A fellow Biology teacher, Craig was my unofficial subject mentor at Stover as I navigated my way through teaching A Level for the first time. He was like a human encyclopaedia. I could always rely on him to explain a tricky concept or suggest a great resource. I imagine the majority of our A level Biologists can still remember the structure and function of skeletal muscle, thanks to the working sliding filament models they built out of straws and match heads in the Biol lab. 

He loved to have animals in school, a tradition we have continued. I was confronted on my first day by his tank of giant African land snails, which I learned to appreciate if not love. He was so concerned about the fate of the Bearded Dragons in the event of a fire that he built an 'evacuation pod' for them out of an old shoe box. And he spent his final afternoon at school before he retired playing with my new dog, instead of clearing out his office in the 6th form centre. 

He loved to play tricks. Us Science teachers had to be careful to lock our computer screens if we left them, or he'd sneak on and send emails to the whole school from our accounts. He once offered my car for sale for a tenner, including petrol! And every year when teaching about diabetes, I would have to keep a close eye on my pretend urine samples made with tea, since the time he told me he'd swapped it for the real thing AFTER I'd shown the pupils how nurses used to test it for sweetness!

I have missed him loads since he retired and I can't believe he's no longer with us. A wonderful and generous man, who made life that bit more fun, we will keep his memory alive at Stover with our reminiscences of Mr Baillie. 

Much love

Angie