Ted was Head of Design Technology and his many achievements include building the old cricket scoreboard with the help of his assistant, the late Barrie Askew.

Ted will be sadly missed by his family, friends and all who knew him at the school.

We are conscious that some people from his time at school may not be in contact with us and we would ask if you could pass on this information to those that you know.

As is the usual practice, we would like to place an obituary for him in the 2023 OI Journal and would be very grateful for any stories or memories you may wish to share which we could put together for the publication. Please address any contributions to me through oldipswichians@ipswich.school.

With best wishes,

Nicholas Allen

OI Chairman

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------It was good to see Ted last October at the Former Staff Reunion Lunch and to show him the cabinet round the corner from my study, with his initials on (he built it), which is still in use.

Nicholas Weaver, Headmaster

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I was saddened to hear of the passing of Ted Herrington. In about 1981 under his guidance I made a wooden spoon and a recipe book stand, my mother still cherishes them.  He then taught me the fundamentals of technical drawing.  Ted was one of the stricter masters at the time, but also exercised great patience. His passion for his craft was palpable.  I remember that whilst he was teaching us he got shingles, all of the boys at the school were so genuinely concerned for his well-being.  He was a good man, who no doubt contributed to the character of many.  My thoughts and prayers go to his family.

James Duthie (OI 1979-86)

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Sorry to hear of Mr Herrington's passing, my condolences to his family. 

He was one of my favourite teachers, and although I struggled with technical drawing, he always encouraged me and gave positive comments to my work however poor it was. 

For GCSE I achieved a C which was my worst grade however I was predicted a D and I ran to him to show him as my first port of call, despite getting As and Bs elsewhere and he seemed genuinely pleased. 

Great memories of a great teacher. 

Thank you Ted. 

PS. My work involves working with technical drawings every day! Ironic !!! 

David Fenner (OI 1984-89)

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Ted Herrington was my teacher in the early eighties. In the early years he taught me wood working skills, later it would be metal work and technical drawing to a high level. He was a teacher who emphasised doing a job with as much thought and precision as possible which, for young lads who initially didn’t know one end of a chisel from the other, was often hard to comprehend. By striving for ‘perfection’,(a term often used by Ted in his classes that would cause eyes to roll), you could achieve things you would never believe you were capable of. 

In the Sixth Form I was lucky to have been asked by Ted, with my old schoolmate David Bowie, to look after the electronic systems that ran the cricket scoreboard. David and I were both doing the new Electronic Systems A-Level at the time, and Ted must have thought we were the best candidates for the job although the A-Level never covered anything like the electronics in the scoreboard. But we felt we owed it to Ted for having the confidence in us, that and the fact we got an extra free lesson out of it, and so we agreed. We somehow kept the scoreboard running through a season or two and I must say they were both fun and stressful times. This was a great opportunity given by Ted that taught me a lot and both David and I still look back on those times with good memories.

Ted was one of those great teachers I know made a difference to what I would do later on in life, using those skills I learnt from him all those years ago, and for that I am grateful.

Steve Harris (OI 1978-85)

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I have wondered in the past of where my influence to become an engineer came from as it certainly wasn’t from my home. With the sad passing of Mr Herrington it makes you reflect on the classes with him - both wood work and technical drawing. I certainly enjoyed his classes and I can probably be certain that he set the seed on what has been a most enjoyable career.

Steve Marshall (OI1978-85)

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Although Ted was introduced in 1969 as -

'Mr. Herrington (King Edward VIL King’s Lynn, and Loughborough) who comes from Wymondham College to be in charge of Crafts',The immediate association with Ted Herrington is an established Technology Centre, which was opened a year later than scheduled by Prince Philip on 14th June 1973. 

Ted Herrington achieved a great deal which possibly went unnoticed. When he arrived in 1969 he faced some unexpected challenges in the building of a Technical Centre and introducing an appropriate syllabus.

An impulsive Headmaster, Patrick Mermagen who was my house master, had been on one of his offensives. He wanted members of the School-House to have hobbies and interests. And at his breakfast sessions and afternoon lawn tea sessions which occurred with his family (Ingi, Sigi, and the dog) I had taken him at face value and asked to be able to build a vehicle. 

The result was Mermagen had got the key to the then woodwork room and given me access to the shed behind the armoury. All this Mermagen achieved seemingly without really discussing it with Ted. It came as a surprise to Ted to find me working in the workshop above the pool changing rooms, on this “vehicle”! Loco parentis probably had a different meaning.

Ted did a good job at instilling good techniques and skills in to his young students, but even he could get caught out. I remember him asking me, after staunching the bleeding from my hand, how I could have done it? I explained I was using the hacksaw with my finger along the side of the blade as he had shown us. "Yes", he said "that’s how you cut with a Tenon saw".

Ted did attract and cultivate students, one who has made their mark is David Kocurek, who has created Kocurek Excavators. Sadly, I failed to take Teds good advice on A levels, he tried to persuade me to take Technology/Engineering. Come Sixth Form I immediately regretted not taking this advice, Puff and Physics, for me induced sleep.

David Greaves (OI 1964-74)

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I was saddened to hear that Ted had died and also Barry Askew.  Both of them were influential in my school career and taught me many skills that have stood me well in life.

Ted was so supportive and always wanted the best out of you - he didn’t suffer fools gladly but that expectation always kept you on your toes.  I was not particularly sporty, especially in the rugby term - that always coincided with the school play.  I was fortunate to be able on lots of rugby afternoons to spend time in Great School preparing sets for the plays.  Ted would be there supervising but more often than not I was left to my own devices - what a privilege.  There were some amazing sets that he designed and we managed to put them all together.  

I was persuaded not to do physics A level, but engineering science, which was a much more practical subject.  I remember spending long hours in the Technical Studies department manufacturing and testing my experiments - with the watchful and helpful eyes of Ted and Barry.  

Ted also taught technical drawing - no CAD programmes then, - and I took this as an extra O level during 6th form.  Ted was just the right person to teach this with his attention to detail - I still know how to twist the pencil to get an even line and how to correctly for the capital letter R!

James Broadway (OI 1968-75)