#Trinity60
Phil Hiscock
Wally Swan remembers Phil Hiscock
I was very grateful, one weekend, to escape the cauldron of activity at Trinity in order to pay a visit to a friend and former colleague, Philip Hiscock, and his wife, Joyce, in their delightful cottage in Coalbrookdale, Shropshire. Philip retired from the school in July, 1985 after thirty-five years at Trinity and unfortunately his departure coincided with a time when no nominated editor presided over the magazine. The consequence has been that no proper tribute has been paid in print in these pages to Philip and to what he achieved in all those years with us, an omission which I now intend to make up for.
P.R. Hiscock was appointed by Mr Clayton in 1950 as Senior Classics Master. He was Junior House Master for Worcester from 1960 until 1977, and Senior House Master from 1977 until 1985. In his first ten years at the school, Philip was house manager for all plays and was the Dramatic Society treasurer from 1951 until 1977. He founded the Classical Society in 1954 and was its Chairman for thirty years. He took over the Philatelic Society in 1960 and remained its Chairman for the next twenty-five years. Philip founded the Oxfam group in 1961 and was unstinting in raising money for this, and other good causes, up to the time of his retirement. In the same year, he became responsible for seating at the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in St Michael's Church, a duty he likewise executed for the next twenty-five years for an event which he still attends.
Philip is justly renowned for his various trips which had their origins in his leading a small group of enthusiasts along Hadrian's Wall in the Summer of 1965. On six occasions between 1967 and 1983 he was in charge of the French Exchange group to Aix-en-Provence. 1972 was to be a landmark for it was in this year that Philip founded the Trinity Philhellenes for whom he organsed fifteen tours of Greece and one of Roman Provence. The last of the Greek trips was an astonishing feat of organisation, involving two coachloads of over one hundred Philhellenes.
P.R. Hiscock Esq. It is believed that this photograph was taken when Philip was scoring during the reunion cricket match between Former and Present Pedants' which he arranged. Philip's great love of cricket flourished as a founder-member of the Staff cricket team, the 'Pedants', for whom he played or umpired for over thirty years. The esteem in which he was held is reflected in his having been elected Chairman of the Common Room, in which capacity he served between 1973 and 1975. Philip has always been a keen supporter of the O.M.W.A., whom he served in various ways: as Staff member of the Organising Committee in the 1950's; as editor of the O.M.W. magazine; and as umpire on many occasions at Lime Meadow Avenue.