born | 14 March 1928 |
| Died |
18 January 2024 (aged 95) Willoughby Grange Care Home, Boston |
| Education | Wolverhampton Municipal Secondary School; University of Birmingham (BSc 1949); University of Nottingham (MSc 1969) |
| Roles | Head of Mathematics |
| Years at BGS | 1952-1989 |
| Departments | Mathematics |
| Subjects | Mathematics |
| Spouse | Patricia M "Pat" Thompson |
| Children | Carolyn, David |
| Parents | Harold Whittle, Clarice Evans |
| Relatives | Eira (sister) |
Kenneth (Ken) Harold Edwin Whittle was a teacher of Mathematics at Boston Grammar School (1952-89).
Before Boston Grammar School
Ken Whittle served in the RAF.
While at Boston Grammar School
He was involved with football coaching.
Quotes
had the good fortune to take Maths with Ken Whittle. He was in his second year at school when I started, and his final year when my son was there (1987). In my opinion there was no finer teacher.
Obituary
Two tributes from his son and daughter given at his funeral held on 18 January 2024 at St Botolph's Church, Boston.
Tribute by his son, David Whittle
Pa, as he was usually known to Carolyn and me, was born in Wolverhampton on 14th March 1928, to Clarice and Harold. Clarice worked as secretary to the managing director of Sunbeam. Harold was employed at GWR before the war, during which he was gassed whilst serving in the Staffordshire and Cheshire regiments. He falsified his age to sign up. Because he stayed on after the war in Germany to guard the Rhine, by the time he returned there were no jobs despite the promises made to serving soldiers. This was something that Pa spoke about with untypical even if restrained bitterness. Pa was also affected by his father’s search for work, tramping the streets or cycling around the city as he did. In the later 1920s Harold finally found a job with GWR but was laid off in 1932. After more job searching he was taken on by the Wolverhampton Die-Casting Company[1] where he became branch secretary for the TGWU.
Pa had an older sister, Eira, to whom he was very close. He attended the Wolverhampton Municipal Grammar School and then went to Birmingham University to read Mathematics. At this time, as indeed later, he was a keen follower of Wolverhampton Wanderers, and enjoyed telling stories about his cycle rides to see them. One I remember particularly was to Hillsborough in Sheffield, the best part of 100 miles each way, which he completed overnight with friends.
During national service in the RAF Pa was a lecturer in the training section and taught mathematics to navigators. He met Ma, an RAF nursing sister, at an autumn Ball at RAF Halton in 1951. Pa had been asked to act as an escort to an unnamed lady. Ma had apparently said that if there wasn’t an escort she was going straight back to the mess. Why doesn’t that surprise us? All clearly went well, though. They were engaged in 1952, and married two years later in High Wycombe where Ma’s parents had moved in retirement. By this time Pa was teaching at Boston Grammar School. Carolyn arrived in 1955, followed by me in 1958.
He taught at BGS from 1952-1989, essentially his entire working life, most of it as head of department. He completed an MSc in Mathematical and Computing Science at Nottingham University during a year’s sabbatical. I shall leave his BGS career to the reminiscences of others as I became a chorister at Wikipedia:Peterborough CathedralPeterborough Cathedral and thus attended the King’s School there so never saw him in teaching action. We have been overwhelmed by the sentiments expressed in the vast number of messages we have received from former colleagues and pupils. They all express the respect in which he was held, his love of maths and his ability to inspire a similar love in others, or at least to get those who struggled through their exams. I hope you don’t mind me quoting a few (I shan’t give names) as they say more about his career at BGS than I ever could. It’s important to remember that he did not like being described as a teacher – he was a schoolmaster.
Firstly from former colleagues:
The passing of a wonderful, kind helpful colleague. When I entered the teaching profession at BGS as a PE teacher in 1966 he offered me wonderful advice and assisted with the running of junior football teams for many years.
Ken was not only a role model for young teachers but also a most warm and friendly presence in the staff room.
And from former pupils:
I had been struggling with a certain maths teacher and just simply could not understand his teaching. Ken took me under his wing and helped me during lunchtimes to reinstil my confidence.
He controlled the form with ease as he was such a nice man that no one would dream of doing anything to upset him.
