J. R. Eccles

James Ronald Eccles (9 January 1874 – 31 August 1956) was an English schoolmaster and author who was headmaster of Gresham's School, Holt.

[3] A Methodist and a Liberal, Eccles's first career plan had been to go on to train as a doctor, but instead after Cambridge he spent a year in South Wales studying its geology, then some months in Paris to improve his French, and then in 1899 became a schoolmaster by returning to his old school, Clifton, to teach Physics for a year while the post-holder was on leave.

[6] However, W. H. Auden was deeply critical of the honours system as operated by Eccles, complaining that the encouragement of boys to inform on each other created a culture of fear.

In February 1921 the Thatched Buildings, which he paid for, were opened by Sir Arthur Shipley, providing new classrooms which would allow for the teaching of new subjects.

In January 1934, the school celebrated Eccles's one hundred terms as a master by giving him a leather-bound illuminated address and a silver bowl.