Sir Richard Vassar-Smith
Richard Rathborne Vassar–Smith, the school's fourth headmaster, was born in India in 1909 and was the only son of Major Charles Vassar-Smith.
In 1918, he was sent to Saint Ronan’s but, sadly his father died in 1920, when Sir Richard was just an eleven year old.
In 1921, he went onto Lancing (WBH was his housemaster for three years). Lancing was followed by Cambridge and Sir Richard went up to Pembroke College just as had both Stanley and Dick Harris before him. He played for the Varsity XI for three years as well as midfield for the Corinthian Casuals
His mother (always known to the school as simply ‘Mrs Vas’) joined the staff in 1923, taking over the domestic side of school life from Mrs Murray and thus providing ‘feminine warmth’ in a bachelor dominated environment. She served the school until 1948 and thus travelled with the school from West Worthing, to Bicton Park in Devon (1940-45) and then on to Hawkhurst.
After coming down from Cambridge in 1932, Sir Richard joined Lloyds Bank where his grandfather, the first baronet, had been chairman. He also married Mary Dawn Woods in the same year. Five years of banking was, however, enough for him to realise his interests lay elsewhere. He left the bank in 1937 and become a school master before being drawn into the war.
In 1939 he was commissioned into the Royal Artillery, becoming a major in 1943. He was sent to Anti-Aircraft Command and eventually given charge of a battery in the Isle of Dogs. This was one of the early mixed batteries, including girls from the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), which aimed its guns at the Luftwaffe, and in due course at Hitler’s VI ‘Doodlebug’ missiles which droned over London’s suburbs from their launch pads across the Channel
Following demobilisation in 1946, he moved to his old school, Saint Ronan’s. Soon after he became WB Harris’s junior partner.
In August 1957, WB Harris died. In his will, he bequeathed his share of the school to Sir Richard but placed the estate in trust.
In April 1971, Sir Richard transferred the headmastership to his son, Johnny, whilst his daughter, Juliet, assumed Lady Vas’s responsibilities. Both Sir Richard and Lady Vas continued to be intractably involved in the life of the school for the rest of their lives.
Sir Richard died in 1995. Lady Vas died six years later.
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