AYTON SCHOOL

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A. Leonard Stapleton

A biographical sketch – 
reprinted from the 56th Annual Report 1943-44

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A. Leonard Stapleton  was born in London in 1884 and spent his   early childhood on the borders of Epping Forest. Such a playground left its   mark upon him all his life, in his great love for the counts y and open-air life. 

At the age of 12 he was sent to school at Saffron Walden, a school with which his family was intimately connected, his father and grandfather having been scholars at Croydon and most other members of the family educated   either at Croydon or Saffron Walden. It was at Walden that he gained his first scholarship of £60 a year for two years.

After four years as a scholar, just as the nineteenth century changed over to the twentieth, Leonard Stapleton changed over from pupil to apprentice   teacher, a boy in class at the end of one half‑year, a member of staff in front of class at the beginning of the next. The demands made upon firmness of character, upon what is called " grit," by so abrupt a transition, can scarcely be appreciated nowadays when we are careful to initiate the young teacher by easy stages.

In six further years at Walden he learnt by experience the management   of classes consisting of boys and girls not much younger than himself, though that time was interrupted by a first sojourn in the north country.   In was the custom in those days for apprentices to be allowed two years in which to attend college, and Leonard d Stapleton came. north to spend his time at the Flounders Institute, Leeds, known as the Yorkshire College. By the   extension of this period to three years he was enabled to obtain the degree of B.A. (Victoria) in 1904. He then returned to Walden and in his last year there was paid the salary of £50 a year!

In 1906 his Headmaster, J. Edward Walker, suggested to the then Headmaster of Ayton School, Frank Rivers Arundel, who had been his former colleague and was also a Saffron Walden O.S., that Leonard Stapleton should come to Ayton as an assistant master.: Thus began his long association with our school, an association which has caused generations of Old Scholars to regard the names Ayton and Stapleton as inseparable.

His time at Ayton falls into two well-defined periods, the 14 years before his appointment to the Headship of Rawdon School and the 23 years between his return and his retirement.

During the first of these periods, in the intervals of his exacting work (and work in those days seemed to leave even less leisure than nowadays), he gained the further academic qualification of a teacher's Diploma at Cambridge and an M.A. degree in History at Leeds.

In 1915, Leonard Stapleton married Marjorie E. Hodges, L.R.A.M., a music mistress on the Ayton staff, and who had also taught music for short periods at Saffron Walden and Croham Hurst School. For some years their married life was handicapped by the necessity to live in rooms in the village, while Leonard Stapleton continued to perform all the duties within the school which he had fulfilled as a bachelor, even to the rousing of the boys before seven every morning!

These discomforts were brought to an end by the appointment in 1920 to the Headmastership of Rawdon School, near Leeds, but alas 1 this new post was not destined to be a permanent one. Conditions in the educational world after the last war were fatal to the existence of many small schools, wholly dependent upon their own resources, and in 1921 Rawdon School, badly hit by the lack of recognition by the Board of Education and by the new conditions caused by the Superannuation Act, was obliged to close down.

Leonard and Marjorie Stapleton returned to Ayton, where they took up their abode in the house now christened Rawdon House (the name has stuck). A considerable number of Rawdon scholars came with them and it was hoped at first that it would be possible to organise them as a separate " House." Inevitably, however, they left school without leaving recognisable successors, but Leonard Stapleton retained until his retirement the status of Housemaster, Senior Assistant and Games Master.

It was in Rawdon House that both Brian and Barbara Stapleton were born, Brian in 1922 and Barbara in 1931. As Barbara grew towards school age, Marjorie Stapleton laid the modest foundations of the junior School, which has since gone from strength to strength and is now pursuing a vigorous life, separated from the parent body, at the Grange: It is to this happy circumstance that Ayton owes it, that retirement has not meant the removal of the Stapleton family from the immediate neighbourhood.

