My father, Terry Millward, who has died aged 84, was an English teacher and chorister who managed to combine his two interests by working at schools in three cathedral cities – Durham, Bristol and Lincoln.
He was born in Leatherhead, Surrey, to Mick, an RAF flight engineer who died in a Lancaster bomber during the second world war, and his wife, Joyce (nee Kimberley), a school secretary and later a GP practice manager.
Terry was a pupil at City of London Freemen’s school in Ashtead, Surrey, before becoming a reporter on two trade journals, British Baker and Rubber Journal, and then the Surrey County Advertiser. In 1960 he decided his true vocation lay elsewhere, and took a general degree at Bede College, Durham University, after which he became an English teacher at the Malory school in Bromley, south-east London.
In 1966 he returned to the north-east of England to teach English at Durham chorister school, where among his pupils was the future comedian Rowan Atkinson, whom he remembered as a “very shy boy”. During Terry’s four years at the school he was also a tenor chorister at Durham Cathedral.
In 1970 he began a two-year spell at St Mary Redcliffe and Temple school in Bristol, continuing with his singing at Bristol Cathedral. He then moved in 1972 to Lincoln, teaching at William Farr school in the nearby village of Welton, where he was appointed head of English and later head of year 11, working there for 24 years until his retirement in 1996. During that time he in the choir at Lincoln Cathedral until 1990, also becoming senior lay vicar there.
Words, in any format, were Terry’s passion. He was an avid Guardian reader, and the cryptic crossword was his daily relaxation – usually accompanied by a pipe. He really enjoyed the bank holiday editions when the crosswords were more challenging. He even set his own crosswords, and was delighted to receive a letter from the Guardian saying his puzzles would have been of a suitable standard to be published had they needed a setter at the time.
Limericks, lyrics and books were also a great interest – in fact any play on words or unusual use of words. Scrabble was his game – the decent word was always more important to him than the score. He never tired of looking things up or finding answers to questions in the many reference books that were available in the family home.
He met Rosalind Killick in the choir of Leatherhead church, and they married in 1965. She survives him, as do his two children, Philip and me, and three grandchildren, Clara, Tom and Theo.
