Interview with David Rennie (AHH, 1984-88)
David reflects on his memories of school and discusses his illustrious career with Paul Dunn.
Westminster Platform Programmes Success
Empowering young people through education, and widening access to the Westminster community.
Interview with Will Barrie (GG, 2009-14)
Will explains his work as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Genetics at the University of Cambridge.
2023/24
Expands in the next few years to take pupils from age 4 and become fully co-educational
40 44 20
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The Westminster School Development Office
Rhiannon Taylor-Jones Editor
Kristen Gallagher Director of Development
Grace Green
Senior Development Manager
Luke Meadows
Database and Gift Administration Manager
Pranav Thakkar
Events Administrator
alumni@westminster.org.uk
+44 (0)20 7963 1113
The Elizabethan Newsletter
Editor: Rhiannon Taylor-Jones
Design: Haime & Butler
Print: Lavenham Press
Westminster School is a registered charity in England and Wales (no 312728).
Information is correct at time of print.
Elizabethan Club Committee
Matthew Webb, Chair (BB, 1999-04)
Gavin Griffiths, President (WW, 1967-72)
Jessica Chichester (GG, 2000-02)
Charles Low, Treasurer (QS, 1967-72)
David Roy, Vice-President (AHH, 1955-61)
Nick Brown, Vice-President (RR, 1968-73)
Artin Basirov, Vice-President, Chair of the Communications Sub-Committee (GG, 1989-94)
Paul Dunn, Chair of the Events Committee (AHH, 1991-93)
Noel Watson-Doig, Chair of Diversity and Inclusion Sub-Committee (RR, 1994-96)
Henry Johnson King (LL, 2007-12)
Arnav Kapoor (MM, 2010-15)
Poppy Maxwell (PP, 2008-10)
Emma-Jane Gordon (LL, 2012-14)
Olivia D’Silva (GG, 2008-10)
James Kershen, Sports Sec (WW, 1981-86)
Janie Pikovsky (HH, 2011-13)
Bertie Milward (WW, 2003-08)
Welcome to this year’s edition of the Elizabethan Newsletter. This recent year has seen a lot of change in both the Development Office and Elizabethan Club Committee.
Some things to note in the last year are that the Club have a new Chair, Matthew Webb, and President, Gavin Griffiths, who I have thoroughly enjoyed working with so far.
I wanted to personally thank out-going Chair Jessica Chichester for all of her hard work and dedication to the Club and its activities. During her time as Chair, she set up three subcommittees: Events, Chaired by Paul Dunn; Communications, Chaired by Artin Basirov; and Diversity & Inclusion, Chaired by Noel WatsonDoig, so that the members and activities of the Elizabethan Club all received the care and attention they deserve. Another successful project she managed was inviting former staff members of the Common Room, who served longer than seven years, as Honorary Members of the Club, so a warm welcome to all those new members who I hope to meet at upcoming events.
The Development Office has also changed significantly. Kristen Gallagher has joined as Director of Development, please read her report on page 7. We have a new Senior Development Manager, Grace Green who will help Kristen with her fundraising goals and our team will expand even further in the coming months.
Every year, myself and my colleagues in the Development Office, and the Elizabethan Club Committee members, meet to try and improve on the services and events that are on offer for all Old Westminsters. One thing that we have received a lot of requests about is reunions, and I am therefore glad to announce that Decade Gaudies are permanently returning to the events schedule from Play Term 2024, starting with a 90s Gaudy in the House of Commons. There will be guestlists available online for upcoming Gaudies and networking events, so you can see who is attending ahead of time. This guarantees an opportunity to catch up with your friends from School regularly. There are also new guidelines to hosting your own event, available online if you wish to throw a smaller, more intimate gathering for individual year groups or special interest groups.
The Elizabethan Club is always looking to re-connect to any OW or former staff who did not receive a copy of this newsletter. If you know of anyone who did not receive a copy but would like to, please ask them to email alumni@westminster.org.uk
If you have any suggestions that you would like to be discussed, please do get in touch, I genuinely welcome all feedback and ideas. You hopefully will have seen the survey that was sent to all Old Westminsters recently, and a big thank you to all those who completed it.
You’ll find information on upcoming events, event guidelines and updates from School on oldwestminsters.org.uk
A big thank you to the Committee and to all those OWW who contributed to this Newsletter and beyond.
As ever, if you have any suggestions as to how to improve the Newsletter or any comments please do get in touch.
With warmest wishes, Rhiannon Taylor-Jones Alumni Relations and Engagement Manager
rhiannon.jones@westminster.org.uk
Tel: +44 (0)20 7963 0122
Welcome to this edition of The Elizabethan Newsletter. Firstly I would like to thank my predecessor Jessica Chichester, for her time as Chair, she inspired me with her commitment to the Club, and I am thankful that she will remain on the Committee.
I am pleased to report that over the past year, the Elizabethan Club has continued to strengthen the connections between our members and the School. The Club is proud to support the School as it moves forward to a bright future of inclusivity and success. We continue to celebrate the success of women at Westminster and will be working with the School as it goes fully co-educational in the coming years.
The Club has enjoyed a busy diary of events over the past year, including the annual Dinner in College Hall, where we were treated to a thoughtprovoking speech by Rosamund Urwin (WW, 2000-02) The Elizabethan Club Media Networking Drinks event in March, at The Arts Club, was a particular highlight. A number of OWW have been in touch to say that the speech given by David Rennie (AHH, 1984-88) was one of the most enlightening and informed speeches that they have heard.
OWW Sports remain a great way for members to keep in contact and if you are keen to get involved please liaise with the relevant captains (or their
nominated membership secretaries –further details can be found in the Sports Reports of this newsletter).
For the coming year, the Club has planned another busy series of informal, social gatherings, networking events, and the Elizabethan Club Dinner in November, which is always the highlight of the year.
As the key objects of the Club are to preserve the association between our members and the School and to promote social contact between our members, I would be delighted to hear from as many OWW as possible in connection with your achievements, successes and ideas for how we can continue to develop the Club in a way that best suits our members.
I would like to extend our thanks on behalf of the whole Club to the Elizabethan Club Committee and the Development Office (without their hard work none of this would be possible) and to the Head Master for his continued support.
The next year promises to be exciting and I look forward to being in touch with as many of you as possible. Floreat!
Matthew Webb Chair (BB, 1999-04)
Dr Gary Savage
This has been a year of embedding best practice, while preparing for change – undoubtedly the most significant change in the School’s recent history.
As regards the former, staff and pupils have together achieved further remarkable things both inside and outside the classroom. There have been brilliant lessons; impressive publications and prizes; feats of athleticism and team spirit; triumph on stage and in concert halls; expeditions near and far; the usual gamut of great and memorable accomplishments. Highlights included our annual concert at The Barbican which, this year, featured Cecilia McDowell’s The Girl from Aleppo, followed by a powerful and moving performance of Johannes Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem. Our biennial musical was Anything Goes, a stupendous spectacle of singing and dancing with West End quality performances and production values. On the sports field, one highlight amongst many was the Boys' 1st XI victory over Charterhouse in the 160th anniversary of the oldest continuous football fixture in the world.
Little wonder, then, that our Leavers are so well-equipped for university entrance, and acquit themselves so admirably, with record numbers securing places at the very best institutions in this country and overseas, particularly in the United States. We are proud of each and every one of them, as they make the transition from current Westminsters to Old Westminsters and thus members of the Elizabethan Club.
Not a single current pupil will be here when girls arrive in the Fifth Form for the first time in September 2028; but of course, a huge amount of work is going on in the background to make sure this historic change goes well. We are busy planning, project managing, building links with new feeder schools, and thinking deeply about the curriculum and co-curriculum to ensure that it will continue to offer something rich and stimulating for all our pupils in the longer term. Digital learning and AI will form part of that, of course, but so too will sport and the performing arts: the education will remain holistic, varied, challenging and recognisably “Westminster”.
Another aspect of this preparatory work is to undertake a comprehensive master planning exercise to look at every aspect of the site to ensure it is fit for twentieth-first century purpose. We have already redeveloped the Pavilion and upgraded Fields, as you know; and we have now purchased 11 Tufton Street (next to the Manoukian Music Centre) for possible use as a future performing arts centre. In addition to the purchase of a building on Chapter Street behind the Under School (to enable WUS to expand and to take girls as well as boys, from age 4 through to 13), this investment will be crucial to the long-term sustainability and success of the School. We were extremely fortunate to receive an eight-figure donation to assist with these acquisitions, and our fundraising work will perforce accelerate in the period ahead as we seek further to increase the Bursary fund as well as our capacity for essential capital developments. My recent visit to Hong Kong with the Master of the Under School and the Chair of Governors was part of this endeavour, and it was terrific to have the chance, as part of that trip, to catch up with a multigenerational mix of OWW at a drinks party in the Hong Kong Club.
While there are undoubtedly challenges ahead, the work we are doing now (on these and many other fronts) will help us to navigate them. I am confident that Westminster will emerge even more strongly as a superb centre of educational excellence, open to any child with the intellectual curiosity, appetite and ability to flourish here. We are building on hugely impressive foundations, of course, attested to by the recent ISI inspection in March, whose findings were hugely positive and extremely gratifying. Just as we are proud of you, I hope you in turn remain proud of your School.
