| Mr. Terry Chamberlain succeeded Mr. Hinton in 1967 as QES' third principal. He served until 1970. He is now retired in England. Unfortunately, he suffers from Parkinson's disease. According to Mr. Hinton, who visited him twice last year, Mr. Chamberlain can only walk a few steps with the help of a zimmer (British term for walker). Mr. Chamberlain is well remembered by many of his students. If you were a student before 1970, these essays might rekindle some fond memories. And, if you like to send him good wishes, his address is: 6 Evesham Road Mr. Terry Chamberlain, An Irish Teacher and Cambridge Scholar 伍煒國 Edward Ng (1957) My fond memory of Mr. Chamberlain goes back almost 5 decades. He was undoubtedly my best high school teacher, whose influence led me to choose a career in Applied Mathematics. Whether we pursued math, pure or applied sciences, or engineering, we’re certainly able to apply the inspiration, skills and discipline imparted to us by Mr. Chamberlain. Many years later, upon more exposure to the academic world, I learned that his methodical approach and discipline came from a tradition of academic excellence – his alma mater Cambridge University. Two classmates followed even closer to Mr. Chamberlain’s footpaths - into teaching mathematics. June Dandliker (nee Cheng Ka-Yuk), remembers him with these loving thoughts: “I went to QES after I had done School Cert. in 1957 for 2 years of Form 6. He taught Pure and Applied Mathematics and we took Advanced levels in the summer of 1958. It was quite a feat because this was a fairly large group of students who bypassed the Ordinary levels and did Advanced levels in one year. After the A-levels, Mr. Chamberlain helped me get ready for the Cambridge University entrance exam in November. I used to show up at his flat once in a while during the summer for help. When I was at Cambridge, he invited me one winter when he was on leave to Belfast, Ireland to visit his family. They took me all over and I had a great time. I have been teaching math in high school in California for almost 40 years now, and I think of Mr. Chamberlain often.” Peter Woo (Yum-Poon) received distinctions in mathematics throughout high school, and went on to study at Hong Kong University, graduating with honors. After that he obtained a Doctorate and has been a professor of Mathematics ever since. If I had to use only a few words to describe Mr. Chamberlain’s teaching style, I would say “VIP” - for Vitality, Intelligence and Passion. His teaching was always lively, making an otherwise dead subject into a vital display of reason and intelligence. His passion was contagious. I recall that he would hold special sessions on Saturdays for either special advanced instructions or remedial help. Many students took advantage of these sessions and went far beyond the ordinary curriculum. One classmate specifically came to mind, Yam-Tse Chiu, who passed away in 1999. He was so advanced that he mastered calculus in Form 4, and subsequently went on to receive his Doctorate and become a space physicist. Dimensional Analysis was one meticulous approach that Mr. Chamberlain left as an indelible mark on my repertoire of skills. Years later, I had to publish a scientific paper as requirement for an advanced degree. When the Editor returned comments and suggestions for revision, he specifically cited my methodical care in Dimensional Analysis in a 6-dimensional set of equations. Interestingly, the Editor happened to be a Cambridge scholar. There was a lighter side to Mr. Chamberlain. Long before karaoke became popular, he was the great-grandfather to this style of sing-along. Donald Lam (Kwok-Fu) remembered that after the finals, Mr. Chamberlain would bring his recorder to let those with the golden voice flaunt their talent. Don also remembered his “smiling Irish eyes” this way, ”Mr. Chamberlain made great efforts in learning to say our Chinese names correctly. He always made good eye contact when he talked to us and we would always see the twinkle in his big round Irish eyes.” Mr. Terry Chamberlain 胡蔭磐 Peter Y. Woo (1957) Here are my three recent tributes to Mr. Chamberlain: · I have been teaching calculus for 16 years. One day I told my students, "You people are so lucky to have me as your teacher, all because of Mr. Terry Chamberlain, who influenced me in my high school days to choose a career in math." · In various math classes, I enjoy with devilish glee forcing the American youths to memorize the 12-line poem of trigonometry. "I want you to memorize it, not because we Asians like to memorize things (and force others to do so), but because I was taught such, by an Irishman teacher, Mr. Chamberlain. Here it goes: Sin sum equals sin cos plus cos sin, If you don't like memorizing these 12 lines, then you might as well memorize chapter 8 of the book of Romans in the Bible. The choice is yours . . . . " · On another occasion I was teaching partial fractions techniques in second semester calculus. There was a trick taught by Mr. Chamberlain to express something such as (2x+5)/(x+1)(x+2)(x+3) as A/(x+1) + B/(x+2) + C/(x+3). Mr. Chamberlain taught us a nice trick to compute A, B, C. So I told my students that this trick is called the “Irishman's Method”, in honor of him. Really, I treasure the numerous times that Mr. Chamberlain made us chant the "12-line poem" in class, day after day. He taught me math from Form 4 to 6, (equivalent to 10th to 12th grade in American high schools) from 1955 to 58. Back in the 1950's students had to memorize many, many things, and we Chinese are good at that. We memorized Tang poems, many verses in Confucius' Analects, quite a few essays of Han Yu, Liu ZhongYuan, and other scholars, numerous dates in world history, chemical formulas, for example, some 14 properties of chlorine and 20 properties of benzene under the merciful pedagogy of Mr. Chu Ka Fai. I regrettably did not, but others did, memorize English poetry, Shakespeare, or modern Chinese prose, or biological