Nigel Jaques
Eton master who was described by Prince William as ‘cool’
NIGEL JAQUES, who has died aged 85, was one of the longest serving and most popular Eton masters, claiming to have known every headmaster to have led the school over 100 years.
When the Prince of Wales told Prince William that Jaques was coming to tutor Prince Harry for two weeks in Scotland, the reply was: “Mr Jaques is cool.”
Nigel John Trefusis Jaques was born on October 18 1935. His father, Leslie, was a housemaster at Eton, while a maternal uncle and a great-uncle had taught at the school.
Nigel was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Oxford, where he was tutored by the classicist Tommy Higham. At a Trinity reunion years later, Jaques bemused some of his young audience when he related that Higham advised his pupils not to revise too late before Mods, as examiners were quick to spot mistakes in “haplography and dittography”.
After three years teaching at Brighton College he became an assistant master at Eton in 1962, describing those days as “a period of innovation and rebellion, with the young at once its standard-bearers and its victims”. He taught nonspecialist classics, which included English, history and divinity.
When history of art was introduced as an A-level subject, he instilled a love of the Italian Renaissance in many of his pupils. He took parties to Rome, and when Eton took on Casa Guidi in Florence, he was closely involved in its restoration. He was a considerable expert on Bernini, collected watercolours of Italy from about 1740 to the end of the Victorian period, and was a discriminating traveller. He also took parties to Greece, which many found to be a life-changing experience.
In 1978 he became housemaster of Manor House, where his care of the boys and stylish hospitality were legendary. Although he was considered eccentric, his distinctive walk much imitated, he was perceptive and considerate when dealing with teenage sensitivities, his lightness of touch matched by seriousness of purpose.
When his last house captain, Joe Haddon, was tragically drowned in 1994, Jaques was deeply saddened and mused that it gave him an idea of what it must have been like to have been a
housemaster in the First World War, when such news came every week.
As a former school music secretary, he played the oboe, sang in the Windsor and Eton Choral Society, and organised chamber music concerts in the house. His years at Manor House are recorded for posterity by a newel post of him on the banisters of its grand staircase, funded by his old boys. Boys being boys, it was perhaps inevitable that his school nickname was “Hattie” Jaques.
He also served as honorary secretary of the Old Etonian Association, and Treasurer of the Eton Beagles, which involved an annual meet at Royal Lodge.
Through his friendship with Sir Martin Gilliat, the Queen Mother’s private secretary, he became a regular at cultural evenings at Royal Lodge, the Queen Mother enjoying his erudition. When she came to performances by the boys in Election Hall, the evening was invariably rounded off with an often hilarious double act between Martin Charteris and Jaques.
After Robin Woods created the Windsor Festival with Yehudi Menuhin in 1969, Jaques became involved, later chairing it between 1994 and 1997.
Jaques suffered one disappointment. He was a natural candidate to be Vice-provost but was passed over. In retirement he lived in a house near Windsor bridge, loyal to Eton to the last, and when he turned 80 in 2015, he asked every boy in his house to a dinner at Brooks’s.
When he finally retired in 1998, Michael Meredith wrote: “He now leaves Eton, integer vitae scelerisque purus, to become himself part of her history.”
Nigel Jaques, born October 18 1935, died December 4 2020