Christopher Herman Gilkes (1898 – 2 September 1953) was a noted educationalist and was Master of Dulwich College, United Kingdom, from 1941 to his death in 1953.
[2] His brother Humphrey Arthur Gilkes became a doctor, and was one of four soldiers to be awarded the Military Cross on four occasions in the First World War.
His bravery and leadership has been cited as unfailing and unshakeable during this time, as the school suffered much damage during bombing raids.
The greatest step towards this was Gilkes' agreement to house boys who were participating in a War Office sponsored scheme under which the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) would provide a crash course in Turkish, Persian, Chinese and Japanese in order to ensure the three armed services had men who could speak eastern languages.
The boys on the scheme, termed The Oriental Scholars[1] would study at SOAS in the morning and then return to Dulwich College where they would do more general work.
Gilkes' part in this was later lauded by Sir Ralph Lilley Turner, who was the Director of SOAS at the time, as a great contribution to the war effort.
[1] Partially, Gilkes' insistence on maintaining as normal a school life as possible during the war meant that Dulwich College became attractive to parents who returned to London during the early 1940s when there had been a lull in bombing.