It is my undoubted privilege and pleasure to lead it. ■ Floreat.
I was delighted to join Westminster as Director of Development in September 2023, and it has been a busy few months getting to know colleagues, parents and Old Westminsters, both here and abroad.
Highlights so far have included the Elizabethan Club dinner in November (plus several other engaging Elizabethan Club events!), meeting Old Westminsters in New York in December and travelling to Hong Kong with Dr Gary Savage, Head Master, Mrs Kate Jefferson, Master and Mr Mark Batten OW, Chair of the Board of Governors in January. In Hong Kong, an Old Westminster very kindly sponsored an event at The Hong Kong Club, where we entertained current and past parents and Old Westminsters, and brought them up to date with developments and school life.
I am fortunate to be working with a great team in the Development Office. As we move towards full co-education, it is vital that we grow our fundraising. Later this year, we will be relaunching our regular giving programme, through which we aim to grow a broad base of donor support and engage Old Westminsters with School today, as well as securing support from other members of our community, including current and past parents. Additionally, we are working with several major donors to advance vital projects including the Chapter House development at Westminster Under
School and achieving transformational support for bursaries.
When I joined Westminster, I was struck by how many Old Westminsters from throughout the decades and across the globe remain engaged and committed to supporting Westminster School and Westminster Under School. To those of you who give us your time through volunteer roles, ranging from Elizabethan Club leadership and its wider work to giving careers talks at School, supporting sport and activities including Phab
Go online to make a regular or one-off gift: support.westminster.org.uk
To find out more and/or discuss how to give via our US or UK Foundations or how to leave a Legacy to the School please email: developmentteam@westminster.org.uk
– your commitment to our community is inspirational. Perhaps most importantly, your engagement demonstrates to our current pupils the many benefits of belonging to the Westminster network, which will extend far beyond their time here. I look forward to meeting and working with many more of you, and, if you aren’t already involved but would like to be, my team and I are always happy to share more information about how you can participate!
Kristen Gallagher
We would also like to thank the Old Westminsters who have kindly and most generously supported our fundraising activities. Your continued support means that Westminster can continue to widen access and provide a world-class education to its pupils.
Thank you again for your support and we very much look forward to meeting many of you at our events in the coming year.
Westminster School and Westminster Under School are historic institutions set largely within a UNESCO World Heritage site in the heart of London, comprising numerous buildings across various sites and covering more than 400 years in age.
On top of maintaining the existing estate and increasing sustainability to make a greener future for Westminster, the move to full co-education by 2030 and expansion of the Under School to include children from age four has meant the addition of two new buildings to the estate, Chapter House and 11 Tufton Street.
The recent acquisition of Chapter House offers a unique opportunity, and is the key to unlocking the wider transformation of Westminster into a modern twenty-first century school, welcoming boys and girls from age four to 18.
Built in 1992 Chapter House is a former office building with 3,266 square metres of floor space, set over four storeys. Its front entrance is on Chapter Street and its rear is on Hide Place, directly to the rear of Adrian House. The site will be redeveloped into a state-ofthe-art building for the school and will house classrooms and larger group spaces, designed in consultation with pupils, parents and staff.
Plans include a welcoming, light-filled four-storey atrium, a large library, plus break-out spaces for formal and informal meetings beneath a central light well, light and airy classrooms, IT suites and science labs.
It also offers scope for specialist facilities for music, including a suite of teaching and practice rooms and an informal performance space. It is envisioned the finished building will include an outdoor wellbeing space on the roof.
Work is already underway to strip-out Chapter House before the remodelling begins, and the finished building is set to open in September 2025. At this time, the School’s main current building, Adrian House, will close for full renovation for one year, to consolidate and reimagine existing spaces, ensuring that it continues to be an excellent environment to enhance the learning of boys and girls for many years to come. Adrian House will reopen in September 2026, at the point when the Under School expands to welcome children in Reception. ■
The recent acquisition of Chapter House offers a unique opportunity, and is the key to unlocking the wider transformation of Westminster into a modern twenty-first century school
For more information please go to: www.westminster.org.uk/ about/building-for-the-future
David Rennie is an award-winning journalist, having worked at the Daily Telegraph, Spectator, and the Evening Standard . He joined The Economist in 2007, serving as European Union correspondent, British political editor, Washington bureau chief, and now as Beijing bureau chief. During those postings he also wrote the Charlemagne, Bagehot, Lexington and Chaguan columns. He is also the co-host of the Drum Tower podcast on China.
David recently spoke at the Media Networking event in The Arts Club in March. Paul Dunn, Chair of the Elizabethan Club Events SubCommittee sat down with David to discuss his memories of School and his illustrious career.
Paul Dunn: Firstly, thank you for taking the time to talk to me. It makes sense to start with your memories of School. How did you find your time at Westminster?
David Rennie: I loved it. The level of freedom, the seriousness with which teachers took pupils, the conversations with other pupils about the world and the meaning of life, I think, meant that the jump to university was not as large as for others.
I still have incredibly fond, clear memories of some of my teachers. I’m not a School nostalgic, partly because I’ve lived abroad for a quarter of a century now. I’ve hardly been back to
the School at all, but I do still have clear memories of some of my favourite teachers. Being a columnist for The Economist now for 17 years, I sometimes say to my children that I somehow accidentally stumbled into a job where I’m paid to lead a life that is quite like that of an English student, as I basically have a weekly essay crisis! Some of the lessons that have stuck with me particularly were from my English, French and Spanish teachers; lessons on how to synthesize complex things in a tight space of a university essay. Possibly John Fields or Gavin Griffiths had this line about how an essay was like a fruitcake, and the less sponge, and the more cherries, currants, and nuts, the better. I do think that’s a good lesson for a lot of newspaper columns, the less padding and more chewiness is what keeps people engaged with the subject.
PD: Was there anything that you learnt outside the classroom that has stuck with you?
DR: The thing that I think was incredibly valuable about School, was its physical location, in the heart of Westminster, hearing the bells of Big Ben ringing and walking through Parliament Square daily. Being in central London in the ’80s, during a time of political and social strife in the UK, gave us a front row seat to the movements that would go on to define the decade.
It was a divisive, partisan time and we were not shielded from that, in fact it was weaved into the classroom and gave what could have been a dry lesson a pulse.
Although we lived behind walls and walked through special cloisters, the real world was very, very close. I remember watching anti-war protests, Anti America protests, political marches coming down Victoria Street and people were very politically active. We had a sense of connection whilst being very conscious of our privilege and almost embarrassed by it. We were forced to engage with the world and not retreat in some smug, self-contained bubble.
I think our teachers also challenged us on that and I think it’s not an accident that quite a lot of Westminster people go on into journalism and the media. I think there is something of an insider outsider
Being in central London in the ’80s, during a time of political and social strife in the UK, gave us a front row seat to the movements that would go on to define the decade.
perspective that lends itself naturally to journalism. I certainly would never go into party politics even though I’ve written about politics for my entire life, but I don’t want to belong to a party or to have to sign up to a party. I quite like the outsider status, the scepticism. Westminster tried to imbue us with a healthy scepticism about what was being presented to us, in any form, and to dissect and analyse the text.
PD: You’ve already touched on it to some degree, but what cultural values from School have influenced your professional career?
DR: I think the insistence on status being based on intellectual merit and not just being loud or popular. You couldn’t just declare that because you were a school monitor or a head of house, that people had to listen to what you had to say. If you had something to say, then people would listen to you, but you had to earn it; it was very refreshing and not true of all public schools in the 1980s. One other thing I look back on with real gratitude was that there didn’t seem to be a culture of nasty bullying, like I know there was at other schools, having spoken to friends who boarded in the 1980s. It seemed to be like there was a pact among a lot of the pupils who had maybe been bullied at prep school, and I hope I’m not being naive here, that if an incident happened we reported it because we just had no desire for that hostile, aggressive pack mentality. I mostly remember it being a kind place, as far as schools can be.
PD: Are there any specific Westminster traditions that stick out to you now, or any that had a lasting impact?
DR: Definitely music and being in the Abbey so often. I have never, ever forgotten, and I was very lucky that I was allowed to do some of the solos when I was in the choir, the experience of standing on the organ loft in Westminster Abbey and singing the first verse of Once in Royal David’s City You’re 14 so you can be a bit cynical when you hear someone’s mother weeping but looking back, to be that age and to have that opportunity to send your voice, completely unaccompanied, down into a candlelit Abbey is just, I don’t think that we were aware at the time just how absolutely extraordinary it was. ➽
I was also a Cox, which meant I was sent out at 13 or 14 to the boat house. I mean, it was an astonishing amount of trust to give us at such a young age. The fact we were just given those strange little tube tickets that Westminster School somehow managed to own and print itself. I remember the very first day I set off for Putney Bridge on my own, freezing halfway between School and St James’s Park tube station because I was sure that this couldn’t be allowed! How can it possibly be the right thing that I was just off on my own to catch the tube because the school just handed you a tube ticket and said, be at Putney by such and such a time.
