On Friday 24 June, the Modern Languages Department bade farewell to Mr Thomas Grundy, Head of German since 1973. 

It was entirely appropriate that the elements made their own feelings clear: torrential rain, thunder and forked lightning, an eerie play of light and shadow, and the dimming of the lights. 

Was this to be Götterdämmerung—the twilight of the gods? Was the Department shuffling towards an abyss of doom as its most revered member departed? It would be wrong to over-dramatise the import of the moment, but then...

When Tom died in 2021 aged 92, he left behind quite a legacy, including, of course, many Grundy-isms (what's your favourite I wonder?). 

The following is taken from his valete and probably sums him up best:

When in the future, at the age perhaps of 106, Tom prepares to depart for the language laboratory in the sky as he would often say, a future Headmaster of Trinity School of John Whitgift will be summoned to his bedside. 'Pity he never had any children,' he will be heard to whisper. And Tom will reply as he knows that he must: 'I heard what you said: but you're wrong. I have thousands of them, thousands of them.'

You can read the full valete here: Tom Grundy valete