Teacher; Born July 9, 1933; Died September 21, 2007. GEOFFREY Drought, who has died aged 74, was a teacher and senior local government figure, whose lifelong passion for education enriched the lives of many in Scotland.
Teacher;
Born July 9, 1933;
Died September 21, 2007.
GEOFFREY Drought, who has died aged 74, was a teacher and senior local government figure, whose lifelong passion for education enriched the lives of many in Scotland.
He was also a raconteur, fisherman, sportsman, churchgoer and family man, who will be remembered for the warmth of character and wit he brought to communities in which he lived and worked.
As depute director of education for Tayside Regional Council between 1975 and 1985, Geoffrey secured a reputation as one of the most effective education officials in Scottish local government. That reputation was cemented by his chairmanship of Scotland and UK-wide educational bodies, including the training committee of the Scottish Community Education Council; Community Service Volunteers in Scotland; and the ITV Schools Committee in London. His achievements - which included the introduction of Britain's first Community Industry Scheme, a precursor to the Job Creation Scheme, and innovations in the use of radio to deliver distance learning courses to thousands of people - secured him an OBE for services to education in Scotland in 1985.
In his final post as director of education for Gwent in South Wales, which he held between 1985 and 1993, he set up services for immigrant children and was an advocate for the provision of Welsh language education in schools.
His earlier experience of forging links between education and broadcasting helped convince central government to support the making of a TV schools programme in Welsh, with the result being the popular series Parablu.
The second child of Victor George Lowry Drought and his wife, Katherine, he was born just outside Dublin. After his early schooling in Castle Park school in Dalkey, he attended Portora Royal School in Northern Ireland, which counted Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett among its old boys. His enjoyment rugby and cricket, developed at an early age, as did a talent for drama and immense capacity for humour.
He studied Latin and French at Trinity College Dublin, and while there took his first steps into teaching with a part-time post at his old school, Castle Park. Following graduation, he moved to Lyon in France where he worked at a small mixed secondary and played rugby for Lyon University, as well as singing in the university choir.
Throughout his time in France, he corresponded with his future wife and life-long companion Jill Jackson, a friend and nursing colleague of his younger sister, Margaret.
Geoffrey left Lyon for a full-time post at Wrekin College in Shropshire, teaching French, Latin and Greek for eight years until, in 1966, he realised he could "end up as a housemaster for life, with egg on my tie, tucking sallow little Maltravers into bed every night".
He took a post as an assistant educational officer in Warwickshire, before moving to Scotland in 1969 to become a junior deputy with Dundee Corporation. He was made depute director of education for Tayside in 1975.
In retirement, after a brief spell in Devon, he moved to live in Gilmerton, by Crieff in Perthshire, where he became a central figure in the Episcopalian Church community.
Geoffrey is survived by his wife, Jill, his children, Danielle, Fiona, Andrew and Patrick, his grandchildren Kate, Joe, Rosie and Ben, and his sister, Margaret.
