My father, Tony Mitchell, who has died aged 89, was a teacher who rose to be head of English at a Somerset comprehensive school, then became a teacher trainer in Bedfordshire.
Born in Bexleyheath, south London, to Violet (nee Garbutt) and Harry Mitchell, both police officers, Tony attended Shooters Hill grammar school then secured a teaching qualification from Goldsmiths College in 1953, before doing his national service in the Egyptian Canal Zone with the Royal Army Education Corps. In 1960 he married Hazel Lewis, an office skills teacher who had been his penfriend while in Egypt, having persuaded her to choose marriage to him over Methodist missionary work.
