By Simon Euan-Smith (Rosebery 1963-67)
Ian Macpherson and I were in the same form all the time I was at Epsom, from the Upper Fourth to third-year Sixth. We even did the same options: Greek up to O level and History of Science in the (Classical) Sixth.
But we didn’t really get to know each other, and forge a friendship that lasted for decades, until the Lower Sixth. Roy Moody decided to put on a Greek play, Aristophanes’ The Clouds, and do it in the original. This meant he was rather restricted in his choice of cast members, and they, in turn, were rather restricted in finding people to test them on their lines – not that many people know the Greek alphabet. Ian and I tested each other frequently, usually in Room 6, the classroom where the Classical Sixth had most of their lessons, and that was the start of our friendship.
Everyone who remembers Ian will know he was always very, very conscientious. He wasn’t known as an actor (in fact only two cast members were, and one had only a few lines). Ian appeared in only one scene, but it was the Agon – a lengthy debate with one other actor, my good friend, Phil Chapman (Holman). So there was a lot to learn and Ian worked on his part rigorously – not simply learning the lines, but working out how to deliver them so as to get laughs, and working out gestures and actions. Result – he was word-perfect and the hit of the show, the one everyone was talking about afterwards.
Ian’s conscientiousness was fuelled by self-doubt. He was head of Propert, and later Head of School. Some years after we’d both left he confided to me that he felt he had failed at both. I was delighted to be able to tell him that not long before I had had tea with one of our Classics Masters, and in the course of our conversation he had described Ian as “the best Head of School in years”.
I always felt Ian was pushed too hard. His A level grades were not particularly good, but he was pushed to try for Oxford – having failed, he was offered a place at Leeds University, conditional on his improving on his two lowest grades. He went up on one, down on the other. But the Headmaster, Mr McCallum, contacted Leeds and prevailed on them to give him a place anyway. Well-meaning though that gesture was, it probably did Ian no favours. Our mutual friend, the late Richard Ratner
(Hart-Smith / Granville), told me Ian had suffered a breakdown at university. After graduating he enrolled at a Law school, suffered a breakdown after a few weeks and withdrew, and as a result he was on medication for the rest of his life.
Ian was kind and generous. When our first daughter, Hazel, was born, my wife was in full agreement when I suggested Ian as godfather, and he took to it with his usual conscientiousness. He was also very kind to our second daughter, Rosemary. She and Hazel both loved Uncle Ian and really enjoyed it when he came to stay.
For decades Ian lived in sheltered accommodation. For the last few years of his life he lived in a residential care home where he was very well looked after and contented. Rest in peace, old friend.
