- Ronald Gurner
Stanley Ronald Kershaw Gurner M.C. M.A. (1890-1939) was a headmaster and
writer who was born inLondon .Early years
Educated at Merchant Taylors' School, London, Gurner went to Oxford University, where he was a
classics scholar at St. Johns. He gained a First in honour moderations and won a universitylatin prize. After illness in his final year he was awarded anaegrotat degree.He took up part time teaching positions at Haileybury College in 1912, before moving to
Clifton College in 1913, and to a permanent post atMarlborough College in September 1913. In 1914 he was commissioned into the Rifle Brigade and served two years in the trenches before being wounded at Arras (where he won theMilitary Cross ) in 1917 by asniper .Headships
He became Headmaster of the
Strand School ,Brixton , in 1920 at the age of thirty, and was appointed Headmaster ofKing Edward VII School (Sheffield) in spring 1926.In the summer of 1927, he resigned to take up the vacant Headship at
Whitgift School inCroydon .Writings
He published poems (including
war poem s) and severalnovels . These include:
*"Pass Guard at Ypres", a thinly disguisedautobiography of his time as a junior officer in the Salient;
*"The Riven Pall", about aworking class scholarship boy in a northern steel city called "Orechester", who went to a high-performing day school, then to Oxford, and ultimately gained success by inventing a new process that benefited the local steel and engineering industry;
*"The Day Boy" based on Strand School;
*"For the Sons of Gentlemen" (written under the pseudonym of Kerr-Shaw);
*"Reconstruction" written in 1937.References
* Cornwell, John (2005). "King Ted's" (1st ed.). King Edward VII School, Sheffield. ISBN 0-9526484-1-5.
External links
* [http://oldedwardians.org.uk/nlc/staff/gurner.html Old Edwardians' site]
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