Alumni of the Year Awards Alumni of the Year Awards 2022

Last May, members of the School community were asked to nominate Alumni whom they felt were deserving of the awards for Old Boy and Old Girl of the Year.

Pupils from across the Junior and Senior Schools in both Divisions were then invited to choose from a shortlist the nominee they felt was the most deserving winner of each of the two Awards in a vote conducted at the end of the Summer Term.

Sir Philip Craven, MBE (Class of 1968) was chosen as the inaugural recipient of the Old Boy of the Year Award, in recognition of his outstanding sporting achievements and his lifelong dedication to the development of Paralympic sports.

Dr Sheila Fisher (née Platt, Class of 1970) was chosen as the inaugural recipient of the Old Girl of the Year Award, in recognition of her distinguished career as the UK's first female maxillofacial surgeon and her voluntary service within her local community.

The close nature of this pupil vote, combined with the strength of Alumni support for the nominees and their achievements, led the School to present two further awards, for Outstanding Achievement, in addition to the two Alumni of the Year Awards. Max Griffiths and Sam Yates (both Class of 2001) were the joint winners of the Old Boys’ Outstanding Achievement Award, in recognition of the impact of LivLife, the charity they founded 16 years ago to enrich the lives of economically disadvantaged people in North Tanzania. Rebecca Turner (née Maudsley, Class of 2006) was the recipient of the Old Girls’ Outstanding Achievement Award, in recognition of her extensive fundraising in aid of the Blue Skies Hospital Fund, undertaken in memory of her younger brother, Tom, who passed away in May 2020 following a short but brave battle with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.

Sir Philip, Sheila and Rebecca were presented with their Awards at a special assembly for pupils from both Divisions, while Max and Sam addressed the assembly via a pre-recorded message in which they explained how their experiences at Bolton School had inspired a passion for the world which in turn motivated them to set up LivLife. They thanked the School for the opportunities it had given them and for its support of a variety of fundraising activities over the years.

Who Will You Nominate This Year?

The myriad contributions made to society by Bolton School’s Old Boys and Old Girls are a source of continued pride and inspiration to the current generation of girls and boys currently studying here on Chorley New Road.

In celebration of these many and varied achievements, the School's Alumni of the Year Awards, seek to recognise Alumni who embody the School’s ethos of producing people who go out into the world and make a difference for good, and have thus delivered upon the famous exhortation of the Girls’ Division prayer, that “much will be expected of those to whom much is given”.

Nominations for this year’s Awards are now open, and members of the School community are invited to nominate Alumni whom they feel are deserving of the 2023 Old Boy of the Year and Old Girl of the Year Awards by 12pm on Friday 26th May. After that deadline, a shortlist of candidates for the two awards will be decided by the Heads of Foundation, Girls’ Division, Boys’ Division and Primary Division, before pupils from across the Junior and Senior Schools are invited to vote for their favoured candidate at the end of the Summer Term. The winners of the two awards will be announced publicly in September 2023, at the start of the new academic year.

For further details, including the Awards’ rules, and to make your nomination, please visit the ‘Alumni and Giving Back’ section of the School website.

Old Boy of the Year: Sir Philip Craven

During a rare joint assembly of boys and girls from across the Divisions, all the winners took to the stage to inspire the next generation of Bolton School pupils. Sir Philip Craven gave a humorous yet motivating overview of his life and career, recalling how sport became his salvation after an accident left him wheelchair-bound and how he had used the challenges which faced him to develop a positive and determined outlook. After the assembly he spent time with pupils who were keen to listen to his words of wisdom and to ask some probing questions. Deputy Head Girl Ella Worsley interviewed Sir Philip to find out how his resilience has led to a long and fulfilling career.

Nic Ford, Head of Boys’ Division, was delighted to present Sir Philip with his award

Sir Philip studied at Bolton School before moving on to the University of Manchester, completing his BA in Geography in 1972. During his time there, he found a passion and talent for wheelchair basketball, having lost the use of his legs in a rock-climbing accident in 1966. Sir Philip recalls how he would attend practice sessions with the standing team to observe as he would have “broken their ankles” as a participant.

Sir Philip practised for at least three hours every single day, eventually joining a club team which played against others in the locality. Laughing, he explained that their first two matches were lost in fantastic style with final scores of 63-4 and 102-7; however, in both matches he scored at least two of their minimal baskets! Many of his teammates were ex-servicemen well beyond his years and he credits their influence with making him a better player – Sir Philip admits he underestimated them initially due to their age, though soon realised this is no real inhibitor. Whilst his academic studies may have suffered slightly as a result of this commitment, it worked out in Sir Philip’s favour as the team went to play in France where they became champions, accelerating his sporting career. Perhaps more importantly, France is where he met his wife Jocelyne, who has supported him fervently throughout his varied and decorated career.

One of Sir Philip’s greatest achievements has been ensuring that the 2016 Rio Paralympic games went ahead. As the President of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) at the time, Sir Philip received notice just six weeks before the games were due to begin that there was no funding remaining as it had all been funnelled into the Olympics. This, alongside a report on Russian state sponsored doping, led Sir Philip to take action to ensure not only that the Paralympics went ahead, but that they did so in a safe and fair manner. His wife added that many international teams were already flying into Rio and the IPC wanted to do their best not to disappoint them. After personally visiting the Brazilian Senior Minister and the Mayor of Rio, funding and support for the games was secured. They went ahead and were a magnificent success, with Sir Philip citing this success as both his greatest achievement and his greatest challenge. He feels that the event made many visitors realise that the Paralympics were a serious and entertaining event, not to be ridiculed. The momentary threat to the games also united the IPC, as Sir Philip endeavoured to draw up a new constitution and a new board which consisted only of elected members with a common goal. Outside the world of sport, Sir Philip works as one of the nine directors of the Toyota world board. In this role he acts as an independent director, and he quotes the job as a fantastic example of how ‘a team starts with two’. When he started at the company, a retired senior executive was appointed to help him in his first period at the company. The two worked extremely well together to extinguish a bullying environment which had arisen in a subsidiary company. Sir Philip is a resilient and determined man, and so persevered for over two years to ensure that the perpetrator was reprimanded appropriately. He once again laughed as his wife nodded, “I always seem to find these difficult cases but I won’t let them go; I’m a bit like a Jack Russell!”.

Sir Philip believes the key to achieving great things is taking opportunities as they are presented to you. He does not believe he will ever retire, because as long as interesting situations present themselves, he will immerse himself in them. In 2019, he accepted a role on the board of the International Tennis Integrity Agency which he thoroughly enjoys despite little experience in tennis. He believes that the CEO of the company sought him for the role due to his reputation with regard to morals and his ability to adapt to new environments with new people. He advised that, clichéd as it sounds, life’s greatest advice is to keep going. If you have a passion, work hard at it and make yourself known as a competent individual. Sir Philip does not miss competing in the sporting world as he has found so much satisfaction in alternative avenues.

Of how Bolton School set him up for success, Sir Philip believes that the freedom to express his opinion and develop the confidence to ‘stick to his guns’ has been key in his life and career development. He admits he had an easy start to life, regardless of his injury, which gave him the time and space to find areas which needed work and endeavour to improve them. To this day, Sir Philip cannot see an injustice or error without making changes to remedy it.