Once a week students spend an hour and a half at the special collections reading room of Templeman library. We explore the huge body of archival material on Hewlett Johnson, a one-time governor of this school and Dean of Canterbury cathedral. The collection contains a large volume of personal letters, diaries, photos and newspaper cuttings about his rich and varied life. Only two biographies have ever been written on the Red Dean and by the end of the project our students effectively becoming leading experts. Through the material our students are helping to shape the interpretation of a man that divides opinion. He was an apologist for the Soviet Union and spent some summers with Chou En Lai in China, he was also credited with inspiring Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution.
In addition, he took platforms with US civil rights leaders like Paul Robeson and had audiences with Eleanor Roosevelt and Gandhi, which reflected his commitment to struggles for racial and gender equality and anti-colonialism. He was an early opponent of nuclear weaponry and had friendships with cultural luminaries like Ezra Pound, Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein and Helen Keller. Over the years the students have produced an extraordinary documentary, written EPQs and this year they are creating a display at the Templeman.
