Former head dies on golf course

FORMER Crompton House head teacher, William Grundy.

THE former head teacher of Crompton House School has died after suffering a heart attack on Saddleworth Golf Course.

William Grundy (63), who was a member of the club, was treated by an air ambulance crew shortly before 10.20am on Monday.

He was taken to the Royal Oldham Hospital by road but did not recover.

Tributes have been paid to the keen walker and squash player who leaves his wife, Libby, and three daughters.

He was head teacher at Crompton House from 2002 to 2006, having joined as deputy head in 1989 from Blue Coat School.

Leon Ashton, chairman of governors at Crompton House, said: “He was a very well-liked teacher who served Crompton House School over a number of years. The children loved him.

“I personally thought he was an excellent head teacher over the years I worked alongside him. He did a great deal for the school.”

Mr Grundy left secondary modern school in Preston at the age of 15 without taking any exams and worked in a factory.

A year later he joined the police in London and rose to the rank of detective sergeant before being seconded to Northern Ireland in 1973 at the height of the troubles.

He was shot in the shoulder by a British Army bullet during an anti-terrorist incident which he put down to being in “the wrong place at the wrong time.”

But he had set his heart on becoming a teacher and studied at night school in London before becoming a PE teacher at Blue Coat 1979.

Mr Grundy was a past chairman of Oldham’s Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme and treasurer of Tame Valley Tennis and Squash Club.

Club president and friend Colin Boult said: “Bill was a wonderful character, a larger-than-life character. You were always aware of his presence.

“He was a very, very good friend and somebody in whom you would have absolute trust.”

Both were members of an informal walking group and had completed the 79-mile Yorkshire Wolds Way in May.

Mr Boult added: “When he was headmaster at Crompton House, he was very much into the Duke of Edinburgh Awards. A lot of kids went through the award scheme because of Bill.”

One former pupil said on Facebook: “RIP the best headmaster and teacher (and football manager) we have ever had at Crompton House.”

A spokesperson from North West Air Ambulance said: “The air ambulance was called at 10am and landed at 10.17am on the golf course. We treated a 63-year-old man at the scene, who had suffered a massive cardiac arrest.

“We assisted the land ambulance, who took the man to Oldham Royal Hospital.”