My father, Peter Riggulsford, a headteacher and community education pioneer, who has died aged 90, collected a full set of wartime uniforms as a fireman, airman, naval rating and army officer.
Son of Walter, a clerk, and his wife, Edith (nee Reeves), Peter was born in Watton at Stone, Hertfordshire, and brought up in the village of Danbury, Essex, where the family moved when he was very young. His father died when Peter was seven, from tuberculosis caught during hospital treatment after losing a leg in the first world war, and his mother had to go out to work, helped by his sister, Gwen, who left school to earn for the family.
Peter did well at the village school, and won a scholarship to King Edward VI grammar school, Chelmsford. He joined the school cadet corps, transferring at 13 to the Air Training Corps, hoping to be a fighter pilot. At 14 he also manned the fire engine in Danbury, which, with its munitions factories and Marconi radio works, was a target for second world war bombing raids.
A gifted mathematician and scholar, he won bursaries to continue his education at Edinburgh University. When Peter was old enough, he volunteered for the Fleet Air Arm and was sent to Canada, training to be a pilot in order to join the war in the far east. Days before he got his wings, peace was declared, and the navy sent the trainees back into the ranks and set them to scrubbing decks on ships back to Britain.
As Peter had been a volunteer, he was released from the navy, but was called up again on postwar national service to the army, was able to transfer to the Royal Army Service Corps, and rapidly rose to captain, serving in Egypt and Singapore, and India during partition.
On demob he completed his Edinburgh mathematics degree and joined his old school, King Edward VI, teaching maths. At a young teachers’ group he met Shirley Burford on a ramble she had organised, suggesting that if she held the map the right way up they might not have got lost.
They married in 1954 and in the years that followed he taught maths in Swansea, worked in local government in Shrewsbury, and became deputy chief education officer in Darlington. He then returned to teaching, as warden of Soham Village college, combining day school with evening adult education and cultural events – the village colleges were the forerunners of today’s community schools. Through Durham University he gained an MEd in 1969. He finished his teaching career as head at Friary Grange school, Lichfield, retiring in the mid-80s to live in Wells and Cheltenham.
He was a funny and charming man, a brilliant mathematician and tireless campaigner for disadvantaged children. In his army days, Peter was a crack shot, and was the cribbage champion of the Far East Command. In later life, he was a keen walker, a good amateur photographer and spent much of his scarce spare time engaged in charity work for the Rotary club.
Two sons, Tony and John, predeceased him. He is survived by Shirley, two children, Susan and me, and by Gwen.
