Dr W. E. C. Gillham 1936-2023

Bill Gillham was an educational psychologist who made very significant contributions to the field. However, beyond this he was something of a Renaissance man. He was a prolific author and wrote widely on child psychology, child safety, teenage pregnancies, toilet training and research methods, but is best known for professional training at the Universities of Nottingham and Strathclyde and for two edited books on educational psychology. Reconstructing Educational Psychology (1978) emphasised the importance of an ecological and community approach and the limitations of within-child deficit explanations such as 'intelligence' in understanding learning, social, emotional and behaviour difficulties. Problems in the Secondary School: A Systems Approach (1981) had chapters highlighting the importance of school effectiveness and insights from systems theory and organisational psychology for an understanding of behaviour problems in schools and how educational psychologists might respond by means of consultation and problem analysis.

Bill developed screening and diagnostic tests and programmes in mathematics, language, and reading, including the Leicester Number Test (1970), the Nottingham Number Test (1974), the Basic Number Diagnostic Test (2001), the Basic Number Screening Test (2012), the First Words Language Programme(1979), Two Words Together: A First Sentences Language Programme (1983), the Basic Attainment Programme for Young Mentally Handicapped Children (1987, reprinted in 2019), the First Words and First Sentences Screening Tests (1997), the Methuen Paired Reading Series (1985) (including Awful Arabella,Spencer's Spaghetti, Our Baby Bites and Our Baby Throws Things), the Cambridge Reading Scheme (1996) published by Cambridge University Press, and Teaching a Child to Read: How to Teach Your Child to Read from Two Years (1998). More recently, he updated his six volumes of the Continuum Real World Research series on research methods.

Bill was born in Southampton, the elder of two sons. His father was a merchant seaman and his mother, a full-time carer, died when he was 16. After leaving grammar school, Bill completed his National Service in the RAF before reading psychology at Hull University, remaining there to train as a teacher. After three years teaching experience in primary schools, Bill trained as an educational psychologist at University College London from 1965-66. After working as an EP in Leicestershire, Bill moved to Nottingham University in 1971 as a tutor on the EP training programme run by John and Elizabeth Newson, completing in 1981 his PhD thesis The development of a language remediation programme for mentally handicapped children.

An outstanding and innovative teacher and lecturer, Bill moved to the University of Strathclyde in 1985 as senior lecturer and programme director of the MSc in Educational Psychology, stepping down as director in 1995. Bill later retired as Honorary Senior Lecturer but had subsequent appointments as PhD Coordinator in the School of Design at Glasgow School of Art and as Visiting Professor at La Salle College of the Arts, Singapore.

In 1999, Bill published an invited reflection on the writing of Reconstructing Educational Psychology 20 years on (see Educational Psychology in Practice 14, 4, 220-221). Here he set out his vision of the practice of educational psychology that had informed his own work over the years. For Bill, an effective EP was a practitioner-researcher able to construct an understanding of the complexity of the problems experienced by children, families and schools in the contexts in which they occurred; who had  an appreciation of the processes and possibilities of change and the skills to work with people to make this happen; and who had the research skills necessary to monitor and evaluate what happened  to children and young people.

Bill had many wider interests including travel, fine dining, Georgian silverware, stamps, and photography. The third edition of his guide to his favourite city, Parisian's Paris, was published in September 2013. Based on over 50 years of visiting Paris, this book took travellers to 21 of his favourite areas in Paris – some central, some suburban, all off the beaten track and either neglected or completely ignored by ordinary guide books. One of his books, A Place to Hide, was filmed as Breakout by the Children's Film Foundation in 1983. Many of his books for children were translated into multiple languages, including, in the case of Two Babies, Xhosa and Afrikaans.

But what of Bill as a person? We came under his considerable influence as colleague or educational psychology trainee. Bill had a great sense of humour which was not immediately evident. We remember his mischievous smile as he offered contrary views to stimulate our thinking. He was also remarkably direct – never one to dress up an unwelcome point in flowery language. He was not one to be constrained by the niceties of the bureaucracy. We also remember his continuing kindness in offering career advice, mentoring and support. 

Bill is survived by his wife, Judith, whose career as an English teacher enabled her to give editorial polish to many of his books; his sons, Bill and George; and his brother, Bruce, author and past-president of the UK Reading Association.