YEARS IN FOCUS

LOCAL NEWS AND EVENTS FROM THE 1940s

PONTEFRACT IN 1946

31st MAY 1946
40 YEARS AT KING'S SCHOOL, PONTEFRACT

Old Boys and everyone connected with the King's School, Pontefract, will learn with regret that the Geography Master at the school, Mr. A. Hudson, is to retire in July.  Appointed in September 1906, by the late Reverend T. Howey Nicholls, Mr. Hudson will have completed 40 years with the school, during which it has grown from a roll of 100 pupils to the present number of 440. He served with Mr. Nicholls for twelve years, until the latter retired; remained throughout the twenty years headship of Mr .E. Bruce Forrest from 1919 onwards, and continued with the present Headmaster, Mr. J.D. Lean, to date.

When Mr Hudson was appointed, the school was in the old Militia Barracks, Northgate, now the Pontefract Senior Boys School, and he saw the transfer to the present modern premises at Ackworth Road, built by the West Riding County Council. During the war of 1914-1918 he held a commission in the Royal Garrison Artillery. He has also been for the last 30 years the Headmaster of the Pontefract Evening Institutes.

Mr. Hudson has been a friend to many generations of boys, as well as a teacher. With a shrewd judgement of capacity, and a keen appreciation of human nature, he imparted life to his teaching, and the influence of his work has been amply shown in the examination successes of his charges as well as the number of letters he has received from Old Boys in all parts of the world, for whom travel has made a reality of their earlier studies.

Formerly a keen player of cricket, association football, and tennis, he has always taken an interest in school games, and has done much to encourage in the School a liking for sports. For many years he has had charge of the Atkinson House at the School. To mark his retirement, the Old Boys are to make a presentation to him at the annual cricket match between themselves and the School, on June 20. The organisation of the presentation is in the hands of Mr J. Williamson, of Portland Avenue, Pontefract.

The part time Music Master at the School, Dr F.A.Chapple, the organist at the Pontefract Parish Church, also has just retired. He hoped to serve until the end of the school year but was advised not to do so for the sake of his health, and resigned last month. Dr. Chapple has held his post since 1909.

[ 1946 Index ]

Years in Focus is researched by Maurice Haigh and reproduced
with the kind permission of the Pontefract and Castleford Express.