Jim Scouse
1946-2022

Jim joined the Sevenoaks School staff as an English teacher in 1983 after replying to an advert ‘on the off chance’ following his return from a six-month trip around the world.

Before his travels, he had taught English at Hampton School between 1973 and 1980, where he was known for his excellent drama productions, his involvement in trips and the CCF. Entries in the school magazine suggest he was an educator who enjoyed a challenge. He subsequently taught at Newcastle-under-Lyme Grammar School.

At Sevenoaks, Jim was a very welcome addition to the staff, a well-respected and inspirational member of the English department and a regular director of plays in the Sackville Theatre. An adventurous soul, Jim led a memorable Sixth Form trip to Kenya accompanied by Roger Woodward and Philippa Milward. After a week in a charity-run children’s village near the Ugandan border, the group went north on a long safari in a very old British Army lorry which had no starter motor or lights! Sometimes scary, the trip involved hippos, crocodiles, lions, breakdowns, marauding local men and camping in the bush listening to distant drums at midnight.

Jim was appointed IC Tutor in 1988 and struck up a good partnership with Housemaster Peter Winter and his wife Adwoa. He subsequently became a supportive Assistant Housemaster to Steve Connors who joined the IC in 1993. Jim was an amusing, intelligent man with wide cultural interests and enjoyed long, interesting discussions late into the night. He was also a quiet maverick, instinctively averse to authority, and liked to steer his own path on a number of issues. There was something undeniably cool about him and he garnered respect. Amongst many IC boys he was extremely popular and elevated to legend status, doubtless in part because of his non-conformist streak.

Jim was a private man and gave little away but enjoyed the company of his dog and driving his VW campervan to the West Country on weekends off to stay in his house in Crewkerne.

Jim always remained slightly mysterious and didn’t like to stop too long in any one place. In 1997, he took a teaching job in Cairo, later moving to a house in Luxor where he could watch the feluccas on the Nile. Jim enjoyed the life he created for himself in his beloved Egypt and it was there that he died of brain cancer in 2022.

Jim was a good man and a congenial colleague. May he rest in peace.

Peter Winter, Steve Connors and Roger Woodward