An East Sussex Scholar who was at the Mercury in the final years of C.B. Fry’s rule and recalled the morning shower ritual and the regular dose of Epsom Salts every boy was forced to drink. He was a a keen athlete and sportsman and played in the Mercury’s 1st XI Cricket Team before joining the Royal Navy as a Boy Seaman at HMS St Vincent. He later transferred from the Seaman Branch to the Regulating Branch and completed his naval service as a Regulating Petty Officer. In civilian life he settled at Abingdon in Oxfordshire where he remained involved with maritime matters as a commander of the local Sea Cadet unit. John sadly crossed the bar at in April 2021.