When I was at high school in the 1970s, my headmaster, Mr Russell Sharrock, made a speech that was reported in the national press where he suggested that the next royal baby should attend their local comprehensive school, since the South Yorkshire comprehensives had outperformed the private schools in university entrance results (Kate doesn’t want Prince George to go to Eton – and for once I agree with her, 8 January).
Mr Sharrock was a physicist with a MSc in mathematics, who had served with the Royal Signals Corps during the second world war, and then enjoyed a long and distinguished career in teaching. He sadly passed away some years ago, and so it is left to his students like me to ask: how is it that the highly successful legacy of such bold reformers has not only been ignored by successive governments but appears to have been completely forgotten?
Dr John S Kot
Sydney, Australia
