J. F. Roxburgh
John Fergusson Roxburgh (5 May 1888 – 6 May 1954) was a Scottish schoolmaster and author, and the first headmaster of Stowe School.
Born in Edinburgh, he was the younger son of Archibald Roxburgh and Janet Briggs Cathcart. He spent part of his childhood in Liverpool and studied at Charterhouse School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he earned a first-class degree in the Classical Tripos in 1910. He spent a year at the Sorbonne and earned an L. ès L.
His first job was at Lancing College, where he taught the young Evelyn Waugh. In World War I he was initially turned down for service but joined the Royal Engineers as a signalist in 1917, served in 1918, and was mentioned in dispatches. His younger brother Robert was killed at the Battle of Jutland.
In 1919 Roxburgh returned to Lancing as a housemaster. Early in 1923 he was chosen as the first headmaster of Stowe School, a new project led by E. H. Montauban and supported by the Martyrs’ Memorial Trust. The first pupils arrived on 11 May 1923. Stowe quickly built a strong reputation for academics, music, and art, with sports also thriving.
Roxburgh was a “teaching head” who taught every boy at some point and encouraged a love of literature. He believed that beautiful school grounds would help students value beauty for life. His approach was different from many headmasters: no corporal punishment, addressing boys by their first names, letting them ride bicycles, and encouraging personal interests. David Niven, one of his pupils, said Roxburgh made every boy feel that what he said and did mattered.
His goal was to develop boys of good character and moral courage—young men who would be “acceptable at a dance and invaluable in a shipwreck.” The Second World War was a shock; the school felt like a family, and many former pupils served, with some decorated and others killed. He retired in 1949 after twenty-six years as headmaster.
The Old Stoics gifted him a clock, a car, and money for travel, which he joked about as signs that his time was up, his car to drive away, and travel money to reach distant lands. He later arranged a sale of many gifts he had received.
Roxburgh died accidentally by drowning after a fall in his bath at his cottage in Great Brickhill on 6 May 1954, with his funeral held at the school. His estate was worth £44,671. Noel Annan later wrote Roxburgh of Stowe, and Evelyn Waugh reviewed it in The Observer in 1965.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 01:16 (CET).