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Dr Ralph Townsend is Headmaster of Winchester College. He was previously Headmaster of Oundle School and before that Headmaster of Sydney Grammar School.
He was educated at Scotch College, Perth, from which he went on to read English at the University of Western Australia, having won a Commonwealth Scholarship. He then moved to England and to the University of Kent at Canterbury, where he began his graduate studies. He then undertook brief teaching appointments at Dover College and Abingdon School, before proceeding to Oxford. He was first a Senior Scholar at Keble College, then a Junior Research Fellow, Tutor and Dean of Degrees at Lincoln College. He taught in the Theology Faculty at Oxford.
Dr Townsend then moved back into school teaching, starting at Eton College in 1985. He left as Head of English in 1989 to become Headmaster of Sydney Grammar School. Whilst in Sydney, Townsend was Patron of the Australian Musicians' Academy and President of the New South Wales Classical Association. After ten years in that post, Dr Townsend returned to England to become Headmaster of Oundle School. In 2005 he was appointed Headmaster of Winchester.
Dr Townsend has written books, articles and reviews in the areas of church history and religious literature. He has been a Governor of Terra Nova School (Cheshire) 1999-2003, Old Buckenham Hall School (Suffolk) 1999-2006, Ampleforth College (Yorkshire) 2003-2006 and Bramcote Lorne School (Nottinghamshire) 2003-2005. He is currently a member of the Council of the University of Southampton, a Governor of Mowden Hall School (Northumberland), The Pilgrims' School (Winchester), St Swithun's School (Winchester) and Worth School (Sussex), and he is an Adviser to the African Leadership Academy, the National College of Music (London), the Church Schools Company and the United Learning Trust. He is an Honorary Liveryman of the Grocers' Company.