A TOTAL of £330 was raised for the Kasese Street Kids Project at Orton Market Hall, when Mary Jenkin interviewed well-known local John Falshaw for a Desert Island Discs.

John looked back on his Yorkshire childhood days at Skipton Grammar School and his National Service in 1949, when he was selected for the Navy and chose the Royal Marines, stationed mainly in the Isle of Wight.

He said he took part in the Royal Tournament at Earls Court, and was part of the Guard of Honour to King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret.

During those years as a keen cricketer he was captain of the Royal Marines cricket team which won the inter-service cup.

In 1951 John started teacher training at St John’s College, York, and met his future wife Margaret.

They were married in 1955 and his first teaching position was at Micklefield, then at St Clements, York.

In 1963, he applied for the post of head teacher at Orton school, and was accepted.

He said that having found a perfect situation, where they were both very happy, and an ideal place to bring up their children Howard and Chris, John looked no further, and served as head for 26 years, until he retired in 1989.

He recalled school trips and the many children he had seen pass through the school over the years.

John has always been a lover of the country, a keen fell walker and a busy fund-raiser for the Arthritis Soc-iety, as well as being the poppy fund organiser for the parish since his arrival in the village.

A Christian, John said how important the church was to both himself and Margaret.

The music he chose to take on his desert island reflected his background, and inc-luded Ikley Moor Bar’ Tat, the Royal Marines March Past, Claire de Lune, and his final piece There’ll Always Be an England reflected his patriotism.