My uncle, Richard Rhodes James, who has died aged 91, was a teacher who influenced generations of pupils at the Hertfordshire school Haileybury, many of whom remembered him with deep affection. He epitomised the best of a certain kind of brave, retiring and modest – but tolerant and wide-thinking – Englishman.
He was born in Mandalay, Burma, second son of Colonel William and Violet Rhodes James. His family were distantly related to MR James, of ghost-story fame, and had links to clergy, lawyers, diplomats, soldiers and sailors who had served across the British empire. His oldest brother William served with the Gurkhas in Burma and later became a schoolteacher. His youngest brother, Robert, became a well-known writer and MP. His sister, Iris (my mother), also became a writer, historian and translator of Gaelic and Assamese folk tales.
Richard was sent to board at Sedbergh school in Cumbria, and described his time there and later years in amusing and insightful books: The Years Between: A Tale of the Nineteen Thirties (1993), and The Road from Mandalay: A Journey in the Shadow of the East (2007). His time reading history at Queen's College, Oxford, was interrupted by the second world war. Richard joined the 3rd Gurkha Rifles in 1942 and related his experiences in Chindit (1980). After the Chindit expedition he was mentioned in dispatches.
Returning to Oxford in 1946, Richard gained another degree, in philosophy, politics and economics, and then went in 1947 to teach at Haileybury. He liked to point out that he was the first to teach economics at the school since the great economist and demographer Thomas Malthus. He remained there until 1981, including 21 years as a housemaster.
Richard then taught for 10 years at sixth form colleges in Cambridge. He also wrote for journals and newspapers, and did some broadcasting. Christianity was important to him and for 30 years he was an "officer" at the evangelical camp for independent schoolboys at Iwerne Minster, Dorset. He preached into his late 80s.
His dry wit was mixed with kindness and a Christian concern for others. He was a voracious reader and recounted with feeling the experience of being a late child of the Raj, dedicating his last book to the "memory of those who bore the burden of empire".
Richard married Rachel Bateson in 1967. She and their children, Clare, Elizabeth and Jonathan, and seven grandchildren, survive him.