Dennis Raoul Whitehall Silk, CBE, (born October 8, 1931), is a former schoolmaster and international cricketer. He was also a close friend of the poet Siegfried Sassoon, about whom he has spoken and written extensively.
Having taught at Marlborough College, Silk moved on to Radley College, where he was Warden (headmaster) from 1968 to 1991. In this role he appeared prominently in the 1980 BBC documentary series, Public School. He was Chairman of the Test and County Cricket Board from 1994 to 1996, and has also been President of MCC.
During the early 1950s, Silk was introduced to the cricket-loving poet Siegfried Sassoon by a mutual acquaintance, Edmund Blunden. Until Sassoon's death in 1967, Silk was one of his closest friends, and made several unique recordings of the poet reading his own work at home in Heytesbury, Wiltshire. These formed the basis of a BBC Radio 4 programme on the subject: Siegfried Sassoon: a Friend.
Portrait bust of Dennis Silk
Dennis Silk sat for sculptor and former Radley College pupil Alan Thornhill for a portrait1 in clay. The correspondence file relating to the Silk portrait bust is held as part of the Thornhill Papers (2006:56) in the archive2 of the Henry Moore Foundation's Henry Moore Institute in Leeds and the terracotta remains in the collection of the artist.
