My father, Roger Luxton, who has died aged 73, was a former director of children’s services in Barking and Dagenham in east London.
He was born in Royal Leamington Spa to Muriel (nee Hand), a housewife, and Geoffrey Luxton, a civil servant with the Post Office. Due to his father’s work the family moved first to Edinburgh, where Roger attended Daniel Stewarts’ college, and then Barnet in Hertfordshire, where he went to Queen Elizabeth’s school for boys. While in the sixth form there he met Pauline (nee Little) at a local Young Liberal Club meeting, and they were married in 1970.
After graduating with a degree in geography from Magdalene College, Cambridge in 1968 he did teacher training at Nottingham University and became a geography teacher at Alleyne’s school (now the Thomas Alleyne Academy) in Stevenage. Shortly afterwards he moved to be deputy headteacher at Stevenage Girls’ school (1971-86), before leading a programme called the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative, which aimed to get more computers into schools, in Barking and Dagenham in east London.
In the early 1990s he became the principal inspector of schools for Barking and Dagenham, and in 1999 he was made OBE for services to standards in education. From 2001 until 2009 he was principal adviser and finally director of children’s services at Barking and Dagenham.
In retirement in 2009 he studied for Open University degrees in maths and languages, and was a governor of the Thomas Alleyne Academy in Stevenage. He read widely, watched sport and listened to classical music.
He is survived by Pauline, his children, Julia, Sarah and me, and his grandchildren, Thomas, Caitlin, George, Hannah and Mia.
