Rhubarb 2021

An inter view with MALCOLM OXLEY

INTERVIEW

By David Smar t

Malcolm Oxley, 2nd from the right, with fellow Members of the Common Room

M alcolm taught at Teddies for 37 years, spanning fiveWardens. Here he talks to President David Smart about his time at Teddies, his love of reading, his generous bequest of his book collection and the pleasures of life in retirement.

You started working at St Edward’s in 1962.What led you to get your first job here? It’s a good question because I can’t say I’d always wanted to teach at Teddies. In fact, I’d just finished my teacher training in Oxford after my degree, this was my first job and I wasn’t expecting to stay very long. I

Economics, and at the time Economics was changing, becoming more like mathematics, and I’m not very numerate. Some years later we had professional economists like Mike Rosewell join the department. I also taught quite a lot of A Level Religious Studies and Art History. For a short time I was Director of Studies.Then in 1972 I was offered the Housemastership of Segar’s. That was a 12 year tenure followed by my last 14 years as Second Master and Sub-Warden.

was just out of university, there was no question of buying a house, and this boarding school was offering essentially free accommodation - that was a major feature. It was a seller’s market in those days as a young graduate; schools like this needed to compete more in external examinations and they were looking for young graduates who could strengthen academic life. A tutor of mine at Oxford gave me a guarded and ambivalent impression of the School, stressing ‘It’s a very good school – when they’re not on they’re knees in chapel they’re scrumming it down on the rugby pitch.’ History, almost exclusively. I then began to teach some English alongside it. But something happened two years later which is one reason why I stayed on far longer than I’d thought I would.Warden Fisher called me into his office and said there was a subject called Economics which I ought to be teaching, and that he was going to set up a new Economics and Politics Department and he wanted me to run it. I had no qualifications aside from A Level When you were appointed in 1962, what were you initially charged with teaching?

Left to right, D.S.Wippell., M Evans., M.S. Oxley and A.D.G.Wright

You were at Teddies for 37 years, starting underWarden Fisher and serving under fiveWardens.What remains the same and what were the most significant changes you witnessed during those years? In one sense, it’s impossible to say because when you’re very involved in something it’s difficult to judge change. I want to isolate two things about the School.The first is what you might call the general culture of the place. Most

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