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The Old Ratclifan 2014 | Introductionhe Old Ratclifan 2014 | Obituaries The Old Ratclifan 2014 | IntroductionThe Old Ratclifan 2014 | Obituaries T Mike Batty Paul Patrick Murphy January 24th 1936 - July 22nd 2014 Old Ratcliffian 1962 - 1967 May 21st 1949 - November 16th 2014 In 1962, I had been a member of the then small lay staff of Ratcliffe for a year, when Mike arrived from Cotton College in Centres: Andrew Gamble (68), Bernard Murphy (67) Staffordshire, where he had taught for a short time. We soon struck up a friendship that lasted until his death in July. At Wings: Peter Rowan (68), Frank Meyers (67) Ratcliffe, he rapidly established himself as a key member of Full Back: Michael Clarke (67) the teaching staff and the take-up of Economics at A Level soared. He also taught classes in British Constitution and We only lost one game (against a Fr Hurdidge (40) Geography and was never happier than when expounding upon driven St Gregory’s from Huddersfield) and Paul said the shortcomings of the political establishment, irrespective of art, whilst Mike waxed lyrical about his beloved Liverpool and that the loss was not his fault. party allegiance. insisted that we include a tour of the famous waterfront. The At the beginning of the Summer Term of 1967, Paul’s day remains a happy memory for me of both these long-time I was privileged to join Mike and the legendary Ratcliffe friends, and Mike declared it to be one of his best trips ever. In appendix burst at School (he didn’t usually succumb historian Herbert Orton in devising a course for the Sixth recent months, he began to suffer bouts of ill health, which he to stuff like a pain in his lower abdomen) and the Form on Britain since 1945 (it was then 1964). Mike covered hated, having been immensely fit for most of his life, playing subsequent peritonitis cost him most of the rest of the country’s post-war political and economic development, and coaching tennis and having run for the Army during his the term, which was a major contributory factor to his Herbert the recent history of war-torn Europe and the age period of National Service. But he would instantly brighten up poor performance in his A Levels. He decided that he of austerity at home, while my contribution concerned the at any mention of Ratcliffe and those who had been a large would take his A Levels again at Christmas in 1967 Theatre, Arts and Literature. Mike showed himself to be an part of his career. and went to work with his father (also his hero) at the ideal Sixth Form Tutor and an impressive communicator family scrap metal business in Leicester. He remained to large groups of students. This was one of the happiest If Economics is, as described by Carlyle, ‘the dismal science’, there from July 1967 until April 2013, when his illness times in my teaching career, due in no small part to Mike’s it was certainly a great less dismal when taught by Mike Batty, forced him to close a working life which he still enjoyed. leadership and organisation of a quite complex course and and many Ratcliffians have good cause to be thankful that they No mean golfer, Paul did once have a level par round his personal relationship with our older students. He had were at the College during his many years there. May he rest in at Birstall, but never achieved his dream of becoming a devised a programme of team teaching, commonly used now, peace. scratch golfer. The lowest handicap he achieved was 4, but something of an innovation in the early Sixties, though it Brian Kennedy but not many of us get close to being as low as single seemed to all of us a natural way of educating our students – Ex-Staff Member figures, let alone get down to 4. and ourselves. I certainly learned a lot from Mike. So many of his former Ratcliffe students speak of him as one of their finest Memories of Mike Batty Paul was nothing if not consistent; he spent nearly mentors and we, who were his colleagues, always appreciated 46 years in the same working environment, and this his talents. Mike Batty was my Geography, Economics and Politics teacher policy was replicated in his domestic arrangements. He went to live at Threeways in Syston in March 1954 as When I left Ratcliffe for the West Midlands in 1970, I missed from 1962 to 1967, in fact for my whole time at Ratcliffe. He a five year old, and left there to marry Judy in 1974. him greatly, although we kept in touch. When I returned to was a devout, Scouse socialist, who was always going to resign However, on the death of his mother in 1979, he Leicestershire some twelve years later, his first question, after from teaching in a ‘privileged’ school at the end of every year of returned there, made a ‘grandpa flat’ in the