The Past Captains, having conferred together, have nominated John Whitmore as Captain of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews for the Year 2002-2003.
John Whitmore was born in 1931 and was educated at Nautical College, Pangbourne and then Clare College, Cambridge. He started and finished his career as a school master but from 1956 – 1988 worked in the family tanning business and then in the fruit growing trade.
He was a Cambridge Blue in 1953 and 1954 and was the President of the Oxford and Cambridge Golfing Society from 1995 to 1999 following a spell first as Secretary and then as Captain in 1982.
He remains a keen golfer and is a member of Royal Ashdown Forest and Rye Golf Clubs in addition to the R&A which he joined in 1976. Since then, he has served on the Championship Committee and was Deputy Chairman for the final two years of his four year spell on the General Committee.
His other interests include cricket and he has been a member of the MCC for 40 years. In addition, he acted as High Sheriff of East Sussex from 1997 to 1998, was Master of The Worshipful Company of Grocers in 1986/7 and was the Chairman of the Board of Governors of Oundle School for the final six years of his 21 years on the Board.
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