Long before holding his nerve and winning matches for England at the T20 world cup, Will Jacks was walking across the First World War battlefields in France when he heard the voice of his history teacher behind him.
“Oh, you haven’t bowled at me yet, sir,” Jacks said, turning around. “I’ll hit you for six.” Matt Barham laughed. The boy was 13, maybe 14. A left-arm spinner himself, Barham had bowled at most of the St George’s School boys over the years. Most he could keep quiet. But Jacks had already scored a double century in the under-14s off 80 or 90 balls. Everyone on that trip knew how good Jacks was.
“And to be fair to him, he did regularly hit me for six,” Barham says now to The . “Most schoolboys I could bowl quite well at, but he hit me for huge sixes. At school, if you hit straight down the ground, you reach the hockey astroturf, which is a massive hit. He managed to hit me onto the astroturf quite regularly.”
Thirteen years old, and already making promises he could keep. That confidence—supremely talented but supremely sure of it—defined Jacks at St George’s, Weybridge.
One innings stands out. Jacks was about 13 when he broke into the first team. The following summer, he scored a hundred as a 14-year-old. He went on to score more and more. At 17, he scored 279 in a schoolboy game. It’s still one of the highest scores by a schoolboy in a single match. The record might still be his.
“He was always a very confident boy,” Barham recalls. “A vocal presence in the group, definitely. I wouldn’t describe him as a quiet leader. He was always supremely talented but supremely confident.”
But something shifted as Jacks matured. Ollie Clayson, the head of cricket at St George’s, started giving him more responsibility. He began helping other members of the team—giving them throwdowns, offering advice. “We always knew he was very talented,” Barham says. “But when he started helping others, that’s when I noticed he was really maturing.”
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Years after Jacks left school, Barham wrote to him. It was July 2025. Barham had just been diagnosed with cancer—head and neck—and was going in for surgery. He didn’t expect a reply. He got an hour at Lord’s.
“He very kindly met us,” Barham tells The Indian Express. “We spoke for about an hour. It was lovely to meet his mother again and his new fiancée as well. The fact that he gives us some time is very special.”
The boy who once promised to hit his teacher for six had become someone who showed up when it mattered. Last year, Jacks returned to St George’s to spend time with younger students. Laura Gibson, the school’s Director of Sport, watched him closely.
“It was really interesting to see how he interacted with the younger students. We remember him as a boy. Then, when he came back, he was such a natural with them.”
Students ranged from 11 years old to sixth form. Jacks was there for ages, speaking to every single student, helping everybody. They bounced around, excited to have him there—a bit like he would have been at that age. The visit brought back the competitive spark. “We did a really funny competition at the end,” Gibson says. “Power hitting and then a competition called ‘Get Jacks Out.’ There was a girl called Lucy, who’s 15, and she was the success—she managed to get him out. She was very proud when she went home that night.”
Jacks’ talent had extended beyond cricket at school. He played first-team hockey for three years, earning his full colours. “The fact that he kept playing when he could have said, ‘I’m too busy,’ is amazing,” Gibson says. “It shows what an incredible sportsman he is. It’s a great example that you can do multiple things and still play at a very high level.” For those who saw him as a schoolboy walking across the fields of St George’s—or the battlefields of France, talking cricket on a bus—his rise is about more than records. It’s about watching confidence turn into responsibility.
A talented teenager grew into someone who showed up when his old teacher needed him. Someone they are proud to call one of their own. The boy who once promised to hit sixes onto the astroturf. And did.
