Lives in Cricket No 11 - CP Lewis

Oxford in the mid-1840s and he hoped that his talented nephew might one day follow in his footsteps. Indeed, there had been plenty of talk at Llwyn Celyn that C.P. might one day go up to Oxford, but given the financial situation of the Lewis family, he now required a scholarship in order for this to happen. Rev Williams was a gifted teacher, but other helping hands were needed if C.P. was going to secure a place at Oxford. Fortunately, Charles Williams had excellent contacts throughout south-west England, sending from Norton Lodge each year a number of pupils to leading public schools in England. In particular, Williams had good links with Gloucester Cathedral School, which had a fine academic reputation and in February 1870 an agreement was made allowing C.P. to transfer to the Cathedral School at the age of sixteen and a half, allowing him to mix his final studies in theology and classics, plus cramming for the entrance exams at Oxford, with helping out with the coaching of sport at the school. It was not too much of a culture shock for the youngster, as there were other Welsh boys at the Cathedral School, which attracted boarders from leading families across south Wales who found it easy to travel to Gloucester by rail from Swansea, Cardiff and Newport. Indeed, C.P. settled in very quickly into life at the Gloucester school, and in June 1870 – just four months after arriving – he was awarded the Fifth Form prize at the bi-annual prize-giving for, according to the Headmaster’s citation in the Gloucester Journal, ‘general proficiency in all subjects in the school.’ He maintained this academic progress in subsequent months, adding the Sixth Form prize the following year as he proved himself amongst the top echelon of scholars at the school. Founded in 1541 as one of King Henry VIII’s less well-endowed cathedral schools, and now known as King’s School, the Gloucester school had a deserved and growing reputation, thanks to the outstanding efforts of the head, Rev Hugh Fowler. A Cambridge classicist and mathematician, he had previously been headmaster of Bideford Grammar School before being appointed as the head of Gloucester Cathedral School in 1854. As one old boy, Frederic Hannam-Clark, later wrote in his memoirs, ‘He was a first-rate Headmaster. Who will forget the wholesome fear he inspired in all the boys, big and little? Who will forget his heavy rapid stride through the schoolroom with his gown flying behind him, or his determinate twanging of the bell on his desk until he got silence? School Days in Llandovery, Swansea and Gloucester 19