subjects. Before Mr. Chamberlain came, in Form 3, we were taught math by a Mr. Kell. He was not as loving to us kids as Mr. Chamberlain, and I frustrated him once by asking him an innocent geometry problem which had him spend hours on it. Even so, he could not solve it unless he used trigonometry, which we did not learn till Form 5, and the next morning he almost "threw the book" at me. So when we had Mr. Chamberlain for the first time in Form 4, we noticed he was kinder, nicer, and never got angry. One day someone in class did something messy and very untidy. I forgot whether it was homework or something else. Mr. Chamberlain saw it, and exclaimed "Aiyah!" which got us laughing like crazy. In Cantonese "Aiyah" means "a frightful surprise", such as when you go into the kitchen and discover 3000 ants all crawling happily over spilled food on the floor. I began to notice that Mr. Chamberlain became "lazy" by giving us less homework, but doing more problems in class with our participation. High school teachers in Hong Kong carry an inhumane load of teaching some 5 hours of classes per day, like us teaching 25 undergrad units per week, plus Saturday. So Mr. Chamberlain managed to have us work under his nose during class, and he learned to call us by our Chinese names. Result: we all did better. My classmate Ng Wai Kwok asked me whether I remember how many distinctions and credits we got in math back those years. I vaguely recall that our achievements in math and chemistry paralleled those of Queen's College, and we always beat King's College. We did beat QC once. And we were better than Wah-Yan or DBS. The only school we were no match with was St Paul's Co-ed. (If some of you can check the School Cert and Matric results as reported in South China Morning Post back then, it will be appreciated. SCMP has a storeroom of all the newspapers from 1940 till now, at their office near Taikoo City.) As another tribute to Mr. Chamberlain, these days I repurchased some of the textbooks he used in those days, which I collect with fondness. From British used bookstores such as www.abebooks.com, I ordered C.V.Durell's "A Geometry for Schools", but I could not get Durell and Robson's "A New Trigonometry for Schools". I also bought in HK some paperback version of S.L.Green's "Advanced Level Pure Mathematics", and Nightingale's "Higher Physics", which was a great help to me in those days, but I never got a distinction in physics in my whole life. Just before School Cert Exam, Mr. Chamberlain brought a heavy box to class one day. It was a tape recorder. Cassettes were not yet invented. He would encourage all of us to say something in English on tape, and then he played it back. I got the most embarrassing moment in my life, as I stammered and muttered what thoughts that came to my mind that day. But I appreciate greatly his creative ideas in helping us with our spoken English. Just a few years ago I reconnected with him and wrote him a letter, "I'm Woo Yam Poon, whom you taught from 1955 to 58, Form 4 to L6 . . . I wonder whether you still remember me?" He replied (in my own words, because I cannot find his letter now) , "I remember you real well, as well as Ko OnYim, . . . Perhaps I had a deep impression of the classes I first taught in HK. I caught you reading a book (under the desk) one day during class. But then I discovered it was Calculus. So I let you off, with a warning not to do it again. You were 2 years ahead of the class.” I truly did not remember such a thing, because we all often read other books under the desk, especially during lectures by boring teachers. But Mr. Chamberlain was never boring. Of course I told him about the above mentioned three episodes. He was quite amused. Finally, one more great thing about Mr. Chamberlain: The syllabus of Advanced Level pure math for Matriculation includes too many topics, and most teacher would drop a few of them. He however, managed to find time to teach us a chapter on circle inversions, which is a part of modern geometry invented by Steiner in the 19th century. It is a technique that can solve some plane geometry problems involving circles. What it did for me was: Today I am one of the handful of people in the world that can solve such problems, as published in a Canadian math magazine, the Crux Mathematicorum, if such technique is applicable. My solutions to these problems got published a few times, and I am greatly indebted to Mr. Chamberlain. Mr. Chamberlain - ham radio operator 孫忠耀 Edward Sun (1962) Though not taught by Mr. Chamberlain in class, I did have some interaction with him. He was the supervising teacher for Wireless Club, of which I was an active member. Having found out that he was a ham radio operator, I kept pestering him about ways to get a license. In the beginning he was not aware that, in the aftermath of Korean War, the colonial government was very strict about letting people own radio transmitters. He thought that one can simply take an exam as he did (in UK) and get it. Later, we found out that the applicant must be a British subject, which was what put an end to my pursuit, having been born in China mainland. He was always gentle and friendly to me and other students. We always laugh at the sight of him, a large man, getting in and out of his Mini. I have fond memories of my days building lie-detector as a Wireless Club member and the telescope as an Astronomy Club member. Bearded Math Teacher 潘天佑 Peter Poon (1960) Mr. Terry Chamberlain was a first-rate Mathematics teacher. When I was a teenager, I thought people with beards must be rough and tough. On the contrary, Mr. Chamberlain was one of the most gentle teachers I ever had. He was innovative in his teaching, and was well-respected by all. I remember several of us in my class wanted to learn Calculus a year before the course was offered. To our great surprise and delight, Mr. Chamberlain agreed to teach us Calculus on Saturday mornings for about two months and would not accept any compensation. |