87 years old but still going strong – Alumni stories, Brian Cane

Unlike most alumni I was not a student at St John’s, but a member of staff.

Canon Philip Lamb appointed me in 1957 to develop a Chemistry Department from scratch.   In the sciences, the College then had a Biology Dept, Physics Dept, and Rural Science Dept.   Philip Lamb thought that since we were preparing students to teach science subjects, we ought to have a Chemistry Dept.

The University of York did not exist then.   We were the senior higher education institution in York !    When Lord James and one or two others started to plan their University, there were just 2 or 3 of them – no buildings, no staff – and I remember about 1963/64 they invited all the staff of St John’s over to their central house (I forget the name of it) for an evening’s party.  They of course had no non-academic staff either, so Lord James served the coffee to all of us himself.

I arrived in 1957, 30 years old, as Senior Lecturer in Chemistry, and was there until 1965 –  eight years.  Later I was joined by two Chemistry colleagues – one was the late Jim Sellwood who spent the rest of his career at St Johns ending up as Registrar I believe.

In those days, all the Science laboratories were at Heworth Croft.   (I believe they are no longer there).   Eventually in addition to 3 staff, and a lab assistant (Mr Percival), I had 3 Chemistry laboratories and a lecture room.   In those days, with only a small percentage of sixth-formers attending universities (less than 10% of the age-group),  we had plenty of good quality students studying Chemistry.

Our work was validated by the University of Leeds, and I had good relationships with some Professors of Chemsitry who even gave some occasional lectures to our students.   The students took four papers in their final Chemsitry examinations – Inorganic Chemistry, Organic Chemistrry, Physical Chemistry, and Chemical Education.    The latter subject I developed myself – I wanted students to appreciate that it was as important as the other three.

The department developed in my time to the point that it had a major national presence – indeed in 1964 a national conference was held at my department about trends in chemical education.   The Royal Society of Chemistry evaluated our teaching and facilities and in 1963/64 awarded membership of the RSC to students at our College completing our course successfully – the first time they had ever done that for a Teachers College.

I left St John’s in 1965 to take up a post as Senior Research Officer at the National Foundation for Educational Research, which undertakes research specifically for local authorities and the Government.  Subsequently I became Principal of The City of Liverpool College of Higher Education (1974 – 83), previously known as C.F.Mott College of Education, and now part of John Moores University, Liverpool.

Brian Cane

This was when many teachers had done only a 2 year Teachers’ Certificate, and some only a 1 year Emergency Course for Mature Students. Two black students were from Nigeria – arrived straight from a rural village and had not seen a light switch before ! Some 15/20 years later, I met them at a UK Conference, and they had become senior officials in the Ministry of Education in their country. Mr Percival, Lab Technician, second from right at front. Brian, As senior Lecture in Chemistry, third from right at back.