The headmaster of my school was nicknamed ‘Skull’
Lumsden. One Oxford definition states a skull, originally, was a head of an
Oxford college, slang that shifted to Australia and America as a head, chief,
or expert. My headmaster’s vast bald cranium loomed above a veined high
forehead. Numerous teachers endeavoured to get things through my thick skull
but, ironically, not ‘Skull’. Both shy and reticent, we barely passed a word in
all the time I was there. His Speech Night platitudes were those typically
practised by adults. By January holidays I’d quite forgotten ‘Skull’, till Term
One came around, again.
