Twenty-Five Years in Kashmir: Headmaster on a Mission

About John Ray

John Ray's wartime boyhood in Surrey was followed by his five-year student life at St Andrews. MA (Hons) History and a Diploma in Education masked his passion for mountaineering. And National Service in the Royal Marines (Commandos) led to teaching (mountain expeditions and history) at Gordonstoun. In 1957 he moved to Lawrence College Pakistan as a housemaster and in 1962 became Principal of the Tyndale Biscoe School in Srinagar. Ray's Christian faith had come alive during a difficult initial year in Pakistan. In 1970 he was ordained Presbyter in the Church of North India later serving as Secretary of the Amritsar Diocesan Council. He was also the Unofficial Representative (Honorary Consul) for Kashmir to the UK High Commission New Delhi. He was appointed OBE in 1979 for services to education and to the community in Kashmir. Returning to the UK he served in the Church of England Diocese of Birmingham as Deanery Missioner continuing after retirement in active ministry across cultures there until 2014. He and his wife Dr Catherine Ray have been back in Srinagar in 2005 and 2012 and keep in regular touch with friends in Kashmir. They now live in Yorkshire.