So we were given an enormous amount of freedom and trust, but also it was drilled into us, that we were exceptionally lucky. The freedom didn’t come without expectations, the teachers made it very clear that we were privileged to be there and we better do something worthwhile with our lives. So I do think that although we were horribly smart alec and focused on getting into good universities, there was a bit of us that felt the weight of responsibility to live up to the opportunity we were all given by attending an ancient school. We had the sense of continuing a tradition that you’re part of something bigger than you – a system that has existed for hundreds of years and hopefully will continue for hundreds more.
PD: So can you give us a summary of what you did when you left, you mentioned what you studied at university, but how did your career begin?
DR: I left in ’88 and went to Cambridge. I did an internship in Brussels at the European Commission designed to make my CV ready to apply to the Foreign Office. I quickly realised that I was not cut out to be a diplomat at all. I do not have the patience for sitting in multilateral meetings, and so to my surprise, I found myself becoming a journalist because I’d done journalism at university, and I am ridiculously lucky. It was a timing thing that allowed me to be a full-time journalist since I was 21 years old. That’s now a terrifyingly long time, that’s like 32 years of full-time journalism!
By Don Spencer
I wanted to be a foreign correspondent, due in part to the many great teachers I had at School. There was a particularly wonderful Spanish teacher called Gerry Ashton, who was also my Housemaster who sadly died young of cancer. He was just an absolutely brilliant man, he really made us wrestle with assumptions we had about the big world out there. He had lived in Spain when it was a dictatorship and I think had thought about being a Catholic priest quite seriously, then had a crisis of faith and became a teacher. He made us think hard about the world and living in countries that are not democratic and how people like that see the world. Freedoms are not automatic and how you have to deserve them. He also taught us some very outstanding Communist marching songs, which to this day I can startle Spanish people by singing.
PD: Having been a journalist for so long, how has the industry changed and how would that impact someone starting their career now?
DR: I still think it’s the best job in the world. The short version is I am paid to avoid anything boring. If something is boring to me, then it’s going to be boring to readers, so I should avoid it. I get to go to the most interesting places, talk to the most interesting people, and then
try to make sense of it all. That’s just a ridiculously lucky way to make a living. Astonishingly varied. I’m fortunate to work at The Economist, with serious people who want to get it right.
The two big things that have changed to make it much harder are an economic change in the business model. Newspapers can no longer simply sell people news about what happened on the other side of the world yesterday, because that is now available for free on the Internet. Now you can make money explaining why it’s happening and what it all means, and that’s what The Economist tries to do. In a world of information overload, we try to tell people what they need to know and understand.
The other big thing that has changed is that trust in the media has collapsed since I became a journalist. We were always slight outsiders, particularly in the UK when I began, but there is a huge distrust now. Some of it is the fault of journalists for not taking that distrust seriously, early enough. Some of it is due to our industry being complacent for too long that we got to tell people what they need to know. If they disagreed with us, they were just wrong, ignorant, or prejudiced. But I do also think there has also been a very effective campaign by strongmen and despots all around the world, and I’ve been in many of the countries that they run, to make everything a test of tribal loyalties. The cry of fake news is used against us here in China, I heard it used at Trump rallies in America, and it’s used all over the world as a very effective way of shutting down critical voices. But I do think that collapse in trust, the way that everyone’s retreating into the camps is an incredible threat to the industry. In terms of whether young people should still go into it, I would encourage people to try. It’s still the best job in the world. Even if it’s probably harder now to have the 32-year unbroken full-time journalistic career that I have had, where I’ve always been a correspondent, I’ve never been a freelancer. It’s just a happy accident of timing. I was one of the last dinosaurs looking up at the asteroid hurtling through the sky, wondering what that light is. I’m still on that track. Even if someone does it for a bit after they leave university, it’s an astonishing way to live.
Newspapers can no longer sell people the news about what happened on the other side of the world yesterday because that is now available to everyone for free on the Internet.
PD: Any advice for young people just starting their career now?
DR: The world is varied and fascinating. But quite a lot of it is hard to live in if you want to have a conventional career. All these amazing countries that are hard to live once you have a family and children and a big baggage train. You can join the Foreign Office and work in an embassy, and live in countries that a lot of people wouldn’t imagine living in. But if you choose the right place, you can also make it work as a foreign correspondent. One of the lessons I wish I had known when I first left university is that you have time. If you want to spend a few years living somewhere fascinating and doing something meaningful, you’ll be fine. You have more time than you think. When you’re young and hungry and don’t mind eating a lot of pasta and can live cheaply, there are a lot of interesting places out there. So, in my business as a foreign correspondent, I still think there are amazing opportunities to be had. You can live in Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and you can do it when you’re young because you don’t have the commitments. If you write some interesting stuff and pick up some interesting skills, maybe you can go off and put it to work in a different field. Maybe you don’t stay in this forever, but there’s an amazing way to live in a lot of the world that’s very hard.
David in China
And the other thing I definitely wish my 21 year old self had known is about the world of work. It felt like I was at the base of this utterly unapproachable pyramid and I couldn’t work out how to climb it. I wish I’d known that people at the top want to help. I’m involved in interviewing people who want to work for The Economist from time to time, I’m on the panels sifting through applications. And being at the other end of the pyramid, you realise that organisations really want to find bright, energetic, self-motivated, principled, young people.
If you present yourself authentically, then idealistic young people are extraordinarily welcome in most industries. My big pompous advice is that you’re more exceptional than you think, and you should believe that. You don’t have infinite time, but you do have a bit more time than you think. ➽
PD: Given the rise of AI and our increasingly digital world, what are your predictions on the future of journalism?
DR: I think that if you’re in the business of trying to explain what matters, coherently and a lot of journalism is doing just that, then it should be a work of empathy; you’re trying to explain other places or thoughts on their own terms, but in a way that can make people relate.
My job in China is not to defend the Chinese Communist Party. But it is to explain how the Communist Party sees the world, what their incentives are, why they do the things that they do. They have their own logic, and they have their way of seeing the world, linked to their history and to their culture. And my job is to try and understand what our readers need to know and need to understand to try to empathise with what’s happening here in.
PD: So your message is whatever the future of journalism is, something by nature artificial cannot supplant the empathy that is critical to put forward a balanced view that will appeal to the reader?
DR: Yes and of course I am biased, but I do think that AI is a poor replacement for at least some journalism. It’s drawing off existing analysis and existing data sets, and it’s a very powerful tool in the right hands, but even the best AI written journalism is essentially a distillation of conventional wisdom.
That’s the best it can achieve. And the world is changing really fast so maybe I’m talking up my own way of doing things, but I like to get out there and get off the beaten path and talk to people who don’t often speak to foreign correspondents and go to places that don’t see that many foreigners.
If you can keep trying to understand what is happening in places far from what you know, if you set yourself the task of wondering whose opinions and interests are not listened to enough, which voters are we not paying enough attention to, what ideas are we not taking seriously enough, then you set yourself up for anticipating new things that might be around the corner. The last
My job is to try and understand what our readers need to know and need to understand to try to empathise with what’s happening.
20 years, it probably might have stood you in reasonably good stead with spotting things like Brexit or the election of Trump or the imperialist turn of Russia under Putin or all of these changes. However, if you were just a very effective synthesizer of conventional wisdom, like AI, then you probably wouldn’t have predicted any of the cultural shifts we are witnessing today, and therefore your readership would have lost faith in you. I therefore think an AI foreign correspondent is still a while off.
PD: OK, so there’s hope?
DR: I’m clinging to that. ■
If you took some good photos at any of our OW events this year, please do send them to alumni@westminster.org.uk
Westminster School Hong Kong Drinks Reception 2024
College Society Dinner and AGM 2023
Elizabethan Club Summer Event 2023 – 50th Anniversary of Women at Westminster
OWConnect is our one-stopshop for everything Old Westminster! Here, you can re-engage with friends, colleagues and classmates from your past as well as make new connections for your future.
Careers and Mentoring: Find your own mentor in a variety of industries and companies, or offer to mentor a younger OWW. ▼
Groups and Societies: Join any OW society, house society or group by simply indicating your interests at registration. All groups are easy to see, showing you what opportunities there are to get involved with your Westminster community. Don’t see a Society that you’d like to be a part of? Start one up!
Jobs: Search for new career opportunities and apply directly within the platform. Or, recruit for your own company within your Old Westminster network.
Social Media: See all the School news from all the social media channels, in one central location.
Events: Register for events quickly and easily with a simple booking system, or organize your own pub night through the platform.
Album: Share your photographs from events, reunions or snaps of questionable fashion choices back in your school days.
Directory: Search the network for OWW in your local area, somewhere you’re travelling to, or somewhere you’re moving to –You can also invite your own OW connections (from Facebook and LinkedIn) to the platform, if they have not already joined. ▼
Give Back: OWConnect provides a simple way to give back to the School, either through volunteering or through philanthropic donations.
Business Directory: Perhaps you are in need of a graphic designer for your company, or are looking for opportunities for a career change. The Business Directory is an easy way to search through the OWW network to find connections across a multitude of disciplines.
This incredible network is also available through your mobile device, with the OWConnect app able to be downloaded through the GooglePlay and Apple App stores. Search for the ‘Graduway Alumni App’ and download to your device, type in OWConnect in the institution drop-down box and sign in!
Over 2,400 OWW and former staff are now registered on the platform – why not join them and experience our global Old Westminster network for yourself!
