E M WILLATT, 1910-1992

Maurice Willatt taught Economics and Politics at Haberdashers' from 1955 to 1981. He was a fine man and an outstanding teacher. In 1927 he went up from Newcastle-under-Lyme to Jesus College, Cambridge, and four years later began his teaching career amidst the depths of the Depression. During the Second World War he served with the army in India and afterwards was headmaster of Elmhurst School in Somerset, from where he joined Haberdashers'.

Maurice came from a world which we have lost and he brought some of its magic to our own. No one who taught with him can easily forget his memories of Cambridge before the spies and of India under the King-Emperor, or his discreet diplomacy and his personal example. No one who was taught by him can surely forget his erudition and his wisdom, or his ability to cast new light upon academic and intellectual problems.

Maurice was not only an officer and a gentleman, but a scholar and a sincere Christian. In Chaucer's s words “he loved chivalry, truth and honour, freedom and courtesy ... he was a very perfect gentle knight." We shall not see his like again and we shall be the poorer for it. His wife and family will be in our thoughts and prayers.