Obituary: David Greenwood

December 2024

Your chairman was saddened to hear the news of David Greenwood's passing ealier this month.  David was known to many from his service in Gibraltar, Berlin and Detmold, where he was headteacher of Sir John Mogg School.  Our thoughts are with Linda and sons Thomas and Simon.  

David's funeral was held at South Oxfordshire Crematorium on Wednesday 22nd January. 

David's career with MoD Schools began with SCEA .... 

St George's School, Gibraltar, 1975 - 78

York School, Munster, 1978 - 80

Cagliari School, Sardinia, 1980 - 83

Charlottenburg, Berlin, 1983 - 93

Sir John Mogg School, Detmold, 1993 - 2008

He was awarded the MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours in June 2001 for services to MoD Children's Education.

Mike Chislett writes: 

I was able to attend on 22^nd and met up with several former MoD Schools' colleagues as well as members of David's family and friends. David's last headship in SCE, Sir John Mogg School in Detmold, was well represented. David and Linda both taught there after moving from Charlottenburg when Berlin closed. Before that, they had been the entire teaching staff of Cagliari, Sardinia. Linda and David had met in Gibraltar in 1976 – where Linda was already teaching when David joined the school for his first SCEA posting.

I had known David since before I joined SCE (as MoD Schools was known in 1998). He was the headteacher on the panel for my interview in London. I remember his polite amusement when I entered the interview room by mistake, before being invited and had to retreat again. When I took up the 'Inspector-Adviser' post later that year, SJ Mogg was allocated to me, so I became a regular visitor. David was the consumate, outwardly-calm professional – always kind and considerate with children, parents, staff and visitors. The school was a beacon of careful, even meticulous organisation and a rigorously attractive learning environment. David was awarded a well-deserved MBE in 2001 for services to Forces Families and Community: one of the memorable photographs at 22^nd January's service showed him collecting the award from Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace.

David had to attend kidney dialysis sessions several time a week during the later years of this headship. Sessions were in the evenings, since David refused to use the school's time for his treatment. Ultimately, the need for a kidney transplant and continued treatment led to a reluctant early-retirement in 2008 and a spell living once again in Berlin. The new kidney, donated by David's sister, eventually failed and was replaced a few years later by an anonymous 'perfect-match', which gave David and Linda renewed freedoms to travel and spend time away from hospitals.

Despite starting life in Lancashire and expecting to retire to Morecambe Bay, David and Linda settled just a few years ago in Oxfordshire, close to their sons. David leaves Linda, his wife of 48 years, Tom and Simon and a very young grandson – Rafe.