Obituary: Philip James Kerr, former teacher

TRIBUTES have been paid to former headteacher Philip James Kerr, who has died at the age of 87.

Mr Kerr was born on May 1, 1923, the ninth and last child of John Kerr and Mary O'Donnell. He attended St Ann's school and, after the family moved to Orchard Place, he attended Holy Rood School and then Holy Cross Academy.

Upon leaving school in 1940, Mr Kerr worked in a variety of office jobs before joining the Royal Air Force.

After volunteering for military service in 1942, he was commissioned to serve as a navigator in Bomber Command after being transferred from training in Canada.

After four years of service, he returned to Edinburgh in 1946 to work for the Inland Revenue, where he met his future wife Nancy Howden. Before marrying "the love of his life" in St Andrew's Church in 1952, he resolved to enter into the teaching profession, and subsequently enrolled himself on to a degree at Edinburgh University and Moray House College of Education.

The couple had two children, Philip in 1956 and Caroline in 1964.

On graduating, Mr Kerr began a short stint as a mathematics teacher at Ainslie Park Secondary, before moving to Holy Rood School for the next 15 years.

Thereafter he became deputy head at Craigmillar's St Francis' RC Primary. In 1968, he moved on to an equivalent post at St David's RC Primary in Pilton. Two years later, he was promoted to headteacher. Mr Kerr remained in that position for a further 14 years.

Upon retiring in 1984, Mr Kerr spent more time pursuing his interests and assisting in church work.

He served as a voluntary guide on the Royal Mile during the Festival and had previously been active in St Patrick's Scout troop, the local St Vincent de Paul Society, the Lay Apostolate movement and the Scottish Catholic Marriage Advisory Service. He gave much service in his parish of Holy Cross as an extraordinary minister of holy communion and as co-ordinator of the readers. In 1985, on the retiral of Cardinal Gray as archbishop of St Andrews & Edinburgh, he was awarded the papal award Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice.

Mr Kerr also had a regular role in a concert troupe, writing his own material for operettas and pantos, which he often performed in. He passed away in hospital on December 10. The family had lived in Trinity since 1965 but his wife died in 2007. He is survived by his son and daughter.