Pauline Relatives

The Frasers

They feel keenly however that the School’s culture needs to place more emphasis on public service and an obligation towards social justice as the payback for the privilege of a private school education.

In the 1970s it seemed that every other pupil at St Paul’s was called Simon. From 1971 to 1974, there were two Simon Frasers at School and to make matters worse they shared the second initial, J. Just before Christmas, I caught up with Simon John Fraser (1970-74) and his three sons, Charlie (2007-12), Ben (200914) and Robbie (2011-16) over lunch at Sam’s Riverside.

This Simon Fraser never minds being mistaken for the other one because Simon James Fraser (1971-75) is an eminent knight of the realm and former School governor. Simon enjoyed his time at St Paul’s; a doctor’s son from Ealing, a Coletine, a prefect, Captain of B Club and a member of the 1st XV. His first stop after School was a Navy backed place to read History at Oxford followed by the Royal Naval College and then, logically, into finance at Salomon Brothers and Morgan Stanley. He is still, as described by his sons “an independent financial innovator”.

This could have been a very short story. When it came to choosing a school for their eldest son, Joanna and Simon had different opinions. Joanna had been to Eton (sent there by St Mary’s, Ascot. She was one of three girls attending during the Oxbridge term). She wanted Charlie to go there. Simon preferred St Paul’s. They went for an interview at Eton. Simon promptly switched sides; part of his memory of St Paul’s was that it looked like a factory and you had to take the Tube to Osterley to play rugby. However, they decided to do the St Paul’s tour. On arrival, they were handed over to a scruffy teenager emerging from a classroom for his lunchbreak. He was asked to act as their guide and his enthusiastic inability to find his way round the School won Joanna over.

So, Charlie arrived at School in 2007 and for the next decade there was a Fraser excelling on the rugby pitch and in the classroom at St Paul’s. Robbie and Ben both remark on the intellectual influence of Dr Rufus Duits (Philosophy Department since 2009) and Charlie on that of Will Williams (Geography Department, 2008-2014). They were members of the Christian Union (though are now all atheists). Robbie comments that “the CU was incredibly valuable for me. You always felt you were being taken seriously”.

Gap years can be wasted. Ben, before going up to Cambridge, took two of them and does not appear to have wasted a minute. He did formative voluntary work with ‘Leaders’ Quest’ whose founder was Joe Levin’s (2009-14) mother, Lindsay as well as with the VSO in Nigeria. In 2015, he and Charlie spent two weeks in Kos at the height of the refugee migration. Their eyes were opened and in 2016 TERN (The Entrepreneurial Refugee Network) was founded with its first programme launched during Ben’s freshers’ week. TERN was the first organisation in the United Kingdom to create programmes and services specifically tailored to the needs of refugee entrepreneurs, built on a vision of a world where every refugee has a chance to develop a progressive, integrated livelihood. TERN’s work is focused on enabling refugees to thrive through the power of their ideas, providing services addressing business exploration, business start-up, and business growth.

In 2016, Charlie was leaving Oxford and as a volunteer took on the roles of CEO, COO and CFO of TERN (or so his brothers joke). Eighteen months later he was paid for the first time. Revenue in 2016 was around £15,000. In 2021 it will be £600,000. They have now worked with some 450 refugees and have been involved in setting up over 100 businesses. Among the individual and corporate partners are management consultants Oliver Wyman, who have provided office and financial support and Apax Partners, the private equity firm (introduced by Will Englander (2009-14)). Ben and Jerry’s, the longest term and largest supporter, has launched refugee branded ice cream flavours and the eponymous Jerry has spoken at TERN’s graduation ceremony.

While Charlie continues to work at TERN, Ben and Robbie are social workers in West London. Both joined graduate programmes similar to the “Teach First” programme and work full time alongside their studies for Masters degrees. In Ben’s case this is the “Frontline” programme which is focused on safeguarding children as a child and family social worker. He had to leave lunch early as he was involved in a pre-Christmas intervention. Robbie when he left Oxford joined the “Think