Tributes to former CRGS headmaster

A former headmaster of Clitheroe Royal Grammar School, Gerald Hood, has died at the age of 96.
The late Gerald Hood.The late Gerald Hood.
The late Gerald Hood.

Mr Hood, of Denbigh Drive, Clitheroe, was born in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, in 1921 and attended the grammar school there before going up to Oxford.

His studies were interrupted by army service during the Second World War.

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His regiment was, appropriately, the Sherwood Foresters and he reached the rank of captain, serving in the Far East.

Resuming university in 1946, he gained degrees in English and classics at Brasenose College, Oxford, before taking a teaching job in Sheffield.

He moved to Clitheroe in 1956, being the youngest headmaster of a grammar school at the time.

His many and varied interests included fell-walking and he was an organiser of the highly successful Tramps walking club at CRGS. He spent 27 years at the school, retiring in 1983.

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He was a long standing member, and past president, of the Rotary Club of Clitheroe, which acted as a focus for a lifetime of unstinting voluntary service.

Deeply interested in music and drama, he was a keen member of numerous local clubs and organisations over the years.

He was also a staunch Anglican, worshipping at Clitheroe Parish Church and later at St Ambrose Church, Grindleton.

Mr Hood died peacefully at Abbeyfield Care Home, Low Moor, on Sunday.

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He is survived by his son Brian, daughter Sue, four grandchildren, Michelle and Emma Creighton and Tom and George Hood, and a great-grandson, Kaleb.

His wife, Mary “Mollie” Hood, a former social worker, died 10 years ago.

Details of a cremation and thanksgiving service will be announced shortly.