Leslie Thomas Waddams
(BGS Staff 1945-1954)

Leslie Thomas Waddams T.D., M.A., BSc. was a pupil at Latymer Upper School, Hammersmith from 1918 to 1928. He was admitted to St. Catherine's College, Cambridge in 1928 and was awarded his master's degree in 1935. He also held a London B.Sc. degree with first class honours in maths special. He taught at Dr. Pattenden's old school Christ's Hospital, Horsham from 1932 to 1941 and was head of the mathematical department of Glasgow Academy from 1941, until he came to Boston Grammar School in 1945.

He was a long-serving member of the Territorial Army but did not undergo military service, as he was considered better employed in his school post than teaching at OCTU.

Waddam's appointment followed on the heels of the 1944 Education Act, which offered two alternatives to B.G.S.: it could either become a 'voluntary aided school' or a 'voluntary controlled school'. With the former the local education authority would pay all maintenance charges but the foundation would be responsible for all extensions and capital outlay with the exception of playing fields. The latter alternative would mean that the Lincolnshire Education Authority would take the endowment and become responsible for every expense and the governors would lose all control. In spite of the threat of future financial difficulties, the governors applied for B.G.S. to be designated a 'voluntary aided school'.

The Education Act abolished fee-paying and boys of eight and nine could no longer be admitted: entry was to be solely on the basis of eleven-plus examination results. At his first Speech Day Waddams said: "... I, personally, consider that the advantages will far outweigh the drawbacks. We hope to be classed as a voluntary aided school, which will mean that our governors will still have the largest measure or control ... The method of entry is the most marked change ... There are drawbacks to this but I must say I can not see any greater injustices by this method than by the old, or any other, scheme"

When a team of H.M. Inspectors came to the school in 1949, there were seventeen full-time masters and two part-timers (music and religious instruction). Their report was considered 'highly satisfactory' and it coincided with, in Waddam's own words, the rather astonishingly good results in the school certificate for 1948-1949, when fifty-two out of fifty-eight candidates gained the certificates and a record number of boys matriculated.

The early fifties brought female pupils to Boston Grammar School for the first time in its history. Three Boston High School girls took Physics lessons with the sixth form. The experiment proved succesful and other subjects ranging from mathematics to Russian had female pupils in their classes.

Leslie Waddams was a representative governor of Laughton's Foundation; a governor of Boston High School and served on the governing body of Carre's Grammar School, Sleaford, as a representative of the University of Cambridge. He was also a keen cricketer, an enthusiastic Rotarian and an Anglican lay reader. Older local theatergoers still recall Waddam's performance in the title role of Boston Playgoers' Society's production of 'The Man who came to Dinner.

Waddams left B.G.S. at Easter, 1954, following his appointment as headmaster of the Sir Joseph Williamson Mathematical School at Rochester, Kent.

From Centennial Anthology by Paul Mould