Watson's Radio Club
SK - GM3LCP - John A R Hughes (Staff)
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John Hughes was an enthusiastic teacher of Physics who provided the technical training for the Radio Amateurs' Examination and the Morse Test which resulted in a large number of Watson's pupils gaining their Amateur Radio licences. In collaboration with Tom Simpson, who built and operated the HF station, he was responsible for the great success of the Radio Club in the 1950s and 60s. There are many photographs of him on this website, this being one of the most iconic:
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The following piece was published in the Watsonian of November 1965 after John left Watson's in 1965: Staff Notes:
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LAST session saw another flagrant example of the plundering of our best talent by higher authority when John Hughes was persuaded to move to the Physics department of Jordanhill Training College We accept, of course, that this will be for the greater good of a much greater number in the long run, but we were very loth to part with such a notable member of our staff, and we have good cause, to be grateful for the years of service Mr Hughes has given to Watson's. Much of the success of his teaching must have come from the sheer lucidity of his thought and speech; it was a revelation to hear him reduce a problem—in Physics or in anything else—to its essentials; it is a rare gift. His other interests included the very successful Radio Club, which he ran along with Mr Simpson from its underground hideout behind the Hall, and he also looked after School tennis. Although professing none of the traditional Welsh expert knowledge of Rugby, he had his native land's love of song and for many years was a steadying influence on the basses in the School choir, accompanying them on their trips at home and abroad whenever he could. The staff also knew him as a leading member of that expert group who "process " the weekly class attendance registers, discreetly removing from them the inaccuracies and inconsistencies of some of their sadly innumerate colleagues. John Hughes will be greatly missed, but we wish him well in his important new appointment
John moved to Jordanhill teacher training college in 1965 and made significant contributions to teacher training in Scotland for which he was awarded an OBE (tbc). He and his wife Jean retired to Broughty Ferry near Dundee where he was active in the local amateur radio club. The photos below were taken by GM3PSP during a visit in 1997, a year or two before John became an SK.
