Well-known former headmaster passes away

A legend, Mr Desmond Peach, passed away.

June 5, 2021

Samantha Traill 2 minutes read

A former and well-known headmaster of Robert Carruthers School sadly passed away.

Mr Desmond Peach passed away on Saturday, May 29 at the age of 84. He was the principal at the school from 1980 to 2000.

From the day he started as a teacher until the day he retired, he was committed to his position, the school and the pupils and for most of his career, he knew the names of almost every child at the school.

Mr Peach had a special way with children and regarded each one as a sponge, just hungry to suck up information and knowledge.

He started at Robert Carruthers School in 1963 as a general class teacher and in 1969 he was promoted to the Technical High School as a senior assistant in science.

n 1973 he returned to Robert Carruthers School having been promoted to deputy principal. In 1978 he was once again promoted as principal to open up Merlin Park Primary School in Ga-Nala (Kriel).

During this period Mr Peach went on combined business and pleasure trips to Europe where he visited several overseas institutions including the University of Heidelberg, the Poly-Technical Institute in Madrid and a secondary school in Hanover.

Once this trip was over, he returned to Robert Carruthers School after yet another promotion when he took over from Mr Kay in August 1980.

The first thing Mr Peach did when he became principal, was to refuse to sign possession of the school because he said things were not in proper order, which was typical of him. In Mr Peach’s opinion, there was only one way to do anything and that was the right way.

One unique thing about Mr Peach was that he found himself in conflict situations with teachers who sent badly behaved children up to the office for chastising because more often than not Mr Peach would spend hours chatting to the naughty children and then sent him or her away with a sweet.

Mr Peach had a great deal of empathy for those whose home circumstances were not ideal and always took action when a child was being abused or maltreated at home. So much so that on more than one occasion he actually ‘fostered’ children who were removed from their families due to their home circumstances.

He disliked any form of injustice towards a child, and it was he who years before children from different races were permitted to enter ‘white’ schools pushed to have children of colour enrolled at the school.

Mr Peach will be remembered as a sociable person who loved nothing more than a good joke or ‘get-together.’

He went on retirement at the end of January 2000.

He made many friends in both the school and town communities and his role at the school will be remembered, with a fondness for many years to come.

A memorial service was held on Saturday, June 5 at his home with family members.

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