The family moved to Watton-at-Stone, Hertfordshire in January 1911 when Rollo became the rector there,[1] and Jack grew up in the village rectory overlooking the new cricket field.

Millfield from the outset was an unconventional public school, with an emphasis on all-round excellence, and not just the academic, including strength in areas such as sports and the arts.

Meyer had a flexible attitude towards school fees, charging wealthy parents some of the highest in the UK but waiving them entirely for some pupils whom he considered deserving.

Meyer's philosophy at Millfield was, "...to nurture talent by providing the very best facilities, teaching, coaching and opportunities in which young people can exercise and explore their abilities; and to give awards to those in financial need.

[7] After the university term was over, he played Minor Counties cricket for Hertfordshire, scoring a lot of runs and taking 51 wickets at low cost.

[13] As a bowler, he managed at least one five-wicket innings haul in each of the four seasons running up to the Second World War, though his bowling was an increasingly idiosyncratic mixture of spin and swing.

[14] After the war, Meyer resumed his prewar pattern of late summer home games in 1946, but then, in 1947, at the age of 42, allowed himself his solitary season of full-time cricket as Somerset's captain.

By this stage, he was badly affected by lumbago, and though he scored 850 runs and took 43 wickets, the season was not a success for Somerset, and he stood down at the end of the year.

He played a couple of first-class matches in each of the next three seasons, and then retired from cricket to concentrate full-time on schoolmastering and developing his school at Millfield.

Tales of his eccentric behaviour are legion and many of them appear to have more than a smattering of truth; but despite all of this, he was also a genuinely far-sighted educationalist, an unorthodox but successful entrepreneur, and a talented, if unharnessed sportsman.