Charterhouse educated Tommy Garnett was a middle-order amateur batsman whose first-class career would probably have been limited to one outing against Cambridge University in 1935 had he not answered an SOS from Somerset in August 1939 as they struggled to raise an XI with many regulars already having joined up with war looming. A talented sportsman, he had by then won the British Amateur Doubles Championships at Eton Fives.

He read classics at Cambridge, became an assistant master at Westminster School, and in 1938 returned to Charterhouse, where he made his mark as a classics teacher. He was an outstanding Master of Marlborough College from 1952 until 1961, when he was appointed headmaster of Geelong Grammar, one of Australia's oldest and most illustrious schools; it was during his tenure there that a young Prince Charles spent two terms at the school's outback offshoot, Timbertop - Garnett only agreed to take him as long as he could "see the boy and interview the parents''.

A keen horticulturist, after retiring he became gardening editor of The Age in Melbourne and published a book - From The Country - and remaining in Australia for the remainder of his life. In 1996 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to horticulture.
Martin Williamson