Obituary: Keith Grant Howard (Headmaster 1979-95)

Passed away 3rd December 2020

KEITH HOWARD was the thirty-fourth Headmaster of Queen Mary’s School. A man of unshakeable convictions, his tenure marked a period of consolidation in Marian history, achieved through hard work, unflinching duty, and sheer strength of character.

His arrival in Walsall coincided more or less with Mrs Thatcher’s in Downing Street. Their political outlook may have had important differences, but they were agreed on this: education was the means by which anyone, given the right conditions, could pull themselves up by the bootstraps. Mr Howard shared the optimism of the 1944 Education Act, which brought secondary education – including, crucially, at grammar schools – within every family’s reach. His belief in selective education and the purpose of Queen Mary’s was visceral: he had benefitted from a similar start in life at Calday Grange Grammar School on the Wirral. Mr Howard knew in his bones, in the very core of his being, what was best for the School and its pupils. For sixteen years, he worked tirelessly to secure it.

The 1944 Act may have been the touchstone for Mr Howard’s educational philosophy, but he did not fall into the trap of always looking to the past for inspiration. Gillian Columbine, who had been appointed to the position of Headmaster’s Secretary a year before his 27 arrival, remembers his fascination with the latest trends in pedagogy and school management. He was intrigued by new things, she reports, and inspired my own interest in education. Others too were made to think more deeply about teaching. Stuart Holtam, his successor, points to his role as a pamphleteer, publishing his opinions to a wider audience. He enjoyed debate, revelled in Oxbridge classes for the General Paper, valued others’ opinions.

There were, however, certain values that were non-negotiable. Among them: courtesy, discipline, and hard work. Some Heads, even as early as the 1980s, were already conceding that you had to pick your battles, arguing that going after every unbuttoned collar, fore-shortened tie and untucked shirt was an unnecessary waste of energy. Not so Mr Howard. His study window looked out on the drive (a view he wished to keep clear at all costs) and he was known to leap up, mid conversation, in hot pursuit of an untrained Fustie or recalcitrant Sixth Former whose uniform breach had caught his eye. His standards were uncompromising precisely because he was convinced that a tidy appearance favoured a tidy mind; good discipline was the pre-requisite of good results. Under his influence, the School smartened up.

Consolidation does not sound exciting; it does not, perhaps, stir the emotions or attract wide-spread plaudits. It can be transformational, nonetheless. Mr Howard’s commitment to getting the basics right, his attention to detail and his intolerance of anything half-hearted or half -baked combined to lay the foundations of a new era of academic excellence for the School. His success almost took the Queen Mary’s Community by surprise. When the Conservative government introduced School Performance Tables in the early 1990s, it was found that the School at the top of the Premier Division was in Walsall. The Daily Mail visited Sutton Road and published a double page spread asking, ‘Is this the nation’s top school?’ The statistics allowed no gainsaying. Queen Mary’s topped the tables before anyone had thought how to manipulate and massage results. Mr Howard’s modest self-deprecation should not be allowed to mask the significance of this success: it was a crowning achievement.

Foundations for the future were laid in other ways too. Mr Howard was convinced that the School knew what was best for its pupils. He knew them all by name; it was self-evident that he could better judge their interests than anyone sitting in Whitehall or Walsall’s Council Chamber. When the opportunity came for greater financial independence through Local Management of Schools or Grant Maintained Status, he grabbed it with both hands. It was not all plain sailing - the School had to negotiate some turbulent times in its funding – but Mr Howard prepared the ground for the School to take greater control of its own destiny. He gave it the confidence to do so.

Strong convictions and the confidence to carry them through may have shaped Mr Howard’s professional persona, but there were depths to his character that this essentially private man did not always allow others to see. Out of the limelight, in quiet and unobtrusive ways, he was memorably caring and kind, always ready to offer support to those who needed it. Such help was never in word only: he knew how to roll up his sleeves and pitch in; he was prepared to dig in his own pockets to find the money that would tide someone through a tough patch.

He was famously thrifty. No-one was allowed to complain that it was too cold in classrooms which, in his day, opened directly on to the main Quadrangle, if they were not wearing a thermal vest. He was from a generation that knew how to mend and make do. Wooden chairs from the 1960s found a new lease of life in the late 1980s when Mr Howard set up a lunchtime workshop to repair them. Look after the pennies, he would argue, and the pounds will look after themselves. In this, as in so many things, he was proved right. The pupil who, under the Headmaster’s tutelage, effectively ran the chair repair scheme went on to become top brass in international banking and a major donor to the School.

It is important not to overlook that Mr Howard was a clever and cultured man. Those who were privileged to visit Keith and Elsbeth in their Herefordshire home after he had retired not only enjoyed generous hospitality – rich Dundee cake by a roaring log fire – but also found a home full of books, pictures, and artefacts: the record of a life characterised and enriched by intellectual curiosity. His interest, of course was never passive. He was a linguist who spoke impeccable French and Russian; he was a musician who sang tenor and played the cello; he was an athlete, who played club rugby for Biarritz. He wore his learning and achievements lightly, however, and channelled his efforts neither into pursuing his own ambitions, nor establishing his own reputation. A man of selfless integrity, his preoccupation was always to provide opportunity for others. For that, many generations of Marians have reason to be profoundly grateful.

Mrs Howard writes:

To all Old Boys, parents, members of staff and friends who wrote entries to the digital remembrance site in memory of my husband Keith.

I was deeply moved by all your thoughts and kind words, and I want to say a big thank you to you all—my thanks also go to those who wrote to us at home, letters and cards. I couldn’t reply because no address was added. Reading them all gave me much comfort at this difficult time.

I often remember the very happy years we spent at QM.

Thank you all,

Elsbeth Howard