My friend Keith Neal, who has died aged 84, taught biology at Manchester grammar school (MGS) for 23 years, turning it from an elite, esoteric A-level to one of the most popular subjects at GCSE.
As head of department, and ardent environmentalist, he enthused his students through his knowledge and adventurous field trips. He was an internationalist, taking students to India in 1988 and 1993, and on a groundbreaking trip to China in the late 1990s.
He went to Africa 26 times. He visited Sierra Leone 15 times between 2002 and 2012, to help deliver courses on the moral foundations of democracy, following brutal civil war. He was an ambassador for the charity SolarAid. This took him to Kenya in 2018 to promote solar lamps, replacing polluting kerosene lanterns.
Keith established a link between MGS and Busoga college in Uganda, supporting the Busoga Trust and donating money for wells and textbooks. He visited Busoga in 1992, returning there in 1995 and 1999. Mancunians donated 86 computers to Busoga college.
Keith was born in Cirencester, the son of the biologist Ernest Neal, a world authority on badgers, and Betty (nee Thomson), who was also a science graduate. When Keith was eight, the family moved from the Cotswolds to Somerset. His father taught biology at Taunton school, where Keith was educated. He enjoyed cross-country running and summer scout camps.
His parents’ influence on him was scientific and Christian, his paternal grandfather being a Baptist minister. Keith was a church warden, and kept up daily prayer, quiet reflection and Bible reading. He and I were both involved with the global Initiatives of Change interfaith movement.
Keith studied natural sciences at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. While there he met Ruth Candy, and they married in 1965. He taught biology at Harrow county school for 15 years, and at MGS from 1976.
After his retirement in 1999, Keith began clearing litter from the streets near his home in Altrincham, in his commitment to saving wildlife and the environment. After the Covid lockdown in 2020, he made this a daily clean-up, covering a three-mile circuit of rural lanes around Wythenshawe and near Manchester airport. His aim was to have completed 1,000 such circuits, totalling 3,000 miles, before his 85th birthday, which would have been this year. In 2022 he collected 1,400kg of litter, filling 284 large bin bags. His efforts reduced the rubbish in the area by an estimated 25%. He even counted the number of cigarette butts – 11,250 in 2022.
He is survived by Ruth, their children, Peter, Margaret and Rob, four grandchildren, and his two younger brothers, David and Andrew.
First published on the website of The Guardian, 18 May 2023
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