Why I Give

In 2023, OR Edward Lethbridge made his first donation to the Foundation. His donation was given to the Richard Morgan Award, which provides up to 100% funding for boys whose families would otherwise be unable to afford Radley’s fees. Edward explains his reasons for donating and the impact the generosity of others has had on his life below.

A letter of appreciation

James Batten and Richard Morgan will have made a profound impact on many lives over the course of their distinguished careers. In that respect this story is far from unique. However, I wanted to share this because I expect the majority of memories will have gone unrecorded and it may bring a smile to those who knew one or both of them.

I first met James Batten at St Michael’s School, Tawstock, my prep school where he was Headmaster in my final year. I was his Head of School so we got to know one another as we would speak several times a week. Why he gave up a well-earned retirement having been a celebrated headmaster at King’s College, Taunton, for almost 20 years to help a charming but remote prep school in North Devon, I’ll never know. But he did two things in particular which had a positive bearing on my life.

Firstly, he was quick to recognise the very precarious nature of my parents’ finances and did everything in his power to help. No one with my parents’ income should have taken on the challenge of private education for six children but I suppose my parents are not like most parents. The draining of grandparents’ savings and the somewhat traumatic sale of every family heirloom of commercial value was done without hesitation.

There was a strong sense that this was the right thing to do. For his part, James Batten provided discounts on school fees on a semiindustrial scale, agreed fee payments in instalments and even accepted a few late payments to keep us in the school.

Secondly, with respect to life after St Michael’s, I was due to follow in my elder brother’s steps and go to Milton Abbey in Dorset. My father had gone there and there was an expectation that they would offer some generous family discounts to make the numbers work. It was a done deal in my parents’ minds until they took a call from James Batten during the Easter term, 1991.

As I understand it, James more or less told them Milton Abbey was the wrong choice. That was quite a brave thing to do as my father is not fond of opinions which diverge from his own. Also, given I was leaving the following term this was a very, very late intervention.

Then, as now, all the UK’s top schools have long waiting lists, some measured in decades, not weeks. Undeterred, James called in a number of favours with his headmaster contacts and offered up the choice of no less than three leading public schools, all of which were, based entirely on his personal recommendation, prepared to offer at least half price fees. As my grandfather had gone to Radley that was much the preferred option.

Time being of the essence, within a matter of days I was sitting in Richard Morgan’s office. It was only then that I learned that James was the C Social housemaster from 1964-69, immediately prior to Richard who was in charge from 1969-78. They overlapped at Radley for five years and remained in intermittent contact ever since.

The upshot of this friendship is that Richard took James’s word that I was worth a bet. The normal admission process was bypassed and, thanks in part to my grandfather having fought in The Great War when he was still at Radley(!), funding was accessible from the War Memorial Funds. My grandmother and a godmother paid what remained of the fees and the Batten/Morgan C Social connection continued when I joined C Social in September 1992.

I like to think I repaid this blind trust. I was Captain of Rugby, Captain of Athletics and Head of House in my final year. I went on to read History at Oxford before getting a job in the City. None of this would have been possible had it not been for the generosity of these two men; something I reflected on when James and Richard died within a few months of one another in 2021, James in March and Richard in May. It was perhaps fitting that they should have followed one another in that way, as they did in C Social and again as headmasters.

Returning to Radley in 2022 to celebrate my year’s 25th anniversary since leaving made me realise it was high time I started to repay the kindness shown to me. My overall objective is to repay the financial support I received when I was at Radley such that others in similar positions to me may benefit in the same way. The Richard Morgan Award seems like the ideal way to do that. And while it may take some time to settle the score, I am sure they would both approve.