Rhubarb December 2025

wonderful man and extraordinarily gifted teacher. I still

M SO taught me GCSE and A Level History kingdoms. It was the first time I came to understand what history was – a dynamic force born from interpretation and re-interpretation rather than a set of concrete facts to be learned from a textbook. My time in that history set brought me to understand so much more about the world around me as a consequence of applying Malcolm’s ideas more widely; he opened the eyes of those willing to open their ears and his approach to learning had a big influence upon me. He didn't only have a first-rate mind, he had a first-rate teaching mind. Even if one wasn't a history pupil, there was a strong chance that you would end up in a lesson taken by him. When other teachers were indisposed, it was not uncommon for him to walk into the classroom of any arts or humanities subject from English to Divinity, ask us what we had been learning and begin to teach – just like that. I recall being taught a geography lesson by him as well as a classical civilisation one. The breadth of his knowledge was extraordinary and his lessons were replete with pearls of wisdom and thought- provoking anecdotes designed to challenge developing minds. He was also a schoolmaster of great humour and certainly by the standards of the mid-90s, was not one to take himself too seriously. On one occasion, he donned a cleaner's apron and cloth hat with two other MCR members playing the vacuum cleaner on stage in a performance of Malcolm Arnold's A Grand, Grand Overture. During a day-long session that used to be held in the Fourth Form where we gathered in the Year Group Space to learn about the "facts of life" (it went by another name but modesty forbids its disclosure) he used some colourful language to widespread hilarity, roleplaying as an agony aunt! It was the one time that we heard him use vulgarity of any kind! His love of music also led to some memorable interactions that meant a great deal. The naming of the new library after MSO was so apt and I was delighted to see that when I came in 2022 for Special Gaudy. What a deep and irreplaceable loss to the School and its community. including a unit on Charlemagne and the rise of the Holy Roman Empire out of the Frankish

remember his elucidation of the Schlieffen Plan in a class of Upper Shell B students in 1964. He was, I am sure, responsible for more Teddies pupils gaining places at Oxbridge colleges and Russell Group universities than any other master. Sadly, polymaths of his calibre are rarities today.

FEATURE

I particularly

remember his 1963 English

classes. He encouraged us to avoid the easy and obvious lines of argument, and rather to engage our own thoughts and ideas. It is often said that we all have that one particular influential teacher in our lives. For me it is Malcolm Oxley.

A s a nervous 13 year old, surrounded by other mostly nervous 13 year olds, my mind was blown by our first history lesson at Teddies. Boarding was stressful enough but Mr Oxley, Deputy Warden, dumbfounded us in minute one by asking us what the most important history book of all time was.A few pupils offered a few answers which were pretty decent.And wrong. Eventually he broke the tension and instructed us to get our atlases out. When someone timidly asked whether this was a geography or a history class, he was clear that the history of the world was based on where borders were drawn, and everything else comes second. Aged 20, I was lucky enough to go "inter-railing" on trains around Europe in a summer off college.Very last-minute, two other Oxley students (Nagele and McNee) joined me in Amsterdam.We got to Rome a while later where we made a vow to complete the "Oxley Challenge". Mr Oxley had told us many years earlier about the best way to experience the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. So, on a bit of an impulse, we got up at 5am and arrived at the front of the queue before it opened at 6am.After a wait when the doors opened, we did as instructed and ran through corridors glancing at artwork to arrive in the Sistine Chapel 20 minutes before any other tourist, diving into the middle of the floor and lying on our backs and looking up at the ceiling. It was an amazing moment. I was lucky enough to tell Malcolm this story in person at the reunion in March 2023.

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