J. F. Roxburgh

John Fergusson Roxburgh (5 May 1888 – 6 May 1954) was a Scottish schoolmaster and author, first headmaster of Stowe School from 1923 to 1949.

Early life Roxburgh was a younger son of Archibald Roxburgh, an importer and merchant, by his marriage to Janet Briggs Cathcart, and was born in Edinburgh. He spent part of his childhood in Liverpool, and was educated in England, at Charterhouse School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took a first class degree in the Classical Tripos in 1910. He then spent a year at the Sorbonne and graduated L. ès L.

Career Roxburgh's first job was at Lancing College where he taught the young Evelyn Waugh. During the First World War he was turned down for service in the army, but in 1917 was finally accepted and joined the signal corps of the Royal Engineers. He saw action in 1918 and was mentioned in dispatches, while his younger brother Robert was killed at the Battle of Jutland.

Roxburgh's educational approach differed from most headmasters. Instead of corporal punishment, he addressed boys by their first names, let them ride bicycles, and encouraged their personal interests. David Niven, who was a student of his, wrote, "How he did this, I shall never know, but he made every single boy at that school feel that what he said and what he did were of real importance to the headmaster."

Roxburgh's goal was to develop students with good character and moral courage, young men that would be "acceptable at a dance and invaluable in a shipwreck."

The Second World War was a terrible shock to Roxburgh. He had never married and saw the extended school as his family. One eighth of his old boys were decorated during the war, but one in seven was killed. His funeral took place at the school.

Noel Annan's biography of Roxburgh, Roxburgh of Stowe, was the last work reviewed by Evelyn Waugh, one of his old boys from Lancing, in The Observer on 17 October 1965.

Personal Life His elder brother was Archibald Cathcart Roxburgh, a dermatologist and author of Common Skin Diseases.

Major publications The Poetic Procession (1921) Eleutheros (1930)