Bertie Bellis
Headmaster, 1975-86
Bertie Bellis arrived at The Leys as its sixth headmaster in August 1975. As a son of the manse, his appointment represented a return to the tradition of non-conformist Methodist leadership established under the school’s first four headmasters.
For Bertie, school mastering was a vocation. After graduating from St John’s College Cambridge, where he had been an exhibitioner in mathematics, he taught first at Rossall and then Highgate (where he was head of mathematics and a housemaster) before moving to Edinburgh as headmaster of Daniel Stewart’s. There he oversaw significant new building projects as well as the merger of his school with Melville College, becoming the first principal of the combined school, Stewart’s Melville, with 1450 boys.
A respected figure in the academic community, Bertie served as President of the Mathematical Association from 1971 to 1972 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1972.
Bertie’s tenure at The Leys coincided with national economic challenges resulting in a series of refurbishment and reconstruction projects rather than new build. Significant latterly was the creation of Granta House and the admission of girls to the sixth form in 1984. At the same time an appeal was launched which led to the building of all-weather tennis courts and the construction of the Percy Rugg Centre.
The energy evident in all these projects was underpinned by what the chairman of governors at the time described as Bertie’s “enormous thought and care and good judgement” shown about decisions involving people. This contributed strongly to and maintained the school’s ethos of caring for individuals in a friendly and unforced way.
In all that he did Bertie was supported by his wife Joan and together they made the Headmaster’s house and gardens warm and welcoming for staff, pupils and visitors alike.
Words by Tim Bellis, Bertie’s son