Clifford Hicks was the principal of Calcutta Boys' School from 1952 to 1975 where he remains as its most famous principal. He had been nominated to the upper house of the West Bengal Assembly.

This dear "principal" apparently took pleasure in physically and emotionally abusing Anglo-Indian children. In one particular instance, a ten year old orphan who was sent to his torture house (aka boarding school) used to be caned often for 'mischief' and in frustration Mr. Hicks once told the child after first pulling his hair and smacking him, "Your parents are dead, why don't you die too?" Later on that week, that ten-year old boy, in total dispair, drank rat poison. He vomited the next morning. Then he tried it again the next night. When it didn't work the second time he promised himself he would NEVER ever allow someone as cruel and evil, as Hicks to ever harm him again. In case you are wondering who this boy is, well. He left India, never returned and is happily out of the land of horrors. His name, is Bryan Feol. Hicks and his wife were barren and apparently had NO clue whatsoever how to treat children with kindness and compassion. I swore to never have children and abandon them to the cruelty of adults if I was not around to protect them. I am one of those children who have been emotionally maimed. What goes around, comes around.

(The following passages have been culled from a 1980 'Pulse' article by Mr. Alfred Martin. Therefore do not edit passages which might seem unnecessary for these paasages are quoted from an article.)

Mr. Hicks was the youngest son of an average-sized Anglo-Indian family of sisters and brothers. He was born in a small village in Madhya Pradesh. His father was an Englishman domiciled in India and a Railways employee.

Unlike other members of his family, he indicated early in life a scholastic tendency. Miss Wyse, a lady divine of Pentecostal Church, took him under her wing and saw him through school. He joined St. Xavier's College and completed his B.T. after he had obtained a B.D. (Bachelor of Divinity) from Serampore Theological College. Mr. Hicks was an Anglican (Church of England) and he showed a keen desire to join the Ministry of the Church for his B.D. his discourse was 'The Presentation of Christianity to the Hindus' dated 1st March 1938, which he presented at Bishops College, Calcutta.

He obtained work as a teacher in Calcutta Boys' School where he came to know Mr. H.C. Fritchley, an older teacher. The school finances were then at such a low ebb that the then Managing Committee resolved to close down the institution. Calcutta Boys’ School till that time had had a series of American/foreign principals who were mainly Church men.

As the school was heavily in debt, Mr. H.C. Fritchley threw down the gauntlet to the then Managing Committee to give him a chance to run the school, asserting that he would put it back on its feet. Having nothing to lose from such a challenge, they agreed and though Mr. H.C. Fritchley was only an I.A., he took the mantle of principal ship. He introduced a series of austere disciplines and was painfully cautious of accounts. He abolished the system of giving prizes on Sports Day. He taught his staff and pupils to love the game beyond the prize.

Within a very brief period, Calcutta Boys’ School was able to make both ends meet. Its heavy debts had all been cleared.

The school had its hectic days during the Second World war when the present staff room was an A.R.P. shelter.

The heavy steel gate between the New Building and Renfrew House was originally fixed at the entrance of the little room opposite XI C/H (in 1980). It was a light ammunition dump and the pantry was used for storage of food for the Allied Forces.

The granting of independence to India in 1947 saw Mr. Fritchley make a distinct effort to employ people in the school with a non-English speaking background. The staff changed fast. Many left for England. It was a new experience to have a Bengali gentleman named S.K. Ganguly in the school to teach mathematics and Bengali instead of Latin. The indigenisation process had started and after Mr. Clifford Hicks was placed in charge of the school when Mr. Fritchley left for a short vacation to the United States to see his son Newton, it became obvious that Mr. Hicks would be the new principal on Mr. Fritchley’s impending retirement. He subsequently married Miss Ruth Fritchley, elder daughter of Mr. Fritchley and assumed principal ship in January 1952.

The usual pains of transition were felt severely by Mr. Hicks when he took over. He immediately put emphasis on study above everything else. Students like Ashoke Guha, Samprit Chatterjee and Ashoke Roy were lionised. They were brilliant. The school had stopped doing the matriculation examination and taken affiliation to the Cambridge Syndicate.

The study hours of the boarders, a group of about ninety boys or so were increased ten fold. The examination results improved and the school was getting known to people of the state.

Mr. Hicks emphasised Chapel. Chapel was conducted for the whole school every day in the Chapel Hall. The staff composition gradually included men like Mr. B.K. Pal to teach Science, Mr. S.K. Guha (from Burma) to teach Mathematics and Mr. Roy Chowdhury to teach Hindi.

Mr. Hicks was a public relations expert. By dint of his personality, he won the hearts of many young students, especially the fiery type. He was a tall man, six feet and one a half inches and heavy of frame and build. He was very light complexioned. Many made the mistake of asking him in which part of England he was born. His usual reply was in the shire of Madhya Pradesh. His boast was that he had never been abroad for even half an hour. His relationship with his staff was good. There was no mistake or misunderstanding who was the boss. He was powerful, like a magnet. In fact, many said that he was like the Sun and the rest of the school revolved around him like the planets. Naturally, there were some close to him and some not so close.

The closest to him was his dear wife, Mrs. Hicks. She was a powerful personality and possibly the most gifted teacher Calcutta Boys’ School has ever had. She could create a love for anything she taught. Her special forte was music and dramatics.

In 1953-54, Calcutta Boys’ School put on a musical called ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’. There were many others before and after, but this was specially remembered. Snow White’s part was played by a brilliant Parsi boy named Salim Patel. The handsome Prince was Ronnie Hicks, a nephew of Mr. Hicks, who often got the wrong end of the stick. The Witch, an important character, in the play was S.B. Chakraborty. He had a most horrifying laugh.

Men like Mr. Solomon Ezra, Mr. Charles Stapleton, Mr. David Leela and Mr. David Yeeda were heroes of the students. A feared man was a teacher called Mr. Simon Haskell. He was better known as ‘Sharp Eye’.

Later on came a coterie of people like Messers Ivan Sassoon, Ronald Shaw, David Sassoon and Anthony Andrews and others. There was another group of young admirers which included Mihir Mukherjee and Subhendu Paul. Mr. Mihir Mukherjee introduced Mr. Pronab Mukherjee, Mr. Jyotirmoy Ganguli and others.

With the powerful team of young men totally dedicated to Mr. Hicks and Mrs. Hicks, nothing was impossible. The fever of working for him caught on. Many joined teaching, like Mr. Alfred Martin, straight after school. The whole school functioned like one large family. In fact the idea that everyone was married to the school was voiced by one teacher.

And then when the situation reached a climax, the denouement began. Signs of rebellion with this way of life soon showed. The pressure of studies was howvever magnificently maintained. Ruthless measures (by today's standards) were adopted to weed out the slightly below average. One such measure in 1960-61 was that all boarders who could not secure 65% or more as an average would be forced to become day-scholars.

Mr. Hicks was succeeded as principal by Mr. Alfred Martin in 1975.

At 2.30 pm of Satday 16th February, 1980, while almost all Indians took a day off from the routine of work, Mr. Clifford Hicks passed unnoticed from this world to the next. A solar eclipse was the reason for this break. At the time of Mr. Hicks' heart-attack, there was no transport to take him to the hospital. He may have left this life anyway but the nagging doubt remains that he might have survived if life in Bangalore had been normal that day.