Grant Henderson (QM staff 1964 - 86)

1927 - June 2018

Born in 1927, Keith Grant Henderson was appointed to Queen Mary’s Grammar School in September 1964 as Head of Engineering. This appointment was the first of a graduate Engineer and was to set up the new Engineering Physics laboratory in the new school buildings on the Mayfield site.

Grant left Cheadle Hulme School in 1945 having sat for Pure and Applied Mathematics at scholarship level and obtained a State Bursary and A Meco Scholarship to attend Birmingham University where he studied for a BSc in Mining Engineering. In 1954 he decided to move to teaching as a career and was appointed Lecturer to the Nigerian Coal Corporation: he soon moved to be Senior Lecturer in charge of the training school there and worked there until 1960.

When he returned to England in 1960 he took a temporary post for 2 months, then obtained a teaching post at Ripley Technical School, teaching Mathematics and Engineering Drawing. He then took a post at Bridlington Grammar School, just before the move to Walsall.

He took a strong interest in practical work, including making fibreglass ca- noes, but gave up his Engineering Science teaching in 1970 to become part of the Mathematics Department. He ran the swimming and life-saving groups with great success and was a keen supporter of Farchynys, visiting many times in the holidays with his family. He retired in May 1986.

His interests outside School lay in music (he was a keen brass player), water sports including sailing, as well as rugby, tennis and cycling. He was married to Brenda and they had three daughters.

Steve Law remembers Grant Henderson as an accomplished skier, swimmer and runner. He was very health conscious: he cycled to work and took his coffee at break from his own flask sitting at the top of the gallery, because the Common Room was smoke-filled. He was a committed Naturist and joined a naturist swimming club, becoming the National Naturist Over 50/ Over 60 Breast Stroke Champion. Steve last saw him running the Aldridge 10K, bare-chested in the sunshine, at the age of 83.