Michael Singleton

George Michael Singleton, CBE, MC, TD (12 May 1913 – 11 December 2002) was an English schoolmaster, soldier and first-class cricketer. The son of a headmaster of The Elms School at Colwall, near Malvern, he succeeded his father in the post and ran the school from 1946 until 1973.^a A Military Cross-winning infantry officer in the Second World War and widely known as Colonel Michael Singleton, he became in 1974 the first High Sheriff of Hereford and Worcester.¹²

Singleton was born at Repton, Derbyshire, on 12 May 1913, the son of a schoolmaster who in 1916 became headmaster of The Elms, a preparatory school at Colwall founded in 1614 in the lee of the Malvern Hills.¹ He was the eldest of four brothers: Sandy Singleton captained Oxford University and Worcestershire at cricket; John farmed in Scotland; and Tim became President of the Law Society and was knighted.¹³

After Uppingham, Singleton won an Exhibition to Pembroke College, Cambridge, and afterwards taught at West Down School near Winchester before joining his father as a master at The Elms.¹

Singleton played a small amount of first-class cricket, appearing once for Cambridge University and twice for Worcestershire. A left-arm spinner, he took five wickets and scored 34 runs in his five innings.³⁴ He also played for the Free Foresters and I Zingari.³¹

On the outbreak of war in 1939 Singleton raised a company of the Hereford Light Infantry.⁵¹ He was seconded to the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and landed in France shortly after the D-Day landings, going on to fight across Belgium and the Netherlands. He was wounded three times and was awarded the Military Cross for his leadership and courage.⁶¹ Impatient with medical attention, he was said more than once to have discharged himself from hospital to rejoin his men.¹

Offered a regular commission in 1946, Singleton instead returned to The Elms and succeeded his father as headmaster, leading the school until 1973.^a12 He staffed it largely with former Army friends—"more MCs than MAs", as he put it—and among his teachers was the England cricketer Betty Snowball, who taught mathematics and wicket-keeping.¹

Singleton ran the school to a robust, rural routine: outdoor physical exercise before breakfast in all weathers, long walks on the Malvern Hills, cold dormitories, hymn-singing, cricket and Latin. Out of the classroom he was more relaxed, allowing older boys to roam the hills unsupervised and permitting pupils to keep owls in the fives court.¹ Known to the boys as "Mr Michael" and, in his absence, as "Boss", he was a habitual pipe-smoker who was said to smoke even while bowling in the cricket nets; his wife, "Mrs Michael", took a warmer part in school life and arranged dances with local girls' schools.¹⁷

Singleton was appointed CBE, reportedly at the same investiture at which his brother Tim was knighted.¹ He served as a justice of the peace from 1961 to 1983, latterly as chairman of the Ledbury bench.² On the creation of the county of Hereford and Worcester in 1974 he became its first High Sheriff, and he was also a Deputy Lieutenant and a member of the regional police authority.¹⁷²

In 1939 Singleton married Diana Philpot, a clergyman's daughter; they had five children, one of whom died in childhood.¹ He died at Malvern on 11 December 2002, aged 89.¹²