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Peter was a distinguished Mathematics teacher and a transformative Rowing Coach at the School from 1983 to 1989. He died on December 5th, 2024, at the age of 82.
Born and raised in Liverpool, Peter won a major scholarship to read Mathematics at Wadham College, Oxford. He graduated with a First Class Degree in 1963, setting the stage for a career dedicated to education.
Peter joined Abingdon School in 1983, bringing with him a wealth of experience both as a teacher and a high-level rowing coach. In the Mathematics Department, he "quickly established himself as a most effective teacher with a fine mathematical brain" (The Abingdonian December 1989), who could be relied upon to find a neat solution to any taxing problem. His other great passion, rowing, proved equally influential. Peter arrived with an outstanding reputation as a coach of schoolboy oarsmen, having coached at Emanuel School and St Stithians College in South Africa. An experienced cox who had won the Thames Cup and trialled for OUBC, he applied his deep knowledge and disciplined approach to the Abingdon crews during his tenure.
A unique and memorable member of the Common Room, "Peter was very much a traditionalist with little sympathy for the metric system, showing a strong preference for the Imperial system, particularly the pint!" (ibid). He was, by his own admission, devoted to his three main interests: mathematics, rowing, and beer.
A true scholar of the old school, he notably refused to use a computer, maintaining a charming correspondence with meticulous, minute handwriting. Though he retired early from teaching in his 40s to look after his elderly parents in Liverpool, Peter is remembered by his former colleagues and pupils as an exceptionally loyal, brilliant, and good-humoured man.
