Approach to Latin', which was used across Britain and the Commonwealth, and also in the United States. The academic bias of the school was such that quite a few of the textbooks used by its students had been written by its own teachers, including mathematics, English and 'Classics' textbooks. Samuel Norris Forrest, a teacher of mathematics at the school, and father of notable alumnus, the physicist John Samuel Forrest, was another master who also wrote text-books. Succeeding Rector Macnaughton, the last Rector of Hamilton Academy was Alfred W.S. Dubber (appointed 3 April 1968), the school's principal teacher of English since 1956, and acting rector since retirement of Edwin Macnaughton in September 1967. Rector Dubber was an authority on the English language and literature and author of school text books, and on his sudden death at the school's Christmas Dance on 16 December 1971, Mr. A. M. Robertson, depute-Rector and Head of Classics, was appointed Acting Rector (Mr. James Morris being then appointed Head of Classics) prior to the abolition of selective schools (cemented in the 1976 Education Act) such as Hamilton Academy, introduction of comprehensive schooling and the merging of the Hamilton Academy campus and that of nearby St. Johns Grammar School to form a new school called Hamilton Grammar School, which draws its students from its immediate surroundings. Hamilton Academy's last Head of Music, the late Peter Mooney, was conductor of the Glasgow Phoenix Choir (continuing from the iconic Glasgow Orpheus Choir) which choir established in his memory the Peter Mooney Scholarship in the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. [See also section above, 'Music and drama'] There was a long tradition of former pupils who had chosen teaching as a career returning to teach at their old school. For instance, Lord Robert Gibson was a former pupil who returned to teach at Hamilton Academy, one of his pupils being another future Member of parliament, Thomas Cassells (Gibson and Cassells serving as MPs over the same period, 1936–41.) Masters at Hamilton Academy wore shorter academic gowns daily and full-length academic gowns, respective hoods and mortar boards at the annual prize-givings and on other 'high days.' Pupils and school houses Hamilton Academy had four 'houses' named after Lanarkshire rivers or tributaries and, given the selective nature of the intake of pupils from across the whole County of Lanarkshire, every student was allocated to one of these depending on their