Bad day. Meetings which lasted way too long. Last night however after the last entry , a knock on the door. Someone to see us. Mr, Kerr, our headmaster. Very Irish (Northern Ireland, from Belfast) and very potted. But we’ll probably get along. He drinks his liquor hard and straight. Must prove that I do as well.[3]

Robert Kerr   

Bob Kerr meant a great deal to me. He was my first boss and he was a great first boss to have. I was only 22. He was tough and kind at the same time. In light of the Asian expulsion by Idi Amin, I think the Aga Khan Masaka Asian kids got much out of their education there. They were better prepared for a life in Canada, the UK, or the U.S. Most have done very well indeed.

Robert Kerr was headmaster of the Aga Khan Primary and Secondary School (and after 1969 the Aga Khan Masaka Secondary School) between 1964 and 1972. He was born in Northern Ireland in 1922 and died in Wirral, England on January 11, 2011. He and his wife, Rosemary had two children, Pat and Elizabeth. His daughter, Pat Kerr Marr wrote to me about him shortly after his death.

“Dad was in the R.A.F during the war; when he came out, he started work as a Headmaster of a small school in Newcastle County Down, Northern Ireland.  In 1948 he married my mother and they lived there till the end of 1951 when Dad joined the British Army. He was in the Education Corp. They were then posted to Devizes in Wiltshire; then, in 1954 Dad was posted to Nanyuki, Kenya.  From there he was posted to Nairobi where we lived till the end of 1958 when he was posted back to the UK.  In 1959 he finished his time in the Army and joined the R.A.F as a civilian and was posted back to Nairobi to take over as headmaster of the R.A.F school which provided education for the children of serving men and women.

We were there in Nairobi until 1963; then back to the UK for a short while then Dad was posted to Kilembe, Uganda, to take over as headmaster of the school there.  He wasn’t there very long, I think about 12 months, when he was ‘headhunted’ to run the Aga Khan School in Masaka.  He was there from 1964 to 1972, during which time the school expanded and modernized under his headship, merging with Masaka Senior Secondary School in 1969.

When he came back to the UK in 1972 he did a bit of supply teaching, then was offered a job as Headmaster of the Federal college, Port Harcourt, Nigeria so off he and mum went to Nigeria.  Again it was like the Aga Khan School where he expanded and modernized it.   He came back to the UK in 1976. Then he went out to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia for a year teaching adults at the Air force base there.

When he finally came home to the U.K. he changed his career path completely.  He became a Golf Club Secretary, (as you know one of his great loves!)  First going to Worcester Golf and Country Club (3yrs) from there he moved to Broome Park, Kent where he was the General Manager.  Broome Park was Lord Kitchener’s old family estate and it was turned into a Golfing Time Share, with luxury villas, etc.  He ran that for 3 years.  Then he decided it was time to move back to this part of England and live in his own house.  He got the job as Secretary of Leasowe Golf Club here on the Wirral, where he stayed for 16 years till he finally retired at the age of 72.

My Dad had a very full and eventful life.  He had many hobbies, and interests, Amateur dramatics, sailing, and was a very keen sports man, playing rugby, football and cricket, and when he felt too old to play he became a referee.  He also was very handy and made wooden cars, rocking horses and dolls’ houses, as well as many, many tapestries.  He is very greatly missed by all of us.”