Anyone who was at the school – staff or pupils alike – for the five years of Howard’s presence at LGS will not forget it. When he left, the ‘Loughburian’ wrote:-
‘Although Mr. Howard Bullock had been at L.G.S. for only five years, his departure was regretted far beyond the Modern Languages Department. As a teacher he was strict and sound, but also very stimulating – and his entertainment value was widely appreciated both in classroom and staff common room. His ceaseless flow of anecdotes – mostly apocryphal in flavour but always alleged to be based on personal experience – was legendary amongst his colleagues, as was his capacity for the consumption of biscuits and salami stored in his notorious cornucopian locker. Howard’s repertoire of mimicry included about a fifth of the teaching staff plus a large number of boys (to whom, accustomed to parodying their mentors, it no doubt comes as a surprise to discover that teachers find their pupils’ foibles equally entertaining!) We shall miss his lively presence, but wish him every success in his new post at King Edward’s School, Birmingham’
After KES Birmingham, he went as Head of Modern Languages to Bromsgrove School, then to a similar post at Solihull School before heading abroad to Doha College in Qatar. From there, in 2005, he took up his first Headship at Greensprings School, Lagos, which was to be the first of six headships. He moved to the British International School, Lagos, then to Haileybury Almaty in Kazakhstan, then to Tenby School, Malaysia, before returning to The British International School, Lagos, and finally the Regent School in Abuja. No other member of the LGS staff has ever come close to achieving such teaching success.
For me, I found this remarkable as my lasting memory of him will always be in Willy Russell’s comedy ‘Our Day Out’, which was my Junior Musical in 1989. He played ‘all other parts’ – one of which involved him ‘in drag’ playing a Welsh shopkeeper – which gave him the perfect stage to show off his repertoire of mimicry!
Despite only living for five years in Loughborough, he decided to retire here and renew his friendships with many former staff and then to Kenilworth in a flat overseeing the school where his father had been Headmaster. He died suddenly there on 4 September.
– John Weitzel
