Although it has been asserted that he was forced to resign because of negative reactions to his wife Daphne Rae publishing, A World Apart in 1983, detailing their joint experiences during their time at Taunton and Harrow, and raising the issue of gay teachers,[1] he remained at the school until 1986.
According to his posthumously published diary, his departure was a combination of exceeding the typical term of headmastership (10 years), his opposition to the Assisted Places Scheme, and a desire to find a new challenge.
[3] He said that drug-taking was entirely unacceptable, but that pupils should only be expelled if they had committed serious offences, such as supplying and/or selling drugs, or had dishonestly claimed to be innocent when given the chance to 'own up'.
Rae was a prolific writer on education, his works including Letters to Parents, The Public School Revolution, and a professional autobiography, Delusions of Grandeur.
During the 1970s he published a short series of novels for teenagers, borrowing for the purpose the names, and to some extent the characters, of his own children.