Dennis Silk

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Dennis Raoul Whitehall Silk, CBE, (born October 8, 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. 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 in New Zealand.

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. He was Chairman of the Test and County Cricket Board from 1994 to 1996, and has also been President of MCC.

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.

[edit] Bibliography

• Siegfried's Journal (journal of the Siegfried Sassoon Fellowship) - no. 10