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MARTIN Burgess, who was deputy headmaster at Buttershaw Upper School from 1988-1992, has died aged 75, writes Bill Marshall. Chairman of the Worth Valley Ward of Keighley Labour Party, Martin was also heavily involved in cricket, playing for Harden in the Bradford Central League and Haworth Road Methodists in both the Bradford Central League and the Craven & District League. Upon retiring as a player, he was umpires’ appointment secretary in the Craven League for 12 years, joining the league’s executive committee in 2016 and becoming league chairman in 2020.
He was made a life member of the league at their last annual meeting in December. Born in Pembury Hospital, near Tunbridge Wells in Kent, Martin attended The Judd School in Tonbridge from 1961-68 before going to the University of London’s Queen Mary College, gaining an Upper Second in medieval and modern history. He then stayed at the University of London, switching to Goldsmiths College where he gained a PGTC (Primary and Secondary Postgraduate Teacher Training) distinction in Theory of Education.
Martin’s first teaching roles were in Cheshire - as a history teacher at Knutsford County High School and Dean Row High School (where he was deputy head of history), Leftwich High School (head of history) and Weaverham High School (head of humanities and the senior teacher in chare of communications). Then came the switch to Buttershaw, and after that Martin was headteacher at three schools in Lancashire - Nelson Edge High School, Skerton High School in Lancaster and Shuttleworth Community School in Burnley. At the last two, Martin worked fixed-term contracts from the local authority to get the schools out of special measures.
As a junior cricketer, Martin played for his school and figured in representative sides such as the Association of Kent Cricket Clubs district teams and Kent Young Amateurs. Clubwise, he played for Paddock Wood Village, mostly on Sundays, and Linden Park, one of two club sides in Tunbridge Wells. Martin also spent a season in New Zealand, playing for Suburbs of Auckland before switching to Essex, representing Woodford Wells in the Truman League.
Having moved up north, he played for Winnington Park in the Cheshire County League and had some success as a coach, helping their under-13s win their Cheshire section before losing to a Lancashire club in the final at Old Trafford prior to his move to Bradford. Martin’s funeral service will be at Oakworth Crematorium on Friday, May 16 (10.45am), but details of where the wake/celebration of his life have yet to be determined.
A minute’s silence - or a minute’s applause, whichever is deemed more appropriate - will be held in memory of Martin before today’s opening-day matches in the Timothy Taylor’s Craven League..
