There are various mentions of O R Johnston on the OEA website. He arrived at KES in September 1952 from Maidstone Grammar School, to teach French and German, and left in December 1963 - "At the end of the Autumn term we were sorry to have to bid farewell to Mr. O. R. Johnston, who has gone on to teach in the Department of Education at the University of Newcastle. At one time and another in his twelve years at the School he was involved in Scouting, the Bible Study Group, and the Choir; and apart from his duties as a Modern Language and General English master, and as Housemaster of Wentworth, he played a prominent part in several staff entertainments. In him the School has lost a man of conscience and rare breadth of interests. We wish him every success and satisfaction in his new post." [KES Mag Spring 1964]
I left KES for Newcastle University in 1963. One day, I can't remember when exactly, I bumped into Raymond Johnston on King's Walk. It was quite a surprise, he having been my form tutor in 4(2) back in O level days 1959/60. It turned out he had been appointed as Lecturer in Education at Newcastle University. On a subsequent visit to the Mithraeum reconstruction in the University Museum of Antiquities, I was to hear his unmistakable voice giving the commentary.
ORJ (Olaf Raymond Johnston) had been known to us since we arrived at KES in 1956, as a scoutmaster and teacher of French and German. He was noted for his appearances on Games afternoons always refereeing matches in an Aston Villa shirt, match worn as he claimed, as it was just about impossible to get replica shirts in those days. Don Nicolson tells me ORJ likened him to some legendary Villa full-back after one of his better goal-line clearances. He was know to us as “Ned,” I think because of his his references to the 'Goon Show' and the Neddie Seagoon character. In 4(2) however as well as becoming my form tutor, he was also my French teacher. His room was at the top of the block over the gym with a fine view through the tops of the KES Corinthian columns over the City of Sheffield. I remember once in a class translation of a French story he was trying to get the feel of an expression, “La Femme Tison,” and was delighted at my suggestion it should come out in the Sheffield vernacular of “Ma Tison.”
In 1960 I developed viral meningitis at Easter just before O level, and catching up became a priority for me. Ned had exhorted the class that although it was 'acknowledged' we were not the absolute academic cream of the school who would be sitting 9 or 10 O levels, it was the done thing for us to get the secure 8. He sought me out in the autumn term to find out how I had got on, and was genuinely ecstatic to learn in spite of my difficulties I had secured my 8, including his French of course. I was always grateful for this deliberate show of concern for me, even though by then I had left both language education, and his own tender care.
One side of him we perhaps did not appreciate so much was his deep Christian faith which became more apparent in his subsequent days in Newcastle and beyond, when he left Newcastle to become Director of the Nationwide Festival of Light. One of my class colleagues however told me that one evening he came back to his room just as everyone was leaving, when he had heard the news of my illness. He asked if they were praying men, and on receiving the general reply that mostly they weren't, he recommended they did, because I was in Lodge Moor Hospital with meningitis.
'Ned' was also Scoutmaster of 'C' troop, which met on Saturday mornings. Some of my classmates knew him better through that medium. He can be seen on 'C' troop photos of those days on this site. He acted as examiner for the Boy Scouts Linguist badges in French and German. He was also involved in some of the religious societies at KES and led the 'Crusader' classes. I didn't take German, but 'Ned' was fine teacher of French and I remember his classes fondly. An obituary by the Reverend David Holloway, vicar of Jesmond in Newcastle upon Tyne, can be found at http://www.christian.org.uk/html-publications/theology/johnston.pdf.