My dad, Peter Bainbridge, who has died aged 76 after a bad fall from which he never regained consciousness, truly believed in the transformative powers of education. He spent his life working in different aspects of social work and education, always putting others before himself.
After early posts as a community worker in Newport and London, in 1974 he moved to Rochdale, north Manchester, to become head of community education at Balderstone community school, then the borough’s head of community education. He went on to become director of education in north Tyneside, then an inspector for the Further Education Funding Council, and from 2001 until his retirement in 2006 worked as an independent education consultant.
Born in London, Peter was the son of Sylvia (nee Densham) and Norman, with a sister, Gillian, and two brothers, David and Richard. Norman was the vicar at St James’ church in Muswell Hill, where Peter first met Katherine Bongard, my mother, when he was 12, in the late 1950s.
After leaving Monkton Combe school, Somerset, Peter spent a gap year volunteering for VSO and ended up in Botswana, which had just gained independence, where he was tasked with famine relief and organising the country’s first elections for an area the size of Wales; a ridiculous task for an 18-year-old, but he loved a challenge and working with people.
Returning from Botswana, he studied sociology and politics at Durham University, where he bumped into Katherine again. They married in 1970 in Durham, and after spells in London and Watford, settled in Rochdale, where my brothers, Sam and Ben, and I grew up.
Years later, when I was working as a music journalist, a fellow writer, Mark Hodkinson, told me that Dad had helped him photocopy his punk fanzine at school in Rochdale in the 70s and it was the first time anyone had shown an interest in his work and helped him. It was just one small example of how Peter helped others to be who they wanted to be.
A keen football fan, runner and sailor, after retirement, and living in Devon, Peter took up bowling and volunteered as a coastguard and with Refugee Support Devon, transforming the latter from a local concern to one with a regional and national voice.
He is survived by Katherine, Sam, Ben and me, eight grandchildren, Joe, Jack, Ella, Lexi, Erin, Jake, Ava and Edie, and his siblings. His granddaughter Billie predeceased him.
