John Traill Christie

John Traill Christie (18 October 1899 – 8 September 1980) was headmaster of Repton School (1932–37) and Westminster School (1937–50), before becoming Principal of Jesus College, Oxford (1949–67).^[1] Member of the Sir Walter Scott Club (1956 Report of the Sir Walter Scott Club).

As headmaster of Repton School, he punished children with brutal beatings, as recorded by Roald Dahl in Boy.^[2] But Dahl said it was Geoffrey Fisher (whom Christie succeeded) who savagely caned a school chum of his. This inconsistancy is thought by many to be a simple case of mistaken identity on Dahl's part, especially since it had been more than 50 years since the incident when Dahl wrote about it, and so his lingering resentment --- and permanent cane-bruises --- may have caused him to forget precisely who had committed the offenses.

Christie married Lucie Catherine, only daughter of Thomas Philip LeFanu; they had two daughters.^[3] The elder was Catherine (born 1935); the younger, Jane (born 1936) married Henry Galton Darwin.

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