My father, Ron Barnes, who has died aged 93, was a headteacher and a long-serving Labour district and parish councillor in Ongar, Essex. He was dedicated to helping people who were “less fortunate” than himself and, in 1989, he was appointed OBE for services to education and the community.
Born in Brighton, East Sussex, and raised in Sutton, south London, Ron was the son of Florence (nee Walker) and Bernard Barnes. Florence supported the family by working as a cleaner after Bernard lost his job as a chef due to ill health. He later became a bus conductor and then a market gardener.
In 1939, at the age of 16, Ron left full-time education in Sutton to attend a sea school and then joined the merchant navy. He ran the gauntlet of German U-boats as he sailed back and forth across the Atlantic and Mediterranean. Once, after his ship was torpedoed, he spent 15 hours in the water and was assumed dead when fished out by his rescuers.
He was also involved in a number of significant campaigns during the second world war. His ship, the Fort Chambly, was the first allied vessel to dock in Italy after the 1943 invasion. A year later, he skippered a landing craft that took the first wave of Canadian troops on to the Normandy beaches, and, at the end of the war, he was in a flotilla that returned the Norwegian king to his country.
Back home, in 1951, Ron gained a place at St Paul’s College of Education, Cheltenham (now part of the University of Gloucestershire), to study teaching. He chose to go straight into special education and his first job was at Coln House school in Fairford, Gloucestershire.
Ron moved to Ashley Downs school in Lowestoft, Suffolk, and in 1955, while on a country dancing training course, he met Felicitie Browne, also a teacher. They married a year later. He was given his first headship in 1958 at Petton Hall school, Shropshire, before moving to Ongar in 1964 to become head of Great Stony, a large Inner London Education Authority special boarding school.
While there he became involved in scouting for those with special needs. He became national commissioner for scouts with special needs and set up the world jamboree Extoree 82.
Ron was a parish councillor in Ongar for many years and then a district councillor for the ward of Shelley, Epping Forest, from 1979 until 2002. He was district council chair from 1996 until 1997.
He is survived by Felicitie, his four children, Nicki, Kerry, Tracy and me, and 11 grandchildren.
