PETER BINDSCHEDLERPeter Bindschedler, innovative first head of the city's pioneering Southway Secondary School, passed away aged 94 on 27 December, 2009.Swiss-born Mr Bindschedler and his French wife Lilene arrived in Plymouth almost 50 years ago to become the head of the city's newest school.The couple shaped the development of Southway Secondary School, designed the uniform, came up with the motto and wrote the rulebook.And although the school has now closed, thousands of former pupils will remember the man who did so much to shape Southway into a happy and vibrant learning establishment.Peter was born in the Swiss city of Basle on 4 October, 1915. He was fluent in French, German, English and Spanish.His working career started in his home town, where he had a job in the Swiss Bank. It was through the bank that he first moved to England, to work at its office in Gresham Street, in the City of London in 1936.He served in the Swiss Army when World War Two broke out, but as Switzerland remained neutral, it was decreed that all those who had a job abroad could return to it.Peter met Lilene and the pair were married in 1956.He later gained a teaching diploma and moved to Plymouth with Lilene in 1962 to take up the post of founding headmaster of Southway Comprehensive School, where he remained for 20 years.It was so new that when the Bindschedlers arrived it had no furniture, no books and no equipment, much less a uniform or a school badge.Not that they even had that many pupils either, at first. There were just 140 on the school roll when Peter started at the school, but by the time he retired, there would be more than 10 times that number. With 1,850 pupils, Southway had become one of the biggest, if not the biggest, school in the city in 1981.During that time the school had undergone a number of subtle transformations, going from a pure Secondary School, through Comprehensive status to just Southway School, and ending up as Southway Community College.And when the job was over, Peter spent eight happy years as president of the Boys' Brigade, and was chairman of, and then chaplain to, the school's Air Training Corps squadron.On their retirement, the Bindschedlers put their linguistic skills to the test and travelled the world extensively with trips to Russia, America, the Middle East, Africa and India.A great rambler and walker, Peter climbed mountains around the world, been up Snowdon and Ben Nevis.A keen boy scout in his earlier days, Peter took groups of youngsters on rock-climbing and mountaineering adventures through Europe and Africa.The couple had three children and nine grandchildren.
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