Jack Meyer (educator and cricketer)
Encyclopedia
Rollo John Oliver Meyer (15 March 1905 – 9 March 1991), known generally as 'Jack', and at Millfield mainly as 'Boss', was an English educationalist who founded Millfield School (1935) and Millfield Preparatory School
(1946) in Somerset
; he was also an all-round sportsman who played cricket at first-class
level in both England and in India. He died in Bristol
on 9 March 1991.
, Bedfordshire
and was educated at Haileybury College, where he stood out as a cricketer.
Meyer was a forceful right-handed batsman and a right-arm bowler of medium pace picked out by the Wisden
chronicler of public schools cricket of the time, H. S. Altham
, for the amount of bowling work he got through, the maintenance of line and length in his varied bowling, and his flair for the "big" occasion. He was at Cambridge University between 1923 and 1926 and then went to India to work as a cotton broker for 10 years.
in Somerset in 1935 and remained as its headmaster and guiding spirit for the next 35 years. He was universally known as The Boss at school. The new school theatre at Millfield is named after him.
Millfield from the outset was an unconventional public school, with an emphasis on all-round excellence, and not just the academic, including strength in areas such as sports and the arts. Meyer had a flexible attitude towards school fees, charging wealthy parents some of the highest in the UK but waiving them entirely for some pupils whom he considered deserving. Nevertheless Millfield became a huge success, attracting well-known parents and achieving big success in the development of athletes and sportsmen. Meyer's philosophy at Millfield was, "...to nurture talent by providing the very best facilities, teaching, coaching and opportunities in which young people can exercise and explore their abilities; and to give awards to those in financial need."
Links between Millfield and Somerset County Cricket Club remained close; in 1960, Meyer recruited Colin Atkinson
, who had played Minor County cricket, on to the Millfield staff. Atkinson played regularly for Somerset from 1960 to 1962, and then was released from school duties to captain the county side from 1965 to 1967. When Meyer retired as headmaster of Millfield in 1971, Atkinson succeeded him.
side for the whole season, winning his Blue
. After the university term was over, he played Minor Counties cricket for Hertfordshire
, scoring a lot of runs and taking 51 wickets at low cost. He was picked for the Minor Counties representative side which was accorded a first-class match against the South African touring team
and his six wickets for 60 runs in the South Africans' first innings put the Minor Counties on the way to a surprise victory by 25 runs. He was then called up for the Gentlemen v Players
match at Blackpool
and responded by taking eight Players' wickets for 38 runs in the first innings, a feat that did not prevent the Players from winning rather easily in a match that Wisden deemed "by no means worthy of its high-sounding title".
Meyer retained his place in the Cambridge sides of 1925 and 1926, batting fairly low in the order and taking regular wickets. Less than three months after his final University Match
appearance in July 1926, he was working as a cotton broker in India and turning out for the Europeans
in the final of the Bombay Quadrangular
Tournament. Over the following Indian cricket season he played four times in matches against the touring side from the MCC
led by Arthur Gilligan
, including one appearance for the full India side.
Meyer stayed in India for nine years and played first-class cricket in several Indian seasons. In the 1927-28 season he played only two games, both for the Europeans in the Bombay tournament, but took 28 wickets in these matches, including his career-best nine for 160 in the final against the Hindus when he finished with match figures of 16 wickets for 188 runs. In 1929, in a summer spent in England, he played Minor Counties cricket for Hertfordshire again and in several first-class matches for amateur teams against the universities, and in his last season in India, 1934–35, he captained the Western India side in two matches in the Ranji Trophy
.
