Les Souter came from Aberdeen, and completed his secondary education at Aberdeen Academy, which he left in 1926. He remained in Aberdeen to attend the university there and in 1929 was awarded his MA in Mathematics and Geography. However, the range of other subjects he studies is impressive - English, History, Logic, Natural Philosophy, British Constitutional Law and British History. He stayed on a further year to complete his teacher's training in Aberdeen.

His first teaching post was in New Delaval, Blythe, from 1930 to 1933. He went on to Lyne, in Peebles (1933-1944), Hardgate, Castle Douglas (1944-1946) and Annan Academy near Dumfries, where he taught from 1946 to 1963. It was then, in September 1963, that he joined the staff of the South Shields Grammar Technical School for Boys.

Although Mr Souter was something of an old-fashioned teacher whose forbidding face hid a quiet sense of humour, he also had an old-fashioned and fair sense of discipline.

He retired in 1972.