KINGSWOOD ASSOCIATION NEWS 2021-22 OBITUARIES
OBITUARIES
HOWARD BRAYTON 25.11.1938 - 4.12.2021 KS 1950- 57 Howard's wife Sue writes: Howard was born in Elland, Yorkshire, on 25 November 1938. He was christened by his father, Lionel Brayton, a Methodist minister, on Christmas Day four weeks later. His father’s work meant frequent moves around the country to different church communities, but Howard was not impressed with his parents’ decision to send him to Kingswood School as a boarder in 1950, so he decided to do as little work as possible - and it didn’t stop there! At thirteen years old he formed possibly the school’s first smoking club, and by sixteen he’d learnt to copy his house master’s signature to forge his own permission notes for trips into town. He even managed to fool his parents that he had been attending orchestra practice all along, by playing his violin with the bow upside down at the school speech day. Howard really was a very naughty boy! There was only one subject that he was interested in, with one enthusiastic teacher, and that was chemistry!
Armed with an A Level he signed up for an apprenticeship at Cadbury’s as an industrial chemist. Cadbury’s turned out to be the ideal employer for Howard as they looked after their employees well, giving them opportunities to develop other interests; one of which was music. Howard won a scholarship to Birmingham School of Music, and discovered he had a beautiful baritone voice. He developed a life-long passion for classical choral music, and after moving to Chichester to do teacher training in secondary maths and science was often called to sing solos in Chichester Cathedral. He qualified as a teacher and took up a maths teaching post at Westhill Boys’ secondary school in Bath. Howard then found he really wanted to teach those that needed the most help. He always remembered a boy, who was really struggling, saying to him, 'But Sir, what’s the point of algebra?’ This played on Howard’s mind, so he asked the head teacher if he could have all the underachievers in the school. The Head thought he was mad, but Howard took this on; developing a curriculum that would get those students the essential skills they needed in life. He even wrote and published books to support this, and the royalties kept him in new cars for years! In early 1982 Howard moved to Oxfordshire where he became a Special Needs Adviser for the County and later an Inspector for all Schools and Further Education Colleges. He also became an OFSTED Inspector. Despite his dubious beginnings at school, 52
he was a true intellectual and took a Master’s Degree in Education Management at Oxford Brookes University. He loved to read and just last week had a book of poetry published, called 'Bright the Vision that Delighted'. (Available from Amazon at the sum of £6:99) It’s such a pity that he didn’t live long enough to see it in print. Church remained a large part of his life, including the choir which Howard led for many years in St Mary’s, North Leigh. During his time as choirmaster, Howard commissioned for the choir no fewer than fifteen anthems, designed to cater for the entire liturgical year. Almost all were given their first performances by the choir under Howard’s direction. Among the composers were several well-known in church music or wider circles, notably Roderick Williams, now very well known as a singer and composer (Holy Father Great Creator, for Trinity), Anthony Caesar (St Mary’s Mass, published by the Church Music Society), three fine anthems by Peter Irving, and others. Most of these works have either been published or widely used by churches throughout the UK and perhaps further afield.
