School Notes
It was with deep sorrow that the School learned of the deaths of two members of
Staff who were so much a part of its life that it could never seem the same
again without them: of Mr. Machin, during 'the Spring
term; and of Dr. Wood, during the Easter holidays, only a term after his
retirement.
DR. FREDERICK T. WOOD
In 1928, Frederick T. Wood, having achieved his doctorate at London University,
was confronted with the choice of a career as University Lecturer or as
Schoolmaster. Choosing the latter, he was soon invited to an interview in
Sheffield for the post of English master at Firth Park Secondary School. By the
next post came a similar invitation from Birmingham: but the interview at
Sheffield was the earlier one, and he was offered the post at Firth Park. And so
lie left his native Kent to come to Sheffield, and to the School which was to be
his academic home for the rest of his teaching life. How deeply he has enriched
the life of this city and this school.
He
soon turned to the writing of books, first School Text Books, then Anthologies
and other works, and - recently - he produced his greatest work, Current English
Usage, which is certain to be a standard authority for many years to come.
Altogether he has published over thirty volumes, the majority for students in
all parts of the world who wish to learn and understand the English language.
His works have appeared in a dozen languages, including Serbo-Croat, Arabic and
Japanese. At the same time he has been a devoted and conscientious member of the
school staff, setting a high standard of scholarship for his Sixth Forms, and
meticulous in the performance of the multifarious details of school life. In
particular. he has for thirty-seven years carried the immense burden of the
School
Magazine, a task which lie undertook in 1929 - "on a temporary basis!"
He was not, however, simply academic in his
interests. He was a man of principle, devoted to the truth, and dedicated to the
championing of freedom of thought and speech. He was never afraid of being in a
minority of one. He conceived it to be the right, and the duty of each
individual to proclaim and indicate the truth as he sees it. He was a genuine
nonconformist in the widest sense of the word. He was a devoted member of Upper
Chapel, Norfolk Street, and on many Sundays in the year went out as a
lay-preacher to the country chapels of Derbyshire and the West Riding. He was a
notable personality in the Unitarian denomination, and was the President
Designate of the Assembly of Unitarian Churches for the year 1968.
His fame and reputation was nation-wide. He
told the story that he received a letter, safely delivered at his Sheffield
home, addressed simply "Dr. Frederick T. Wood, England." He is the only member
of the staff whose name has ever appeared in "Who's Who." His letters and
articles have appeared. from time to time in The Times. He was offered - but
declined -the post of Professor of English at a Swiss University. Yet, despite
all this, he never paraded his learning or tried to impress with his importance.
He was always prepared to go to infinite trouble to clear up difficulties about
the meaning and use of words, both for staff and boys. He was invariably kind,
helpful and good-natured; he loved to tell stories against himself. He never
said or did anything mean or malicious in all his time at Firth Park.
When he retired at the end of the Autumn
Term in 1966, he was so much looking forward to the freedom he would enjoy in
writing the many books of which he had already drafted the outlines, and we all
wished him a long and happy commitment to the consummation of his work. But it
was not to be. His early death has caused us much sorrow; but we honour him for
his scholarship and integrity, and remember him with affection for his goodness
of heart.
For a teaching lifetime he ran his race
solo Pacing relays of boys in the school he refused to leave, Turning down a
Professorship abroad; And making a map of even the seemingly bleakest moorland
Of prepositional idiom for foreigners So they might immigrate to our mother
tongue. I think of him screwing his erudition down On exam. scripts, accurate to
half a mark; Or classifying himself in his "English Usage" Not as "Kentish Man"
but "Man of Kent". Exile to the externalised catarrh Of our Northern so-called
Spring, the dignity Of the Old Buildings tower rising above His ground floor
room as he removed a howler From a schoolboy's brain, he could tell the hair's
breadth That had fallen golden from the Muse's head Between the pages of a
school edition.
Further References:
Wood, Frederick T
'Remedial English grammar for foreign
students' Published 1965, paperback, Macmillan EFL. ISBN 0333094255
Wood, Frederick T. Flavell, R.H. Flavell,
L.M
'The MacMillan Dictionary of Current
English Usage' Published 1995, paperback, Pan, ISBN 0333634101
He
soon turned to the writing of books, first School Text Books, then Anthologies
and other works, and - recently - he produced his greatest work, Current English
Usage, which is certain to be a standard authority for many years to come.
Altogether he has published over thirty volumes, the majority for students in
all parts of the world who wish to learn and understand the English language.
His works have appeared in a dozen languages, including Serbo-Croat, Arabic and
Japanese. At the same time he has been a devoted and conscientious member of the
school staff, setting a high standard of scholarship for his Sixth Forms, and
meticulous in the performance of the multifarious details of school life. In