Phil Greenaway By Matt Burdekin and Jimmy Davies
Angela Cartwright By Rory Fisher
The legendary American basket- ball coach John Wooden once said, ‘the true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching’. Phil embodies all that is good in this quote, both as a person and as a professional. Phil joined Dulwich College as a rugby coach in September 2010, having previously been the
Energy, erudition and passion for literature are often cited as the hallmarks of a good English teacher: Angela possessed all three and more. Her lessons were defined by fastidious preparation and research – she was one of the few in the department to plan so carefully as to know at the start of each term exactly what she would be teaching in each lesson at the end of it.
Angela brought her organisational capability to LitSoc. She was instrumental in opening up meetings to partner schools, including JAGS, Sydenham and the Charter schools, bringing a new, valuable balancing and widening of perspectives. Angela was also pioneering in her interest in the working environment of the department. In her first years she helped sort out the ruinous state of the department, throwing herself into the book stores and taking great pleasure in the neat arrangement of texts. After the refur- bishment of the North Block several years later, she was critical in making teaching rooms into delightful spaces, managing to turn even the North Block mezzanine into a pleasant teaching environment. One September INSET day was defined by Angela returning from Ikea with what seemed like a jungle of yuccas and peace lilies to soften the bleached-out décor of the refitted rooms. As a mother of an OA, the partner of another member of the Common Room, and the devoted coach of Year 7 Rugby, Angela was deeply embedded in Dulwich. Her generosity as a colleague will certainly be remembered: she and Joseph tolerated the English Department in their garden at the end of the academic year in what became a long-running institution. Memorable aspects of this include glorious sunshine, beautiful plants, delicious food (Angela’s good taste and skill again prevailing), and various rounds of table tennis executed with surprisingly competitive spirit for an English Department. Above all, we will cherish those passionate discussions of books: for several years Monday nights became a late work opportunity and saw Angela and other colleagues in the office often until 9pm, sharing anecdotes and that day’s teaching. One colleague vividly recalls a night when, on their way out down the ghostly North Block back stairs (they dared themselves to take the less-trodden path), a plot for a College-based murder mystery play was concocted. It was still being discussed an hour later in the North Gravel. We wish her and the rest of the Cartwright family the very best. ◎
including being a form tutor in the Middle and Upper Schools, a Drake Day Housemaster, a Visiting Tutor in Ivyholme, and Head of Year in the Middle School. In all of these positions, his enthusiasm has been infectious, with the pupils under his tutelage and colleagues alike benefiting inordinately from the opportunity to work with him. Alongside these bigger and more visible arenas, Phil has readily given of his own time, taking teams across the sports, playing in staff teams in rugby, football and cricket, and even doing the less glamorous tasks such as running Founder’s Day bars and taking part in rubbish clear-ups on Sunday mornings. He has also given up huge portions of his holidays to accompany Dulwich pupils on expeditions in a number of sports. Nothing has ever been too much trouble, and he has been utterly depend- able. This adaptability and selfless nature soon saw Phil appointed Director of Sport at Dulwich. The long list of developments, changes and upgrades to the sporting programme that Phil has instituted and over- seen during his decade-long tenure could make for an en- tire valete on their own, and we are particularly proud of the many elements that have become key characteristics of sport and Physical Education at the College. Yet while we have featured in national finals in 11 different sports during Phil’s tenure, this is not what he will be most proud of. Instead, an equal opportunity for as many Alleynians as is logistically possible to take part in sport has been at the centre of Phil’s mission statement from day one. There are now more boys participating in sports than ever be- fore. Indeed, data shows us that 92 percent of all pupils at Dulwich participate in co-curricular training and fixtures. If pessimists see the difficulty in every opportunity, and optimists see the opportunity in every difficulty, Phil proved himself to be the latter in the thick of the Covid pandemic. Despite the well-reported impact that this ep- isode had on education, and most particularly on young people’s physical and emotional wellbeing, he strived relentlessly to organise and deliver opportunities for all: pupils, colleagues and the wider Alleynian community. He
Assistant Academy Manager at Gloucester Rugby. It was a move that would have a profound impact on the whole College community. Phil’s wealth of rugby knowledge developed through a life-long love of the game. As a child, he was awarded a scholarship to study at the prestigious Colston’s School in Bristol, and he was later capped at international level in several age groups. Contrary to popular belief, he was not a loosehead prop, and he must have been quick once upon a time, because at least one of his caps came on the wing! He also claimed a British Universities and Colleges title with the University of Exeter, and enjoyed a long play- ing career at the advent of professionalism, with Exeter Chiefs and Moseley amongst others. His transition into coaching came during the latter half of his playing career with Cinderford RFC and Hartpury College. With his encyclopaedic knowledge of the game, and a palpable enthusiasm for all aspects of it, Phil quickly established himself as a highly valued and well-respected member of the department and the Common Room. He soon took on a wider-reaching role within Physical Edu- cation and Games across the curriculum, and he revolu- tionised our provision when he introduced strength and conditioning to our programme, with an approach akin to that of a professional sport environment. It is not just within the Physical Education Department that Phil has had a significant impact. His contribution has proved invaluable in a wide array of roles. These have
But it was her engagement with literature in all its forms that most stood out during her 16 years at the centre of English teaching here at the College. John Donne was an early favourite, with Angela’s meticulous personal notes, highlighted to within an inch of their lives, leading to dy- namic, engaging teaching. Choices such as Mamet’s con- troversial drama Oleanna led to good-natured arguments in the office about who was the true villain of the piece. Her teaching of Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem alongside TS Eliot’s early poems blew many an A-level pupil’s mind with notions of masculinity, modernity and Baudrillardian authenticity, all compellingly presented. In many ways, it was the 19th century in which she felt most at home: the Romantics and the Victorians appealed to her aesthetic sensibilities (more of these later) and when the department alighted on the Gothic as a shared A-level area of study, she was in her element. A number of pupils in Angela’s class enjoyed it so much that they asked her to help them found a Gothic Society. Meetings on Gothic novels, films and music followed, held in a cre- puscular Masters’ Library and with plenty of cake, often supplied by Angela. As the genre moved very much to the centre of the de- partment’s A-level teaching, Angela took charge of trips to Strawberry Hill in Twickenham and, alongside Malcolm Cocks, pioneered the department’s first foreign residen- tial trip in many years, to Transylvania. After the depart- ment moved to teaching American literature in 2022,
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