Being sent to the Headmaster’s study was a serious matter. Stories of his prodigious ability to cane boys’ backsides so that they were black and blue and stayed that way for several weeks put us new boys even more in awe and fear of him. An Oxford history graduate, he had played both rugby and cricket as a student and rowed in the Oxford and Cambridge boat races. Now in his mid-forties, he had retained the figure and fitness of his youth and during school assembly standing on stage with his senior staff, he towered above them, a white-haired Samson more than capable of thrashing the entire school should he feel so inclined.