Obituaries
insistence on the highest standards and mutual respect promised a return to success for the school, and a 100 per cent A level pass rate together announcing plans for its first scholarships in 2002 was delivering on those targets. He had also introduced several innovations, including College Colours awards, another branch of the Himalayan Club, and school trips to countries like Egypt and Nepal. But the Presentation Brothers, an order of monks from Ireland who owned Presentation College, decided to close the college and sell off the land, despite protests from pupil’s parents, Frank as headmaster and the other staff, and accusations of ‘Asset-stripping at Presentation College’ from the Catholic Herald newspaper. At the last minute, the school was saved and new owners arrived, but they dispensed with the post of head altogether. All of this was traumatic for Frank, but after some months, he returned to teaching as Assistant Head at Claire Court, Maidenhead. He retired in 2009, by which time his fight against cancer had already begun. Frank was awarded the Scout Association Silver Acorn for specially distinguished service, which was well deserved and welcomed by anyone who saw him in action with Scouts or Venture Scouts, at any of the schools he taught at over 35 years, as he led adventurous activities and promoted high standards, a culture of care for others and a sense of fun. He also led walking expeditions over many years to Snowdonia, the Lake District, Pyrenees and the Himalayas with Scouts or sixth-formers. He died on 2 May 2014 at Royal Berks Hospital in Reading following a long battle with cancer and with his family by his bedside. This obituary is based on several obituaries and tributes to Frank’s life.
and the MoD. He was Assistant Private Secretary to Denis Healey from 1968 to 1970 when Healey was the Secretary of State for Defence. When the Conservatives won the 1970 General Election and Ted Heath became the Prime Minister, John was appointed as a founder member of the Central Policy Review Staff, known as the ‘Think Tank’. The first head of the Think Tank was Lord Rothschild, and it was mainly staffed with bright people from both the civil service and the private sector and a young age profile. By 1975 there was a Labour government again, and he became Private Secretary to Roy Mason, who was then the Defence Secretary. He moved on to become the senior civilian attached to the Air Staff, supporting them over RAF operations and plans for the future. Then, from 1979 to 1981, he was the Principal Establishment and Finance Officer in the Northern Ireland office at the height of the Troubles. Later, in 1986, at the request of Ken Stowe, who had been the Permanent Secretary in the Northern Ireland office when John was there, he undertook the same role at the Department of Health and Social Security, which at the time was the largest government department. Ken and John were great friends, who also worked together after the Civil Service. A particular feature of his career was his great interest and expertise in developing good management and the ability of individuals to deliver it. In 1983 he worked on a project with Michael Heseltine, which later provided the foundation for a major reorganisation of the higher-level activities of the MoD to provide a simpler and better focused structure for defence as a whole. John then moved on to the Cabinet Office to develop a Top Management programme for bringing on the best people in the public and private sectors, who were likely to go on to senior civil service appointments. His success in doing this in a remarkably short timescale was probably the achievement he was proudest of in his long civil service career. He was also director of a different programme, which was held at the Shell management centre, and brought together twelve senior high flyers from the Civil Service and twelve from the private sector. Each year since, one of the course participants arranges a weekend get-together for all the participants and their partners but also including John and his wife Gill, even though John was not a member of the course as such. In 1990, two years before his due retirement date, John decided to leave the Civil Service, but it was clear that his ethic of public service remained undiminished. One project he worked on after the UK Civil Service was assisting the new South African government, following the release of Nelson Mandela, in developing a new public service for the country as it transitioned from Afrikaner rule to its new, multicultural status. In the first instance, Ken Stowe was asked to visit South Africa and write a report, and he asked John to accompany him to use his considerable administrative experience and also to ‘lighten the tone’, as was John’s habit.
John Fraser Mayne CB (1943-51) 14.09.1932 – 18.04.2014
John Mayne came to Dulwich from Marylebone Central (LCC) School in London, W1 and was in Grenville. He was the secretary of the Alleynian, the Debating Society and the Shakespeare Reading Society and also played 2nd XV rugby. He was a school
prefect and became School Captain in 1951, after a friend of John’s, Geoffrey Higgs, had already been appointed School Captain but had, very sadly, broken his neck playing rugby and he died six months later. Every day for those six months, John went to visit his friend in hospital after school. After leaving Dulwich, he elected to do his National Service and joined the Royal Tank Regiment. Two years later, he went to Worcester College, Oxford, to study PPE, graduating in 1956. He immediately joined the Civil Service, remaining there for almost his entire working career, spending many of these years with the Ministry of Defence (MoD). His abilities were quickly recognised in the Air Ministry
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