Christopher Huchinson (1956)

Christopher John Hutchinson, who was a graduate of Queens (Geography), has died. He was briefly a lawyer for Shell Oil, before side-stepping eternal damnation by becoming a teacher.

He was born in Hatfield in 1936 to Australian parents Dorothea (a teacher) and Howard (a civil architect). He spent his early childhood (and WWII) in Australia - evacuated there (with his little sister Patience) by his father, who was required for highly important war work with the Greater London Council.

On returning to the UK, his school life got off to an explosive start when he was expelled for blowing up a tree. He was then sent to St Albans Grammar, where he thrived and quickly became an exemplary scholar. In 1956 he came up to Queens to read Geography.

Many years later the family were surprised to discover that he had not only been involved in amateur dramatics at Queens, with the BATS drama group, but had in fact been a stage director. He often said that those years were amongst the happiest of his life.

Upon graduation, Christopher moved north to Manchester to take up a role as a lawyer with Shell Oil. Not long thereafter he met Patricia (Pat) Delaney (secretary to the chairman of Aer Lingus), fell in love and married. His daughter, Catherine, was born the next year and then two years later a son, Andrew.

In 1970 he decided to follow his heart and abandon a life of wealth and stultifying boredom (his words) to become a teacher. He moved from Manchester to Hertfordshire to become Head of English at one of the newly created secondary modern schools - The Highfield School in Letchworth. He and Pat had two more children - Matthew and James.

He found his vocation in teaching and held the role of Head of English at Highfield for the next 28 years. In the latter half of his teaching career he did specialist training (at Cambridge) in teaching children with learning difficulties. His efforts to normalise the school lives of children who were formerly abandoned in ‘special’ units, was ahead of its time and lead to the eventual creation of a ‘whole school approach’ which is now official policy. His legacy lives on at Highfield, which is now one of the leading schools for children with special needs. He retired in 1998.

Following his retirement, he fulfilled a lifelong dream of emigrating to Australia. They were assisted in those early days by his daughter Catherine, who had emigrated to Australia five years previously. He and Pat found a beautiful home in the township of Berry in New South Wales which they called ‘the resort’. Their son Andrew and his wife Catherine and son Joshua visited on holiday and liked the place so much that they emigrated to Australia too.

10 years into their retirement Pat became ill and his son Andrew and daughter-in-law Catherine moved in to their home to help with her care. Chris and Pat greatly enjoyed having their grandson nearby, enjoying the many benefits of an extended family unit.

Pat passed away five years later and Chris became active in the local Anglican Uniting Church. At his funeral, parishioners all told us how they immensely enjoyed his readings - a skill he learnt (no doubt) treading the boards at Queens. The pastor revealed that he and Chris had become best mate and he greatly missed his friend’s presence close-by the altar, waiting to deliver that week’s chosen bible passage.

Chris passed away in the Shoalhaven Hospital after a brief illness due to complications from a broken leg. He is survived by his daughter Catherine, sons Andrew, Matthew and James, and grandchildren Joshua and Lula.