Mr Joseph Richard Sutcliffe, Headmaster: “Perhaps not surprisingly, given this bad feeling, it was perhaps only a matter of time before the Council found an excuse to dismiss him. The headmaster was stripped of his control in one of the most dramatic incidents in the school’s history when the Council refused to support his decision to expel and punish pupils for their part in what became known as ‘The Dancing Class Incident’ at Merton Hall. Normally unremarkable events, dancing classes were run by Alan ‘Pansy’ Finlayson and his sister Janet at Merton Hall on Friday nights for separate senior and junior classes of boys and girls from both school.
School Corporal Punishment History70
