Biography - Gerald Peacocke

He has enjoyed a varied and successful career: as Librarian of the Italian Department, teacher and translator at Oxford; teaching at Eton College and the King's School, Canterbury; in the steel industry; serving the British Council in Turkey and the Sudan; as organiser of Canterbury Cathedral's acclaimed Thomas Becket Festival in 1970; and as headmaster of two schools, including King's College School, Cambridge. In 1985 he gained a postgraduate diploma in Dramatherapy.

Gerald Peacocke was educated in Switzerland and at Sherborne School, England. He then served in the Royal Artillery and in Trieste as an officer in the Intelligence Corps.

At Oxford University he held three competitive scholarships and gained First Class Honours in Modern Languages. Gerald now lives at Oxford. He is a Part-Time Tutor in the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education, and a committee member of The Oxford Italian Association.

From 1985 to 1987 Gerald was Chairman of the Choir Schools' Association, which has members in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Holland, the USA, Australia and New Zealand. After retiring from King's in 1993, he was again appointed to Eton College as Manager of the Music Department.

In February 2010 he was elected Chairman of the Trinity College Oxford Society (the alumni) and Vice-Chairman of The Oxford Italian Association, both for a period of three years.

Gerald has extensive experience of acting in and directing dramatic and music productions. He is also an experienced public speaker and reader, and has been regularly interviewed on radio and television.