My father, Harry Lawton, who has died aged 97, was an inspirational teacher of woodwork, technical drawing and English.
He was born in Woolton, Liverpool, to Alfred, a signwriter, and his wife, Martha (nee Grace), who was a parlourmaid before she married. Harry left Lawrence Road school aged 14 to work in a grocery shop; in his later teens, he took evening classes for the City & Guilds examinations in cabinet-making. He was a conscientious objector during the second world war, and instead worked as a farm labourer and firefighter.
After the war, Harry studied for the diploma in education at the University of Nottingham, teaching in Nottinghamshire until 1958. He was unusual in being qualified to teach not only woodwork and technical drawing, but also English up to A-level – and when a vacancy arose for a teacher of all three subjects at Queen Elizabeth’s grammar school in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, he was the only candidate and got the job. He and his wife, Sybil (nee Proctor, whom he married in 1954), were offered the post of housemaster and housemistress; but with young children of her own, Sybil wasn’t keen, so they turned it down. It amused Harry that nearly two centuries earlier, Samuel Johnson had applied for the same post but was rejected.
Soon after joining the school, Harry acquired the nickname “Elmer”; neither he nor anyone else knew why, but it stuck for the rest of his life.
With his combination of fine craftsmanship, flair for design, energy and enthusiasm he was an inspiration in the classroom. There are many men in Ashbourne who can quote Harry’s catchphrases – “Pass me the rule, Britannia”, “Hold it level, Neville” and “Hold tightly, saw lightly”. He believed that the reason for teaching crafts in schools was not so much to train aspiring artisans, but to teach pupils to solve problems, think creatively and experience the joy of making things to a high standard.
After retirement in 1982, Harry helped set up a group in Bakewell of the charity Tools for Self-Reliance, which refurbishes hand tools and supplies them to educational projects in Africa. After Sybil’s death in 2007, he remained independent in his own home. In recent months he lost his eyesight and was sad to no longer be able to read the Guardian, which he had been buying since his 20s.
He is survived by his sons, Andrew and Mark, and grandsons, Charlie and James.
