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A WYLLIE
COMMENDABLE
PERFORMANCE
“It is awfully hard work doing nothing. However, I don’t mind hard
work where there is no definite object of any kind.” So declares
Algernon Moncrieff, Oscar Wilde’s witty, food-loving hero in Act 1
of The Importance of Being Earnest. It is a line that Heriot’s own
witty, food-loving hero - Principal Cameron Wyllie - knows well, having
performed the part some 28 times in the Fringe 25 years ago. And
it perhaps sums up his views on what he thinks his approaching
retirement will be like after a total of 39 years at Heriot’s – 13 as a
pupil followed by 26 as a teacher, broken only by university, teacher
training and 11 years at Stewart Melville’s College in the 1980s – a
period he has been heard to refer to jocularly as his ‘missionary work’. Cameron likes cake.
literally had people knocking at his door to But they were increasingly supportive as
they realised how much my job meant to
offer him jobs after graduating top of his
me.”
class at Moray House. He could have been
a lawyer (4 out of his 5 UCAS application It was a decision that was heavily influenced
were for Law) but a sudden realisation that
he wanted to be an English teacher set him
by his own experience as a pupil at Heriot’s
on a course that has seen him positively
in the classroom of James Caw, teacher of
influence the lives of thousands of young English at Heriot’s from 1955 until 1990.
people.
“There is no doubt whatsoever that the
“The realisation I wanted to be a teacher was
a Damascene moment; a real blinding light reason I became a teacher was that I was
brilliantly taught English here by the late
thing and I remember it well,” he says. “My Jimmy Caw. He was a fantastic teacher: I
parents weren’t very pleased as I think they remember in the first period we had with
Amateur drama will be back on Mr thought that teaching wasn’t the same kind him he made a joke and I laughed. ‘Don’t
Wyllie’s to-do list when he retires at of thing as being a lawyer. My brother was a let your dog eat your jotter or it will get dog-
Christmas, along with reading, writing, lawyer and I think my mother liked the idea eared’, he said and, recognising that it was
of having an English lawyer and a Scottish
a joke, I alone laughed in the class and he
improving his Spanish, taking a greater lawyer just in case she got caught! My father looked at me with some pleasure and asked
interest in Scottish art and film, travelling
and honing his skills as a domestic god. had always wanted us to do things where we me what kind of joke it was and I said it was
He says his career trajectory has been down would definitely have a higher standard of a pun. And he said ‘very good’ and I felt
“I’m very keen on house and garden so to ‘incredible luck’ but this is someone who living than him and he did quite well himself. somehow I had arrived.
I’m going to be domestic,” he muses, and
then adds, “Might start baking...” trailing
off as if to contemplate his first creation.
“I need not to be too lazy and I need
to do something that gives me a bit
of mental discipline. I’m going to be a
trustee of a couple of charities and I’m
also open to offers. If anyone wants to
employee me as a consultant at £175 an
hour then that would be great.”
This, I think, is said tongue in cheek. But
it is a fact that Mr Wyllie has a lot to say
about education and the teaching of
young people that people want to hear.
This is after all a man who has played
a very big part in making Heriot’s the
School it is today: as Head of English;
as Head of the Senior School; as Acting
Principal and for the last three years
as Principal. He is proud of the part he
has played but downplays his personal
achievement.
“Due to the efforts of a great many
people the School is in a very good place
just now. I’d like to think I’ve left my
stamp on it but so have lots of other
people. There is a certain direction it
has gone in and that is to a place where
young people do very well academically
because they are encouraged to work
hard, everyone tries hard to be nice to
one another, they are looked after very
well and there are a lot of extra-curricular
things going on so it’s a lot of fun.” Primary 2 in 1964. Cameron is pictured in the second row, fourth from right.