Current pupil achievements include:
Cross Country
At the London Schools’ Cross Country Championships, Westminster won the Senior Girls’ team event and were 3rd in Senior Boys and Inters Boys.
Cricket
Successful U17 Cricket Tour in the holidays to a 100 ball tournament at Desert Springs, Spain with competitive matches throughout and good wins over Bloxham & Dean Close. Westminster’s pupils were commended by the organisers and umpire for their good play, but especially for their good sportsmanship and behaviour.
Football
In the final week of last term, the Boys’ 1st XI beat Charterhouse in the 160th anniversary of the oldest continuous Football fixture in the world. This meant that the team ended with a winning season overall having been victorious in 7 of their last 9 fixtures.
Fencing
There were individual silver medals for Westminster pupils in the Senior Girls’ Epee and Boys’ Mount-Haes (U14) Foil, as well as a bronze medal in the Boys’ Mount-Haes Epee at the Public Schools’ Fencing Championships. In addition, Westminster won the Christie Team Trophy – awarded to the School with the best in U16 boys’ foil – for the first time since 2006.
Golf
Term ended with a 2.5-1.5 victory for the School over a multi-generational Old Westminsters side.
Judo
Westminster won 7 individual medals (2 silvers and 5 bronze) at the HMC Schools Tournament in High Wycombe. This meant that Westminster regained also the Small Team Trophy at the event.
Water
There were strong performances from Westminster crews at the Schools Head with the highlights being the J16 2nd Eight finishing 3rd and the J16 1st Eight finishing 4th in their respective categories. Also, there was further success for the Junior crews at the Junior Sculling Head as Westminster finished 2nd in J14 Octos and J15 First Quad came 3rd in their section. Finally, two Westminster Remove pupils have made it through to the final stages of selection of the Great Britain squad for the World Junior Championships.
In recent months, the Old Westminster Fives Club have been pulling up trees and creating history.
Firstly, back in February, the team of Riki Houlden, Hugo Young, Laurie Brock, Ismail Salim, Ben Merrett & Harry de Quetteville wrested the prestigious Alan Barber Cup (the Fives team National Championships) out of the firm grasp of the Old Olavians who had won the competition 23 times previously, and who included in their team Westminster's Master i/c Fives, Matt Wiseman and his brother, Howard who has coached Westminster students over many years also. Therefore, it was very much a case of the pupil becoming the master as Westminster took the trophy by 2-1 in a thrilling final which was as close as could possibly be. This was the first time in the competition's history that the Old Westminsters have won this title.
As if this was not enough, Riki & Hugo then followed this up in early April by winning the equally prestigious Kinnaird Cup, the first Old Westminsters to do so since the competition was established in 1924. In doing so, they broke also the stranglehold of their final opponents who had won the Cup for an amazing 13 times in a row. In a match lasting nigh on 3 hours at Berkhamsted, Riki & Hugo came from a game down to win by 3-1 and complete a remarkable season of success for Old Westminster Fives.
In the Fencing arena, there has been remarkable Old Westminster achievement also as recent leaver, Alec Brooke took the silver medal in the Epee event at the Junior (U23) World Fencing Championships in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Alec produced a career-best performance to reach the Final and actually stood at match-point at 14-13 but was then pipped by his opponent who scored the next two hits to inflict an agonising 15-14 defeat. Nevertheless, this was an outstanding effort by Alec, who is in his first year of study at Princeton, and who now stands an outside chance of achieving selection for the Paris Olympics.
Season 2023 has been a very enjoyable and satisfactory for the OWGS.
In the Halford Hewitt we defeated Clifton 3 ½ - 1 ½ in the first round and in the second round we defeated Rugby 4 ½ - ½ , this was a wonderful achievement as both these sides are in the top half of League Table, and we rose six places in the League Table. The team was David Blackadder-Weinstein & Tom Smith, Edward Cartwright & Harry Sweeting, Carl Rietschel & David Mahoney, James Balgarnie & Angus MacKay and Henry Kingsbury & Sonny Sahai. We lost in the third round 1 ½ - 3 ½ to Epsom who reached the Final.
In the Grafton Morrish we qualified for the Finals but lost l-2 to St George’s Weybridge. The team for the qualifying round was David Mahoney & Carl Rietschel, Henry Kingsbury & Harry Sweeting and David Blackadder-Weinstein & Tom Smith. In the Finals the team was David Mahoney & Angus MacKay, Alex Hofmann & Harry Sweeting and David BlackadderWeinstein & Tom Smith.
In the Bernard Darwin we defeat Malvern who were the holders, this was a very good win and the first win for many years. The team was Edward Cartwright & Jonny Woolf, Sam Coles & Julian Earle and Jim Durie & Simon Barley in the second round we lost 1-2 to Uppingham, Michael Cooper playing instead of Sam Coles. In the Senior Darwin we lost ½ - 2 ½ to Marlborough, the team was Jim Durie & Ian Mackinnon, Stephen Brisby & Julian Earle and Simon Barley & Simon Mortimore.
In the Royal Wimbledon Putting on the night which we played, we came 5th so did not qualify for the finals, our team was Henry Kingsbury, Edward Cartwright, Jim Durie and Harry Sweeting.
In the Dick Watson Trophy at Aldeburgh. We were came 9th and the team was Sonny Sahai & Jim Durie and Simon Barley & Alex Hofmann.
In the Club matches which were played we defeated the Uppinghamians and the Old Paulines halved with the Old Wykehamists and lost to the Old Marlburians. In the School match we lost 1-2.
The three Club Meeting were held; Spring Meeting at Worplesdon, the Summer Meeting at Seaford and the Autumn Meeting at New Zealand.
Anybody who would be interested in joining the Golf Society please contact David Royl: daroy@btinternet.com
This year’s review will seem familiar in nature to those that read the 2022 review.
2023 was yet another unusual year for Old Westminsters CC, as the continued works at Vincent Square meant that the much anticipated return of Cricket Week was again postponed. We are enormously excited for what 2024 brings.
Our first match was a new fixture, away against Old Latymerians. Latymer won the toss and elected to bat on a flat deck, with the sun beating down. OWWCC’s bowlers and fielders set about their task with alacrity, keeping standards and spirits high to restrict Latymer to 193-8 in their 40 overs. A particular highlight was Alex Vinen’s sensational one-handed slip catch at full stretch on the dive. The quality and value of this work in the dirt was shown in the response, as Tarun Eapen posted a glorious, chanceless 104* to lead OWWCC to a seven wicket victory with time to spare, ably supported by Raman Sanghera (22) and Barnaby Graff (30*).
The Cricketer Trophy drew us against Wellingborough again, and this time they managed to field a team. Sadly, that team was packed full of sports scholars that had been through the Northamptonshire county pathway, and were too strong for our team on the day, winning comfortably in a rain-affected match.
The final game of the season, away at the HAC, brought a positive book-end to the season. After a decidedly shaky start with the bat, a tremendous 10th wicket partnership between James MacDonald (50*) and Matt Carver (34*) hauled OWWCC to 170-9 off our 40 overs. The chat at tea was that we were in the game, but would need to bowl well to win. Our opening bowlers, James MacDonald (3-3) and Joe Andreyev (2-22), certainly took that to heart – ripping out the HAC top order with pace and skill, to leave them reeling at 19-5. Ben Collis (2-17), Angus Mylne (2-6) and Alex Vinen (1-7) made short work of the remaining HAC batsmen, bringing OWWCC a resounding 110 run win, celebrated in the late afternoon sun outside the Artillery Arms. A very fine way to end the season. OWWCC is as ever very grateful to Franklin Barrett not just for his role in preparing Vincent Square, but also for the friendly atmosphere and enthusiasm for the game that he brings to it. Finally, OWWCC would like to thank the School and the Elizabethan Club, without whose kind help OWW cricket could not function.
Any OWW wishing to join OWWCC should contact: Jake Robson (Fixtures Secretary): jnarobson@gmail.com07764181366 Alexander Asher (Treasurer): alexanderasher@gmail.com 07795364694
The athletics’ club had another successful year with the highlight being the annual Jim Forrest Serpentine Cup held on September 19 in Hyde Park.
With a total of 25 runners, all given handicaps by Simon Wurr, the OWs defeated the School and the Common Room, with Arseny Uskov finishing second with an actual time of 14 minutes 57 seconds behind the winner Nicholas Taylor of the School, who did 13 minutes 58 seconds. The OWs packed six runners in the first eight, with a dead heat for third place between Dominic Williams and Freddie Hill. Anyone interested in this race or the Inter Old Boys event on Wimbledon Common both of which will be staged in September should contact john@jbgoodbody.co.uk
12 March 2024
FROM WESTMINSTER PUPIL TO WESTMINSTER POLITICIAN: DOMINIC GRIEVE OW RETURNS TO SCHOOL TO SPEAK
Prime Ministers, pressure, and presentational politics on the agenda as the former Attorney General talked at a Conservative Association meeting.
Dominic Grieve, a pupil and scholar at Westminster in the 1960s, before training in law and then going on to be an MP for 22 years, touched on many topics in his talk and Q&A, including the story of conservative politics since Margaret Thatcher, prime ministers Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, his opposition to Brexit, the extra pressures on politicians owing to social media, and how presentational politics is more important today than ever.
