Wednesday 15th August 2007 Tributes paid to 'larger than life' teacher By Ben Parsons  http://www.theargus.co.uk Tributes have been paid to a retired teacher who died of prostate cancer. Terry Hempton, who was deputy head at Pilgrims School in Firle Road, Seaford, for ten years before retiring three years ago, died aged 64. He was a popular rugby player who was capped as an England schoolboy. His wife Sandie described him as a wonderful and warm character.She said: "He was full of fun and he loved people. He was a kind of larger-than-life character who did an awful lot of good."He played rugby at a very high level. People did think he could have been a full international cap, particularly for Ireland because his father was Irish."But because he was such a character, he probably didn't take it as seriously as he could have done. He had a lifelong interest in rugby and made many lifelong friends through it."Mr Hempton was born in Chagford in Devon and went on to study PE at St Luke's College, Exeter.He left to teach at Elmshurst Grammar School in Glastonbury for one year before becoming a PE teacher at the former Paignton School, now Paignton Community College.He eventually became the school's deputy headteacher. He left the school in December 1986 and with his wife briefly ran a pub near Tiverton. After a ten-year spell as a teacher in Seaford, the couple decided to move back to Devon.He played as second row forward for Devon, Exeter, Torquay and Paignton.Mr Hempton leaves his wife Sandie, sons Damian and Antony, as well as four grandsons, Joel, Jacob, Rhys and Kaeren. He died at Rowcroft Hospice in Devon on August 3