Mr Fox is one of our longest serving staff members at Gordon’s School, so we were bound to give him an interview. Two of the youngest members of The Quarterly Gazette team (Y7s) sat down with him for our iconic Team Behind the Team series.
If you were to teach a subject other than marching, what would it be?
“I would teach Geography because of the navigation you do in it. I have taught navigation for years.”
What has been your biggest honour?
“Every time I march the parade with the pupils, I feel blessed.”
How do you feel Gordon’s marching replicates the army?
“Well, the army don’t really do much marching apart from the Household division, really.”
What do you think is the best school meal?
“The Sunday lunch with the Yorkshire puddings is my favourite.”
What do you think of the new Year 7s Marching?
“I think they’re keen as mustard, I’m very hopeful.”
What are your Longmore predictions?
“It’s hard to predict, anyone can win!”
What hobbies do you have?
“I used to motorbike and do triathlons when I was younger but now, I go swimming and walking.”
What is the one thing in marching that gets you annoyed?
“When people give bad attitude it really annoys me because marching is really all about the attitude.”
What impact do you think you have had on the school?
“I think you would have to ask somebody else from the school.
Several former students have been in the army; a student is now spying on criminals; a former pupil built a village in Africa, and a pupil messaged the other day who is now running a mental health group for men.
I train my students by military standards, one of the best parts of the job for me. But you have to work up to becoming these, I still remember these pupils as Year 7s.”
As some people may know, Mr Fox was in a major Hollywood war movie in the 70’s named, ‘A Bridge Too Far’ so we had to ask him about it.
What was it like to film with the movie stars of the 70’s?
Scary! I had to jump from a Dakota aircraft with one door, one at a time. It was relatively safe – as long as you don’t collide. There were only eleven aircraft. The twists in the parachute were quite dangerous. I was always scared but I just had to get out of the door – it could be described as controlled chaos!”
Why are the parachute regiment better than the marines?
“Because the Paras have way harder training leading up to their red beret.”
How were you selected for the film?
“You see, there were only one battalion available to do it in 1976 and that was us!”
Funniest story from the army?
“When we were at Edinburgh Castle and we put laxatives in our Sargant Majors’ tea when the Queen was coming so he kept going to the toilet!”
- Harry and Henry, Y7
Mr Fox lives by these words from Chuck Swindoll:
Words can never adequately convey the incredible impact of our attitude toward life. The longer I live the more convinced I become that life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how we respond to it.
I believe the single most significant decision I can make on a day-to-day basis is my choice of attitude. It is more important than my past, my education, my bankroll, my successes or failures, fame or pain, what other people think or say about me, my circumstances, or my position. Attitude keeps me going or cripples my progress. It alone fuels my fire or assaults my hope. When my attitude are right, there’s no barrier too high, no valley too deep, no dream too extreme, no challenge too great for me.