SIR GILBERT FLEMMING

Sir Gilbert Flemming, KCB, who was Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Education from 1952 to 1959, died on October 24. He was 84. He was the son of Mr Percy Flemming, the eye surgeon.

Born in 1897 he was educated at Rugby. He served in the 1914-18 War, in which he was wounded. He then went to Trinity College, Oxford where among his contemporaries were Sir Charles and Sir Philip Morris, with whom his career was to be so closely linked in later years.

He came down in 1921, without a degree, in order lo enter the Board of Education. All his career was spent in that department with the exception of the period 193943 during which he served first in the Cabinet Office and then in the Office of the Minister of Production. As for so many of his generation promotion was slow and it was not until 1942 that he became-Assistant Secretary.

Promoted Under Secretary on his return to the Ministry of Education in 1943, he was responsible for planning and putting into operation the scheme under which men and women from the Forces were given a short but intensive training to equip them as teachers. This Emergency Training scheme was a highly novel and successftul piece of administration. It brought into the profession some much needed additions of good quality and so made possible the raising of the school leaving ago to 15 as early as 1947.

Subsequently Flemming became responsible for all

teacher training and put into effect the reformns recommended by the McNair Committee. He was promoted to Deputy Secretary in 1950 and in 1952 he became Permanent Secretary.

With his humanist sympathies and intellectual integrity, Flemming was no respecter of ancient shibboleths. He wanted to know the reason why, and to be satisfied that the reasons adduced stood up to rational scrutiny.

He had married in 1931 Virginia, daughter of Dr Stanton Coit, by whom he had four children, and his final year of office was clouded by illness in his family. But though he was at the time carrying a nearly intolerable burden, he never allowed it to affect his work. Later, after his retirement, the clouds lifted and he was able to resume a more active life. The variety of the tasks he then undertook is itself a testimony both to the width of his interests and to the wide respect in which his abilities were held.

He was chairman of the governing body of the National College of Agricultural Engineering from 1960 and a member of the Restrictive Practices Court from 1960 to 1964. In 1960 he was appointed chairman of the commission that reviewed Civil Service salaries in the East African Territories. In 1961 he undertook an inquiry into the grading structure of the Department of the Clerk of the House of Commons, while in 1963 he was engaged on, an inquiry into the scope for dispersing Civil Service...