Following the talk, the co-heads of the School’s Conservative Association, Oskar (Remove, GG) and Lida (Remove, DD), said: “It was our immense privilege to welcome Dominic Grieve KC, Old Westminster and former Grantite to address Westminster’s Conservative Association — a reminder of how fortunate we are to have such illustrious alumni who are willing to give up their time to come and speak.
“Mr Grieve covered numerous topics, manoeuvring between political theory, philosophy and stories from his parliamentary career and even touching on current topics like the consequences of Brexit or immigration policy.
“His responses to the audience’s queries reflected the seasoned expertise of a politician who has not only witnessed but actively participated in a dynamic and crucial period of British politics, even winning over some of the more sceptical within the audience. Even for those who may not have agreed fully with everything he said, there was plenty to think about. It was also interesting to see how interests and habits that begin at school can shape one’s views and even one’s career.
“This event not only highlighted our school’s unique connection to politics, but also demonstrated the enthusiasm of Westminster students to actively engage with and learn from veterans of public service. We continue to welcome anyone with an interest in politics as well as current affairs and strongly believe that disagreement and discourse are the only way to resolve the challenges that we face today.”
12 March 2024
‘TESTED TO THEIR LIMITS’ – TWO SCHOOLS AND TWO LANGUAGES MAKE FOR THRILLING ADAPTATION OF 20TH CENTURY
Pupils from Westminster and Harris worked together to stage a bilingual performance of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard.
Devised as a collaboration between Westminster’s Drama department and Modern Languages department, the school’s first annual bilingual performance took on one of modern theatre’s classics, The Cherry Orchard, Chekhov’s final play which dramatises the aftermath of the 1861 ‘Edict of Emancipation’ and the decline of the Russian aristocracy at a time of sweeping societal change.
The performances in the Millicent Fawcett Hall in March, were staged equally in two languages, with the first half in Russian, with English surtitles, and the second half in English, with accompanying Russian titles.
Although the cast and crew of pupils from Westminster and Harris Westminster Sixth Form included existing Russianists, including some for whom Russian is a familial language, for others this was an introduction to the language.
Nick Massey, Head of Russian and the show’s dramaturg, said: “Preparing for a bilingual production presented our pupils – especially our non-native Russian-speakers – with a
significant challenge. Learning whole monologues in Russian required a level of commitment that most of them had never encountered, and it surely tested them to their limits. The primary goal during rehearsals was to get ‘off book’, and this took longer for some than others. Yet with encouragement (and a couple of stern, well-timed reality checks from the director), our pupils dealt admirably with the challenge. Once lines had been learned, pupils began to embody their roles with more confidence, putting their own spin on Chekhov’s already quirky characters. The end result was a fully collaborative production, our newly-fledged actors stepping in to the tragicomic story with gusto, playing off each other with authenticity, integrity and understanding.”
The performances were staged equally in two languages, with the first half in Russian, and the second in English,
6 March 2024
ECONOMIC CHANGE AND THE ‘IKEA EFFECT’ EXPLORED IN WINNING WESTMINSTER ESSAYS
2024’s annual Lower School Economics Essay Competition drew the usual high-calibre entries.
Despite being on the curriculum only for A Level pupils, economics continues to be a popular draw for Lower School pupils in Fifth Form, Lower Shell and Upper Shell.
The annual Lower School Economics Essay Competition drew the usual number of high-quality entries, covering a range of subjects, from the economics of India’s recent staging of the Cricket World Cup, to ‘frightening’ quantitative tightening.
But it was a study of the so-called ‘Ikea effect’ and a detailed look at the drivers to economic change that took the top prizes.
In his essay, The Boy, His Mother and The Garden Project, Jijjith (Upper Shell, WW), looked at how behavioural economics is fundamental to understanding how and why certain companies and business models succeed, noting the USP of the Swedish furniture giant, which relies on its customers to assemble their products, and so helping foster a mentality of greater worth for the owner. This ‘Ikea effect’ helped propel Ikea to become a multi-billion dollar firm, and is a concept now employed by many businesses, from Build-ABear to HelloFresh.
Jijjith concludes by looking to the future, saying: “As people’s habits change and research enlightens huge conglomerates about where to focus their attention, it is no coincidence that the economy will adapt to serve the buyers’ needs… Using methods such as the IKEA effect companies can start to unlock the secrets to build a loyal customer base and grow exponentially.”
Economic change was the focus of Lucian’s (Lower Shell, LL) winning essay – change that can occur for many reasons, “including a rise in technological innovation, a shift in the population’s demographics, and the increasing prominence of online technology.” Looking at the role of the internet, he pointed to the ease of how money can now be transferred globally, and “the rise of rampant consumerism, where consumers have the power to buy something that will arrive in days”, aided by data collection, allowing companies to personalise experiences for different customers and make them more likely to spend.
20 February 2024 WHAT A TRIUMPH! — ANYTHING GOES, THE REVIEWS ARE IN… Anything Goes ran from 6 to 8 February 2024, Up School.
“Wow! It really was a brilliant production, with so many highlights and indeed some west-end quality performances. I loved the routines, the singing, the blocking, the acting, the whole mise-en-scène! It beggars belief just how much hard work, sweat and maybe tears goes into pulling off something like that.”
“I just wanted to say a huge congratulations on putting together the most incredible production! This evening was even more unbelievable than the previous nights – the kids looked so happy and joyful on stage and were all incredible! I’ve secretly always known my son would love doing a musical, and I can safely say he has never been happier at the school, returning home after rehearsals with a spring in his step!”
“Your extraordinary creative vision, teamwork and huge effort gave us all a magnificent treat. So many thanks. We had such full hearts coming home. Westminster is an amazing school.”
“I would like to say congratulations on the wonderful musical. I certainly thought it was the best performance which I’ve seen at Westminster and my parents thoroughly enjoyed it.”
“What a triumph! Congratulations on a marvellous show! We thoroughly enjoyed the performance, wonderful music fantastically performed both on stage and in the
pit. A brilliantly bright upbeat production, performed with real panache.”
“We were blown away by the talent, confidence and enthusiasm of the cast and the orchestra, and the creative and technical expertise of those involved with scenery, costumes and make-up, sound and lighting and the slick stage management. There was not a weak link in the chain. What an achievement, obviously the product of a lot of hard work. We were very proud of ‘our’ school.”
“A quick note to say how much my husband and I enjoyed Anything Goes last night. Huge fun and very impressive performances, band, set, choreography. I hope everyone has come away with an appropriate sense of achievement. Great stuff!”
“It was hugely professional in every way, with a fabulous set, spectacular costumes, phenomenal acting and singing performances with real commitment from every member of the cast, as well as absolutely outstanding music which brought the whole thing to an astonishing level of excellence. I realise just how much hard work goes into putting on a performance of that quality within a school like Westminster, where the staff, cast and crew must juggle around academic lessons and work, and other high level co-curricular commitments. This show was a huge achievement for everyone involved.”
“The mind boggles to think it is a school production: it was very professional, slick and really high quality – the hundreds (thousands?!) of hours that have gone into it were certainly apparent!”
9 February 2024 WELLBEING, WARM DRINKS AND WAGGY TAILS: MENTAL HEALTH TAKES CENTRE STAGE AT WESTMINSTER
Pupil-led events as part of Children’s Mental Health Week, included everything from yoga to animal therapy to senior teachers making candy floss.
The week devoted to raising awareness and encouraging wellbeing, in February, included a variety of fun activities for pupils; focusing especially on nurturing mind, body, and spirit.
Over the course of the week, there were several activities up Yard, including a daily ‘Hot Chocolate and Chat’, giving pupils the opportunity to keep warm, unwind and catch up with their friends – a popular activity despite the cold weather. Monday lunchtime also saw pupils enjoy candyfloss, served by senior teachers, “with impressive expertise and a certain joie de vivre”, according to the Head Master.
A session in Weston’s saw the intricate beauty of henna artistry, with pupils able to have their hands decorated.
In Sutcliff’s, Art Therapy provided pupils a creative outlet to explore their emotions and express themselves through painting. Meanwhile, in the tranquil setting of Ashburnham Garden, pupils experienced the comfort of animal therapy with dogs.
Elsewhere, the week included yoga, a Japanese bake sale, a mental health discussion and talk on managing stress, meditation, and a dedicated relax and unwind room in the chapel.
As Mental Health Week drew to a close, it was clear that pupils had benefitted from the reminder of the importance of self-care, empathy, and community support in nurturing a positive mental health culture.
At the end of the week, Mr Simon Crow, Teacher of Art who led the art therapy sessions, said: “It was lovely to see pupils engaging in such a creative, expressive and aesthetic experience. Art therapy has taught pupils to see painting as a meditational activity, as it promotes the mindfulness of zen philosophy – that only the single moment exists, nothing else matters for that period of time”.
5 February 2024
STUDENT-LED ADAPTATION OF CZECH MASTERPIECE, THE GOOD SOLDIER ŠVEJK, HAILED “RIOTOUSLY BRILLIANT”
Both hilarious and deeply moving, the adaptation of Hašek’s epic novel at Westminster evoked the struggle of an individual against state institutions in wartime.
