Peter Garwood

Peter Hugh William Garwood (29 May 1931 – 19 April 2020) was an English schoolmaster and inspector for HM Inspectorate of Schools (now Ofsted) in the West Midlands, Devon and Cornwall, and the Channel Islands. Early life Born in Finchley, Garwood was the son of William Garwood, an accountant, and his wife, Kate Manders, and was an only child.

During the Second World War, he was evacuated to Oxfordshire, before rejoining his parents when they moved to Rabley Heath, Welwyn, Hertfordshire. From 1944 he was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College in that county.

For his National Service, Garwood trained at the Mons Officer Cadet School and on 21 October 1950 was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant into the 4th Battalion, the King's African Rifles. He was posted to Nanyuki, where in his troop was a young corporal, Idi Amin, whom he remembered as a good soldier but a violent young man. In May 1954, Garwood was promoted to Lieutenant.

Career After Oxford, Garwood joined the Colonial Development Corporation as a trainee. He resigned his commission on 21 May 1966.

On leaving Canterbury, Garwood got a new job teaching history at King George V Grammar School, Southport, Merseyside. In 1970, he became head of history there. In 1974, he was appointed as head of the Social Studies Department at Banbury Sixth Form College, a comprehensive in Oxfordshire.

In 1977, Garwood joined Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Schools, and until he retired in 1990 was Schools Inspector for the West Midlands, Cornwall, Devon, and the Channel Islands, reported to be "forthright in his judgments". An obituary in The Guardian noted that he had a "natural air of authority which disguised strongly leftwing views that could catch public school heads unawares if they were foolish enough to think that he was 'one of us'." and a daughter born in 1969.

In 1990, the Garwoods retired to West Hill, near Ottery St Mary, Devon, where they lived for thirty years, sharing interests in gardening, books, and family, and setting out to create a "garden paradise". In April 2020, soon after they had moved to Oxfordshire to be closer to grandchildren, of whom they had fifteen, Garwood died, aged 88. He was survived by his wife and children.