Tributes paid to Felpham college founder

Brian Swanton was appointed deputy head of Bognor Regis School in 1969, and on January 1, 1974, took up the position of founding headmaster at Felpham Comprehensive School, now Felpham Community College.

Son Mark said: “He just had a great passion and a lot of former staff have said it was the most friendly school they have worked in.

“We still get people coming up and saying how much they respected him.”

Mr Swanton retired from the college in 1987, at the age of 56.

A lover of reading, he was also passionate about the theatre and films.

He was a great traveller, and over the years he and wife Mary went all over the world, from Russia to Canada to Yugoslavia and much more.

He had seven grandchildren, aged from eight to 22, who all knew him as Grandpa.

He also carried out a lot of charity and community work. This included volunteering on the hospital’s shop trolley round at St Richard’s Hospital, as part of the Friends of Chichester Hospitals charity .

Mr Swanton will be having a natural burial at the Sustainability Centre, and will be buried alongside his son Ian, who passed away seven years ago at the age of 36.

Mr Swanton died at St Richard’s Hospital on October 17, aged 80.