Across three evenings in Play Term 2023 at the school’s Millicent Fawcett Hall, a team of 29 sixth form cast and crew presented a stage version of Jaroslav Hašek’s The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk During the World War, which was originally published in the early 1920s. Blake (Sixth Form, HH) adapted the original Czech text and directed the production. Explaining why the story caught his attention, he said: “It’s a madcap comedy, but it is also a story about thinking critically, not falling for the propaganda of institutions that want to make people into cannon fodder. It is about finding ways to subvert the plans of an authoritarian regime even when
you have no power. But above all, it is about choosing life over resignation and despair. I’m immensely grateful to the cast and crew who brought this story to life with their immense talents, energy and dedication.”
Director of Drama, Chris Whyld, said: “This entirely student-led production, from Blake’s translation, adaptation and direction to the stage management, set design and of course the utterly accomplished performances, was an absolute triumph. Blending styles of the Absurd, Brecht’s Epic Theatre and German Expressionism, Švejk brilliantly captured the chaos and ridiculousness of authoritarian bureaucracy. Any show which features both a chicken and a dog gets the thumbs up from me. A huge, well-deserved congratulations to all involved.”
Head Master, Dr Gary Savage, added: “It was an evening of Mitteleuropean
mayhem, with elements of the comic, the absurd and the tragic, all beautifully rendered by a committed and talented cast and crew. My reaction was sheer delight. I knew the story, and was looking forward to their treatment of it, but I hadn’t expected something quite so riotously brilliant. The show was a treat from beginning to end. They galvanised a great cast and backstage team to create something really memorable. They generated and harnessed so much energy, inventiveness and exuberance, making full use of the space, and the talents at their disposal, to deliver a tour de force. Technically, it was very impressive; but also the edit of the text to create a story by turns funny, strange and even moving was really impressively done. The whole evening – and of course dear, barking Ada – will live long in my memory, and no doubt in theirs.”
It was an evening of Mitteleuropean mayhem, with elements of the comic, the absurd and the tragic...
18 January 2024
“IMMERSIVE AND TRANSPORTING” — UPPER SCHOOL PLAY TAKES AUDIENCE ON JOURNEY OF BETRAYAL AND FORGIVENESS”
The cast of time-shifting epic, When The Rain Stops Falling, handled difficult themes and issues with great care at the Millicent Fawcett Hall production.
Andrew Bovell’s 2008 AngloAustralian play, which spans four generations and two hemispheres, was performed by actors in the Sixth Form and Remove in January.
The intimate setting of the Millicent Fawcett Hall added to the experience of all on stage, as well as those in the audience, who were gripped by the tale of family, secret legacies, betrayal and forgiveness, directed by Head of Academic Drama, Paul Tully.
Following the performances, Paul said: “I am so proud of my dedicated cast and delighted that they performed to full houses. With just four and a half weeks of rehearsal, they proved so adept at performing a complex, challenging and thought provoking
play with many confronting issues beyond their years. They performed with integrity, sensitivity and brought the world of the play to life.”
Director of Drama, Chris Whyld, said:
“When the Rain Stops Falling was the Drama Department’s first, what we intend to become annual, Upper School ‘straight’ play, offered as an alternative to the musical. It powerfully told the story of familial inter-generational trauma with magnificent performances from the cast who handled such difficult and painful themes and issues with sensitivity and utter professionalism. A totally absorbing theatrical experience, the type which leaves one pondering on its content for hours, days afterwards.”
Head Master Dr Gary Savage, added: “It was terrifically done, with really committed and fine performances across the board. Some of the scenes were really, really well done; and the overall effect was immersive and transporting.”
14 December 2023
GLORIOUS DECEMBER — WESTMINSTER SCHOOLS
The collaborative festive song was written by local junior school children and Westminster pupils to represent Maggie’s Cancer Care.
It’s the most glorious December It’ll be one to remember Snow falling on our faces So many people… In so many places.
Glorious December is the product of a partnership between Burdett Coutts Primary School, Westminster School, and Maggie’s Cancer Care charity. Westminster was approached by Maggie’s with the idea of writing a festive song to represent them, and the School decided it would be even more special if it brought music to some of our local young people.
Year 6 children at our close partner school Burdett Coutts agreed to become our composers and, alongside Westminster School’s Thursday afternoon Music Participation group, wrote most of the lyrics and the main melody lines. After some work back at Westminster drawing all the ideas together, the song was created, and was recorded in the School’s Manoukian Music Centre.
It was taught to the students brilliantly by Lucy Mullin, and expertly recorded by Rowan Lovell, combining the singers of Westminster School and Burdett Coutts with instrumentals by Alex (Sixth Form, GG), Jonathan (Sixth Form, GG), and Oscar (Sixth Form, RR), and Harris Westminster Sixth Form student Sam.
Westminster School’s Music Partnerships Co-ordinator, Rebecca McNaught, said: “This recording is the beginning of a strong supportive partnership with Maggie’s, and a continuing connection with Burdett Coutts, as well as Harris Westminster. The song was built around the concept of family and how we are drawn together even if we live across the world, perfectly matching the work that Maggie’s do to support cancer patients and their loved ones across the UK and internationally.
And Westminster pupils we also thrilled to take part:
“I just LOVED this project. I think the writing came on well and it brought us closer as a team.”
“It was fun and interesting and I really connected with most of my group of children.”
“I think that this project was really a nice way to get the children involved and feel like they were a part of the process.”
11 December 2023
FATHER OF THE HOUSE TALKS ABOUT HIS CAREER, HIS CONSERVATISM AND CURRENT HOT TOPICS
Sir Peter Bottomley MP covered many subjects as the guest of the School's Conservative Association.
Following Sir Peter’s talk in December, the head of the Westminster School Conservative Association, Oskar (Remove, GG), reflected on the visit of the House of Commons’ longest-serving Member of Parliament, and set out the mission of the Association.
Oskar:
Speaking to real-life Members of Parliament — like Sir Peter Bottomley, who has served his country for nearly 50 years, participating in debates and making decisions in the House of Commons — is something we are lucky to be able to do so regularly, being just over the road here at Westminster School.
On his visit, Sir Peter filled the lecture room with intrigued Westminsters. He started his talk by sharing details about his political career, delving into his personal definition of politics and how his experiences shaped him. Learning about the changes in politics from Thatcher’s Britain, when Sir Peter began his political journey, to the modern day, certainly inspired all of us in attendance. The Father of the House then shared anecdotes from his time in Parliament and proceeded to answer the many questions on our minds.
Hot topics like the Conservative Party’s internal climate, shifts in both his and the party’s viewpoints over the years, and even controversial subjects like the party’s immigration policy, were raised and adeptly handled with the know-how and experience of a seasoned statesman. ➽
It’s worth noting that attending Conservative Association talks, asking guest speakers questions, or even giving a talk oneself, is not a political statement or party affiliation. Engaging with the Association simply indicates an interest in politics and a willingness to discuss one’s ideas with others similarly interested in the governance of our country.
We do not discriminate against any political views and even encourage those critical of conservative politics to attend our talks and ask challenging questions. Inviting prominent political figures allows us to explore their unique perspectives on current affairs, ensuring that we are informed about politics from various angles, not just those shared with our peers.
Overall, Sir Peter’s visit provided a fantastic opportunity to seek answers to very specific questions, ones that might have remained unanswered if he hadn’t kindly agreed to give us his time. Events like these showcase Westminster’s unique position: close enough to parliament for MPs to swiftly join us for lunch, and intellectually stimulating enough for guest speakers to eagerly participate in discussions and idea-sharing, rather than delivering lengthy lectures. In the future, I hope we can welcome many more guest speakers with the same open-mindedness and anticipation that we showed to Sir Peter. The Westminster Conservative Association serves as a platform for conservative ideas and discussions. Primarily, we invite guest speakers, including MPs and activists like Mark Field and Sir Peter Bottomley, to give talks on topics of their choice to us and our peers. Typically, the guest speaker outlines their political career and may discuss a few topics they are particularly passionate about, followed by questions from interested pupils.
10 November 2023 THREE NIGHTS, 17 PLAYS, AND JUST TWO WEEKS OF REHEARSAL –SIXTH FORM FESTIVAL SHOWCASES FEMALE WRITERS
To celebrate 50 years of girls at Westminster, the 2023 Sixth Form Festival culminated in an evening of scenes from plays exclusively by female playwrights.
In a grand celebration of girls having been pupils at Westminster since 1972, the annual Sixth Form Festival took the spotlight with captivating dramatic plays, with over 50 pupils pouring their hearts into a great variety of performances.
The journey leading up to this event was no less than impressive, with pupils having just two weeks of rigorous rehearsal cumulating in three nights of performances in October.
This ambitious production brought together talented pupils from both Westminster and Harris Westminster Sixth Form, who presented a broad range of emotions, stories, and themes throughout. One of the festivals unique features was the chronological arrangement of scenes, beginning in the 13th century BCE and progressing all the way to 2030. This historic journey allowed the audience to not only witness the evolution of theatrical styles, but also witness an eclectic smorgasbord of genres, from comedies to tragedies, to naturalism to expressionism, and from the post-modern to the absurd.
The hard work and dedication from each pupil were evident in each scene, and their commitment to bringing the performances to life was truly inspiring. This year’s sixth form festival truly showcased the inclusivity and diversity that has thrived in Westminster School over the last five decades.
