11/06/1932 - 30/06/2023
Past staff
Alan came to Wesley in 1963 as the new Teacher in Charge of French, a position he was to hold for the next 31 years. By the time he retired in 1994, he had inspired and influenced generations of Wesley students in their love of French language, literature and culture.
He was a gifted and innovative teacher, not afraid to introduce new teaching resources to enhance teaching and learning results. These included writing a new series of French textbooks with other Wesley colleagues which were much lauded. With a remarkable fluency in the language and an amazing knowledge of French history and culture, Alan made sure that his students received the greatest possible support to achieve their best results. He garnered enormous respect from the students who responded to his authority as an expert in his field, as well as his dry sense of humour.
As Head of Languages, Alan was keen to foster and promote greater international awareness among his students in keeping with Wesley's own growing global focus. He organised educational tours to the French Pacific (New Caledonia) in the 1980s and gave the green light to a successful linguistic and cultural exchange program to Toulouse (France) with over 500 participating students from three campuses across 20 years.
Alan was an inspirational, witty and loyal teaching colleague and friend. He was a highly collaborative and collegial Head of Languages. Everyone in the next 'wave' of language teachers under his wise guidance and support looked up to him and tried to emulate him as a teacher.
Alan also contributed to the learning and development of students through a range of other roles including Group Leader of Wesley College Scout Group from the 1960s to 1980s, Housemaster of MacNeil, Junior Rowing Coach/Rowing Organiser, Teacher in Charge of Debating and, near the end of his career, Teacher in Charge of the new International Baccalaureate-CAS program at the Prahran campus. His son David (OW1979), also remembers him being one of the regular announcers for Wesley House Sports days on the Front Turf at Prahran and at APS athletic events at Olympic Park in the 1970s.
Alan was born in Exeter, England in 1932. His father, Reg, was a sheet metalworker in a local factory, a naturally bright man able to turn his hand to any trade skill. Alan's mother, Vida, was a volunteer for various local church and community groups, and an accomplished amateur singer.
Growing up as a young boy against the backdrop of World War II cannot have been easy, but he and his parents survived despite Exeter being bombed on many occasions. School, church and scouts were Alan's main activities then. By the time Alan finished school in 1950, his passion for French and German studies and desire to be a teacher was clear. He was successful in winning a place at Oxford University, achieving matriculation passes in all required subjects including the mandatory Latin!
He chose to defer study to complete his two-year National Service stint with the British Army, serving in the Education Corps, during which time he was posted to the British Occupation Zone in Germany for six months, an eye-opening experience.
Alan subsequently attended Exeter College at Oxford from 1952 to 1956, completing his MA in Modern Languages. He was also a college rower and member of the Territorials (British Army Reserve).
After leaving university, Alan first taught French at a small independent boys' boarding school in North Wales - Lindisfarne College. It was there that he met Jean Howard, an Australian visiting teacher, who by chance was staying with cousins in a nearby town. Romance quickly blossomed and they got married in Exeter in 1959, sailing for Australia the following year.
After arriving in Melbourne in late 1960, the newlyweds moved to Ballarat where Alan took up the post of French teacher at Ballarat College from 1961-62. Alan and Jean welcomed their only child, David, at the end of 1962, by which time they had returned to Melbourne to live nearer to Jean's family and for Alan to begin his new role at Wesley in 1963.
His years teaching French, being a housemaster and rowing coach, and running the school scout group at Wesley, were happy and rewarding ones for Alan. And he was further grateful when David was able to gain a Wesley education in the 1970s.
The family enjoyed school holidays regularly by the sea, initially at Mornington and later at Portland, where Alan and Jean eventually bought a holiday house, with plans to retire there in the future.
Sadly, their dream never came to pass, for in late 1991, Jean fell seriously ill requiring permanent nursing home care. Her death the next year, while devastating to Alan and David, was also one of welcome relief that her suffering was over. Throughout this difficult time, the Wesley community provided incredible understanding, support and friendship to Alan for which he was forever grateful.
Following his retirement from Wesley in 1994, Alan was an active member of the OWCA, the Oxford University Society of Victoria, the NGV, Kew Probus, Birds Australia and Heidelberg Scots Uniting Church. He also toured the UK and Europe a number of times, prompting his learning of Italian, Spanish and Greek to make the trips more fun!
For a couple of years in the late 1990s, he tutored students in French studies at Goulburn Valley Grammar School in Shepparton, thanks to an invitation from their then Principal, David Prest.
In his later years, as his general health and mobility declined, Alan's great joys continued to be gardening, buying books and reading widely, email correspondence with many friends around the world, and being taken out to local cafes and restaurants for catch ups with old friends.
In his early 80s, he was invited to collaborate with two other Australian academic colleagues on the translation and writing of a book of the final set of memoirs of the Countess Celeste de Chabrillan, a former courtesan and the widow of the first French Consul to Melbourne.
In his final years, Alan welcomed the support and care of his son David, who had moved back home to live with him. After a number of falls and hospital visits during 2021/22, Alan accepted the need to move into permanent care at Baptcare Strathalan in Macleod in early 2023.
In mid-June he celebrated his 91st birthday in good spirits (see photo). Sadly, he was admitted to the Austin Hospital a couple of weeks later and passed away peacefully on June 30 after a brief illness. His gifted mind and memory remaining as sharp as ever right to the end.
Contributed by David Willey (OW1979) with grateful help from Jérôme Cavalli and Associate Professor Jeanne Allen, close friends and former Wesley Prahran French teaching colleagues of Alan's.
