My brother and I were both at KHS in the '70s during which time "Blakey" was DH housemaster and head of history. Sadly, I wasn't much interested in history at the time, but my brother Andrew was, and he was in the History Club.

It must have been nearly 30 years later that I saw Blakey again at Teddie Cooper's wake. Once he'd realised who I was, he was very keen for me to pass on a message to my brother, who wasn't there.

"I owe him an apology" he said urgently "he was late for the mini-bus for a History Club trip one time, and i didn't wait for him. I was so sorry afterwards, and it's always troubled me since. Please do apologise to him for me won't you?"

What a lovely gentleman! My brother was late, so he missed the bus - fair enough, Blakey didn't even owe him the apology (and I gently told him so), yet it had bothered him for three decades that he had gone without him.

This example of Mr Batchelor's attitude towards the boys is the sort of care and concern that was prevalent in KHS staff during Teddie Cooper's tenure as Warden (as indeed I hope it still is), either because he hired people that already thought that way or because of his influence on them once they'd arrived.

Bless them all, they made more difference to the lives of so many boys than could ever be properly measured.