Pupils and teachers alike reflected on the Festival. ➽
Giulio, (Sixth Form, HH), said: “Taking part in the Sixth Form Drama Festival was a rewarding and wonderful experience from the first rehearsal to the final performance. Immersing myself in a new activity and making new friendships along the way, I had an undeniably great time.
Lane (Sixth Form, AHH): “Coming into the Sixth Form Festival as someone who doesn’t do drama, I felt intimidated.
Alex (Sixth Form, DD): “Amid the chaos of starting Sixth Form, I decided to take part in the annual Festival, and it did not disappoint. Having not done anything similar before, I was daunted by the prospect of performing in front of my peers, yet through their support and the occasional poker game, the experience flew by and ended with a fabulous set of performances.
Harold (Sixth Form, WW): “Once again, the Sixth Form Festival was an incredible entrée to a new year of drama at Westminster. Performers of Sixth Forms past had left big boots to fill, but our amazingly talented and dedicated cast and crew pulled through this year to create yet another wonderful production that every single person involved in the production should be proud of.”
Chris Whyld, Director of Drama, said: “The rehearsal and performance process was a wonderful opportunity for the new Sixth Form to get to know each other, be creative, collaborate and work together with the common aim of providing an evening of thoughtprovoking and entertaining theatre.”
Dr Gary Savage, Head Master: “This year’s Sixth Form Festival took the lucky audience on an astonishing journey –and we loved every minute. From powerful solos, subtle two-handers, to complex ensemble pieces, there was something for everyone to enjoy, both in terms of form and content –comedy, horror, love and death. Quite something by any standard – quite incredible when you remember the cast had had only four weeks to rehearse, and indeed to get to know one another. So well done them, and hats off to Mr Wylde and the Drama Department for producing something so memorable, and so enjoyable, to celebrate 50 years of women at Westminster. Bravo!
5 September 2023
WESTMINSTER SPORT RETURNS TO VINCENT SQUARE FOLLOWING YEAR OF EXTENSIVE WORK
An extended and revamped pavilion and new playing surfaces were reopened by former England cricketer and Westminster coach at special ceremony.
The first weekend of the new school year saw sporting action on the pitches of Vincent Square for the first time in more than a year.
Football, netball and tennis matches between School teams and Old Westminsters on Saturday 2 September were followed by a special reopening of the square by Roland Butcher, England’s first black Test and One Day cricket player, and also a coach at the school throughout the 1990s.
The event marked a year in which the Square was transformed. The School Pavilion, built in 1888, has been refurbished and extended with two new wings designed by the surveyor to Westminster Abbey, Ptolemy Dean. At the same time, all ten acres of the playing fields were renewed with new drainage and irrigation, meaning sport will be playable all year round, whatever the weather.
Dr Gary Savage, Head Master, said: “It is a real joy to see Fields teeming with life again, following a year bereft
of home fixtures. Our teams have retained their spirit throughout this period of enforced absence, but to play on Vincent Square again will, I know, be very welcome.
We are extremely grateful to all staff and donors who have made the refurbishment of the pavilion and extensive work to the playing surface possible through their hard work and generosity. The project has not been without its challenges, of course; and so we are very proud that all of these have been overcome and we now have a spectacular new facility, for use by pupils from both Westminster School and Westminster Under School throughout the year, in good weather and in bad.”
From duck shooting and ice skating to football and cricket, the playing field we now know as Vincent Square has long held physical challenges and sporting distractions for the pupils of Westminster.
Today’s enclosed area of grass is the last ten acres of the former Tothill Fields, or Tuttle Fields, a vast swathe of open and marshy land between Westminster, and Chelsea. This was ➽
a place of tournaments, fighting, and the settling of wagers in medieval times, the site of Henry III’s annual 15-day Tothill Fair – funds from which he would use to finance the building of his great Abbey, the burial of plague dead, and a place where troops would conduct drill and musket practice during the Civil War.
The vastness and proximity of the fields was a lure for Westminster boys from the early days of the school, with many activities on offer. Some are long past – duck shooting, ice skating, ditch leaping, donkey racing – and those that remain, including some of the very earliest mentions of cricket on record. Westminster was an early adopter of cricket. Competitive matches were played on the fields in the mid-1700s, long before the laws of the game were codified, the chief event of the season being the Scholars vs Town Boys match. It was in the early 1800s that the square we know today took shape. Much of Tothill Fields was being lost to housing, a situation the Dean of Westminster and former Head Master, William Vincent, viewed with alarm. Despite ownership of the land being a long-running dispute between the Abbey and two local parishes, Dean Vincent sought to mark off an area of land for the exclusive use of the School.
So in 1810 he paid £3 for a furrow to be ploughed around this ten acres, later fully enclosing it with a fence. The Public Schools Act of 1868 confirmed the land as the School’s. Tothill Fields had gone and in its place was Vincent Square.
Although it is recorded that Westminster and Charterhouse played at cricket in 1794, and Eton in 1796, it is in the 1800s that we saw an explosion of sporting competition and the introduction of regular fixtures, including those with MCC and the Lords and Commons, as well as against many other schools.
The first recorded football on the Square is in 1854, but it is likely the game was played before that.
In the mid-1800s football, still a young game, proved a tricky one to play as rules would vary between schools. The handling of the ball and drop kicks were still common.
This state of affairs pleased no one. In 1863, a letter in the Times from
Etonians said: ‘The display is below mediocrity – neither of the sides can practice any of their favourite dodges without infringing the rules of the other.’
The Westminster Charterhouse fixture, first contested in 1863, has a claim to be the longest continuous football fixture in the world. As on the water between Westminster and Eton, both Westminster and Charterhouse competed for the right to wear muchprized pink. One Charterhouse coach, much later remarked: ‘Was that really a prize worth winning?’.
The Pavilion we see today dates from 1888, designed by Scottish architect Richard Creed FRIBA, and built by subscription with funds from numerous sources: £225 from the Elizabethan Club, £200 from the Governing body, £300 by the Masters’ Fund, £75 by the Games Committee, and the rest from Old Westminsters, Masters and other interested parties. The clock was presented by Old Westminster members of parliament and Llewellyn AtherleyJones, the radical liberal QC and MP, whose sons attended the school.
The building was formally unveiled at the match between the School and the Lords and Commons, on May 14th 1898.
Despite its attractiveness and location in the heart of an increasingly bourgeois Westminster, the pavilion has not led a charmed life, having seen at least one more ‘grand opening’ before the one in 2023.
Concerns that gripped the nation at the time of the Munich Crisis in the 1930s led to the requisitioning of Vincent Square by government, which instructed the digging of shelter trenches along the east and south sides of Vincent Square, with a concrete barrage balloon base constructed in the centre. After the War the site was abandoned. Railings had been removed for scrap iron and the area was littered with the residues of war: shelters, static water tanks, American army trucks and barrage balloon anchorages. It was noted as being a ‘battleground for local children’. The pavilion was partially wrecked. Post-War rebuilding was a major, and slow, operation. For three peacetime years there was no sport at Vincent Square.
Competition only resumed in June 1948, with the pavilion reopened by distinguished guests including Ashes winning captain and MCC president Sir Pelham ‘Plum’ Warner.
75 years on, the pavilion enters its next phase of life. Gone is a single-storey 1930s extension on one side of the wood-framed main building, and added are two new extensions to either side, with tent-like roofs designed by Ptolemy Dean, surveyor to the fabric of Westminster Abbey, and inspired by John Nash’s grade II*-listed Rotunda at Woolwich Common.
23 June 2023
ANNUAL EXHIBITION PROVES A SHOW OF OVERWHELMING ARTISTRY AT WESTMINSTER
The 2023 Westminster Summer Exhibition launched with the works of almost 70 GCSE and A Level pupils displayed from the bottom to the top of the art department.
Sutcliff’s was packed at the launch of the exhibition in June, with members of the school community able to see coursework and exam-unit art occupying almost every corner of the five-storey art centre: from large murals and triptychs to ceiling-high sculptures and looming portraits. At the launch, there was much congratulation of the young artists by parents and staff, with teachers keen to secure works for the walls of their own departments in the coming year, as is the Westminster tradition.
Highlights of 2023 include Alexei’s (Remove, LL) sculpture, an abstract structure obfuscated by wrapped material that stands from the table up to the ceiling in one of the department’s largest studios. In the basement, the scale and intensity of Susanna’s (Remove, RR) two large canvas works, evoking Caravaggio, is striking; while Zoe’s (Remove, WW) assortment of abstract portraits, chosen for Westminster’s permanent collection
July 2023
PLATFORM ‘COMPELLED ME TO
IN MYSELF AND MY IDEAS’
Summer school trips and talks help prepare Year 10 Platform+ pupils for their futures in education and beyond.
In July, the Year 10 members of Westminster’s Platform+ Programme, designed for pupils from state schools who show academic potential, came together for the annual Summer School, where they participated in subject-relevant workshops, visited galleries and museums, and heard from a range of industry experts.
The two-day course brought together much of the work of ten Saturday sessions that pupils attend throughout the year, presenting some thought-provoking challenges and an opportunity to think about A Level choices and career prospects.
