Weston, Tom

Latin and English Master and North House Housemaster

Date of Death: 16/12/2023

Tom Weston – Ottershaw School-Days  - as a master then Housemaster of North House

Tom came to Ottershaw in 1951 after being interviewed by the Headmaster Arthur Foot who saw Tom while he cared for the roses in the mansion gardens – an unusual venue for such a meeting. Tom confided that he and the headmaster had differing views about the place of corporal punishment in achieving discipline !

Tom’s career at the school went from 1951 to its closure in 1980, firstly in the Foot years and from 1964 when Alan Dodds became headmaster. I estimate over 1700 pupils over the years were fortunate to receive tuition from Tom while he was at Ottershaw.

My school years were from 1953 to 1958. I knew Tom as a teacher of English in my GCE O level year . also his teaching the weekly class labelled Divinity ! The latter subject was not to Tom’s agnostic beliefs in those days and after dictating a few short essays on the lives of saints, Tom read to the class his book of Test Matches between England and Australia!

He was an outstanding pedagogue particularly in the teaching of Latin which was his specialist subject. His attention to detail in his marking of pupil’s submissions was quite extraordinary in both Latin and English and must have consumed many hours late into the night. His excellence as teacher extended to coaching lessons given in his own time marked by his lessons to John Furlonger gaining a pass in GCE A level Latin. John went in to winning an Open Exhibition Scholarship to Cambridge University

Playing his part in the teaching and coaching of sports, his favourite was cricket.  He was an enthusiast both coaching and playing. He enjoyed the Sunday games played by a side of both masters and boys against local club teams. A competent all rounder he especially enjoyed  fielding at which he  was a formidable player fielding mid-off or mid-on. We remember his knee bandage, worn from the first days we knew him, probably a precursor to his difficulty in later years.

Tom also enjoyed playing squash and distinguished his play by always producing his own fast ball which proved almost impossible for his opponents to put away.

Tom always exhibited an acute sense of fairness and the distinction between right and wrong. The best demonstration of this was when. one breakfast in West House, he had to serve  the extra sausage on the serving plate between 8 boys on the table. Yes, he did – he cut the sausage into 8 pieces to be shared !

Although my period of just  5 years knowing Tom as my schoolmaster was a small portion of his Ottershaw days, I know I can speak with confidence of the great respect and affection of many of his pupils and teaching colleagues.

Over 25 years agoTom initiated a visit to Worcester County Cricket Club by inviting David Hibbert and myself to a match, staying overnight before the game with him and Nina at their home near Malvern. This event was the forerunner of an annual visit to Worcester to watch cricket and lunch with Tom, attended by many of us also with daughter Anna and son Richard. 

Tom particularly enjoyed sitting in the D'oliveira stand behind the line of the bowler !

Tom also kept in touch with our Ottershaw  Old Boys Society attending meetings over past years. The Old Boys also got together with Tom for a celebration lunch for his 90th birthday with some 30 attendees

A pupil from later years, Stephen Turner, who was one of Tom’s A level Latin students, wrote of Tom, “He was an utterly decent and generous   man whom I was lucky and privileged to have encountered”

Tom was a wonderful man. We were all privileged. We gained so much from his teaching and personal example in life.

So long as we live on, Tom , you will never be forgotten.

Peter Jones

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