English Composer, born India in 1909, died Bath 1962. John Austin Sykes was a music scholar at Clifton College (Bristol) under Douglas Fox, and gained his FRCO while still a schoolboy. In 1928 he went to Oxford as the Balliol College organ scholar. In 1932 he became a composition pupil of Vaughan Williams and Gordon Jacob at the Royal College of Music. In 1936 he was appointed to the staff of Kingswood School, Bath and remained there for the rest of his life. Most of his music was written either for the school or for a small group of friends.