BURY Grammar School has hit back at allegations that former headmaster Richard Marshall was forced out of his job.

The dispute among the wider BGS community arose after a prominent former pupil wrote a letter to chairman of governors Gillian Winter following the resignation of Mr Marshall, who will become head at Ashville College in Harrogate in January 2018.

The letter was written by Geoffrey Wandesforde-Smith, founder of The Henry Dunster Society, which connects BGS alumni across the globe.

He said in the letter that the restructuring of senior management led to Mr Marshall becoming subordinate to his deputy.

Mr Wandesforde-Smith, a professor emeritus at the University of California, said this was a “grievous error” which has damaged the school.

He alleges decisions about staffing were made without Mr Marshall’s input, following the appointments of girls’ school headmistress Jo Anderson to principal of both schools, and Mr Marshall’s deputy, Devin Cassidy, to head of staff.

In response, Ms Winter said: “Mr Wandesforde-Smith does not live in Bury – in fact he lives in California and has done so for many years.

“His letter is full of inaccuracies, assumptions and misunderstandings.

“These changes involved the entire senior team in proposing and agreeing the appointment of new staff positions and, contrary to Mr Wandesforde-Smith’s mistaken claims, the former headmaster of Bury Grammar School Boys was heavily involved in this process and the decision to create the new roles was unanimous.

“As headmaster, Mr Marshall was influential in the proposal to create the head of staff and principal roles; the new head of staff role at Bury Grammar School Boys did not and does not supersede that of headmaster.”

Mr Wandesforde-Smith had said in his letter: “You effectively eviscerated the meaning of the word ‘headmaster’ in the context of the Bury Grammar Schools and made the headmaster subordinate to his deputy.

“I have not talked to anyone, in or out of school, in the last month and a half who thinks that this subordination was anything other than a grievous error.”

He said it equated to forcing Mr Marshall out of his job, depriving the schools of a leader “who was demonstrably the most successful head of the boys’ school in the last 40 years”.

Mr Marshall led the school to a double ‘excellent’ rating by the Independent Schools Inspectorate in November, 2016.

Mr Marshall declined to comment.