Logie Bruce Lockhart

Logie Bruce Lockhart(12 October 1921 – 7 September 2020) was a Scottishschoolmaster,writer, and journalist, in his youth aScottish internationalrugby unionfootballer and for most of his teaching career headmaster ofGresham's School.

Background

Born inWarwickshire,Lockhart belonged to theBruce Lockhart family,which has long traditions of teaching and playing rugby union and has branched out into other areas. His grandfather was a schoolmaster, while his father,John Bruce Lockhart,and one of his older brothers,Rab Bruce Lockhart,were both public school headmasters who had playedrugby unionforScotland.Another brother,J. M. Bruce Lockhart,was an intelligence officer, and a third brother,Patrick,was an obstetrician who fenced for Scotland.

Lockhart’s uncle,Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart(1887–1970), was an author and adventurer whose son,Robin Bruce Lockhart,became an author.One nephew wasSandy Bruce-Lockhart, Baron Bruce-Lockhart;another,Kim Bruce-Lockhart,played squash for Scotland.A great-nephew,Dugald,is an actor and director.

Early life

Lockhart was educated atCargilfield School, Edinburgh,Sedbergh School,where his father was Headmaster and he became Head Boy, and then atSt John's College, Cambridge,as a choral scholar, with a scholarship.However, with theSecond World Warjust beginning he enlisted in the 9thSherwood Foresters.Later during the war he served in theLife Guardsin France and Germanyand was one of the first British soldiers to enterBergen-Belsen concentration camp.

After the war, Lockhart continued his interrupted education at Cambridge,where he read French and German, won the Wright Prize for Modern Languages, and was both arugby unionand asquash racketsBlue.He gained a double first, and his degree was later promoted toMA.

Lockhart wrote of his time at Cambridge

We hardly attended any lectures, except to get a book list at the beginning of the year, so we were able to read an unusually large number of books. Our view on lectures was that little was to be gained by attending them... Supervisors’ tutorials were potentially far more valuable, but the standard varied from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Rugby

While playing rugby union forCambridge,Lockhart joinedLondon Scottish,of which he was later captain. The first time he was called on to play forScotlandwas in aCalcutta Cupmatch at Twickenham againstEnglandon 20 March 1948, when he unusually played at centre and Scotland won 6-3, taking the trophy. The rest of his international career was atfly half.In 1950, he scored his first points for Scotland by a conversion in a match against France atMurrayfield.He was in the wilderness for three years, but in 1953 was recalled to play in theFive Nations championshipagainst Ireland and then against England on 21 March 1953, his last appearance for Scotland, at a time when the team was in a long losing run.

At the time of his death, Lockhart was the oldest Scottish international.

Teaching career

From Cambridge, Lockhart followed in a long family tradition by deciding to enter the teaching profession. He became an assistant schoolmaster and rugby union coach atTonbridge School,and then in 1955, at the age of 33, was appointed as Headmaster ofGresham's School,Holt.

He became Chairman of the Eastern Division of theHeadmasters' Conferencein the 1970s and broke new ground by inviting the heads of theGirls' Schools Associationto attend HMC meetings.In 1977, he argued that five subjects, rather than three, should be taught insixth forms,and that this could be made possible by universities teaching more inter-disciplinary and creative courses.

Lockhart retired as Headmaster of Gresham's School at the end of the Summer Term of 1982.Interviewing him forThe Illustrated London News,Roger Berthoud noted his view that “children should have privacy and a little kingdom of their own” and commented that he would be a hard act to follow.

Journalist and author

For sixty years, Logie Bruce Lockhart contributed articles to magazines and newspapers, fromCountry LifeandRugby WorldtoShe.He wrote mostly on education, fishing, sport, and wildlife.

Lockhart's first book,The Pleasures of Fishing(1981)was about his adventures as a fly fisherman, mostly in England and Scotland.His second book,Stuff and Nonsense,gave the philosophy of a retired headmaster and thoughts on educational topics of the previous half century, the 'Stuff', while a variety of essays on rugby, fly fishing, camping in old age, wind-surfing in France, and so forth provided the 'Nonsense'.

Now We Are Very Old(2012) is a collection of Lockhart’s cautionary verses for the elderly, whileNow And Then, This And That(2013) is a reflection on his family history, his experiences in the Second World War, the changes in education during his teaching career, and the changes in society during his lifetime.British Bird Watching for Beginners & Enthusiasts(2018), written for his grandchildren and illustrated with his own watercolours, explored his lifetime passion forornithology.As a boy, he was taught to paint birds by Talbot Kelly.

Personal life

In 1944, while returning to his regiment, Lockhart got on a train atOxenholmeand took a seat opposite Josephine Agnew. They found a shared interest in the poetry ofRupert Brookeand were married within weeks, later going on to have two sons and three daughters.His wife died at Holt in 2009, aged 86.Their daughter Jennifer Bruce-Lockhart became a teacher of music in Paris. Their son Rhuraidh Bruce-Lockhart is a property developer in Norfolk. Fiona Drye was a Head of English who gained a 'Teacher Trailblazer' award from the Poetry Society for her work. Bede Bruce-Lockhart played rugby union for Scotland B and worked in theCity of London.Their sister Kirsty was killed in a car accident in childhood.

A granddaughter, Chelsea Bruce Lockhart, is a data journalist at the Financial Times. One grandson, Nicolas, works in property management. Grandsons Alastair and Dacre Drye are property developers in Lisbon and Brazil respectively.

Lockhart died in September 2020 at the age of 98and was buried at St Andrew's parish church, Holt, Norfolk.

Books

• Trois Aveugles et Autres Contes(Oxford University Press, New Oxford French Readers, 1954)ISBN0-19-832219-4,ISBN978-0-19-832219-1
• The Pleasures of Fishing(A & C Black, London, 1981)ISBN0-7136-2136-2
• Stuff and Nonsense: Observations of a Norfolk Scot(The Larks Press, 1981)ISBN0-948400-40-4
• Dick Bagnall-Oakeley, A tribute to a Norfolk Naturalist(The Gallpen Press Limited)
• Now We Are Very Old(2012)
• Now and Then, This and That(Larks Press, 2013), autobiography
• British Bird Watching for Beginners & Enthusiasts(Bar well Print Ltd, 2018)

Selected articles

• 'Tom Brown's Ghost Walks' inThe Times(London), 6 July 1967, p. 7
• 'Co-education in public schools', inThe Spectator,20 April 1974, pp. 479–80
• 'Crisis and Politics in England', inSt. Croix Review(Stillwater, Minn., 1974)
• 'A new programme for Christian education' inThe Times(London), 5 July 1975, p. 14
• 'Why Oxbridge must look to its students' inThe Times(London), 4 October 1977, p. 18
• 'On Highlands Fishing', inCountry Life,1992
• 'Hooked on angling' inScots Magazine,new series, vol. 123, no. 3, June 1985, pp. 282–286

External links

• Logie Bruce Lockhartat ESPNscrum
• Sir James Dyson pays tribute to ‘wonderfully empathetic’ headmaster,Eastern Daily Press,11 September 2020
• Logie Bruce-Lockhart: 1921-2020at sjcchoir.co.uk, 15 September 2020
• "Obituary: Logie Bruce-Lockhart, headmaster and Scotland rugby player",The Scotsman,2 October 2020
• ObituaryinThe Times,September 19 2020(subscription required)