The Chronicle 682

38 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

produce many outstanding and glorious events. He initiated the Summer Term themed Guest Night, organising very large- scale occasions to celebrate the anniversaries of Waterloo, Jane Austen and even the ‘60s. For those of us lucky enough to attend MCR Burns’ Suppers, who cannot recall Jonny standing proudly at top table, plunging his knife into the ‘Great chieftain o’ the puddin-race’ and reciting, with no attempt whatsoever at any cod Scottish accent, the Address to a Haggis?

Without a doubt, Jonny loved life. His age, always a closely-guarded secret even from his closest friends, was greater than he wanted to admit and, to be fair, looked, but to have his life snuffed out at 54 is cruel by any standards! Jonny received the news, in spring 2018, of his lung cancer in typical fashion: he never outwardly dwelt on his prognosis, focusing rather on supporting a Teddies colleague with their own lung condition, and it was with immense courage that he made the very most of the last two and a half years

of his life: tending two allotments, buying the cottage in Winchcombe together with James, where they planned extravagant picnics and hosted high ‘fizzy’ teas that were truly something. He also completed his Blue- Badge tour guiding course (no easy feat), with a view to life post-Teddies, but still very much the teacher, still very much the man. It was not to be, since ‘this damned thing’, as Jonny so often called it, had metastasised to his brain in the first half of 2020.

Jonny in Cowell’s By Nick Coram-Wright, Assistant Head Co-Curricular

Upon his arrival at St Edward’s in 2003, Jonny joined the Tutor Team in Cowell’s and was well ensconced with the Sixth Form when I took over the reins from Housemaster Chris Lush in 2004. In 2014 he was posted to Mac’s for a two- year sabbatical, returning to Cowell’s two years’ later. Looking back to those early days, I recall that Jonny was a man of principle with high expectations of his charges. Whilst he tended to take a sterner line with the juniors on his duty nights, the seniors warmed to his sense of humour, his sociability and willingness to share anecdotes over a glass of wine. Returning from a debating society dinner late one Saturday night, there was a ring on my front doorbell and it was hard to tell if the Sixth Formers were escorting Jonny back to house or vice versa. Their respect was mutual but Jonny never hesitated to tell his tutees if he thought they had been rather asinine in their behaviour. It is fair to say that was quite a common occurrence back then. Baba Balfour Paul, our resident House Matron, would regale us on a regular basis with the most fabulous cakes, oozing creativity, spun sugar and calories. On these evenings Jonny would settle in for a good chat and a chinwag with Baba: ‘He did love to keep me company in the surgery, especially when I had done some exciting baking’, she recalls. ‘He was a sweet friend.’ James Jacob, who joined the House in the

Lower Sixth in 2004, and who is now a History teacher himself, credits Jonny as ‘one of the three teachers who inspired me the most to become a teacher. I am the man I am today because of him’. James also recalls tales of hipflasks best not repeated here, of Jonny’s ability to take a joke and of the kindness he showed to all his pupils. Jonny never lost the human touch and I suspect also never lost his loathing for technology as the digital age hurtled towards us. His reports were sometimes brutal in their honesty but were always

supportive. The message to his tutees was clear: Success at A Level needed to be worked at and preparing for university had to be taken seriously and maturely. His advice, particularly for enthusiastic historians, was worth listening to. ‘In Memory of Jonny Lambe, House Tutor 2003-2019 who epitomised the values of Cowell’s’. Thus reads the engraving on the crystal trophy that will be awarded from 2022 by Simon Palferman, current HM in Cowell’s, to an outstanding boy in the House.

During the sponsored cycle ride from Summertown to Berlin in November 2008