outbuildings a cordial greeting, was to ask why I had decided to come his career at Ratcliffe. for his father, and remained there until his death on back to what he termed the ‘land of flood and fog’. I saw In his flattering way, he approached me in 1966 and said, ‘It Paul, the sixth child of Frank and Margaret Murphy, was Sunday 16th November 2014. Judy, not surprisingly him occasionally during his time as the College’s Director looks as if I have no alternative to asking you to be Captain born at the family home in Leicester, and attended St his only wife, was the love of his life, and they had four of Studies, a post he filled with distinction. I recall being at of Tennis’. How could one refuse such a beautifully-worded Patrick’s Catholic Primary School until the age of 11, daughters, Jane, Kathy, Laura and Hannah, who were a home one weekend and doing some repair to a window at the invitation? when he went to Grace Dieu, in 1960. constant source of joy to him. His two granddaughters, top of a ladder, when a car screeched to a halt and a voice Paul arrived at Ratcliffe in September 1962 for the last Ruby and Evie, moved this pleasure up to another level. demanded to know what on earth I was up to. There followed In 1966, Ratcliffe won the Midlands Area Glanville Cup, and term with Fr Claude Leetham (1915) as President at a lecture on Mike’s favourite theme of division of labour and we went to The Queen’s Club in London to play in the finals the College. He had spent the previous two years at On October 13th 2014, at the Royal Marsden Hospital, my shortcomings in taking away a tradesman’s livelihood. against Millfield, Manchester Grammar School and Leeds Grace Dieu, and emerged from there with the nickname Paul was horrified to be advised that he would be Grammar School, on the indoor wooden courts. unlikely to live until his daughter, Kathy’s, proposed Another facet of his teaching skills was his work for many ‘Barrel’, which he never lost to a certain generation of wedding date of December 6th 2014, so pragmatically, years with the Open University, where he was widely known When we emerged from our third unsuccessful match, there Ratcliffians. Such a nickname avoids having to give a the wedding was moved forward to November 1st. Paul and respected by his mature students for the quality of his was no sign of Mike Batty. After about an hour, he appeared, description of Paul’s general shape, but it was perfect guided Kathy confidently up the aisle, delivered an lecturing. He recounted one day his experiences with a full of apologies for his absence, but he had been longer that for the ‘anchor-man’ hooker role which Paul filled in exemplary ‘Father of the Bride’ speech and managed to class of inmates resident in Leicester Prison. Some of these he thought he would be ‘doing a bit of business’. Dennis Haynes’ mind’s eye of a front-row forward. stay with the celebrations until almost midnight. were serving sentences for high-level fraud and other crimes He then produced five tickets to take us to the World Cup Paul achieved his colours in the 1966 team, which involving money, share dealings and the like. He loved Semi-Final of England against Portugal that evening as a (it is amazing how disaster clarifies the mind) went Paul was a good, honest soldier and will be sorely lecturing to this group, but was finding it hard to keep up congratulatory gift for reaching the finals anyway. England won something like this: missed by many who knew him. Our thoughts remain with them, as they all wrote huge essays for him to mark 2-1 and the rest is history. Front Row: Paul Moriarty (67), Paul Murphy (67), Tim with Judy, Jane, Kathy, Laura, Hannah, Ruby and Evie every week and had read every book he had mentioned at the Cooper (68) (his girls) and I hope you will remember him in your previous class. His most depressing moment as a teacher was in 1991, when prayers. he met my daughter, Sam, one morning in his Politics class – Second Row: Peter Hurrel (67), John Gould (67) A few years ago, Mike and I took our mutual friend and former the first time he had taught the offspring of a former pupil. Rest in peace. colleague, John Satterthwaite, on a trip to the Tate Liverpool Back Row: Pat Dyer (68), Pat Gordon (67), John Bernard Murphy (67) gallery as a birthday present, as there was an exhibition which He was a magic man, a motivator, and always a shoulder to Costelloe (67) John, former Head of Art and Design at Ratcliffe, was anxious lean on. He will be sadly missed. Half Backs: Peter Lofts (68), Peter Stanton (68) to see. John was entranced by the splendid display of modern Bernard Murphy (67) 61 Register o 60 60 Register online at www.ratclifanassociation.co.uknline at www.ratclifanassociation.co.uk 61