John Christie

Who was John Christie?

John Traill Christie was headmaster of Repton School and Westminster School, before becoming Principal of Jesus College, Oxford.

Christie married Lucie Catherine, only daughter of Thomas Philip LeFanu; they had two daughters. The elder was Catherine; the younger, Jane married Henry Galton Darwin.

Author Roald Dahl attended Repton from 1929, where, according to Boy: Tales of Childhood, a friend named Michael was viciously caned by headmaster Geoffrey Fisher, who later became the Archbishop of Canterbury. However, according to Dahl's biographer Jeremy Treglown, the caning took place in May 1933, a year after Fisher had left Repton and the headmaster concerned was in fact J. T. Christie.