My father, John Coe, who has died aged 98, was an inspirational leader in the field of primary education. As he went from the classroom to the head teacher’s office and then on to inspector and senior adviser roles in Yorkshire and Oxfordshire, children and their teachers were at the forefront of his thoughts.
Born in Southwell, London, John was the only child of Dorothy (nee Lindsay) and Albert, who worked for Marconi. Evacuated during the second world war to Chichester, he returned after only one term to the new family home in Chelmsford, Essex, where he continued his education at King Edward VI grammar school. He spent the last year of the war training in South Africa as a navigator in the RAF and, although he saw no active service, the experience made him a lifelong pacifist.
