Harrow County School for Boys

Speech Day 1961 - Dr. A. Simpson

The Headmaster, in his report on the last fifty years, drew attention to the almost incredible speed with which the School had reached maturity, and to the fact that this growth brought responsibilities that were all the more urgent and complex in this century, when civilization itself was so complex.  Developing his theme of the parallel growth of the School and of the individual, Dr. Simpson pointed out that the School had to foster intellectual maturity without damaging personality.  We had to beware lest exhaustive pressures to mature should have damaging results, both on those who accepted and those who rejected them.  He spoke forcefully of "the withering dessication of academic absorption" on the one hand, and the "pathetic cynicisms" developed on the other.  The lucky boy was the one who never quite grew up, but found the middle way between youth and maturity, a way found by the School's first Headmaster, the late Mr. Ernest Young, and by his successor, the late Rev. Randall Williams.

These two men gave the School its universal character and attracted around themselves "truly magnificent school staffs".  Dr. Simpson spoke movingly of the devotion and sacrifice of his colleagues that had helped the School to reach three objectives: the comprehensive nature of the School's activities, formerly the prerogative of the public schools; the establishment of a scholastic programme suited to the times; and the achievement of a series of academic successes of the highest quality.  The Headmaster also acknowledges the debt we owed to "our very virile co-partnership organisations", the Parents' Union and the Old Gaytonians' Association.

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