Geoffrey O’Hanlon MC (1885-1975).
Geoffrey O’Hanlon died in December 1975, aged 90. He came to the School as a master in 1908, one of Canon Westcott’s last appointments, was the first housemaster of Westcott House, and retired in 1945. But he remained in Sherborne for another twenty-five years.
He came of a large north country family who has prospered in the Manchester cotton business: his private means gave him independence to go his own way. At Rugby and Oxford he went through the rigorous discipline of the Classics, but was quick to discard the pedantry, while retaining the inspiration of the authors whom he so readily quoted. In both places he made lifelong friends all of whom achieved distinction, private or public: and he was for many years a member of U.U. [United Ushers], a very select society, nearly all of whom either were or became headmasters. But it was to Sherborne and to Dorset that he devoted his life, to our great profit.
He had joined the Corps in 1910, so went off in August 1914 as a Captain in the new 6th Dorsets: with them he served up to February 1917, enduring eighteen months the horrors of the Western Front, and winning the Military Cross. He later wrote for Duffers a paper on that subject, of which Cecil Day-Lewis said that its poetic imagery went straight to his heart. Some twelve years later he wrote the official history of that battalion: he wrote it as ‘a labour of love, lest their record should be buried in oblivion when none that served in the 6th shall be alive.’ To read it is to see how deeply he felt both for the unit and for the thousands of citizens who served in it.
On returning to Sherborne he remained in the Corps for eight more years. In 1920 he built Westcott House at his own expense, gave it to the School in 1925, and thereafter paid rent to the Governors. For twenty-five years he had the form through which nearly all bright boys passed in the Middle School. In 1936 he gave up his House, and moved to Abbey Grange, which in 1970 he released to the School as the Headmaster’s house, a use he had had in mind when he bought it.
What of the man himself? Only a contemporary could do justice to him: the writer, who first met him in 1928, must do his humble best. He had rare gifts, physical, mental and moral. Efficient at any game he chose to play, he could sing and play the piano, and was a notable actor of such parts as Brutus and Hamlet. When he could be persuaded to preach, the effect was moving. The secret of it all was perhaps Measure, this measured gait, his measured speech (for you could be sure that nothing ill-considered or uncharitable would pass his lips). An OS who knew him well has suggested that he was the most respected master of his time: he had no gimmicks, he was not a ‘character’, he never lost his temper or his dignity, and respected the dignity of his pupils. As a housemaster, he is said to have declared ‘What matters is not what they are now, but what they will be in twenty years’ time’. At a time when discipline was much more rigid, it needed faith and courage to say this: but certainly his old boys, united in affection for him, have been at least as successful in many varied ways as those of more orthodox houses.
It is not surprising that at the end of Mr Boughey’s time as Headmaster many of the staff urged him to stand for the vacancy. His modesty and integrity made him refuse: but in 1950 he emerged from retirement to act as Headmaster when Canon Ross Wallace was away in the United States.
As a writer of English he had few equals. For proof of this you need only turn to the (anonymous) preface to the Third Edition of the Sherborne Register, or the paper on H.R. King which he read to the Duffers to celebrate their Jubilee. The effect was enhanced by his superb elocution: he used his gifts as an actor, but it all rang true.
Nothing has been said of his lifelong love of the Lakeland Fells, the Cornish coast, and his spaniels: nor of his happy married life since 1933. But many will remember the kind welcome they were certain to get at Abbey Grange, and later at Cerne Abbas, where at the age of 85, he set about creating a new garden, order out of chaos as was his way. Latterly he suffered from increasing deafness, but this did not cut him off from the affection of his friends.
Only the words of Matthew Arnold about Sophocles can give a fitting epilogue:
‘But be his
My special thanks whose even-balanced soul
From first youth tempted up to extreme old age
Business could not make dull nor passion wild,
Who saw life steadily and saw it whole…’
And to quote Shakespeare, as was his habit, ‘This was a man’.
Geoffrey Gilbert Green (staff 1928-1966), The Shirburnian, February 1976.
Geoffrey O’Hanlon MC (1885-1975)
Born 2 August 1885.
Rugby School, 1899-1904.
MA, Scholar of Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
Assistant Master at Sherborne School, 1908-1945.
Housemaster of Westcott House, 1920-1936.
Acting Headmaster at Sherborne School, January-March 1949.
Governor of Sherborne School, 1949-1968.
President of the Old Shirburnian Society in 1964.
Died 10 December 1975.