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John Reader
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A Tribute from Dennis Goodall.
Originally published in the AOSA 2004 Annual Report

At midday, 10th October, the Friends’ Meeting House in Great Ayton was full to overflowing with people from all walks of life who came to remember and give thanks for the life of John Reader. (A Memorial meeting was also held at the home of Peter & Margaret Whittle in Oxfordshire for people unable to come to Ayton.) Although John and Mary Reader left Great Ayton in 1975, they remained much loved and remembered by the many in the village whose lives they touched.

John first came to Ayton Friends’ School as a young teacher and, after a period away, returned in 1952 as Principal, a position he held for nearly a quarter of a century. During that time, the School achieved a standing in the North of England generally which was of a level not reached before or since in its 150 year history. A greater emphasis was placed on academic achievement, whilst adhering to the School’s original aims of seeing that each child reached his or her individual potential. In this, John was supported by his wife, Mary, a gifted artist, who was able to be a mother to the School’s mainly boarding pupils at that time, as well as to her own family of three boys. When Mary died last year, John was devastated.

After retiring from the School in 1975, John and Mary moved to Alne, near York, but continued to visit Ayton frequently for John’s continuing work on behalf of Captain James Cook. The School-room on the High Street, where Cook was educated with money provided by Squire Skottowe, who realised the young boy’s potential, had been a small museum since 1928. However, it was threatened with demolition in the 1950s and John Reader, along with A.K. Cumbor and others, rescued the building and put it on the touring map of Cook Country. New exhibits were secured and a Museum Trust set up. John became Chairman and remained so until the early 1990s. John was convinced that the education which Cook received in Great Ayton was much more than basic Three Rs. His researches indicated that seamanship and trigonometry (essential in navigation) were an important part of that education. He wanted to show that this Charity School curriculum would have fitted boys like Cook for a life at sea. (In fact, three of Cook's contemporaries at Ayton became eminent sailors.) So, in 1997 an impressive bid was put to the Heritage Lottery Fund to transform the Museum to be the only one of its kind in the country to show the work of the Charity Schools. This will be John Reader's lasting memorial. For this, and for his work in education, John received the M.B.E. in 1999.

Many tributes were paid to John's work as an educator, to the full part which he played in Great Ayton village life and, not least, to his standing as a father and grand-father. Tears were mingled with smiles as individual memories were shared. Surprisingly, no-one mentioned John’s love of climbing - one of his own boys was named after the first conqueror of Everest.

All who knew John Reader spoke of being very privileged and enriched for having known him.

Dennis Goodall

My thanks to Dennis Goodall who gave me permission to reproduce the article which he wrote for the ‘The Stream’, a bi-annual magazine edited and published in Ayton by Carol Morgan to whom I also owe a debt of gratitude. Finally, my thanks to Margaret Cumbor who drew my attention to the article in the first place. Gill Jackson - AOSA Annual Report Editor.

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