Final whistle for former head Ken
Ken Pattinson, who was head of Madeley's Abraham Darby School for 25 years and was also a top international rugby referee who mixed with the legendary greats of the game in the 1970s, has died at the age of 79.
He was one of the youngest heads in Shropshire when he took over at the Abraham Darby, one of the county's biggest schools, in January 1973.
A music lover, under his headship the school's band led by music teacher Colin Jones flourished and became one of the best known school brass bands in the county, winning many prizes. Also during his time, the Abraham Darby opted out of local authority control in 1993, which paved the way for the school to revive its axed sixth form.
He was able to continue his role as a top flight rugby referee, for which he was paid expenses only, through the 1970s, and went on to chair a five-strong committee which selected top officials for matches in the UK. During the1995 Rugby World Cup he went to South Africa as a sort of "talent scout" to help the committee assess each referee.
His high level involvement in the game he loved took him all over the world and continued until only a few years ago in a citing role, watching top games and reporting any off-the-ball incidents.
Some rugby clubs have held a pre-match minute's silence in his honour.
Mr Pattinson retired as Abraham Darby's head in 1998. He had lived at Leighton in retirement but at Ironbridge during his headship.
He died on January 25 and is survived by widow Val, children Martyn and Julie, and grandchildren Jack and Emily.
The funeral is at 3.30pm on February 27 at Telford Crematorium, at which some former pupils plan to play some of his favourite brass band music.
Mrs Pattinson said: "One of the pupils has put him on Facebook and I should think he has had up to 1,000 comments on what a fantastic head he was. It's wonderful to see - he was very strict, and some of them were scared stiff of him, but they respected him so much. He was an old-school headmaster.
"He was a great family man, especially when he retired. He was very proud of his two children and loved his grandchildren.
"He just loved his refereeing days. He was a player but hurt his back and said he would take up refereeing. It was voluntary - he was not paid, it was just a hobby. These were the old days of Gareth Edwards and Barry John and they all knew each other, and the ref went back after the game and drank with them. I don't know if they do that today.
"He was fit, but not like they are today, and would tell a story of how he would be in the changing rooms ready to go on the pitch, and would have a last cigarette."
Mr Pattinson hailed from Ulveston, Cumbria, and was a geography graduate of Liverpool University, where he also took his Certificate of Education. He was the deputy head at Ounsdale Comprehensive School at Wombourne when he landed the job at Madeley.
Before moving to the Wombourne school in 1970 he had taught at Highfields Comprehensive School in Wolverhampton, at a high school in West Bromwich, and a grammar school in Dudley.
He was promoted to the A1 panel of referees in 1971, containing the top refs in England, and had an incident-packed career which included five full internationals.
In his international debut in January 1973 in the Five Nations match between France and Scotland at the new Parc des Princes stadium in Paris, he had to leave the field after only 15 minutes after snapping a tendon in his right leg.
A decision he made during a Scotland v France match at Murrayfield in January 1976 passed into rugby lore. Andy Irvine kicked a penalty but Mr Pattinson ruled it out on the grounds that prop Ian McLauchlan, who was holding the ball steady for Irvine in the windy conditions, was in an offside position. He ruefully admitted he had made a mistake afterwards - it is an exception to the normal offside law.
Mrs Pattinson said: "He was very involved in Stourbridge Rugby Club which took up his time at the end as referees' co-ordinator. He would have a list of all the referees they would have in the season and he would contact them and meet and talk to them before the game and be in charge of them really. He only finished that last year.
"He loved rugby, and loved his school. Some of the local teams have had a minute's silence. Dudley Kingswinford did and I know Ludlow did as well."
The Abraham Darby School as Mr Pattinson knew it no longer exists. It became Abraham Darby Academy, but the buildings were demolished in 2012 and replaced by a new school, which has this month been controversially renamed Haberdashers' Abraham Darby.
