John Ball, former headmaster of Brighstone and Binstead schools and much-loved local resident has died aged 91. 

John was born in 1931 and grew up in the small town of Desborough in Northamptonshire.

He passed the 11-plus exam to enable him to go to Kettering Grammar School in 1942, but before he could take up his place, his father who was in the RAF and the family moved to Maybole in Scotland.

Although this gave John an excellent education, he was one of the few English boys there and he was quickly made to feel that he was responsible for the wars between the English and the Scots, particularly on the sports field.

After gaining the Higher School Certificate, John completed two years National Service in the RAF, then took a place at King Alfred’s College, Winchester, to train to become a teacher.

At Winchester he excelled at rugby and running.

During the Easter break in 1952 he went to the Saturday night dance at the Central Hall in Kettering where he met Jill.

It is amazing to think that this encounter flourished as Jill always claimed that he was the worst dancer she had ever met.

By now Jill was also training to become a teacher at Bletchley Park. But love triumphed and on their return to their respective Colleges they wrote to each other every day.

On leaving college they returned to Northamptonshire where he was appointed to Gladstone Street School teaching English and history. 

In 1956 they were married in the church in the village where Jill grew up, then moved to Worthing where John became a deputy head at Goring by Sea, and in 1959 they moved to Crawley to teach at Ifield.

It was in 1961 that a chance encounter with a neighbour who knew the Isle of Wight and had a cousin living there, found John applying for the headship of Brighstone CE Primary School.

Isle of Wight years as a headteacher

Neither he or Jill had visited the Island before, but in September aged 30, and the youngest head on the Island, he began his life in the village.

This post was a challenging opportunity to a new headteacher, as there were no post-war books in the school.

The school hall contained two huge looms, used to teach the children weaving.  These were quickly replaced by new equipment and modern books.

There was only one other teacher who was responsible for the 5 to 7 year olds and John had the 7 to 11 year olds in the adjoining class.

There were 40 pupils coming in from Hulverstone, Mottistone, Brook and the various farms.

It was a two-way education as the children knew more about farming than John did, but surprisingly some of them had never been to the "shore" as they called it because their parents were too busy on the farm.

Many could not even swim, but the school’s parents soon formed a PTA and Brighstone became the first Island school to have a swimming pool.  

John quickly became involved in the life of the village, working with others to establish Brighstone Badminton Club, tennis club and the men’s club.

In 1963 his daughter Cathryn was the first baby to be born in the School House since 1902 and Caroline arrived in 1965.

By now the family were enjoying Island life and John moved to Binstead School in 1968. This was a much bigger school with different challenges, but he had an excellent staff and stayed there until his retirement in 1992.

During this time, he was president of the National Association of Head Teachers.

Happiness in retirement

In retirement he worked on the Diocesan Board of Education and was a member of the Parole Board at Parkhurst Prison.

He continued to stay active, studying Latin, regularly cycling the Island roads and completing the IW Randonnee twice.

He was warden at Brighstone Church, secretary of the parochial church council and a server at communion.

With other villagers he established the Christmas Tree Festival and the Brighstone Museum.

In his spare time, he and Jill enjoyed travelling all over the world, visiting friends in Canada and America and making new friends in other countries.

He reluctantly gave up riding his bike aged 89.

John died on April 27, 70 years to the day since he and Jill first met. John leaves his wife and two daughters.