The second stage of Meyer's cricket career began after his return to England to set up Millfield School in Somerset. From the 1936 season, he appeared in Somerset
matches, almost always those in the second half of the season when the school term had ended and, with rare exceptions, those played at home. In these games, he played as an all-rounder, his batting having improved significantly since his Cambridge days. Against Lancashire
at Taunton in the last match of the 1936 season, he rescued Somerset from likely defeat with his maiden century, an undefeated 202, scored in 225 minutes. There is no doubt of the innings' merit – Somerset were still 48 behind with half their second innings wickets gone – but there is an oft-repeated story that the double century was obtained by an offer to contribute to the Lancashire beneficiary's fund. And he got a second century the following year against Sussex
. As a bowler, he managed at least one five-wicket innings haul in each of the four seasons running up to the Second World War, though his bowling was an increasingly idiosyncratic mixture of spin and swing. In the war, he served in the Royal Air Force
.
After the war, Meyer resumed his prewar pattern of late summer home games in 1946, but then, in 1947, at the age of 42, allowed himself his solitary season of full-time cricket as Somerset's captain. By this stage, he was badly affected by lumbago, and though he scored 850 runs and took 43 wickets, the season was not a success for Somerset, and he stood down at the end of the year. He played a couple of first-class matches in each of the next three seasons, and then retired from cricket to concentrate full-time on schoolmastering and developing his school at Millfield.
Meyer was a restless character, and tales of eccentric behaviour are not confined to the cricket pitch; some examples are as follows:
Millfield Preparatory School
Millfield Preparatory School is a Preparatory school in Glastonbury, Somerset, England. It is the feeder school for Millfield and part of the Millfield school group. At Millfield, the prep' school is commonly referred to as Edgarley....
(1946) in Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
; he was also an all-round sportsman who played cricket at first-class
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
level in both England and in India. He died in Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
on 9 March 1991.
Early life
He was born the son of clergyman Rev Rollo Meyer in ClophillClophill
Clophill, is a small village and civil parish located in the Flit river valley, Bedfordshire, England. At this time the village belonged to a group of two or three hamlets – Beadlow, Cainhoe and possibly Moddry.It is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Clopelle; meaning tree-stump Hill in old...
, Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....
and was educated at Haileybury College, where he stood out as a cricketer.
Meyer was a forceful right-handed batsman and a right-arm bowler of medium pace picked out by the Wisden
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom...
chronicler of public schools cricket of the time, H. S. Altham
Harry Altham
Harry Surtees Altham, CBE, DSO, MC was an English cricketer who became an important figure in the game as an administrator, historian and coach. His Wisden obituary described him as "among the best known personalities in the world of cricket"...
, for the amount of bowling work he got through, the maintenance of line and length in his varied bowling, and his flair for the "big" occasion. He was at Cambridge University between 1923 and 1926 and then went to India to work as a cotton broker for 10 years.
Millfield
Meyer was accompanied on his return to England from India in the mid 1930s by seven Indian boys, including six princes, having been entrusted with providing them an education. He set up Millfield School in StreetStreet, Somerset
Street is a small village and civil parish in the county of Somerset, England. It is situated on a dry spot in the Somerset Levels, at the end of the Polden Hills, south-west of Glastonbury. The 2001 census records the village as having a population of 11,066...
in Somerset in 1935 and remained as its headmaster and guiding spirit for the next 35 years. He was universally known as The Boss at school. The new school theatre at Millfield is named after him.
Millfield from the outset was an unconventional public school, with an emphasis on all-round excellence, and not just the academic, including strength in areas such as sports and the arts. Meyer had a flexible attitude towards school fees, charging wealthy parents some of the highest in the UK but waiving them entirely for some pupils whom he considered deserving. Nevertheless Millfield became a huge success, attracting well-known parents and achieving big success in the development of athletes and sportsmen. Meyer's philosophy at Millfield was, "...to nurture talent by providing the very best facilities, teaching, coaching and opportunities in which young people can exercise and explore their abilities; and to give awards to those in financial need."
Links between Millfield and Somerset County Cricket Club remained close; in 1960, Meyer recruited Colin Atkinson
Colin Atkinson
Colin Ronald Michael Atkinson CBE - Cricketer, schoolmaster and headmaster of Millfield School....
