John Elliot Lewis (born 23 February 1942) was the

Head Master A headmaster/headmistress, head teacher, head, school administrator, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school. Role While s ...

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

from 1994 to 2002. Born in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

in 1942, Lewis attended King's School and

King's College, Auckland King's College (Latin: ''Collegium Regis''; ), often informally referred to simply as Kings, is an independent secondary boarding and day school in New Zealand. It educates over 1000 pupils, aged 13 to 18 years. King's was originally a single s ...

. He gained a

double first The British undergraduate degree classification system is a Grading in education, grading structure used for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and Master's degree#Integrated Masters Degree, integrated master's degrees in the United Kingd ...

Classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

from

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Corpus Christi College (full name: "The College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary", often shortened to "Corpus") is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. From the late 14th c ...

, and taught at Eton between 1971 and 1980, holding the post of Master in College between 1975 and 1980. He was a distinguished rugby player and cricketer. From 1980 to 1994, Lewis was the Headmaster of

Geelong Grammar School Geelong Grammar School is a private Anglican co-educational boarding and day school. The school's main campus is located in Corio on the northern outskirts of Geelong, Victoria, Australia, overlooking Corio Bay and Limeburners Bay. Establ ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, which had been attended by

The Prince of Wales Prince of Wales (, ; ) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the History of the English monarchy, English, and later, the British throne. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd who, from ...

and

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...

. The

Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was a royal commission announced in November 2012 and established in 2013 by the Australian government pursuant to the Royal Commissions Act 1902 to inquire into and repo ...

found that

knew that boarding house assistant Philippe Trutmann, who worked at the school's Highton campus in the 1980s and 1990s, was accused of improper conduct in 1985 and failed to take any action
Phillippe Trutmann
was convicted in 2005 of sexually abusing at least 40 male students and sentenced to six-and-a-half years' jail. The Royal Commission Counsel Assisting stated that "Mr Lewis' failures to take proper steps to respond to allegations of child sexual abuse and his failure to implement a proper system to deal with allegations of child sexual abuse fell below the standards expected of a principal of a school at the time of his actions." Lewis took up the Headship of Eton College in 1994. Sir Eric Anderson, the previous head master, had led Eton College to second place in the league table of

independent schools A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their financial endowme ...

. Under Lewis, it dropped to 29th place. He supervised the education of Princes

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

and Harry. Lewis retired in August 2002, having reached his 60th birthday.

References

External links

Lewis interviewed on 'Drugs in Eton's sixth form'

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

25 May 1999
'New head appointed for Eton'
''

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'' December 1, 1993 {{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, John 1942 births Living people Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge People educated at King's College, Auckland Australian headmasters Head Masters of Eton College 20th-century New Zealand educators 21st-century New Zealand educators 20th-century Australian educators Heads of schools in Victoria (state)