A tribute by former Marling pupil Daniel Vassall-Adams to Joseph Anthony William Xuereb-Brennan, who died earlier this year aged 88
Earlier this year saw the sad passing, at the age of 88, of Joseph Xuereb-Brennan, who taught me English at A level at Marling School in Stroud.
His nickname at Marling was “Xerxes”, after one of the most famous rulers of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia.
I also had extracurricular lessons with Joseph, known to his family and friends as “Jo”, in the library of the beautiful cottage he shared with his wife Annette, in a hamlet adjacent to Bisley called The Scrubs.
Jo once let slip that I had been taught English by the very same person who had once taught English to the former Prime Minister of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi.
I was born in Malta and was vaguely aware of Jo’s strong connection to the island. Over the years, through other little snippets Jo shared, I became increasingly acquainted with his remarkable backstory.
In 2019, I came across a very well-researched article about Jo’s life by a journalist from the Malta Independent newspaper. They had interviewed Jo and his wife Annette over lunch at the Polo Pub in Cranham.
The journalist has kindly allowed me to recount some of the details of Jo’s childhood and earlier life from the original article.
A childhood shaped by war
Jo was born in Italian Libya in 1938, where his father, George Xuereb, was junior partner in a business established by his grandfather, Antonio, in 1911, when Libya was still an Ottoman possession.
Jo’s father had been instrumental in the success of the Italian takeover of Libya, for which he was rewarded with a grant of land in Beida.
“This was planted with vineyards that became lucrative only after his death in 1936,” Jo recalled.
When Italy entered the war in 1940, the Xuerebs were interned.
“Our escape is another story but I was on the run, hunted by the Italians, but hidden by my Arab employees,” Jo said.
After being recaptured in Sicily, the family made it to Malta in an exchange of captives, where they endured the worst of the aerial bombing.
Jo explained that his father “immediately joined the army and was posted to Egypt and then India where, as a captain in Intelligence, he became commandant of the Axis prisons in Bhopal.”
After the war, Jo’s uncle, who had been liberated by the British, was transferred to Ethiopia and Eritrea.
According to Jo: “My father, after a lengthy demob process, together with my mother, my sister Vicki and myself, joined his brother in Asmara.
“It is here that Vicki and I learned Italian in a Catholic school, English in an Army school, a smattering of Tigray in the kitchen, and equestrianism in Campo Cicero.”
Jo would go on to become a very experienced horseman and even enlisted Marling schoolboys to help him build stables at the family’s cottage at The Scrubs.
From Malta to Marling
When the time came for a better-organised approach to the children’s education, Jo and his siblings left Eritrea and were sent to school in Malta.
Jo attended St Edward’s, while his sister Vicki went to the Sacred Heart Convent.
“I sustained the rest of my schooldays in St Edwards but with the holidays in Benghazi, Libya,” Jo recalled.
After leaving school, Jo went to Edinburgh to study Science.
“But the sudden freedom went to my head and making whoopee took priority over studies. I was not thrown out, but it was a close run thing.”
Following Edinburgh, Jo went to Trinity College Dublin, where he said he “got on very well” and graduated with an MA in Arts.
While at Trinity, Jo became acquainted with the British historian and writer Nikolai Tolstoy. The pair became great friends and maintained close contact throughout the rest of Jo’s adult life.
After Dublin, Jo found himself educated but without a profession or trade.
“Now I was educated but not trained for any profession or trade, I did a number of mostly menial jobs in London until my friends persuaded me that I was wasting my time.
“Unbeknownst to me they had applied in my name for a job teaching at Wembley Grammar School. I found teaching came naturally to me and that year was a great success!”
On a visit to his parents in Libya, Jo was offered a post as a lecturer at the university in Benghazi.
It was during this posting that Jo strongly believed he had taught English to Colonel Gaddafi, although there is no hard evidence confirming his belief.
Jo did not renew the two-year contract he was offered because he had married Annette and felt that Libya was not the best place for women.
When they returned to England, Jo worked in various schools before becoming English Master at Marling School in Stroud.
There he worked for 20 years until he took a government opportunity for early retirement.
In 1968, Jo and Annette’s daughter, Cathleen, was born. She would later attend Stroud High School.
A life beyond the classroom
Jo’s wife Annette had worked for the local author Jilly Cooper, whose early novels Jo used to proofread.
Jo and Annette also used to ride with Jilly’s late husband Leo and frequented the Stirrup Cup pub in Bisley.
Annette’s father was a prominent artist and I remember his paintings adorning the walls of their cottage.
“He trained and taught at the Slade and then the School of Fine Art at Reading University,” Annette said.
“He had designed fabrics for Liberty’s and Bakers and his work is stored in the V&A. He exhibited his paintings in various places including the Royal Academy.”
Annette’s mother was the daughter of a Colonel in the Indian Army who was shot by an insurgent.
Annette was born in England at the height of the Blitz in 1940 and, although the family lived in Berkshire where it was relatively safe, she retained vivid memories of the war, including the sound of aircraft and the blackout.
Jo and Annette had married in the cathedral in Benghazi during Jo’s posting.
She recalled being warmly welcomed by Jo’s parents.
“I was sad not to have my family around me, but being with Jo was more than compensation,” she said.
“In 1965 we returned to England and moved quite a bit as Jo obtained different jobs. After living in various places we settled in Gloucestershire where we have lived happily since.”
A character who stayed true to himself
Jo held a healthy disdain for many aspects of modernity, in particular cars – or at least driving them.
He campaigned to protect the local countryside from development and took great care of his neighbours in their remote and idyllic corner of the Cotswolds.
He loved a pint of bitter and, when Annette became unwell, cared for her single-handedly for many years until the ravages of his own Parkinson’s made this impossible.
For me, however, Jo will always be remembered as “Xerxes” – the English teacher with an extraordinary life story, a formidable intellect, a wicked sense of humour and an ability to inspire his pupils.
His life stretched from pre-war Libya and wartime Malta to Eritrea, Edinburgh, Dublin, London, Benghazi and ultimately Gloucestershire.
It was a life that seemed almost too remarkable to be true.
Jo’s passing was peaceful and, to paraphrase Dave Allen, one of his favourite comedians, it was “almost as if he didn’t mind dying, he just didn’t want to be there when it happened.”
