Dodds, Allan

Ottershaw's second headmaster

Date of Death: 08/03/2016

An extract from The Gazette No 63

Ottershaw's second Headmaster, Allan Dodds, who served from 1964 until the School’s closure in 1980, passed away on 8 March. His funeral was held at Southampton Crematorium on Wednesday 23 March. 
The Dodds’ youngest son, Richard, delivered the following eulogy:

In his own Thanksgiving Address for the life of Ottershaw School, Dad finished with Robert Herrick’s words, “Nor would I care how short it were, if good. It has been good, very good.” Dad’s own life has been long. He was born on 29th January 1921 in Southsea. His parents, Alice and John, had an older son, Jack, 10 years Dad’s senior. Sadly, his father died in 1926. To make ends meet, his mother needed to take in paying guests and ran their home as a boarding house. John had been a Freemason and thus Allan became the youngest boarding pupil of the Royal Masonic School in Bushey at the age of 8. There was often not room for him to return home during the holidays and he spent much of these with his aunt Kiv in Bristol.

His boarding school life, which included a whole school year in solitary confinement in the sanatorium as a diphtheria carrier, gave him a strong academic and sporting education and taught him resilience to cope with all that life threw at him.
In 1939, he took up an Exhibition at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge to read Modern Languages just as the Second World War broke out. As a linguist, he was allowed to stay for two years at university before joining the army. He talked
very little of his wartime experiences. However, despite being fluent in German, we do know that he finished the war in Burma supervising the surrender of the Japanese – his one souvenir, a Japanese regimental sword, sat next to his desk in his office at home. Fortunately, he never saw fit to use it after scrutinising his sons’ and grandchildren’s end of term school reports!

In 1946, he returned to Cambridge for a teacher training year. Whilst playing hockey for the Wanderers, he met a freshman, Peter Johnson, who kindly offered him the chance to spend a holiday at his family home in Liverpool. Peter had two
18 year old identical twin sisters. Allan was a very shy man but he plucked up the courage to ask Mary out. He took a teaching job at Worksop College and continued to see Mary when time allowed. Having moved to St Peter’s School in York the year before, in 1950 he was called up to re-join the army for a stint in the Korean War. In haste, Mary and Allan married before he went, spending their honeymoon in Freshwater Bay on the Isle of Wight. They spent their first year of marriage apart. Mum wrote a letter to him every day for a year and was lucky enough to receive an occasional reply! Again he talked little of his time in Korea but did describe the exceptional cold of the winter there when he slept in the back of the truck (the benefit of being an officer), with his boots inside his sleeping bag in order to be able to put them on again in the morning. Only last year, he received a card from a Korean now living in Surbiton thanking him for the  contribution he made to their nation all those years ago.

He returned to St Peter’s, where his three sons were born. (Peter 1953, Alastair 1955 and Richard 1959). These were perhaps the happiest days of his life. He fully embraced the life in the school and he played hockey for York HC and
Y o r k s h i r e .  H e b e c a m e housemaster of the Manor House and Mum played a full part in looking after the boys in the house as well as her own. In 1964, he was appointed Headmaster of Ottershaw School in Surrey and so the family  moved south. Tragically, the following summer, my oldest brother Peter was killed in a freak car accident. In perhaps the only way he knew how, he threw himself into his new role as a headmaster of a school of 250 boys, many of whom had the need of the life and stability of a boarding school that he had had.

The late sixties and early seventies saw a revolution in the behaviour of young people and “pupil power” became a reality. To cope with this, he had to change and take other established, old-fashioned staff with him. He had to make many
unpalatable decisions but kept his team together and steered the school through many challenging times until, despite all the efforts to keep it open, it sadly closed in 1980 when Surrey County Council decided they could no longer afford
it. He took great pride in seeing the development of his pupils and truly believed that the vast majority left the school a better person, better equipped for their life ahead. The strength of the Old Boys’ Society and the presence of many
members proudly wearing their ties today is testament to the success of the school and of its last headmaster. After 51 years living in boarding schools, he took a job with the Ministry of Defence in London as he had always wanted to be a
commuter! Shortly after that he moved to a role as Personal Assistant to the Bishop of Southwark, a job he very much enjoyed. However, the novelty of being a commuter wore off reasonably quickly and he retired fully in 1985.

In addition to being a busy headmaster, he was a magistrate, a parish councillor and a Samaritan. After he retired, he became Secretary of the Society of Heads of Independent Schools and edited the local members’ newsletter for the National Trust. He kept himself busy but, above all, he had a powerful need to serve his community. He moved to Winchester and has enjoyed a long retirement. His loss of eyesight through macular degeneration and a small stroke some ten years ago took away much that he loved in life – the Times Crossword (solved most days), books and more books to read, following the varied fortunes of England in many sports matched by his own varying mood and indeed temper, playing golf and the camaraderie (and sometimes frustration) that that brings and watching his grandchildren grow up. Throughout, he has been wonderfully supported and totally cared for, if not spoilt by Mum, without whom he could not have
done all he did. He finally leaves us in body but his spirit will never leave our hearts. To quote from his own Thanksgiving Address again, he said, “If only a small proportion of those who have been at Ottershaw can put into practice the lessons in living which I believe have been consistently taught here, the world and our society will be a better place and we can say, as Christ did, ‘It is finished’ with the conviction that the foundations have been well and truly laid and that Ottershaw will continue to live through the lives of its Old Boys and their children. By their fruits ye shall know them.” The same can be said of the life of The Headmaster/Dad – by his fruits, we have known him. It is finished. His life was long, very long. It has been good.