We are sad to record the death of David Scotney, a Mathematics teacher at Hymers from 1968 to 1985 who passed away passed away peacefully at the Queen's Centre, Castle Hill Hospital on 6th March 2026 aged 84 years.

In 1960 he left Hessle for university to read Chemistry and Divinity at Kings College, London, subsequently being awarded his degree and AKC. He obtained teaching posts in London then York, from where he travelled back to Hull each weekend to direct the newly formed Saturday Morning Music School, a training ensemble for the Hull Junior Philharmonic Orchestra started by Elisabeth Curtis in the 1950s. 

In 1968 he was appointed to teach Mathematics at Hymers College by the Headmaster, Harry Roach and returned to the area. Incidentally, the redoubtable Miss Elisabeth Curtis taught string players at Hymers around this time; the equally redoubtable Harry decided he would take up the violin and was urged by Elisabeth to join the Saturday Morning players where he found himself under the direction of his new Maths teacher. Harry was fully 50 years older than most of the other students. 

David had now taken up the organ as well, having been encouraged by City Organist and Junior Phil President, Peter Goodman, to study the instrument. Many will remember he sometimes deputised on the organ in Assemblies. 

I first met David when I was a young teenager playing well down the line of clarinets in the Orchestra. When I came back from college in about 1977, I helped him form and run the Junior Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra using the best string players. He let me direct it and I gained much experience planning repertoire, weekend courses, concerts and tours.  

David was also involved with the Society of Mice as accompanist and Director of the Kingtones, raising large sums of money for charity. He was the pianist for the Hull Literary Club Yuletide Revels and conducted choirs and orchestras all around this area, continuing to play his trombone in some of them too, like the Hessle Sinfonia.  

He directed the Priory Park Singers and was Church Organist at St Paul’s and St Mary’s, Sculcoates which I am sure was a good fit; he had a lifelong commitment to the Anglo Catholic tradition.  

At Hymers he was a successful and popular Maths teacher and Form Master, often being charged with the important Year 7s, as we know them now; that first year in the Big School when everything can seem very daunting indeed.  

I was appointed to Hymers in 1977 so we once again overlapped and combined as he played the trombone in my Wind Band and directed the Brass Ensemble for many years, working with Desmond Swinburne. 

He had become a member of the Executive Committee of the Hull Phil in 1972 and provided a link between the two orchestras, overseeing the graduation of many young players to the greater heights of the senior orchestra.  

David was a keen gardener and grower of vegetables, both at Sunningdale Road and I think on the allotment. I remember joining Ian Franklin and David staffing a school trip to the Liverpool Garden Festival; a chance to display his great knowledge of things horticultural. 

He ended his teaching career early to continue another passion; as a printer. He took to it straightaway and bought a house in Haltemprice St, off the Hawthorn Avenue and filled it with trays of metal type, boxes of paper, card, ink and printing presses. All this in addition to the boxes of Junior Phil music, spare instruments, a piano and much organ music. 

He printed termly diaries and sports fixture cards for Hymers, all the printing for the Hull Musical Festival, newsletters and electoral information for the Liberal Party, concert programmes and so on. Strangely for a mathematician and scientist though, he eschewed the computer age when it arrived. He simply refused to have a smart phone or a computer in the house and also refused to comply with those institutions who required an electronic reply. Pretty soon everyone could do their own printing at home and all those trays of metal letters, numbers and punctuation, all in several fonts, became redundant. 

In the early 1980s when the Common Room was changing from the older guard of post-war schoolmasters to a younger mixed group of teachers, I remember we held a Tasteless Tie and Sock Day. The impartial judge, a modern language assistant who was with us for the term, pointed at David Scotney in his wide kipper tie and matching shirt and awarded him first prize. 

The problem was…. David did not know we were holding a Tasteless Tie and Sock Day…. 

Thank you, David. 

AJP 

March 2026 

David Scotney for Hymers 

We are sad to record the death of David Scotney, a Mathematics teacher at Hymers from 1968 to 1985 

In 1960 he left Hessle for university to read Chemistry and Divinity at Kings College, London, subsequently being awarded his degree and AKC. He obtained teaching posts in London then York, from where he travelled back to Hull each weekend to direct the newly formed Saturday Morning Music School, a training ensemble for the Hull Junior Philharmonic Orchestra started by Elisabeth Curtis in the 1950s. 

In 1968 he was appointed to teach Mathematics at Hymers College by the Headmaster, Harry Roach and returned to the area. Incidentally, the redoubtable Miss Elisabeth Curtis taught string players at Hymers around this time; the equally redoubtable Harry decided he would take up the violin and was urged by Elisabeth to join the Saturday Morning players where he found himself under the direction of his new Maths teacher. Harry was fully 50 years older than most of the other students. 

David had now taken up the organ as well, having been encouraged by City Organist and Junior Phil President, Peter Goodman, to study the instrument. Many will remember he sometimes deputised on the organ in Assemblies. 

I first met David when I was a young teenager playing well down the line of clarinets in the Orchestra. When I came back from college in about 1977, I helped him form and run the Junior Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra using the best string players. He let me direct it and I gained much experience planning repertoire, weekend courses, concerts and tours.  

David was also involved with the Society of Mice as accompanist and Director of the Kingtones, raising large sums of money for charity. He was the pianist for the Hull Literary Club Yuletide Revels and conducted choirs and orchestras all around this area, continuing to play his trombone in some of them too, like the Hessle Sinfonia.  

He directed the Priory Park Singers and was Church Organist at St Paul’s and St Mary’s, Sculcoates which I am sure was a good fit; he had a lifelong commitment to the Anglo Catholic tradition.  

At Hymers he was a successful and popular Maths teacher and Form Master, often being charged with the important Year 7s, as we know them now; that first year in the Big School when everything can seem very daunting indeed.  

I was appointed to Hymers in 1977 so we once again overlapped and combined as he played the trombone in my Wind Band and directed the Brass Ensemble for many years, working with Desmond Swinburne. 

He had become a member of the Executive Committee of the Hull Phil in 1972 and provided a link between the two orchestras, overseeing the graduation of many young players to the greater heights of the senior orchestra.  

David was a keen gardener and grower of vegetables, both at Sunningdale Road and I think on the allotment. I remember joining Ian Franklin and David staffing a school trip to the Liverpool Garden Festival; a chance to display his great knowledge of things horticultural. 

He ended his teaching career early to continue another passion; as a printer. He took to it straightaway and bought a house in Haltemprice St, off the Hawthorn Avenue and filled it with trays of metal type, boxes of paper, card, ink and printing presses. All this in addition to the boxes of Junior Phil music, spare instruments, a piano and much organ music. 

He printed termly diaries and sports fixture cards for Hymers, all the printing for the Hull Musical Festival, newsletters and electoral information for the Liberal Party, concert programmes and so on. Strangely for a mathematician and scientist though, he eschewed the computer age when it arrived. He simply refused to have a smart phone or a computer in the house and also refused to comply with those institutions who required an electronic reply. Pretty soon everyone could do their own printing at home and all those trays of metal letters, numbers and punctuation, all in several fonts, became redundant. 

In the early 1980s when the Common Room was changing from the older guard of post-war schoolmasters to a younger mixed group of teachers, I remember we held a Tasteless Tie and Sock Day. The impartial judge, a modern language assistant who was with us for the term, pointed at David Scotney in his wide kipper tie and matching shirt and awarded him first prize. 

The problem was…. David did not know we were holding a Tasteless Tie and Sock Day…. 

Thank you, David. 

Andrew Penny 

March 2026