Brian Needham, receives MBE for 'services to The Duke of Edinburgh's Award and Young People'
Brian meeting the Duke of Edinburgh - photo source, B. Needham.
Brian Needham, MBE, MA (Oxon), FRGS
Brian Needham was honoured to receive an MBE in the New Year Honours List 2007 “for services to The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and Young People”.
His first contact The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme (as it was then titled) was as a scout in the late1950’s working towards the Queen’s Scout Award when the Scout Master suggested that it might be an idea to go in for this new award, introduced in 1956. The suggestion was rejected unanimously by the Patrol Leaders, on the grounds that it was a new-fangled thing, and anyway would not last!
Up at Oxford a decade later, and a keen mountaineer, he was recruited by a local Venture Scout Unit to help train participants for the expedition section, and so commenced a forty-year (to date) involvement. On taking an economics and history teaching appointment at Oakham School (Rutland) in 1971 he was involved with training and supervising expeditions at all three levels (Bronze, Silver, and Gold) and took over the running of the unit in 1974. At that stage there were around thirty participants, all male; by the time he retired from Oakham School in 1998, well over three hundred were involved, male and female, and expeditions were not only on foot in the mountains, but by canoe, by bike, and even by horse. Exact details of Awards gained before 1974 were hazy, but by the time that he retired in 1998 it was evident that very soon Oakham would become the first individual establishment worldwide to gain over a 1000 gold awards, which feat was accomplished sometime in 2000 (together with over 1250 silver awards and over 1500 bronze awards), celebrated when HRH The Duke of Edinburgh visited the school in November 2000 to present that 1000th. gold award (see photo).
Running an organization of such a size, in addition to a full teaching timetable as Head of Faculty plus other sporting and cultural activities, would have been quite impossible had it not been for a succession (some very long-term, others more transitory) of colleagues willing to give of their time, not just on weekly sessions but also at week-ends and during school vacations, to train, supervise, and encourage those thousands of pupils, not just in expeditionary skills, but also in the requirements of voluntary service, physical activity, and leisure skills. Perhaps he is most proud of the way in which in invited and encouraged Old Oakhamians back to assist in Practice and Assessment expeditions, a period during which their own mountain skills grew as they learned the techniques necessary to ensure the safety of their young charges (some just a couple of years younger than themselves). There were others who began teaching themselves, and ran the scheme in their own schools. Finally, there were the parents and friends of parents, motivated originally by their own offsprings’ exploits, but continuing to offer their help for many years. Establishing a set programme, but one which ensured that the nine mountain experiences (two full poractices and an assessment expedition at each level of Bronze, Silver and Gold) took participants to nine different areas of Britain’s wild country (the Peaks, the Lakes, the Dales, Snowdonia, the Bercon Beacons, Dartmoor, the Pennines, the North York Moors, the Cheviots, and even – perhaps especially - into Scotland’s north-west) enabled him to establish experienced teams of support, people who knew the ground well, and who were able to manage the risks involved in the most prudent manner possible, whatever the time of year and whatever the weather. Of course there were problems and alarms, as groups went off course, or when the weather was really foul, but the groups proved themselves time after time to be well trained, well equipped, well motivated, and worthy award winners. There is a thin line between enterprise and foolhardiness, and his greatest fear over the years 1971-1998 would be that somewhere along the way that line would be transgressed; but it never was, not quite!
Retiring from Oakham School in 1998, he took up a three year post as Head of Economics at Kamuzu Academy in Malawi, and wasted no time there in starting up The President’s Award (an exact equivalent to The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and all encompassed within The International Young People’s Award). By the time he left three years later, many students had gained both bronze and silver awards and some were just commencing gold training.
Back in England, and now living in the North Pennines, he is involved with the Expedition Wild Country Panels of the area, advising and assessing expedition groups which choose that part of the country for their exploits.
While the MBE has been awarded mainly for his involvement with The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award over a forty year period, there has been additional involvement over a wide area of youth expedition work. While at Oakham he served on the Department of Education’s Outdoor Activities Advisory Committee, and the Training Committee of the British Mountaineering Council. From Oakham he led on expeditions to Svalbard (for which he gained a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship), the Sahara, Papua New Guinea, Kenya, Iceland, Peru, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Nambia. For The British Schools Exploring Society he led on expeditions to Iceland on four occasions, to Nepal, to Greenland, to the Yukon twice, and to Montana in the USA, and served on that organisation’s governing Council from 1981 to 2005, retiring as Vice-Chairman. He introduced BETA (now BELA) into the Oakham optional curriculum, and was Course Director for almost a decade. Finally, he has been involved since the late 1970’s with The Young Explorer’s Trust, the umbrella organization for British Youth Exploration Societies, which seeks to promote safe and responsible expeditioning, serving as long-term Treasurer (during which time he assisted in the establishment of the Expeditions Advisory Centre at The Royal Geographical Society) and now as Chairman of the Expeditions and Training Committee and a Vice-Chairman of the Expeditions Screening Panel.