George Patterson, who died on 31st July 2024, an appreciation by
Huw Lewis (M 89-14).

“To put it mildly, George Patterson was not a man who tiptoed through life.

Unlike the character of one of his favourite poets, Robbie Burns, this was no ‘Wee, timorous beastie’.

My first encounter with George was in September 1989 when I joined St Bees School and was taking pre-season rugby training with the senior boys’ squad.

George was not available for the first morning session, so I took it myself and was disappointed and a little shocked to hear the free use of some pretty industrial language whenever a mistake was made, a tackle missed, or a pass spilled.

George joined us for the afternoon session and as he knew the boys from working with them previously everyone settled into the session and a highly productive afternoon flew by.

To complete the day, we gathered around for a summing up debrief in advance of our first game of the season the coming Saturday.

The captain addressed the group eloquently and passionately; I added my very positive observations of the talented group before me and then asked George if he had a few words of his own to add.

He most certainly did, although many of them were the less than delicate expressions of his building site background and were most definitely not expletive deleted!

Thirty faces swivelled in my direction to gauge my reaction, and fortunately I was able to shrug my shoulders and see the funny side of it, which created a bond between us all which lasted throughout that season and beyond.

George and I continued coaching together at St Bees for the next twenty years or so through good times and not so good, both on and off the field.

He was always fiercely supportive of ‘the boys’, as he called his teams and during school matches his anguished cry of ‘Referee!’ became the stuff of legend as he would spot some scrummaging infringement, imaginary or otherwise, from fully 50 metres away.

With St Bees he went on to tour England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and France, but I never saw him so happy in a touring environment as on our two trips together to South Africa, where the combination of rugby-mad locals, intense competition, stunning scenery, great company and wildlife safaris saw him in his element.

George’s own rugby era as an ‘old school’ hooker of considerable prowess was from schoolboy into the 60s and 70s, when he played for his beloved Musselburgh and London Scottish and came tantalisingly close to being capped for Scotland.

George meant many things to many different people and I am not naive enough to pretend that all those things were always positive.

However, many will also be aware that when he was on form and you had seen the sparkle in his eyes and had been embraced by those huge hands his company was to be treasured, especially if those hands contained a pint of his beloved Guinness.”

 

Home

The St Beghian Society    
St Bees School,    St Bees,    Cumbria,    CA27 0DS.

         Tel: (01946) 828093      Email: osb@stbeesschool.co.uk      Web: www.st-beghian-society.co.uk