A Memory of G. W. Lees - by David Elston (FS 65-70):

“I was very interested to read David Marshall’s words on Geoff Lees, and the follow up from Mike Lockhart. I got to know and respect Geoff hugely during my last two years at St Bees, 1969/70, especially my last two terms as Head of School. A great privilege of the position was the three to four minutes every day, bar Sunday, with the Headmaster outside the chapel, or in the Mem Hall on Mondays, with a brief conversation which was always structured, however loosely. Often it was just for Geoff to check on this or that minor event that was upcoming or to warn me of some unexpected event - or sometimes just an amusing exchange of views. As I got to know him, more and more humour would creep into the conversation and Geoff had the most excellent and subtle wit. His ability to throw in an apposite quote or deliberately wilful misquote was exceptional and it took a little while to get to know it.

He, of course, loved cricket, which initially concerned me as I was unceremoniously shifted onto athletics in my first year, being a complete non-starter at cricket. Our morning exchanges in the summer term included amusing references to cricket, often with an elaborate explanation of a finer point for my benefit done with the best of humour, and I then of course realised that I could similarly drop in a supposedly erudite comment on Brahms or Mozart to his amusement. I remember one typical comment of Geoff’s outside the chapel one sunny morning when Brian Howard, the charming and talented music master, arrived (by no means untypically) a little late for chapel - for which of course he had a fairly key role. Brian came charging across the Terrace in his somewhat dusty Ford, jumped out and dashed into the chapel with a hasty apology. Geoff turned to me and said - entirely good naturedly – ‘It’s interesting, is it not, how someone who is so expert at the 4/4 timing struggles with the 8:30 every morning timing?’ It was so witty and pertinent that I have never forgotten it and of course it gave away what I had begun to expect, that Geoff knew a bit more about classical music than he really let on.

He was of course a great disciplinarian, and I remember his explaining why this was really so important for the whole well being of the community, not just because something happens ‘to be the rules’; and again he has proved himself so right in that. I also realised, in that connection, that he was not in any sense unrealistic in his expectations and he quite rightly relied on me, and senior people like me, to let him know what was going on at ‘dayroom level’, even to the point of my occasionally letting slip a few past misdemeanours. He respected the confidentiality in return and I know that as a result he used to make changes from time to time in school rules, but only at the right time.

He had a great capacity for what is now known as ‘people watching’, and reading and understanding what others were thinking.

A good few years after leaving school, I bumped into the late Martin Lamping on a train, and we had a lengthy chat in which he said that whilst he would not think of slavishly emulating anyone specifically in his career, Geoff (I think he said ‘Mr Lees’) was his overall role model for his own career, and Martin mentioned Geoff’s ability to remain calm and considered when the inevitable dramas and disasters arose in school life, especially public school life in the 1960s and 1970s. Geoff was most certainly a moderniser at St Bees where, dare one say it, some modernising was required.

The other thing that always comes to mind is Geoff’s incomparable ability to read the Bible, which of course featured frequently in those days in public school life. He could make complete sense of the beautiful King James’ language regardless of its complexity or idiosyncrasy. His recitation of Ecclesiasticus 44 (Let us now praise famous men) made the Sunday after Speech Day service worthwhile, just to hear it alone.

Geoff and Joan came to dinner with us in the 1980s, and we had a really amusing time not only reminiscing about the school but also on all sorts of wider matters. He and I both saw the almost rather comic side of the former schoolboy persuading the Headmaster to have yet another pre-prandial G and T, and then later that evening the four of us, Joan wearing an apron, doing the washing up and polishing off the wine. He was delighted when I reminded him of the morning talks on the Terrace.”

 

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