John Elliot Lewis (born 23 February 1942) was the

Head Master A head master, head instructor, bureaucrat, headmistress, head, chancellor, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management Management (or m ...

Eton College Eton College () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI of England, Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. i ...

from 1994 to 2002. Born in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

in 1942, Lewis attended King's School and

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

. He gained a

double first The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...

in Classics 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 constituent college of the University of Cambridge. From the late 14th century through to the early 19th centur ...

, 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 an Independent school, independent Anglican co-educational Boarding school, boarding and day school. The school's main campus is located in Corio, Victoria, Corio on the northern outskirts of Geelong, Victoria, Australia, ...

in Australia, which had been attended by

The Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...

and

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...

. 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 repor ...

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 Sir William Eric Kinloch Anderson (27 May 1936 – 22 April 2020) was a British teacher and educator, who was head master of Eton College from 1980 to 1994 and provost of Eton College from September 2000 to January 2009. Life and career And ...

, the previous head master, had led Eton College to second place in the league table of

independent schools An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British En ...

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

William William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conq ...

and

Harry Harry may refer to: TV shows * ''Harry'' (American TV series), a 1987 American comedy series starring Alan Arkin * ''Harry'' (British TV series), a 1993 BBC drama that ran for two seasons * ''Harry'' (talk show), a 2016 American daytime talk show ...

. 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'
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

'' 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