I further realised how good he was when I arrived at university. At BGS I was mid class, but at Uni was instantly top of the class... He'd probably have been teaching us degree level Maths during A levels as well! He was also one of the sharpest at spotting pupils tricks, the only time I remember he admitted we'd done him was when many of us spent the whole lesson listening to England playing in the world cup on radios and earpieces... He knew something was going on but he couldn't see precisely what. Given his love of football mentioned in other comments he was sympathetic.
He liked a tackle, well timed or otherwise! .... a powerful left foot a la Bobby Charlton
And one that sums him up perfectly:
Ken Whittle really was the best of the best, in all respects. As a teacher he had a natural ability to help his pupils develop to their best. He was firm but kind, and after leaving school he was always keen to know more about the adventures we all had in the wider world of work and life. If the world was full of Mr Whittles what an amazing place it would be! Very sad that we have lost someone so special but I think it is important that we also celebrate what an amazing person he was and how many lives he had a positive impact on.
One of his former pupils suspected that he had a wicked sense of humour. All I can say is that the day after my A Level English teacher had met Pa at a parents’ evening, she said to me ‘Now I know where you get your acidic sense of humour from!’
He never lost his love of football, I once played in the same team as him, when during a university vacation he roped me into playing for the BGS staff team v the boys. All that proved was that he was still a far better player at the age of 50 than I was at 20.
Pa was very even-tempered as a parent, and it is difficult if not impossible to recall him losing his temper. I do remember a time on holiday in Scotland when he gave me a lecture when I had probably been rather bumptious, and it was certainly all the more effective for its rarity.
As a duo, indeed unconsciously a double act, Ma and Pa were also highly entertaining, even unconventional, with Pa’s quiet and sharp observational humour balancing Ma’s rather more outspoken comments.
One or two tales of them together:
I once won a poetry competition in Peterborough, and typically our parents wanted to attend the presentation. However, the week before Pa was booked to have a dental operation in hospital. Rather less planned was that Ma and Carolyn were involved in a car accident whilst returning from a performance of Verdi’s Requiem in Lincoln Cathedral. Ma ended up in Pilgrim Hospital in the ward above father. When they arrived in Peterborough the next week, Ma got out of the car sporting two black eyes and a broken nose, whilst father, with his protruding upper lip from the operation, resembled a tapir. They spent the whole evening assuring people that they hadn’t had a punch up.
On the night before Carolyn’s wedding, Pa untypically rather overdid it on the drink and in attempting to manoeuvre around the bedroom managed to become entangled in Carolyn’s wedding dress which was hanging up encased in tissue paper. His thrashing around woke Ma who launched a tirade of abuse. ‘Why on earth didn’t you put the light on?’ she asked. ‘I didn’t want to wake you’, he replied. By this time the whole house had been roused.
Carolyn will say more about Pa’s enthusiasms shortly, but many of you will be aware of his love of Scotland and Scottish country dancing. Most of the music to day reflects that. As a little break, we are going to play Archie Beaton, one of his favourite tunes, one that the Leicester Grammar School folk group always played when he and Ma came to a concert. Indeed, one or two of my former pupils told me that they played a recording of it when they heard of his death. We are very grateful to two erstwhile members of the LGS folk group for playing it with me, former colleague Eleanor Graff-Baker[2] and former pupil Charlotte Bentley[3]. I am also grateful to former colleague Ron Berry[4] who will play with us at the end of the service.
Tribute by his daughter, Carolyn Hill
First of all I would like to add my thanks to David's, for all for the messages of condolence and support.
Interests
Father had a wide range of interests apart from his love of mathematics. Many of you will know him from one or several of these activities but you may be unaware of some of them.
He loved both music and art. As a child his mother had enrolled him into piano lessons - she was a good pianist - but he rebelled against the time needed to practise as he wanted to be outside playing football. He always regretted this but made up for it by enthusiastic encouragement of David and myself in learning to play piano and other instruments. As David mentioned, he attended our school concerts and later the many concerts arranged by David throughout his music career. In time he encouraged his two grandsons and regularly travelled down to Berkshire to attend their concerts. And, as many of you will know, he actively and staunchly supported our mother in her singing ventures, testing her on the words of her songs and painting scenery. He was the reliable back office to her front of stage appearances.
