MR COLOUR

 

[This is about Mr Edward Green. For ‘Colour’ read

‘Greene]

 

He was born in 1938. His father was so aghast at the slaughter of the First World War that he became a pacifist. He also joined the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) at that time. Colour’s mother was a conventional Anglican. Ben Colour had been to Russian with the Quakers’ Famine Relief Mission. He joined the Labour Party and even served as secretary to the Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald.

In the Second World War colour’s father became was an outspoken opponent of military action. His principle stance alienated many of his dearest friends. Mrs Colour said it was tremendous because the Colours knew who their real friends were. Mr Ben Colour was even gaoled for two years for his anti war activism.

Colour moved to Scotland in 1942. He was soon enrolled in a prep school called Craigflower. It was whilst in North Britain that Colour became interested in presbyterian church governance. He was later to form the view that the Reformation in Scotland had been admirable since it originated in the broad mass of the populace and was enacted for lofty motives. He contrasted that with the English Reformation where the Crown imposed the Reformation on an unwilling majority and did so for the narrowest  and ignoblest of personal reasons.

Colour went to Eton at the age of 13. The school was of course Church of England. It came to the time when as an Etonian it was suggested that Colour should be confirmed. Colour told his housemaster that he would not be going forward for confirmation since he was a Presbyterian. His housemaster was very surprised and mildly disapproved. Most boys at Eton were Anglicans. There were a few other Protestants, some Catholics and Jews.

Colour was a self-confessed eccentric. Eton in the 1950s was a surprisingly broad-minded place.

Religious debate was heated in the Colour household. His elder sisters became Catholics.

Colour did his National Service. He enlisted in the Royal Navy. This was a highly unusual choice for an Old Etonian. He greatly enjoyed his three years in the senior service.

He then went up to Oxford. He attended Wadham. Again this was an uncommon choice for a boy from Eton. However, his subject was more predictable: Classics.

Wadham was then run by the legendary Maurice Bowra.

Colour applied to the Colonial Office. He was going to be a district commissioner in the New Hebrides. In the end that did not transpire.  Colonialism’s loss was education’s gain.

Colour finished his degree and was offered a position tutoring the son of a belted earl. This peer had a huge estate in North Britain. Colour travelled with his pupil between the United Kingdom and Sweden.

After a few years as a private tutoRr he became a schoolmaster. He taught at Magdalen College School. He was asked to do some private tutoring on the side. Therefore he started a little extra tutoring. He was asked to provide tutors for subjects he could not teach. He sourced such tutors.

Over time his tutoring business grew and grew. It came to pass that he was unable to discharge his duties to the school. He decided to resign from MCS and run his tutoring business fulltime. He had fallen into this career.

He set up the tutorial college that bears his name. The college was the first of its kind. It has many imitators but no equals. Its officeholders have antiquarian titles such as usher and same. Pupils pay bills called battels. These battels were calculated in the most wonderfully anachronistic units – guineas. A guinea was one pound and one shilling, i.e. GBP 1.05. The college seemed to founded on the premise that being old fashioned was a virtue.

He had handmade paper brochures. There were weekly tea parties – symbolic of the old world decency that pervaded the college.

Colour’s College was in its heyday in the 80s and 90s. In the Noughties Mr Colour was reaching retirement age. He was ably assisted by his registrar Nick.

Colour’s achieved outstanding results. This is not simply a matter of many A* s. The college took some very bright pupils, plenty of average ones and more than a few pupils with academic difficulties. For some pupils an E grade was a major accomplishment. Colour would take pupils of all levels of aptitude and do the best to enable that pupil to achieve the maximum that he or she could.

Mr Colour was unique. His tranquil demeanour and unfailing mannerliness won him many admirers. He is so devoted to his college that his is why he is a lifelong bachelor.

Colour College experienced a fillip in the 70s. Many pupils were expelled for taking drugs. Some boys had been booted out of public school for such trifling offences as growing their hair. Schools went mixed. This led to girls and boys getting into compromising positions. Some were kicked out of school for that. Colour took such pupils. Two-thirds of his pupils were boys. This is partly because they were more likely to be excluded from school. However, by no means all pupils there were expellees. Some chose to leave school because they preferred to enroll at Colour’s. Colour’s took an increasing number of pupils from overseas such as Russia. The college was unique and inimitable.

Mr Colour worships in the Free Church of Scotland. The nearest church is in London. He has no petty denominational prejudice. He worships in Oxford Cathedral. He is a strict sabbatarian and will  not answer the phone on Sunday. Indeed he is an adherent of the Lord’s Day Observance Society. He says grace before meals. His moral rectitude does not preclude enjoying wine as Our Saviour did.

To step into Colour’s abode is to step back in time. The decor and layout is decidedly old world. The ambience is unashamedly 19th century. It is like a time capsule of traditional decency. He lives in a multi storey flat on Pembroke Street. It is adorned with judiciously chosen and carefully arranged Victorian bric a brac. Portraits of Protestant divines grace the walls