Peter
Dossett
by
Bob CurrieT
he end of the Summer term
saw the retirement of Peter
Dossett, one of our longestserving
members of the
teaching staff, and a King's
man through and through.
Countless OAs will remember his utterly
committed teaching of chemistry, often
punctuated by explosion and smoke.
Peter arrived in September 1976, one of the
James Batten generation of young
schoolmasters. In the earliest days he took on
the 287 club, looking after all the juniors every
Saturday night, and even in his later years, he
kept right in the forefront of all the most
demanding features of boarding school life.
He made the most enormous impact on games
at King's - we think he coached something like
2,250 games sessions, and he was responsible
for pioneering numerous sports tours around
the world. For him no hour was an anti-social
hour: he gave his all. He was the cricket
coach and hockey coach whom leavers
remember for the best reasons.
His preparedness to set high standards and
make sure that pupils bring themselves up to
those high standards has been his hallmark.
I once listened to his talk to all the team
cricketers at the end of a season when he had
taken the 1st XI and it was an outstandingly
inspiring statement of what is right and moral
in approaching anything you do, and they
listened intently, and were undoubtedly
inspired that they had that rare good fortune to
be able to hear something so direct, so
uncompromising and so well meant.
In his pastoral care of pupils over all these
years and as housemaster of King Alfred house,
Peter left the rest of us in the shade: his
speed at completing UCAS forms with his 62
tutees was breathtaking and could be likened
to the race to put the first Beaujolais Nouveau
on the table: a pace by which we all judge our
own success or failure as a tutor.
Peter is not the type of person who cuts
corners, who ever left the school short or did
less than a very impressive professional job.
So many generations of pupils have cause to be
grateful to him and I know that they still have a
deep appreciation of what he did for them.
As a colleague, Peter was always right up there
as a top King's man - he was prepared to do
so much. His efforts with prep school visits
and open days were unforgettable - he has
blown up jelly babies and even set himself on
fire in the name of King's.
He has been all that is good about special
teachers.
8
Aluredian