Art was another love of his. He had a membership of the Royal Academy of Arts and would often go up to London for an exhibition when staying in Berkshire with us. We have found tens and tens of exhibition catalogues.
Football.... it was mentioned earlier. He played at primary school, at grammar school, for his university team, in the RAF and then in the masters' team at BGS. His enjoyment of watching football continued all his life,but in recent years he had become rather disillusioned with the Premier League, both the management and the players, and he would rather watch a lower league match. Lately he became a keen fan of the ladies' game and supported the Lionesses. I phoned him when there was a final about to start, having assumed that he would be watching it but he told me, " no", as he was too nervous for them. He was going to peep at the score during the match.
Being outdoors gardening, especially attending to his beloved dahlias was a great interest. He audited them annually. He planted them out in the spring, then dug them up in the autumn to over-winter them in the garage. The following spring he inspected them and reported to us on how many had survived.
He also enjoyed being outdoors, walking and climbing in the Lake District, Wales and Scotland. He relished the solitude and the physical activity and would go off for a day's climbing when we were on family holidays. We knew when he was preparing because, for several weeks before departure, he would start, as he called it, "hardening up his feet". This involved daily application of a revolting smelling embrocation. The whole house would reek of it, we were unimpressed but he swore that it brought dividends.
His love of Scottish Country dancing is known by many of you. Mother encouraged and helped him to start a weekly club at Pilgrim in the 1980's. David and I have found two books in which he has written out the dance logs for many meetings. These will be at the wake afterwards. He would prepare for these evenings by listening to the music tracks, of which he had a huge library, and making sure that he was on top of the sequences. His mathematical mind lent perfectly to learning the steps and symmetry of dances. Sometimes Mother joined him in the pastime although he complained that she did not always take it seriously enough and talked too much. Flippancy in this arena did not go down well. He even joined a Scottish dance group in Crowthorne, local to our Berkshire home. He would drive down on a Thursday from Boston to Wokingham for a stay with us, have a sleep and then go out that evening to their rehearsal. This continued until his late 80's.
He was devoted to our mother and to the family. He was proud of all our achievements, always supporting and encouraging David, Chris and I and worrying if anything was going awry in our lives. He spent a lot of time with his grandsons Adam and Matthew. He followed Adam's career in Spain with great interest and enjoyed a trip out there with Mother some 10 years ago. He was pleased when Matthew showed a great affinity to mathematics. Later on when Matthew married Harriet and they later presented him with a great granddaughter, Darcie, he was enchanted. He has followed her first 2 years avidly and he knew that another great granddaughter is expected this May.
Father was a gentle man, a kindly man, sociable and intensely loyal to people and institutions that were important to him. He enjoyed parties and get togethers. The only time that I saw him withdraw from a social event was at Adam's 5th birthday party when I looked for him to help me with a game, but he had been so appalled by the raucous behaviour of the children that he had retired to his bedroom for some peace! Probably just as well that he taught the 11 to 18's!
However he had a great sense of humour and of the absurd, this had to be reined in when he was in the classroom. He enjoyed satire, made pithy and accurate observations and allowed me to watch programmes with him such as "That was the week that was", "The Frost Report" and "Monty Python" well before my peers were allowed to. He kept up to date with current affairs, reading the newspaper daily up until his recent spell in hospital. Nothing much slipped past him and he would enjoy a detailed conversation with us.
I will finish with 2 short poems.
In tribute to his love of dancing I am going to read "Lachlan Gorach's Rhyme"[5] from "My Heart's in the Highlands" followed by a poem from "Under Milk Wood" , "Eli Jenkins' prayer"[6] which was read at Mother's funeral in May 2022.
References
- ↑ Wolverhampton History & Heritage Website - Wolverhampton Die Casting Company Limited
- ↑ Charnwood Voices - Eleanor Graff-Baker
- ↑ Newcastle University - Charlotte Bentley
- ↑ Old Leicestrian Newsletter - Ron Berry
- ↑ Traditional Music Library - Lachlan Gorach's Rhyme
- ↑ JioSaavn - Eli Jenkins' prayer