Tom Mannion with daughter Danielle

THE daughter of a headteacher fully exonerated from claims that he had stolen from his school wants an apology from those who removed him – as hundreds turned out for his funeral.

Tom Mannion, known as Tommy, was left upset over how his time at St Aloysius College in Hornsey Road had come to an abrupt end just months before he was due to retire after a decision to dismiss him by the Diocese of Westminster. Police later found he had done nothing wrong.

The 79-year-old died after a short and sudden illness last month. Friends and relatives packed out a funeral service on Wednesday and shared a host of glowing tributes to the man many simply called “legend”.

He had reversed the fortunes of St Aloysius, which had been in special measures after a shocking Ofsted inspection. Within a year, Mr Mannion saw the school rated “good” in a follow-up report and later given the highest rank of “outstanding” during his 14-year tenure.

Danielle Mannion, his daughter, told the Tribune: “Dad wasn’t guilty of anything and the diocese did nothing to make it up to him publicly, because his whole career had been humiliated by that final thing and he hadn’t been able to come back to school to say goodbye to the students.

“He loved them so much and they loved him too – you could see that at the funeral when so many old boys came over to talk to the family. He was a loved person.”

Mr Mannion had also worked at Maria Fidelis secondary school in Euston, and Cardinal Pole Catholic school in Hackney, before being brought in to turn St Aloysius College around in 2004.

Former students including Andre Sammy, right, with their head of year

In a touching mark of respect, a large group of current students – wearing the school’s green uniform – lined up inside St Joseph’s Church in Highgate to form a guard of honour for their former headteacher, who left the school in 2018.

At the service, Ms Mannion told mourners how her dad had raised his children in Africa “running over alligators and getting lost in the bush”, adding: “As a small child I was in awe, and have continued to be in awe of my dad.”

In the 1990s he was described by the media as a “human shield” after he prevented a stabbing outside the gates of his school, she said. In his final years he enjoyed time in Weymouth, on the south coast, watching fishermen with a cup of hot coffee, as well as fixing up a house in his native Ireland. He planned to spend more time in Spain before his unexpected death following a 10-week battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Father Dominic McKenna, who led the moving service for his old friend, recalled how, as a governor of Cardinal Pole school in 1989, he was involved in a series of interviews for a new headteacher.

“I was asked to go back and find the last candidate, Tom Mannion, and I did, and he was sound asleep,” he said. “And then he came in and he did a blinding interview and I could see there was something special about this guy.”

Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn, who described him as a “good friend”, said: “Tom was ‘old school’ in his headteacher role. He constantly walked every corridor, seemed to me to know every pupil, and would barge into any lesson and engage in scholarly and witty banter with the ­students.”

Former student Andre Sammy, whose brother died in 2015, recalled Mr Mannion’s reaction after he arrived back at school the following day: “I lost my brother and somehow I decided the next day to come to school, and they found out and Mr Mannion came straight away and had a conversation with me. It helped a lot. I had no voices in my head besides my own and had a lot of crazy thoughts and Mr Mannion came through.”

St Aloysius is now under the leadership of Paula Whyte and recently received a “good” rating in its latest inspection.

A spokesperson for the diocese said they would make no comment.