Dennis Silk

Not to be confused with Dennis Silk (poet).

Dennis Raoul Whitehall Silk, CBE (born October 8, 1931), is a former schoolmaster and international cricketer. He was also a close friend of the poet Siegfried Sassoon, about whom he has spoken and written extensively.

Silk was born in Eureka, California. He was educated at Christ's Hospital, and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, representing Cambridge University at cricket. He went on to play first-class cricket for Somerset, but gave priority to his teaching career. He did, however, captain MCC on a tour of the USA and Canada in 1959 and again in New Zealand.

Having taught at Marlborough College, Silk moved on to Radley College, where he was Warden (headmaster) from 1968 to 1991. In this role he appeared prominently in the 1980 BBC documentary series, Public School. He was Chairman of the Test and County Cricket Board from 1994 to 1996, and has also served as President of the MCC.

During the early 1950s, Silk was introduced to the cricket-loving poet Siegfried Sassoon by a mutual acquaintance, Edmund Blunden. Until Sassoon's death in 1967, Silk was one of his closest friends, and made several unique recordings of the poet reading his own work at home in Heytesbury, Wiltshire. These formed the basis of a BBC Radio 4 programme on the subject: Siegfried Sassoon: a Friend. In 2009, Silk became President for life of the Siegfried Sassoon Fellowship.^[1]

Portrait bust of Dennis Silk

Dennis Silk sat for sculptor and former Radley College pupil Alan Thornhill for a portrait^[2] in clay. The correspondence file relating to the Silk portrait bust is held as part of the Thornhill Papers (2006:56) in the archive^[3] of the Henry Moore Foundation's Henry Moore Institute in Leeds and the terracotta remains in the collection of the artist.

Works

• Siegfried Sassoon (Guinness lecture) (Michael Russell, 1975)
• T E Lawrence and Siegfried Sassoon: a Friendship (Reading Room Press, 2010)

References

1. ^ SSF Annual Conference 2009
2. ^ portrait head of Dennis Silk image of sculpture
3. ^ http://www.henry-moore-fdn.co.uk/matrix_engine/content.php?page_id=584 HMI Archive

Bibliography

• Siegfried's Journal (journal of the Siegfried Sassoon Fellowship) - no. 10

Persondata
Name	Silk, Dennis
Alternative names
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Date of birth	October 8, 1931
Place of birth	Eureka, California
Date of death
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