BBC: John Gwilliam: Wales Grand Slam-winning captain dies at 93
Former Wales Grand Slam-winning captain John Gwilliam - who was part of the last Welsh team to beat New Zealand - has died at the age of 93…
Away from rugby, he served as a tank commander during the Second World War and was headmaster of the independent Birkenhead School from 1963 to 1988…
Gwilliam was described as a physically imposing, religious and austere, and he is remembered at Birkenhead School as a strict disciplinarian.
My old headmaster. Physically imposing, religious, austere, and a strict disciplinarian pretty much nails it.
As a young atheist, I used to disagree with him in Divinity (RE) lessons. He got his own back by making me into a 'monitor'. The difference between a monitor and a prefect was that monitors weren't required to read the lesson in school chapel. In my case, I'm pretty sure he didn't want to take the risk.
I never even got to be a monitor. It may have been because my father was a trade union official and my mother a Labour councillor.
I never got on with him either.
Merry Christmas!