SE CHRONICLE 684

34 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

A Tribute to Vaughan Abigail Vaughan Abigail will be remembered at St Edward’s as a schoolmaster of the utmost dedication and conscientiousness, always willing to take on tasks and generous in support of pupils and colleagues.

Longevity in a job is not automatically a virtue, but it speaks to a kind of commitment, which, when you take a glance at the great variety of roles that Vaughan performed at St Edward’s over very nearly 40 years, is plain to see. He joined St Edward’s in 1982 as a teacher of Spanish and French (to which, much later, would be added the teaching of Classical Civilisation, this arising out of his passion for, and wide knowledge of, Roman Britain). In those early years at St Edward’s, Vaughan was a committed Master in Charge of Fencing and did valuable liaison and mentoring work with modern languages PGCE students from Westminster College. He was also a tutor in Sing’s, as well as carrying out the ‘important little details’ job of arranging early, late or packed meals for teams and other groups and the booking of transport. In those days, the School had a tiny admin staff, and such jobs fell to teachers. It is worth noting in this context that Vaughan always liked to spare the Logistics and Maintenance teams if he could – he would regularly leave home at 4am so as to be able to lend a hand with the setting-up of exam rooms, for instance. The table of coach and meal bookings, handwritten, was drawn up precisely, copied and distributed every week. Attention to every detail was something that seemed to come naturally to Vaughan, but in fact it demands and demanded huge, concentrated effort and advance planning. Some of us linguists are a funny bunch (I write as one, myself ) and pedantry is part of what we are. When you are trained so that one little flick of the pen (an acute or grave accent, for example) makes the difference between being right or being wrong, it perhaps is not so surprising. Vaughan could be gently self-deprecating, and I heard him more than once comment with a mischievous grin on his face about the “nerdiness” of ourselves as linguists in the Department.

Vaughan giving a talk to visitors at the North Leigh Roman Villa, where he volunteered