Much of the success of Headington Secondary School in Oxford was due to headmaster Cyril Eason.

He took charge when the school opened in 1936 and held the reins for 26 years until his retirement at Christmas 1962.

At his last prizegiving, there was high praise from Alderman AB Brown, a member of Oxford City Council and estates bursar of Worcester College.

He told pupils and parents that Headington Secondary was rightly recognised throughout Oxford as a good school and the main reason for this was Mr Eason.

He said: "Everyone has a vision of what he or she wants to be in life.

"No-one else can make us understand that vision. But others can point to the road that leads to the vision and that is what Mr Eason and his staff do here."

Mr Eason trained as a teacher at Culham College, in Culham, near Abingdon, and taught at the Central Boys' School and East Oxford School before taking over as head at Headington.

He was at one time president of the National Union of Teachers and the National Association of Head Teachers. From 1946 to 1955, he was secretary of Oxfordshire Schools Rugby Union and in 1961, he was president of the English Schools Rugby Football Union.

He told pupils and parents he had decided to retire while he was still blessed with strength.

He said: "It has been a most enjoyable and rewarding life here and I am grateful for the warm friendship shown to me by Headington children, the governors, the education authority, Headington people and my staff.

"I am confident that the governors will select a good successor and that he will, with the vigour of a younger man, pursue the aims which have hitherto guided us - that the school shall bring success rather than failure to each individual; that it shall be animated and purposeful in what it does; that it shall be positive and progressive in approach; and that all within shall have faith in all things that are good, including the spirit of the young."

At the time, the school was bursting at the seams, due to the post-war bulge in the birth rate. Extension work was under way, but the pressure was not relieved until Bayswater School opened in Barton.