As I came in to the maths lesson an old man was standing on the far side of the room near a desk. In the middle of the wall between him and the entrance door was the blackboard.
He was old, quite old indeed when I looked at him. Yet around him was a sense of vigour and enthusiasm.
As the last boy sat down at his desk the old man walked towards the door. Or did he limp. No it was that one of his legs did not bend properly so he swivelled it aroudn as though it was a wooden leg.
To my surprise with this same "wooden" leg he applied a hefty kick to the door so that it slammed shut. From a man some eighty years old it showed style.
"I am Colonel Septimus. I can't stand foweigners and idiots. You must realise that Maths is the gweatest subject"
He had a very forceful tone. There was a twinkle in his eye. he turned to the baord and began to write his first maths equations.
During the lesson he established his main technique - that of posing problems that we had to try to solve whilst he sat at his desk and waited. each pupil would come up in turn and would show their exercise book to him and he would mark it correct or otherwise, grumpily.
"When you are doing Maths at University..." he would often say as he started a sentence, or "when you are doing A level Maths".
he was a powerful personality, and fun. I liked him and I left the lesson feeling better in myself.
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