Leonard Stapleton was a man of varied interests and capabilities, but he will ‑always be specially remembered for his prowess in games. At the age of 12, in his first year at school he got into the School eleven and from that time. until very recently he played regularly in matches either at school or college, for a total of 32 seasons. In his younger days he also played in League and Cup tie matches in Essex, though he was never on the side to win a medal or a trophy, not even in School tournaments. Those who saw him play (or played against him) in his best days 'will not make the mistake of making him responsible for this curious circumstance! As a footballer he began as a forward, later became a halfback and finally fullback. He never retreated to the goal!

His record in cricket is even more remarkable, as the following disjointed facts will make clear. In his first match as a boy for Saffron Walden School he made 65 not out. His first century was scored when a junior master at the same school, since when he has made many ‑ the total is unknown. His average of averages works out at about 50. His highest score was 137 not out and his, highest average 141. For 20` years he was a member of the Falcon Touring Club; for whom he made more centuries. He was     their opening batsman along with W. H. Rowlands (sometime captain of Gloucestershire), or with Leslie Gilbert of Bootham. His highest average in these 20 seasons was 63. It is curious to think that the most recent generation a of Ayton scholars only knows Leonard Stapleton as a man of books‑teacher and librarian.

Starting teaching at the age of 16, and allowing for three years spent at college, he made the grand score of 44 years of work in the classroom, teaching all manner of subjects, but chiefly History, and always with great success and splendid examination results. Music, chiefly instrumental and orchestral, was a great part of Leonard Stapleton's life. , He was a keen violinist, playing for many years in the Middlesbrough Musical Union Orchestra  and in the String Orchestra conducted by the late B. Mills Francis. School music owes to him more than can be described here and we still count upon his help in the future.

As a colleague Leonard Stapleton was remarkable for his never failing helpfulness,  especially to young and inexperienced colleagues and for the rare example he set of devotion to duty. He leaves behind him pleasant memories and a sense of personal loss at his departure.  

Herbert Dennis

A. LEONARD STAPLETON 

An Appreciation

A. Leonard Stapleton left us at the end of last term after 38 years of devoted service to the School. It is almost impossible to imagine an Ayton School without him, so closely woven is he into the pattern of our life. As a teacher he has covered, during his stay here, a wide field. His special work and qualifications made him our history specialist, but, as occasion demanded, he took senior classes in English and Mathematics. In fact there is scarcely a subject that he has not taken at some time or other - and always with distinction, as his old boys and girls testify.

His thoroughness, enthusiasm and capacity for hard work were communicated to them and his successes in public examinations have always been outstanding and  in many cases almost miraculous.

On the playing fields he was an inspiration. For years, both at football and cricket, he stood as the rock against which our opponents battered in vain. I see him still as the centre halfback of our Football teams - sure in defence, deadly in attack. Memory pictures him after a hard struggle, plastered with mud, limping off the field and across the teachers' bridge - an indomitable figure. His greatest love, however, was for cricket. For many of us, in those far-off days, he was cricket. The game is in his blood. All branches of it seemed to come natural to him - behind the wickets quick as a flash, in the field safe as the Bank and on occasion when things were going badly, a wily bowler. But as a batsman his genius shone forth - the style was the man. He had all the strokes and like the great masters he played them " late "however fast the bowling he had always plenty of time to express himself, so to say. Runs flowed from his bat as water flows over the High Dam smoothly, effortless.

We remember, too, his contribution to the musical life of the School. Through the long past he has been the mainstay of the school orchestra as first violin. In the good years when the orchestra was strong and in the lean years when he had the doubtful support of the beginners, his enthusiasm never wavered.

For many years he has held the post of Senior Master, undertaking the special responsibility of that onerous post. He has successfully deputised for three Headmasters during their absence.

But he will not thank me if I continue this catalogue - in everything Ayton was and is his first loyalty.

His record stands in the lives of his many scholars - men and women who owe to him that something in their characters which they prize most. His influence, that of a balanced personality, has been of inestimable value to the School.

We thank him for all that he has done for the School, we will strive to enhance those things in its life which he has held most dear and we wish him all good fortune in the retirement which he so richly deserves.

J. Stanley Carr.

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