Remembering Michael Kirk
SH.51-56
Michael Kirk, who has died aged 87, was a leading figure in the refined and tradition-bound world of English boarding schools.
Between 1983 and 1995 Kirk was headmaster of the Royal Hospital School (RHS), at Holbrook, near Ipswich – a school with strong naval traditions which, on his foundations, has achieved an international reputation.
During his 12 transformative years at the RHS he oversaw the construction of the Prince of Wales block, which included a new library, staff common room, and six classrooms. His proudest achievement was the introduction of co-education, along with the meticulous building alterations this required.
He expanded the design and technology department to incorporate art and home economics, and he significantly upgraded the boarding houses. These ambitious projects were achieved through two five-year plans.
Ever self-effacing, Kirk believed the next phase should be left to a new headmaster with fresh ideas and energy.
Born in Grappenhall, Cheshire, on January 25 1938, Michael Allen Barker Kirk attended Malvern College as a boarder. His National Service (1956-58) was spent with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, serving as a highly efficient education officer in Malaya, where he achieved the rank of lieutenant.
Inspired by his father, who had helped to design the floating Mulberry harbours developed by the Admiralty for use on the beaches of Normandy in June 1944, young Kirk read engineering at Clare College, Cambridge (1958-61).
But it was in teaching, and in mathematics in particular, that he found his calling. After a year at the family-run Ramillies Hall prep school, he joined Stowe School, where he taught for 15 years, the last six as housemaster of Walpole. Among his notable pupils were Sir Richard Branson, whom Michael Kirk reputedly advised to forgo university, and the future Admiral Sir George Zambellas, whose naval career he encouraged with pride.
“Mike was endlessly supportive of all his pupils, and particularly kind to my brother and me, in loco parentis whilst my parents were in Rhodesia,” Zambellas recalled. “He enjoyed my technical inquisitiveness, driving my home-built racing kart round the house with gusto.”
Kirk later served on the Admiralty Interview Board, central to the officer selection process for the Royal Navy and Royal Marines.
He went on to be headmaster of Gordon’s School in Woking from 1978 to 1983; while there he gained a BA (Open) in mathematics and music and developed a lifelong interest in Major-General “Chinese” Gordon, before moving to the Royal Hospital School.
While at RHS, Kirk was part-time chairman of the Boarding Schools’ Association, and from 1996 to 1998 served as its secretary. Boarding schools, he believed, needed the BSA to have a more coherent voice, and he became that voice; he also promoted proper training and accreditation for those in pastoral roles in boarding schools.
Kirk combined intellectual rigour with human warmth, a deep sense of duty and a quiet sense of humour. Those who knew him speak of a man who led by example, who believed in the capacity of education to shape character as well as mind, and who listened more than he spoke.
In retirement, Kirk turned with the same dedication to his passions: he reread the novels of Anthony Trollope and Patrick O’Brian, sang in the choir, played the bassoon in chamber groups and orchestras, visited family in Australia, walked in Snowdonia and collected vintage cars.
In 1962 he married Margaret Dawson, who survives him with their two daughters and a son.
Michael Kirk, born January 25 1938, died July 6 2025