A man who was instrumental in providing the strategic vision to bring about an enlarged Keswick School has died aged 87.
It was Edward Charles ‘Sam’ Hicks who in 1975 recommended the amalgamation of the Keswick Grammar and Lairthwaite Secondary Modern Schools.
For more than 40 years Mr Hicks served as a governor, chairman of governors and a trustee at Keswick School.
He headed a steering committee for three years in complex negotiations with both sets of school governors, Cumbria County Council, the Education Authority and the Department of Education and Science (D.E.S.)
In 1979 the scheme was duly approved by the D.E.S. This was due essentially to Mr Hicks’s outstanding leadership. Thus a new enlarged Keswick School, that would provide opportunities of a first class education for all children of secondary age in the town and district, was opened in September 1980.
The negotiations and his time as a governor made enormous demands on Mr Hicks’s energy banks but he never let up on his many other public commitments. He served concurrently as a county councillor (1967-1974) and Allerdale district councillor (1976-1980).
From 1972 to 2004 he was also a Justice of the Peace in the Keswick and Workington Courts. He was chairman for six years of the Keswick Court. Mr Hicks was also, for more than 30 years, an active member of Keswick Rotary Club. He was president in 1981/82.
He was as much respected and admired for his wise yet unassuming approach to public service in Keswick and district – and naturally in his home village of Grange that was so dear to heart.
For more than 40 years, Mr Hicks was a key presence in the village – serving as a parish councillor, church warden, church organist and latterly a lay reader.
From 1939 Mr Hicks had a strong association with Grange despite some lengthy periods living at a distance. He was a pupil in the junior department of Keswick School prior to following in the footsteps of his father to Dean Close School in Cheltenham.
He was a graduate of Manchester University in industrial chemistry and he completed his National Service in the RAF in Lancashire. There he met and fell in love with his wife Nan, a nurse. Their marriage was a blissfully happy one. They were ever devoted and supportive of one another in their personal, family and public life.
Mr Hicks worked initially in industry with Dunlop and then Marchon.
On the sudden death of his father he moved to Manchester and took responsibility for the family business. Subsequently Mr Hicks moved to Keswick in 1972 and was the proprietor of the Queen’s Hotel prior to his purchase of Fieldside at Grange.
An accomplished instrumentalist and fine organist, Mr Hicks was also a scholar widely read in English literature.
Sam was very much a Renaissance man – master of all he surveyed. He was an accomplished instrumentalist – and a fine organist.
He showed his immense commitment to study when as an adult he started his studies in Edinburgh University and he realised a long held ambition to graduate in English Literature.
Mr Hicks died at the Millfield Nursing Home in Keswick.
On Monday December 6 a celebration of the life of Mr Hicks was conducted by the Rev Charles Hope, the vicar of St John’s Church, Keswick, at St Andrew’s Church, Borrowdale.
The address was given by Howard Allen who was headteacher at Keswick School from 1976 to 1995.
