It is with great sadness that we have heard that George Facer died on 26th October 2023. George taught chemistry at Sherborne for 23 years and was also a much-respected housemaster of School House (1983-1990).
George’s funeral service will be held at Sherborne Abbey on Tuesday, 7th November 2023, at 2.00pm.
In tribute, we are publishing Ian Elliott’s valete to George, which was published in The Shirburnian in 1997 on his retirement:
‘Even as he retired, George brought a vibrant enthusiasm to everything he did within the School: blessed with an excellent analytical mind and varied interests, he was always able to communicate his ideas with vivacity to colleagues and boys alike.
He was educated at Epsom College where his father was Head of the Chemistry department: a school prize for Chemistry at Epsom still bears John Facer’s name. George was a direct contemporary of Paddy Whelan at school and their lives followed very similar patterns through King’s Canterbury and Sherborne until Paddy’s tragically early death when a Physics master at Sherborne.
George progressed from school into the East Surrey Regiment in Germany, where he did his national service: it is a sign of the times that only the most senior member of staff will now know the delights of national service. Within the regiment, he commanded the three inch mortar platoon (good practice for future Chemistry experiments?) and was also officer-in-charge of the rifle team. The practice of this latter talent was certainly useful when he subsequently rifle shot for Oxford University during his four years at St John’s reading Chemistry. Here he achieved a very good degree with a fourth year research paper on Raman Spectroscopy, while still finding the time to play college hockey and to row.
His first post was at King’s Canterbury and, as would be expected of the man, he involved himself in many areas of the School, coaching all three major sports, helping to run the army section of the CCF, working as a resident tutor and managing front-of-house for the Gilbert and Sullivan society. Perhaps, though, he would regard his most important achievement at Canterbury as meeting and marrying in 1966 Judy Heath, thus starting a partnership of great loyalty together with boundless energy and ideas.
After six years at King’s, George moved on to Dulwich, where he lessened the number of his extra-curricular duties in order to concentrate on his teaching at a very academic school. It was during his two years at Dulwich that he realised that he didn’t want to spend his life involved almost soley in academic teaching and that participation in extra-curricular activities was (and still is) a very important part of a schoolmaster’s life.
George therefore moved to Sherborne in 1969 to take over from Laurence May (who sadly died in July 1997) as head of the Chemistry department. He brought with him a natural enthusiasm for his subject and the depth of understanding which does not allow for wishy-washy thinking and half-baked truths. As a result, boys shared his enthusiasm for Chemistry and they enjoyed working out the logical progression of the subject under his expert guidance. Numbers reading Chemistry at A level increased and, at one stage, reached fifty-three in one academic year.
Colleagues also benefited from his wisdom in various ways. He was able to help them improve their teaching by showing them better methods of working through a solution and he was also very happy to spend time explaining how a topic might be taught with greater accuracy. George is also a man of vision and he realised that members of department must be good all-rounders within their subject. Colleagues who were acknowledged to be good at teaching the less able were given top sets in the Upper VI, while those good with the very academic students were given weaker sets. Without doubt, this made for a stronger department and it also considerably helped the individuals involved. A measure of his expertise is that having been made Head of Science at Sherborne he was invited to join the ’59 Club’: a group of Heads of Science founded in 1959 with the purpose of taking Science teaching forward. It was as a result of their deliberations that the Nuffield Science courses were founded.
Even with all his academic responsibilities, George involved himself in many other aspects of Sherborne life. He was senior tutor in Westcott and ran both rugby and hockey because he combined his in-depth knowledge of the laws of the game with an unflappable, confident method of applying them. Originally, he was assigned to the army section of the CCF, but when a vacancy occurred to run the naval section, he re-trained and ran the section very successfully for a number of years.
George and Judy have never confined their interests just to the School, and in 1975 George became Chairman of Sherborne Round Table in the same year that Judy took on a similar role with the sister organisation Ladies Circle. Needless to say, both approached their respective jobs with dynamism and fresh ideas. The highlight of George’s year was a firework display at Sherborne Castle with the fireworks being set off on one side of the lake and the viewing public on the other, so that spectators saw both the fireworks and their reflection. It was a ‘one off’ event: Sherborne Round Table were never allowed to hold it again: the reason being that it was too successful! There were so many cars parked on the castle lawns that the castle authorities decided that a wet 5th November would cause mayhem and a ruination of their grounds!
His work as front-of-house and orchestral manager for Dorset Opera over many years was another valuable contribution to the life of Sherborne.
In 1981 George did an exchange with a chemist from Phillips College, Andover, Massachusetts, where, for the first time but not the last, he coached the ladies’ hockey team. Then in 1983 he took over as Housemaster of School House, a position he held for the next seven years. He brought to this job all the qualities expected of him and a great loyalty to the boys, the tutors and the House staff. As a result, School House was a happy house, an involved House and one in which everyone was valued for what they could contribute. Music was encourage and George particularly understood the effect that success in House Leagues could have on morale in the House. The unstinting involvement of both George and Judy was a great help to many boys.
In 1990, George was appointed deputy head of Kamuzu Academy in Malawi, where Judy also went to teach. Within three years, academic standards rose noticeably and the quality of teaching staff improved. During his three years there, he was often left in charge of the school and it was his job to organise the tenth anniversary of the founding of the school with guests including the President, government ministers and between ten and fifteen thousand members of the general public.
Another year at Phillips College followed and then a final year overseas at Tabor Academy, before we welcomed the Facers back to Sherborne in 1995. It would have been reasonable for George to have taken a back seat during these last two years, but that was not the nature of the man. He taught Chemistry with undiminished enthusiasm; he devised new programmes of study; he advised us on the setting and marking of examinations. Two difficult jobs he understood were as Chairman of both the Curriculum Review Committee and the IT Committee. To these jobs he brought fresh ideas, a willingness to listen and an ability to make decisions. The new computer network at Sherborne will have benefited a lot from the work put in by George.
Indeed, the legacy of what George has done for Sherborne will live on for many years. Already, he is a team leader for the London Board A level Chemistry examination and this looks like developing in the future. George and Judy deserve a long and happy retirement: they will, perhaps, see more of Julian, Penny and Michael, and those games of bridge will no longer be clouded by thoughts of tomorrow’s lessons.’
George Herbert James Facer (1937-2023)
Educated at Epsom College.
St John’s College, Oxford, (Chemistry), BSC, MA.
Taught at King’s Canterbury and Dulwich College.
Sherborne School, Head of Science and Chemistry. 1969-1990, 1995-1997.
Senior Tutor, Westcott House.
Housemaster, School House, 1983-1990.
Deputy Head, Kamuzu Academy, Malawi, 1990-1994.
Tabor Academy, 1994-1995.
Retired 1997.
Died on 26 October 2023, aged 86.
Author of a number of Edexcel Chemistry text books.