It is difficult to summarise a life such as Jonty’s, more so immediately after his death. The Jonty I knew was a man who spoke, wrote, and thought with uncommon sensitivity and moral clarity. To my mind, he is one of the finest poets South Africa has produced. Despite his demanding career as a teacher, Jonty remained a prolific writer, publishing 10 books of poems (most recently Still Further: New Poems ), five poetry booklets (the most recent one, A Winter’s Day at Westonbirt ), five novels (four still in print from Faber), five books of biography and memoir, and a book of verse for children. In 2000 Driver retired from Wellington and eventually settled with Ann in a delightful old cottage at Northiam, near Rye in East Sussex. The house displayed another of the paradoxes that were always present in his life: an unusually tall man fitting himself comfortably into a low-ceilinged cottage, as if he had clambered into a dolls’ house overflowing with books. It used to be said that all of us think we know about education because we have all been to school; Some Schools, very attractively produced (a handful of misprints) by John Catt Educational, should enthral any reader for that reason; it will convey to anyone what teaching is really like with its difficulties and its joys. The strongest impression I had from it is that any parents reading it would be truly delighted to have someone with the qualities of Jonty Driver overseeing the education of their children. Charles Jonathan Driver was born on August 19 1939 at Mowbray, a suburb of Cape Town, to Phyllis, née Gould, and Kingsley (“Jos”) Driver. He was born into schools. His father, after time as a prisoner of war, having been captured at Tobruk in North Africa, became chaplain at St Andrew’s College in Grahamstown, which his son would later describe as “the Eton of South Africa“.

It goes without saying that Wellington College would not exist were it not for Arthur Wellesley, the Iron Duke, the first Duke of Wellington. Quite simply, it is equally correct to say that Wellington College would also not exist were it not for the Royal Family. When Arthur Wellesley died in September 1852, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were determined that there should be a national memorial to commemorate the Iron Duke. But what should it be? There were some precedents. Some Schools. John Catt Educational. 30 November 2016. ISBN 9781909717978. (About the five schools at which Driver worked) Driver published five novels: Elegy for a Revolutionary (1969), Send War In Our Time, O Lord (1970), Death of Fathers (1972), A Messiah of the Last Days (1974), and Shades of Darkness (2004).The cookie is set by CloudFlare service to store a unique ID to identify a returning users device which then is used for targeted advertising. A bigger volume, STILL FURTHER, New Poems 2000-2019, is to be published by the Uhlanga Press, probably in 2021. CJ Driver will be missed by so many for a rare combination of straight talking, deep learning, and transforming friendship. Through it all, he offered a distinctive and rare example of the very best sort of leadership, the kind you cannot learn from books but is engraved in flesh. His passing surely prompts us to give great thanks for this and to hope for political and educational leaders who also possess such courage, insight, and grace.Amen, old friend. and recently retired from its Advisory Council. He was a Bogliasco Fellow in 2007, a Fellow at the Macdowell Colony in New Hampshire, USA, in the Fall of 2009, and a Fellow at the Hawthornden

One of the advantages of forced idleness is that I’ve had time to sketch out the framework for a long poem in my head.” Jonty Driver (pictured above, centre) was Headmaster of Berkhamsted School, arriving from Hong Kong in 1983, before leaving to take up headship at Wellington College, after only six years, in 1989. What strikes me most about Jonty’s death – like those of other friends and acquaintances in recent years — is how lives lived in so many different times and so many different places can be compressed and imagined into a single instance of grief and celebration, shared among family, friends and colleagues, both locally and abroad.Jonty was due to leave in a few days, so I had to communicate urgently with Lindiwe Maliti, a member of the HOD team at Umso. This required a degree of rural agility in a context of bad phone lines and no cell phones, and then some logistical acrobatics from Lindiwe in the form of moving chairs and benches and rearranging classes so that a special assembly could be accommodated. Les replies: ‘We are so touched that the HCET will be a co-recipient of donations at your dad’s funeral. He was a constant and generous supporter of the Trust, and always had such good things to say to anyone who would listen. He said when he was overwhelmed by all the negative things happening in South Africa, the work of the HCET restored his hope once again. We will pencil in the date and hope to be part of the service, even from so far away. I am greatly saddened to share news of the passing of Charles Jonathan Driver, known always as Jonty. He died in Bristol on Sunday 21 May 2023 after a short illness.