Stubbs, Brian

Chemistry teacher

Taken from The Gazette 59

Brian Stubbs was many things to many people. First of all, he was the Chemistry master and a colleague for the other members of the teaching staff at the School. In addition, he helped to edit the Ottershaw Weekly News and was tutor to some of the boys. Then there was the Christian Fellowship and other charitable activities: sponsored walks, blackberry-picking for jam-making and singing Christmas carols to the local elderly folk in the village all spring to mind. And all the while he was a devoted husband and father to Audrey and Katie, his daughter (a baby when I was at the School).

Without a doubt, Brian stamped his uniqueness on life at Ottershaw. Woe betide any inattentive boys in the Chemistry Lab! They would soon be woken up via an expertly aimed bit of chalk or even the blackboard duster! I'm sure the boys that attended Ottershaw in the late 1960s will have their own recollections of Brian, and no doubt many stories could be told. Perhaps some of you might like to share your reminiscences with the Editor of The Gazette?

I am glad that I was able to stay in contact with Brian and the family in the years after Ottershaw. I remember that I once called in to see them, and I had a friend with me. As I did the introductions, Brian said to my friend: “Welcome! Any friend of Dennis is a friend of ours!” High praise indeed from a good friend that travelled with me along Life's difficult highway for so long.  A friend sorely missed.
Dennis Pocock