, who had played Minor County cricket, on to the Millfield staff. Atkinson played regularly for Somerset from 1960 to 1962, and then was released from school duties to captain the county side from 1965 to 1967. When Meyer retired as headmaster of Millfield in 1971, Atkinson succeeded him.
After Millfield
Meyer then went to Greece where he took charge of a newly-established English-language school, Campion. He remained headmaster for seven years and inspired a number of tales of his eccentricity which were still being recounted two decades later. In 1980 Meyer split with the school and founded another English-language school, St Lawrence College. One 2nd-grade pupil remembers him visiting the classroom in 1986 as akin to a royal visit given his great age and substantive aura that surrounded him.The cricketer
At Cambridge, Meyer made an immediate impact in cricket, taking nine wickets in the Freshmen's Match at the start of the summer term in 1924. He took four wickets in the first first-class innings he bowled in and retained his place in the universityCambridge University Cricket Club
Cambridge University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team. It now plays all but one of its first-class cricket matches as part of the Cambridge University Centre of Cricketing Excellence , which includes Anglia Ruskin University...
side for the whole season, winning his Blue
University Sporting Blue
A Blue is an award earned by sportsmen and women at a university and some schools for competition at the highest level. The awarding of Blues began at Oxford and Cambridge Universities...
. After the university term was over, he played Minor Counties cricket for Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire County Cricket Club
Hertfordshire County Cricket Club is one of the county clubs which make up the Minor Counties in the English domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Hertfordshire and playing in the Minor Counties Championship and the MCCA Knockout Trophy...
, scoring a lot of runs and taking 51 wickets at low cost. He was picked for the Minor Counties representative side which was accorded a first-class match against the South African touring team
South African cricket team in England in 1924
The South African cricket team toured England in the 1924 season to play a five-match Test series against England.England won the series 3-0 with 2 matches drawn.-Test series summary:* The South African cricket team toured England in the 1924 season to play a five-match Test series against...
and his six wickets for 60 runs in the South Africans' first innings put the Minor Counties on the way to a surprise victory by 25 runs. He was then called up for the Gentlemen v Players
Gentlemen v Players
The Gentlemen v Players game was a first-class cricket match that was generally played on an annual basis between one team consisting of amateurs and one of professionals . The first two games took place in 1806 but the fixture was not revived until 1819. It was more or less annual thereafter...
match at Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
and responded by taking eight Players' wickets for 38 runs in the first innings, a feat that did not prevent the Players from winning rather easily in a match that Wisden deemed "by no means worthy of its high-sounding title".
Meyer retained his place in the Cambridge sides of 1925 and 1926, batting fairly low in the order and taking regular wickets. Less than three months after his final University Match
The University Match (cricket)
The University Match in a cricketing context is generally understood to refer to the annual fixture between Oxford University Cricket Club and Cambridge University Cricket Club...
appearance in July 1926, he was working as a cotton broker in India and turning out for the Europeans
Europeans cricket team
The Europeans cricket team was an Indian first-class cricket team which took part in the annual Bombay tournament. The team was founded by members of the European community in Bombay who played cricket at the Bombay Gymkhana....
in the final of the Bombay Quadrangular
Bombay Quadrangular
The Bombay Quadrangular was an influential cricket tournament held in Bombay, India from 1912 to 1936. At other times it was known variously as the Presidency Match, Bombay Triangular, and the Bombay Pentangular....
Tournament. Over the following Indian cricket season he played four times in matches against the touring side from the MCC
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
led by Arthur Gilligan
Arthur Gilligan
Arthur Edward Robert Gilligan was an English cricketer who played for Cambridge University, Sussex, Surrey and England....
, including one appearance for the full India side.
Meyer stayed in India for nine years and played first-class cricket in several Indian seasons. In the 1927-28 season he played only two games, both for the Europeans in the Bombay tournament, but took 28 wickets in these matches, including his career-best nine for 160 in the final against the Hindus when he finished with match figures of 16 wickets for 188 runs. In 1929, in a summer spent in England, he played Minor Counties cricket for Hertfordshire again and in several first-class matches for amateur teams against the universities, and in his last season in India, 1934–35, he captained the Western India side in two matches in the Ranji Trophy
Ranji Trophy
The Ranji Trophy is a domestic first-class cricket championship played in India between different city and state sides, equivalent to the County Championship in England and the Sheffield Shield in Australia...
