John Claughton

Lecturer in Classics & Ancient Greek and Latin Languages

John Claughton was educated at King Edward’s School, Birmingham and Merton College, Oxford, where he gained a Double First, when getting a First meant something. He also won four Cricket Blues and was a very unsuccessful captain of Oxford University CC in 1978. After one mediocre year as a professional cricketer and two disastrous years as a merchant-banker, he became a teacher: 17 years at Eton College were followed by two headships, at Solihull School (2001-2005) and King Edward’s School - again (2006-2016). During his tenure, the school was chosen as Sunday Times International Baccalaureate School of the Year and in 2016 he was awarded the Times Educational Supplement Independent School Lifetime Achievement Award. In retirement, he has created WoLLoW, World of Languages, Languages of the World, a multilingual primary languages course. He has also published translations and commentaries for Cambridge University Press and Bloomsbury on Herodotus, Thucydides, Aristophanes, Plato and Lucian. 

John teaches Latin and Greek for The Classical Institute, combining linguistic understanding with exploration of the impact of Greek and Latin on later intellectual, literary and artistic traditions. In the course of 2025/2026 he will also lead seminars on the works of Herodotus, Sophocles, Thucydides and Plato.