Dennis Silk

Dennis Silk

Dennis Raoul Whitehall Silk, CBE (born 8 October 1931) is a former schoolmaster and international cricketer. He was also a close friend of the poet Siegfried Sassoon, about whom he has spoken and written extensively.

Silk was born in Eureka, California. He was educated at Christ's Hospital, and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, representing Cambridge University at cricket. A useful middle-order batsman, he went on to play first-class cricket for Somerset, but gave priority to his teaching career. He did, however, captain MCC on a tour of the USA and Canada in 1959 and again on a tour of New Zealand in 1960-61, after which he retired from first-class cricket. In 83 first-class matches he hit 3845 runs at an average of 29.80, with seven centuries. He later wrote two instructional books on playing cricket.

Having taught at Marlborough College, Silk moved on to Radley College, where he was Warden (headmaster) from 1968 to 1991. In this role he appeared prominently in the 1980 BBC documentary series, Public School. When he retired from Radley, rather than accept gifts for himself he established the Silk Fund to support the education of talented boys whose parents might otherwise struggle to pay the school's fees.

He was Chairman of the Test and County Cricket Board from 1994 to 1996, and has also served as President of the MCC. He was made a CBE in the 1995 New Year's Honours List for services to cricket and education.

During the early 1950s, Silk was introduced to the cricket-loving poet Siegfried Sassoon by a mutual acquaintance, Edmund Blunden. Until Sassoon's death in 1967, Silk was one of his closest friends, and made several unique recordings of the poet reading his own work at home in Heytesbury, Wiltshire. These formed the basis of a BBC Radio 4 programme on the subject: Siegfried Sassoon: a Friend. In 2009, Silk became President for life of the Siegfried Sassoon Fellowship.

Read more about Dennis Silk:  Portrait Bust of Dennis Silk, Works

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