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Oliver Croom-Johnson The story of Oliver Croom-Johnson weaves several topics from this volume together in a tragic yet certainly heroic manner and Morristown School is due a share of that reflected glory because of what the School meant to him. Headmaster George Tilghman and Father Frederick Sill of Kent School had a lasting friendship. Mr. Tilghman frequently visited Kent and often returned with novel ideas to be adapted to Morristown, such as Self Help (q.v.). Father Sill also visited Morristown as the News reported, usually with an athletic team but occasionally for seemingly social reasons. But, for a time the most significant event in the intense but friendly rivalry between the schools was on the ice. The annual Morristown-Kent Ice Hockey game (q.v.), for a few years played at Madison Square Garden, besides a thrilling experience for the boys and their schools, was actually a fund raising event for the International Schoolboy Fund, part of the English Speaking Union. From the MS News (1930): “A group of English schoolboys are in the United States under the auspices of the English Speaking Union to take up scholarships in American schools. The scholarship scheme was initiated by the Reverend F. H. Sill, Headmaster of the Kent School. Certain of the best known American schools have offered to educate a number of English boys with a view to promoting good will and understanding between Great Britain and the United States.” Oliver Croom-Johnson from 125TH Anniversary
the Stowe School was a recipient of the scholarship along with over twenty other boys and he came to Morristown. His yearbook page attests to the impression he made in his year at School, including references to athletics and participation in the School play that year, Treasure Island. Oliver completed the year and graduated with the Class of 1931. The following year, Father Sill, at a speech given at Morristown as part of a series of dinners on the state of secondary education and Morristown School in particular, commented, “I wish I could express to you what the parents of Oliver Croom-Johnson, the English boy who was at Morristown last year, feel their boy gained by his contact with American boys under Mr. Tilghman’s direction and help. It is a wonderful tribute to the school.” But, the next time the School heard about him was in 1940, in a clipping from the London Times which included his resume after Morristown: “On his return to England in 1931 he engaged in commerce and worked in London, Leeds, Amsterdam and in Liverpool. He was called up for training with the Auxiliary Air Force in July 1939, and remained in the Air Force until
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the end. The second son of the Hon. Mr. Justice and Lady Croom-Johnson…he achieved a reputation for keenness and resolution in all that he ever undertook, and had a wide circle of young and old friends. He was an experienced airman.” Oliver had died in the Battle of Britain. His father expressed his, his wife’s and Oliver’s sentiments about the School: “I am writing to tell you and any members of the Faculty that may remember him for the death of my dear son Oliver Powell Croom-Johnson of the Class of 1931. He met his death flying for the RAF. Oliver spent a very happy year at the school from September 1930 and made a number of great friends: he always looked back on his time there as one of the happiest in his life. One of his proudest possessions was his ‘letter’ which was given to him for baseball and his red jersey went with him and was found among his belongings at his Aerodrome when I went to retrieve them after his funeral… His School ring which he always wore was buried with him. His mother and I have reason to thank you for what you did to turn the Englishboy of 1930 into the fine man of 1940 who sacrificed career, wife and life itself for those things in which all at Morristown believed.” A wonderful tribute to Oliver and to our School.
Morristown-Beard School