Fr John Seton Coventry SJ studied at Campion Hall, Oxford (a Jesuit-run 'private hall'), where he read 'Greats'. He was appointed the 10th Master of St Edmund's in 1976 at the age of sixty-one after a distinguished career which included a stint as the Jesuits' British Provincial Superior and a period of teaching at Heythrop College both in Oxfordshire and at its central London location. Coventry's appointment as Master was particularly significant because, although he was a clerk in holy orders, he was not a diocesan clergyman and therefore not directly responsible to a bishop. As a Jesuit, he was much more independent of the Catholic hierarchy than a diocesan priest could be. His election could be seen as a halfway step in the direction of breaking with the tradition of a clergyman as Master. [Notes courtesy of Michael Walsh, 'St Edmund's College, Cambridge, 1896-1996: A Commemorative History.]