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Fred Laverack
Fred Leverack
DESPITE a family background that seriously hindered his own education, Fred Laverack who has died aged 92, became a teacher, and in due course, head of Gildersome St Peters and Birstall Primary schools.
Earlier in his career he had been a bus conductor.
Mr Laverack went to Burley Church of England School in Leeds as a pupil, and then to Woodhouse Technical School, one of his reports stating he was intelligent but would benefit from regular attendance.
The reason he skipped school was to earn money to support his family, but despite his absences from class, he won a scholarship. The need to find a full-time job, however, meant he had to leave before gaining any qualifications.
The job he settled for, because it was steady, was as a bus conductor. Then came the War and he joined the RAF, serving mainly in the Sudan as an aircraft maintenance engineer.
Off duty, he was involved in rescuing a lion cub, named it Leo and looked after it until it had to go to a zoo.
When a plane crash landed, Mr Laverack bartered with the local chief, buying him two goats in exchange for which the village women trampled down the melon harvest to make a runway, enabling the plane to get back to base.
After leaving the RAF in May, 1946, he went back to the buses, now as a driver, and attended night school so as to gain the qualifications he needed to take his education further.
In 1949 he was promoted to inspector, and the following year was appointed education welfare officer.
He was accepted at Culham College, Oxford, in 1952, and took up his first teaching post, at Hunslet St Silas C of E School, two years later.
After a number of other teaching posts at schools in the area, he was made deputy head of Cross Flatts Park School, and in 1965, head teacher of St Peter’s, Gildersome.
From there he took on the headship of Birstall County Primary, retiring in 1980 with a reputation as someone to be respected and trusted.
Pupils still kept in touch with him over 30 years after he had retired.
In 1966 he had been made an associate of the College of Preceptors, and he was a fellow of the Faculty of Teachers of Commerce.
Confirmed at All Hallows, Leeds, in 1935, throughout his life Mr Laverack was a committed Christian, and it was an attractive young Sunday school teacher who won his heart. He and Margaret Dimmock became engaged while Mr Laverack was at college, marrying the summer he qualified, in 1954. They remained devoted until her death in 2000, Mr Laverack having nursed her during her last illness.
He regularly served at the 8am communion services – Sundays and midweek – at St. John the Evangengelist at Wortley-de-Leeds, where he read the lessons and intercessions, and was much appreciated.
Being musical, he sang in performances of The Messiah and The Crucifixion, and in the church choir at St Matthias in Burley. Athletic in his youth, he was the Leeds Elementary School hurdles champion, and taking up rugby union, played wing for Burley and Culham College.
In football he qualified as a referee and he also was a swimming instructor.
Readily recognised in his deerstalker hat, which he unfailing doffed when manners required it, Mr Laverack was known for his gentlemanly behaviour.
He enjoyed eating out, an expense he pretended was beyond his means, and he might offer his upturned hat for “any donations for the poor headteachers’ fund.”
Mr Laverack is survived by his daughters Margaret Anne and Heather Elizabeth, both teachers, and four grandchildren, one of them a graduate, two at university and the youngest, planning to go.
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