Jim Golland as the Chief - Obituary by Fred Bilson
In 1937, Stefan Lorant, a Hungarian refugee from fascism, had started a magazine called Lilliput, a bright, pocket size collection of photographs, cartoons and original writing; the roll-call of contributors included Robert Graves, Stephen Spender, Gerard Hoffnung and, sometime in 1943 or 1944, a bored young RAF conscript called Jim Golland. What Jim had done was to take extracts from one of his favourite poems, Spensers Faerie Queene, describing the fight with the dragon (Book I, canto xii, as you will all remember) and intercut them with comments likening the attack of the dragon to a German air-raid; in the end the Dragon was (as the Germans will be) defeated. It was a curious piece and it stuck in my mind. It was clever, a bit donnish, divergent. When I got to know him, and he showed me a copy of the edition in which it appeared, I remembered it at once. I told him so, but he didnt believe me.
In 1961, he became head of English at HCS, and had a committed staff- Stanley Turnbull, George Robertson, Gerry Lafferty and, from 1962, me; after came David Burt and Clive Anderson. He took the job very seriously; he corresponded with my previous Head of Department at Liverpool, Alan Durband (who became a millionaire on the basis of writing comic-book versions of Shakespeares plays). Jim asked Alan for advice; Alan said to me This guys all right, I cant teach him anything. Jim was a very even-handed Head of department; he didnt like teaching the D forms, but he shared the A,B,C,D forms equally-everybody got one of each in the lower school. This was a very fair and very effective distribution of work. Everybody got sixth form teaching when they were ready for it.
Politically an arch Conservative, he was a complete progressive in the view he had of English teaching. He tells on this site how he introduced the Log Book; there were also the Class Reader and the Linguistics modules. He believed in these innovations because they represented quality within the selective education system that he favoured.
When the Gaytonian won the prize for the best school magazine, lots of other teachers wrote to him for advice. He spent hours answering their queries. When the next edition appeared, he asked me to write to all these people asking if theyd like to buy the current edition at a cost of less than £1. One replied. I was furious, but he just shrugged. Conservatives dont expect people to behave well, I suppose.
After I went on from HCS, I was glad that Jim took on teachers who had qualified at Borough Road, when he could have had his pick of Oxbridge men. His view was that they probably knew more about teaching than the University graduates did. They were appointed on their own merits, but it was good to know that they were getting a proper start in their profession. They included Michael Cook, Peter Cowburn and poor, dear Jane Austin.
I remember many acts of genuine kindness and hospitality, and a lot of patient forbearing. I am glad to have known him and, thanks to Jeff, to have been in touch with him so much recently. Good man gone.
Fred Bilson
Fred Bilson taught English at Harrow County School for Boys from 1962 to 1969.