Keith TALBOT (retired in 1998)

DORIS HUGH
SADLY, DORIS leaves us this term after 17 years of outstanding service to the School, during which time she has won the admiration and respect of boys and colleagues alike for the energy, efficiency and concern which she brought to all aspects of her professional life.
When Doris first joined the Modern Languages Department to 1977 we acquired an exceptional linguist: her cosmopolitan French-speaking Cairene background and Firsts in French, Italian and Spanish, with some excellent German, were guarantees of that. We were soon to discover in her a loyal and phenomenally hardworking colleague, a charmingly unassuming personality, but one who would stand firm on principle when the occasion demanded. We also discovered her organisational skills which have served the School and Department well. She ran the Modern Languages Society for 13 years, arranging cinema and theatre excursions, lectures, quizzes, elegant dinners and of course the renowned French Cafe which has earned so much for charity over the years as part of Open Day activities. Latterly, 3 highly successful Spanish trips and her involvement in the Fontenay-aux-Roses work experience complete an impressive record. We gather that she is equally adept at organising the family whenever she has an immediate objective in view. It is rumoured that once after a teaching day and marking evening, she began painting a ceiling at midnight, waking husband Terry at 3 am to complete the decoration before leaving for work.
Doris' contribution to the life of the School has of course extended far beyond her teaching, the ability to cope with pressure from many directions being her greatest strength. Since 1982 she has been a pillar of the Careers Department with special responsibility for law and languages, but with many other activities, both general and specific, of which boys and their parents are perhaps more aware than the Staff as a whole. In recent years her annual Interview Skills Conference, which enables Sixth Formers to meet and consult potential interviewers from academic and professional life, has proved highly popular and successful -success achieved as always by many hours of careful planning.
Some few years ago, Doris gained a well-earned promotion as Head of the General Studies Department to which she has given a higher profile and a more coherent structure than it previously enjoyed. The Department could not have had a better champion each year when timetabling begins for the following September, when colleagues' services have sometimes to be argued for. Doris is extremely good at winning arguments. The achievement, however, which gave her particular pleasure and pride in the confidence of colleagues placed in her was to be elected Chairman of the Common Room in 1987. In addition to the usual quite onerous responsibilities, she presented to the Governors a number of papers on staff matters, particularly on the burning question of staff representation at the Governors' meetings...
It grieves your correspondent to report that among her strengths and virtues, Doris has an Achilles heel - the motor vehicle. The rumour that she once wrecked her Volvo in order to obtain a new one was firmly denied. During recent work experience visits in central London she dealt with an overheated engine by pouring a gallon of cold water into the oil sump, thereby creating, so it is said, a froth that would not have shamed a barrel of Guinness. Perhaps her most memorable achievement however was to wedge a minibus full of Sixth Formers firmly under the unyielding concrete lintel of the National Theatre car park entrance, much to the delight of the boys, who pronounced the resulting mayhem a better spectacle than the play itself. Despite her countless hours of School involvement during her years here, Doris has always managed to stay firmly within the 'real' world. She has found time to run a house, keep fit, raise 4 children - Haberdashers' all - of whom she is justly proud, maintain a wide circle of friends and range of interests, travel extensively and, more recently, complete a 2 year MBA Course, naturally with Distinction. We wish a remarkable lady success and happiness in her new post as Head of Modern Languages at South Hampstead High School. She will be much missed here, but perhaps she and Terry will keep in contact by remaining as supportive of our evening musical and dramatic events as they have always been
It is difficult to imagine the School without Keith Talbot, who has retired from the P.E. Department after thirty years' service. Keith is that precious commodity, the passionately committed, endlessly enthusiastic idealist: the passion and the enthusiasm are mainly devoted to hockey, of course, but Keith loves the School as a whole, rhapsodising over a play, a jazz concert, a cricket match, an exhibition - anything which shows the School in its best light. No one who has heard his exhortation of a listless P.E. class to greater and more wholehearted endeavour could ever doubt his fervent belief in the School and its success.

Keith - a keen supporter of Stoke City F.C. - was brought up in the Potteries and completed his education at Loughborough. Although most of his teaching career has been spent at Haberdashers', his hockey expertise has brought him honours and commitments outside the School: he has played for England Schoolmasters and North Wales, was Chief Coach to the East of England Juniors for two years and has been a loyal, long-serving member of St. Albans Hockey Club. During his sabbatical tour of India in 1992, Keith appeared on national television, trekked in the Himalayas, and worked with the newly-formed Indian Hockey Academy to develop more effective training techniques. Keith loved it all, responding to the friendliness he was shown with his own warmth and enthusiasm. (A fuller account of Keith's 'Passage to India' appeared in 'Skylark 1993').

Keith's travels also included several Far East sports tours, where again he always entered fully into the sprit of things - on one occasion conducting the Habs. boys in impromptu choral renderings in the middle of Nathan Road, Singapore, to the delight of watching hundreds - perhaps thousands...

Earlier this year, 150 friends and Old Boys packed the Bourne Hall for a special 'Keith Talbot Retirement Dinner', preceded by three games of hockey on the Astroturf, the whole splendid affair organised by Doug Yeabsley. The enormous respect and affection in which Keith is held by generations of Haberdashers' dominated the occasion: fond memories included references to Talbie's cricket umpiring ('giving Aldenham batsman out lbw for having dyed hair...'), his hockey decisions ('giving Habs. another dubious short corner when the team was struggling'), and quite simply, 'thank you for everything you did for me at school'. An old boy unable to attend confessed as follows, suggesting that he learnt more from Talbie than from his English teachers: 'I would also like to apologise for any indiscretions I may have been responsible for while under his tutorledge'.

We should not forget the remarkable contribution made by Keith to the R.A.F. section. Impulsive and emotional he may be, but Keith's organisational ability is shown by his having devised and implemented the Leadership Course for R.A.F. Training Camps, where he has vast experience as Station Commander. Keith's values are traditional - discipline tempered by humour and humanity - and these qualities can be seen at a glance on any Friday afternoon, when he looks every inch the Squadron Leader, immaculately turned out.

In recent years, Keith was proud to be associated with the new Astroturf hockey pitch, even if it distresses him to see the sacred plastic being trodden for other, less significant sports. The pitch remains as a fitting testament to his dedicated service to the sport and to the School.

Now he contemplates retirement. There may be talk of a Highland retreat, but my guess is that he will not be able to leave us, and that he will build and live in a log cabin by the Astroturf (he once told me he would), so that he can keep an eye on the games and call out his 'advice' in the unmistakable tones of the man who is Habs hockey.