Nigel Clothier (FN 53-57) sends in a memory of J.C.Wykes:

“I must have known Cecile Wykes during my time at St Bees and I would like to say how much both she and her husband were respected in their running of the school. I am not sure that ‘popular’ would be JC’s epitaph, but respected he certainly was. He had many attributes which we scurrilous creatures found amusing, such as the sacredness of cricket and the hallowed ground of the Crease. As an ‘old boy’ in 1959 on a visit with my vintage 1933 FWD BSA four-wheeler, which to my horror Malcom Neill and Co secretly drove onto the Crease overnight, I was summoned to the Head’s study first thing on a lovely sunny morning. JC was hopping mad, disbelieving of my innocence of ‘the ultimate crime’ and only wishing that I was still under the jurisdiction of his cane, which was standing in the corner! I hope I was eventually believed and forgiven.

One instance I recall showed the man’s ‘mettle’. At an assembly of the sixth form on some critical occasion, when things had to be said and at a time when it was the fashion among some to consider JC ‘unpopular’, he entered Foundation’s assembly hall to a chorus of boos. I felt shock at the sheer disrespect which was being shown, but his instant humorous response, something along the lines of ‘well, that makes me the popular one’ caused a complete change of atmosphere to one of respect. I shall always remember that example. He was indeed a great man.”