Family has already been important to John, including his family by marriage; this was particularly the case given the strained relations on the Woodbridge side consequent upon John's decision to marry Sheila. 

We know from his life story that as a school boy he was always keen to get to know the Maycraft family but how much this initial interest was with Sheila and how much because her elder brother Stanley was already an Oxbridge student and John had similar aspirations is not entirely clear.