Obituary - Eric Grant

Sunrise 21st December 1913 - Sunset 3rd August 2006

"Teaching is the only profession that touches the skills of every profession, person, race and culture, yet Nobel prizes are rarely given to teachers per se, but to those who have had good teachers…"- Eric Grant.

Eric Caesar Alexander Grant, who died at the North Middlesex Hospital on Thursday 3rd August 2006, distinguished himself as an educationalist and a teacher and in later years, as a writer and poet.

Born in Bagotsville, Guyana, on 21st December 1913, to parents who were teachers, Eric decided from an early age that he wanted to follow in their footsteps. Buoyed by his parents’ influence and his own aptitude, Eric, aged eleven, won a partial scholarship to attend the Collegiate High School in Georgetown. He wrote his School Leaving Examination in 1928. Armed with this qualification, he started his teaching career at Rattray Memorial Congregational School at age fourteen.

This he had to put on hold however since there was no salary for the job. He decided to become a chemist and successfully completed his preliminary exams whilst working in a pharmacy. After a number of years in pursuit of this ambition he realised that his true vocation was not in a chemist shop, and left to study for his Cambridge Examinations with the intention of going back into teaching. His first appointment after gaining his Junior and Senior Cambridge Certificates was a job at the St. Matthews High School. He impressed so much there, that after a year in that post the Principal sent him to be the Headmaster of its branch school, Martin’s AME Zion School.

By 1937, Eric had gained a reputation as an innovative educator and was offered the post of Headmaster at La Harmonie Congregational School in the Upper Demerara Region. Eric and the school excelled. During his tenure he raised standards to levels where pupils were able to pass the Primary School Leaving Certificate as well as the Eleven Plus scholarship examinations. Eric also widened the curriculum to include basket-weaving, a skill which pupils used to good effect to raise money to buy themselves books and stationery. His visionary approach did not go unnoticed. In 1944, after qualifying for his Third and Second Class Teachers’ Certificates, he was invited to become Headmaster of Ituni Undenominational School in the bauxite area of Guyana. Under his robust leadership, he harnessed resources and staff which enabled the school to achieve unprecedented results and win national acclaim.

Eric first came to the UK in 1957 to study for a Diploma in Rural Education at the University of Reading. Over the 2 years of the course, he was required to do teaching practice, and he had his first exposure to teaching in the UK which he enjoyed, despite the challenge of being the only black teacher in a white school in Berkshire at that time.

Upon completion of his studies, he went back to Guyana where he held two more Headmasterships before returning to Reading University to study for the Postgraduate Professional Teachers’ Certificate, which he successfully gained in 1965. On his subsequent return to Guyana, he held a position of Lecturer at the Environmental Teachers’ Training College. Then, in 1967, he was appointed the Superintendent of the In-Service Teachers’ Training College - a position in which he remained until his retirement in 1973.

His retirement had to be curtailed, however, as he was encouraged to become the Principal of Linden Evening Institute in that same year and, after three years in this post, he was appointed Curriculum Development Officer for Social Studies, Ministry of Education in 1976.

Eric finally retired in 1982 and came to the UK to join Lily, his late first wife, herself an outstanding teacher, both in Guyana and in London. Their five children had already settled and established themselves in the UK. Leyland, his eldest was an engineering manager with British Telecom; the late Bernie Grant, his second child, an activist and politician, later distinguished himself in becoming the first Black MP in Britain. His eldest daughter, Rosamund was a psychotherapist and author of a number of cookery books and his two younger daughters, Waveney and Efua, worked in education and local government.

Eric’s passion for teaching, nevertheless, travelled with him and he soon became involved with the Lemuel Findlay Supplementary School in Tottenham. This position led to his being called back into active service when the then Chief Education Officer for Haringey suggested that he would make an excellent supply teacher in the Borough. Consequently, although nearing 70, he taught in over 60 primary schools in Haringey for the next eight years. Eric finally put down his tutorial books in the late 1980s, but remained a trustee of Lemuel Findlay.

In his retirement Eric enjoyed travelling and visited many parts of world, including West Africa, North America, Europe and the Caribbean. He was also a prolific writer, in both prose and verse, and has left a large selection of essays about his life experiences. After the death of his son Bernie, he embarked on writing a book, which he entitled ‘Dawn to Dusk’, chronicling his son’s life. The book was completed shortly before his passing.

Eric has left an indelible impression on the education system in parts of Guyana. He was Headmaster of six state primary schools, Principal of a state secondary school and, in between these appointments, he established two private secondary schools. His personal motto was: ‘Learn, teach and serve your community’.

Eric is survived by his second wife, Constance, his children and their families.