Bobby Liddell

The Head teacher from my first teaching post at Rosehall High School, Bobby Liddell, died peacefully in his sleep last weekend. He was 82. He was a very good headteacher, strong on discipline and supportive of his staff. 

I remember him giving the whole staff a dressing down when we were being a bit rowdy during an In Service day training session and you could have heard a pin drop. 

One of my favourite memories of him is at a staff meeting when he was telling people to be more vigilant in looking after their classroom keys, because quite a few had been stolen by pupils and then used to break in to classrooms. He went on to say that it was mainly the female teachers who were most careless, because they left their keys on their desks whereas the men tended to keep their keys in their trouser pockets. 

He said,

“Even Mrs Jones * has had her keys pinched, and she’s the lady in this school least likely to get something pinched.”

There was a momentary stunned silence from the staff, followed by gales of laughter. Bobby realised what he had said and followed up with,

“I didn’t mean it like that. You’re still a fine looking woman Mrs Jones!” which of course resulted in more gales of laughter.

I have a really nice memory of Bobby which involves Alasdair. I was about eight weeks pregnant and hadn’t yet told any of my colleagues. But then one day at school I had some bleeding and I was really worried that I was going to lose the baby. So I had to tell my colleagues and the school secretary phoned James while Bobby Liddell drove me to Monklands Hospital. He was really pleasant to me and waited with me until James arrived. And of course everything turned out well with Ally who was born safely seven months later. 

* Not her real name!