John Vaughan Wilkes

Who was John Vaughan Wilkes?

John Comyn Vaughan Wilkes was an English educationalist, who was Warden of Radley College and an Anglican priest.

Wilkes was born in Eastbourne, the eldest son of Lewis Chitty Vaughan Wilkes and his wife Cicely Ellen Philadelphia Comyn. His parents were the proprietors of St Cyprian's School which they had established in 1899. Wilkes was educated at Fonthill East Grinstead, St Cyprians and Eton College, where he was a King's Scholar. George Orwell and Cyril Connolly followed him to Eton as scholars from his parents' school. Wilkes won a classical scholarship to Trinity College, Oxford. At Oxford, he won a half blue for golf and played in the University Golf Match against Cambridge in 1924 and 1925.

In 1925, Wilkes became an assistant master at Eton and from 1930 to 1937 he was Master in College there. In 1937 he became Warden of Radley College, and after the outbreak of World War II he helped arrange for Eastbourne College to be evacuated to Radley from the south coast. In spite of overcrowding, the two schools drew together harmoniously.

Wilkes pushed the school forward and was an ardent believer in the duty of public schools to share their benefits with others less fortunate.