Obituary: Arthur Lenagh - Head of one of the highest achieving Scots primary schools in the 11-Plus era

ARTHUR Thomas Lenagh was a highly respected head teacher at St Patrick’s Primary School in Dumbarton and a Justice of the Peace in Lanarkshire and in Argyll and Bute.

He was appointed to St Patrick’s in 1969 when it was still in McLean Place, next to the eponymous parish church in Dumbarton town centre, taking over from Sister Julie Marie MBE, a Notre Dame nun whose primary school teaching achievements were legendary in Scottish education circles.

The nuns had first been drafted into Dumbarton in 1911 by the late Monsignor Hugh Canon Kelly to take charge of the secondary education of young Catholic women, and in the 1930s Sister Julie Marie and her infant mistress colleague, Sister Gertrude, took over the running of the McLean Place primary school.

The school was one of the highest achieving primary establishments in Scotland based on the number of “A” passes for its pupils in the 11-Plus exams until they were finally abolished in the middle of last century.

Misgivings were expressed by many St Patrick’s parents and some councillors about the replacement of the nuns by lay teachers and the Sisters of Notre Dame were a hard act for Lenagh to follow. But follow it he did – in his own quiet way, and with distinction, always immaculately dressed and wearing the same school tie as his pupils.

His first task was to supervise the move away from McLean Place to the present modern school building, which was officially opened by Cardinal Thomas Winning in Crosslet Road, Dumbarton, in 1973.

Over the years, Lenagh implemented many changes to the school curriculum in numeracy and literacy, preparing the pupils for comprehensive education which had recently been introduced in the secondary schools. In 1983 the school was commended by the Saltire Society for a project on the Life of St Patrick on which Lenagh, his staff and pupils collaborated with the distinguished Scottish craftsman and designer Willie Rodger.

Arthur Lenagh, who was born in Calderbank in Lanarkshire, was educated at Jordanhill College of Education and the University of Glasgow. He served on the staff of St Bartholomew’s Primary School in Townhead, Coatbridge, for 13 years, six of them as deputy head teacher, and organised school camps for needy children in the area.

During his time in Lanarkshire, he was a senior magistrate on the bench of the Justice of the Peace Court. A prominent member of the Labour Party, from which he drifted away in recent years, he was convener of the children’s committee, roads and bridges and direct works on Lanarkshire County Council. On his retirement, he had many and varied interests, including art and travel. He created a beautiful and exciting garden at his home in Helensburgh and would spend hours in it. He loved poetry, especially Robert Burns and W B Yeats.

Although he liked to travel all over Scotland, his favourite places were Mull and Iona.

He was a lifelong member and supporter of CND and last year he was once again in the congregation at its Easter service outside the gates of the Clyde Naval Base at Faslane on the Gareloch.

He campaigned for a Scottish Parliament for many years with Canon Kenyon Wright and others and was delighted when their pioneering work eventually led to the granting of the parliament at Holyrood.

Tributes were paid to him at his Requiem Mass celebrated by Father Peter Lennon at St Joseph’s RC Church in Helensburgh, where his sister, Mrs Patricia Davies, and niece, Norma Urquhart, gave the readings.

Lenagh was an intensely private man who never married and who kept his personal affairs, including his age and date of birth, a closely guarded secret right up to his death in December.

BILL HEANEY