.
The second stage of Meyer's cricket career began after his return to England to set up Millfield School in Somerset. From the 1936 season, he appeared in Somerset
Somerset County Cricket Club
Somerset County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Somerset...
matches, almost always those in the second half of the season when the school term had ended and, with rare exceptions, those played at home. In these games, he played as an all-rounder, his batting having improved significantly since his Cambridge days. Against Lancashire
Lancashire County Cricket Club
Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...
at Taunton in the last match of the 1936 season, he rescued Somerset from likely defeat with his maiden century, an undefeated 202, scored in 225 minutes. There is no doubt of the innings' merit – Somerset were still 48 behind with half their second innings wickets gone – but there is an oft-repeated story that the double century was obtained by an offer to contribute to the Lancashire beneficiary's fund. And he got a second century the following year against Sussex
Sussex County Cricket Club
Sussex County Cricket Club is the oldest of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Sussex. The club was founded as a successor to Brighton Cricket Club which was a representative of the county of Sussex as a...
. As a bowler, he managed at least one five-wicket innings haul in each of the four seasons running up to the Second World War, though his bowling was an increasingly idiosyncratic mixture of spin and swing. In the war, he served in the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
The Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve consists of a number of groupings of individual military reservists for the management and operation of the Royal Air Force's Air Training Corps and CCF Air Cadet formations, Volunteer Gliding Squadrons , Air Experience Flights, and also to form the...
.
After the war, Meyer resumed his prewar pattern of late summer home games in 1946, but then, in 1947, at the age of 42, allowed himself his solitary season of full-time cricket as Somerset's captain. By this stage, he was badly affected by lumbago, and though he scored 850 runs and took 43 wickets, the season was not a success for Somerset, and he stood down at the end of the year. He played a couple of first-class matches in each of the next three seasons, and then retired from cricket to concentrate full-time on schoolmastering and developing his school at Millfield.
Personality
Meyer was unpredictable in most of what he did. Tales of his eccentric behaviour are legion and many of them appear to have more than a smattering of truth; but despite all of this, he was also a genuinely far-sighted educationalist, an unorthodox but successful entrepreneur, and a talented if unharnessed sportsman. He inspired fierce both loyalty, but also, often at the same time, a large measure of exasperation.Meyer was a restless character, and tales of eccentric behaviour are not confined to the cricket pitch; some examples are as follows:
- Apparently in 1947, Arthur WellardArthur WellardArthur William Wellard was a cricketer who played for Somerset and England. A late starter in county cricket, having been told by his native county, Kent, that he would be better off taking up a career as a policeman, Wellard played on into his late 40s...
, even older than Meyer, was bowling rather well, when NorthamptonshireNorthamptonshire County Cricket ClubNorthamptonshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Northamptonshire. Its limited overs team is called the Northants Steelbacks. The traditional club colour is Maroon. During the...
batsman Dennis BrookesDennis BrookesDennis Brookes was an English cricketer who played for Northamptonshire between 1934 and 1959 . He also played in one Test match for England against West Indies in 1948. Brookes was President of Northamptonshire from 1982 to 1984...
played a false stroke through the slips which Meyer, too crippled by lumbago to bend down, failed to catch. Meyer reached into his back pocket: "Sorry Arthur, here's a quid." - He once pulled the communication cord on the Manchester train so that his players could get some food.
- In a match interrupted by rain, Somerset took the field with only 10 men until Meyer appeared under a large red umbrella.
- Meyer allegedly needed little sleep, which he would take in the headmaster's study. He carried a horse racingHorse racingHorse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
form book along with other more academic works and on occasion went to London where he wagered large sums of money in gambling casinos, often losing the lot.