John Hart (classicist)

John Thornton Hart (30 September 1936 – 15 November 2011) was a classics master at Malvern College and winner of the 1975 series of the BBC television series Mastermind.^[1][2] Within English law, Hart is also notable as being a party in the House of Lords case Pepper v Hart, which was a landmark decision in English law concerning the use of legislative history in statutory interpretation.^[3] Hart was the first man to win Mastermind, as women won the first three series of the show between 1972 and 1974.^[4]

He was educated at Rugby School and St John's College, Oxford, where he read Classics.^[5] He was a Freemason for 40 years.^[5]