Issue 7, June 2003 (Back to Contents)

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Mike Hopkins will cease to be Tutor of E Social this summer when he and Frances will have spent fourteen years in the Social at the heart of the school. In 1989 Mike had succeeded Hamish Aird as Tutor and at once he registered his contribution to the highly individual set of personalities of earlier E Social Tutors. Throughout his fourteen years he has shown real understanding of the great diversity of boys who have passed through his Social. He has been the supporter and the developer of the boys in his care and is regarded with enormous respect and affection.

Mike has always been a master of the 'quiet word' - the suggestion or the warning that averts or ameliorates a problem or opens a possibility. Boys frequently discovered they were being disciplined despite there being no change in the expression of their tutor and sometimes without the specific subject being mentioned at all. Mike was perfectly capable of making his displeasure or unease directly felt but he preferred not to let events go so far. In E Social values and behaviour patterns were communicated by gentleness and example. It has been a very powerful approach. Perhaps the most important thing about Mike's approach is that it comes from his own character. He is never playing a part; he expresses the ideas and understanding that come from his own life and experience.

In an age which has seen the development of form-mastering as a means of advancing the academic careers of Radleians, Mike has continued to play a very large part in the process of getting Radleians into university and developing their careers beyond. Many owe their places to his good advice and practical assistance. Bristol University has acquired a fragmentary fame in our own time, but Mike showed long ago that he knew his own university very well indeed and he gave Radleians the benefit of that knowledge. Both Bristol and the Radleians did very well out of it.

Mike and Frances delivered a remarkable level of hospitality on practically all possible occasions in E Social. They were generous and supportive hosts to a huge variety of dons and boys. In a sense, it was difficult to make E Social an exclusive place because its geography placed it at the heart of the school, but Mike and Frances made their guests feel part of an exclusive group who were important and valued. Hospitality occurs at many levels and amongst the most special were the occasions when Mike and a couple of boys might sit watching Saturday night television in companionable silence in the E Social kitchen. Mike and Frances' hospitality ranged from companionable silence to the mayhem of E Social families roaring the chorus of YMCA on top of the tables in Hall during the cultural evening.

I asked a boy from another Social to give a judgment on Mike as a Tutor. The answer came back without hesitation. "A legend."

I can't better that.

Jim Summerly
Mike Hopkins becomes a Senior Master in Michaelmas 2003.

Taking Over - John Beasley

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John & Ann Beasley. Teacher at Eton; Head of Beaudesert Park; Head of History at Abingdon; John takes over as Tutor of E Social in September.