John Leonard Thorn (born 28 April 1925) is a writer and educational consultant. He was headmaster of Repton School from 1961 to 1968 and then of Winchester College until 1985. He was chairman of the Headmasters' Conference for 1981. Early life The son of Stanley and Winifred Thorn, Thorn was educated at St Paul's School, London, and at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Career Leaving school during the Second World War, Thorn joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, in which he served as a Sub-Lieutenant from 1943 to 1946. On returning to civilian life, he took up a place at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, graduating in 1949, and was then an assistant schoolmaster at Clifton from 1949 until being appointed headmaster of Repton in 1961. From 1968 until 1985 he was headmaster of Winchester College. In 1981, he was Chairman of the Headmasters' Conference. After his retirement from Winchester, where he has continued to live, Thorn was an educational consultant and also a writer, as well as serving on a number of public and charitable bodies. He was a director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, from 1971 to 1976; a Trustee of the British Museum from 1980 to 1985, and of the Winchester Cathedral Trust, from 1986 to 1989; vice-chairman of the Hampshire Buildings Preservation Trust from 1989 to 1992, then its chairman until 1996; for some years he served on the executive committee of the Cancer Research Campaign. He was chairman of governors of Abingdon School from 1991 to 1994 and was also a governor of Oakham School and of Stowe School during the 1980s. Thorn continued to teach including A-level philosophy classes at King Edward VI School in Southampton in the late 1990s. Key values as Headmaster Thorn's 1989 autobiography clarifies his key concerns as a public-school headmaster. He aimed to humanise the sometimes intolerant, sport-dominated culture of traditional boys-only public schools of his time. Alongside promoting exam-focused academic attainment, he sought also to stimulate his pupils’ creative capacities and to use part of the curriculum to develop their understanding of the world for its own sake. Egalitarian in outlook, he strove to expand access to his schools for pupils whose parents could not afford the fees. Progressive reform At Repton Thorn hoped to make the boys more "industrious, creative and happy" in a school where, he felt, sport overshadowed everything else, academic attainment included, and which