Westminster Platform was launched in 2018 to fuel the ambitions of boys and girls in Year 5 from the state school sector who show academic potential. Since then, the School has developed its initiative for widening access, with the 2020 introduction of Platform+ for pupils in Year 10 and the recent launch of Platform Pups in 2023, for pupils in Year 2.
and featuring Liddell’s housemaster Dr Ransford Agyare-Kwabi, stand out against their red backgrounds.
On the exhibition and the works, Zoe (Remove, WW) said: “Over the course of studying art at Westminster, I most enjoyed painting portraits of people I knew like my friends and teachers. My portraits aimed to capture a likeness but I also wanted make sure they weren’t extremely realistic – which is why I use a bright red background.”
Sam (Remove, AHH) added: “It’s been a very humbling and fun experience to see myself grow as an artist over these past five years at Westminster. I didn’t think I would be pursuing art further, so I’m grateful my teachers (Mr Woodman) and my classmates helped me to nurture this passion.”
26 May 2023
The moral, theoretical and topical contemplations of two Westminster Sixth Formers have placed them in the top ten of the University of Sheffield’s 2023 Philosophy Essay Competition.
Selected from 138 entries from across the UK by an expert panel from the university, Genevieve (Sixth Form, PP) and Lillie’s (Sixth Form, LL) essays delved deep into the complexities and impact of modern technological advances in the development of humanity.
For her essay, theology and philosophy student Genevieve opted to respond to a question on human happiness, and if creating a whole new – and happy – human race would make the world a better place.
Defining ‘a better place’ as a world more conducive to the expansion of humanity’s productive potential, and which increases aggregate utility in accordance with morality, she explained that “based on these principles, I rejected the idea of creating new people to make the world a better place for three main reasons – it endorses dangerous ideologies that decrease utility for existing people, places a disproportionate emphasis on nonexistent over existent beings, and there are fundamental flaws in theories that promote an increase in population.”
The judges described the submission as an “excellent essay”, adding “you certainly have a view of your own and you give good reasons to support it.”
Lillie answered the concise question, ‘Can an AI system think?’, focusing on the inevitability of the line being blurred between human and artificial intelligence, with the emergence of powerful AI models that demonstrate capabilities beyond the proficiency of human beings, and how this, in turn, can make it difficult to define ‘thinking’ and ‘non-thinking’. She explained that within her essay she “evaluated machine cognition by deconstructing the debate into three sub-questions: Does an AI “experience” inputs like how humans experience stimuli?; What do we not understand about how AI manipulates ideas, and does it even
I
found the experience incredibly rewarding as I managed to expand my knowledge and think about certain ideas in unconventional angles.”
matter?; and how may an AI generate ideas differently, compared to humans and other living organisms?”
The judges cited: “This is a very good essay on an interesting topic. It is clear that you have researched widely on the topic and this is a credit to your essay. Very good work.”
On her success, Genevieve said: “I found the experience incredibly rewarding as I managed to expand my knowledge and think about certain ideas in unconventional angles. I’m also really glad that all my hard work paid off.”
Lillie added: “I am very grateful for the chance to write about an imminent issue today. Learning about various perspectives in the field and finally putting together an argument was astonishingly enjoyable, and the
research really helped me to appreciate the intricate depths of my own conscious experience.”
Hosted by the University of Sheffield’s philosophy department, the annual Philosophy Essay Competition invites pupils in Years 10-12 to submit original essays on one of six given topics.
Dr. James Sakal (GG, 1997-2002)
In January of this year, James Sakal successfully defended his doctoral thesis and was awarded a PhD by the University of Exeter. James’ research was conducted in the Computer Science department. His thesis, provisionally titled, Automated University Timetabling with Robustness explores algorithms for optimising complex timetables in the presence of multiple, conflicting, objectives.
Richard Stokes (former staff)
Richard taught German and French at Westminster from 1975 to 2006. He was awarded the Order of Merit of the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art in 2022, following the publication of his recent book, The Complete Songs of Hugo Wolf (Faber).
Edar Wieliczko-Mullan (RR, 1996-2001)
Edar has recently been promoted to Media Intelligence Expert at UEFA in Switzerland. His name at school was Edar Mullan, but he has since changed it to Edar Wieliczko-Mullan.
Stratis Porfyratos (GG, 1973-77)
Stratis’s daughter, Angelika, gave birth to his first grandchild on 2nd March 2024, naming him Aris Achilleas Carreras.
William Pearson-Gee (LL, 1975-79)
The Chancellor of Buckingham University, Lady Mary Archer, awarded The Revd William Pearson-Gee, the Rector of Buckingham, an honorary doctorate on Saturday, 9th September in recognition of his and Buckingham Parish Church’s impact in the community. After a full career on the Army Willie spent a few years running a printing business before becoming an ordinand at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. He has been Rector for nearly 14 years during which time the church has enjoyed sustained growth becoming one of the largest in the Diocese. During the pandemic the Church was in the vanguard of those who embraced technology and livestreamed services reaching a global audience. He has enjoyed looking into Little Deans Yard whilst attending General Synod sessions at Church House!
Andrew Kavchak (BB, 1976-77)
Andrew was recently interviewed by Piers Cross for his An Evolving Man Podcast series (videos also on YouTube) about his experience of boarding at Westminster School and his book Westminster School: Reflections of a Boarder. The video can be viewed at: youtube.com/watch?v=wSyiOVh7CoQ&list=PLc8DzH2Z1rJiTDAc09urerSmPwxxU2E7&index=83
Professor Adam Zeman (BB, 1970-74)
Professor Adam Zeman has recently published new papers on his groundbreaking research on Aphantasia and Hyperphantasia.
Adam trained in Medicine at Oxford University Medical School, after a first degree in Philosophy and Psychology. He was a consultant neurologist in Edinburgh, from 1996, and has been Professor of Neurology at Exeter University Medical School since 2005. His specialised clinical work is in cognitive and behavioural neurology, including neurological disorders of sleep. His research interests include amnesia associated with epilepsy ( projects.exeter.ac.uk/time) and disorders of visual imagery (medicine. exeter.ac.uk/research/neuroscience/ theeyesmind ). He has an active background interest in the science and philosophy of consciousness, publishing several wide-ranging reviews of the
field and an accessible introduction to the subject, intended for a general readership (Consciousness: a user’s guide, Yale University Press, 2002). He has written a study of the brain for the general reader, A Portrait of the Brain (Yale, 2008), edited Ethical Dilemmas in Neurology (W.B.Saunders, 2000) with Linda Emanuel and Epilepsy and Memory (OUP, 2012) with Marilyn Jones-Gotman and Narinder Kapur. He was Chairman of the British Neuropsychiatry Association from 2007-2011. He recently moved into a freelance phase of life as an expert witness and independent researcher based in Edinburgh. A new book on the science of imagination, The Shape of Things Unseen, will be published by Bloomsbury in January 2025, and he is embarking on a new wave of work on ‘extreme imagery’. To read his most recent paper please visit: sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ S1364661324000342
There have been 4 House Dinners this year, Grants, Busyb's, College and Rigaud's.
The Old Grantite Club was pleased to return to face to face meetings with our AGM in March 2023.
The meeting was followed by the launch of the updated history of Grants and the Old Grantite Club presented by Tim Woods and Paul Hooper. We The Club is very grateful to Simon Mundy, Tim and Paul for all their work on collating and publishing the booklet. Any Old Grantites who would like a copy can contact the Development Office or download it at: https://issuu.com/westminsterschool-owwonline/docs/ history_of_grants_vol_3/88
The Old Grantite Club members were saddened to hear of Tim Woods sudden death in May 2023. Tim is much missed and he was an enthusiastic supporter of the club (there is a tribute to Tim in the 'In Memoriam' section of this newsletter).
The Old Grantite AGM took take place on 24th April this year and we welcomed alumni of all ages. Please keep a look out for forthcoming events on the OWW website.
Caroline Lewis (GG, 1980-82) Chairman
Tuesday 1 October 2024 House of Commons 90’s Gaudy
Wednesday 23 October Golf Society Dinner
Thursday, 21 November Elizabethan Club Dinner
Thursday 5 December Elizabethan Club Carols
There will be more events announced in the coming weeks, so please do keep an eye on your inbox.
The College Society Committee was very happy to host the College Society dinner in September 2023, following the three-year hiatus.
We welcomed 60 guests including recent leavers, and had a wonderful evening, starting with a short talk by Elizabeth Wells, the School’s archivist, and rounding off with drinks at the Blue Boar bar. Photos from the night are available on OW Connect.
We do hope to have another event in 2024, so please do keep your eyes peeled. In the meantime, we are planning to contact College alumni to find out what you would like from the Society.
The Committee has welcomed Thomas Karshan (1989-94) and Vikram Jayaswal (2008-13) to its ranks, and thanked Amanda Barnes (1976-78) who stepped down in 2022.
We are also getting together your news for the 2023/24 College newsletter, please do send through your updates, memories, photos, to collegesocietynewsletter@gmail.com if you would like to contribute to the next issue.
Wishing you all well Arda Eghiayan
For membership details: Hon Sec Chairman: Arda Eghiayan (CC 2000-02) Oliver Gillie (CC 1955-58) arda.eghiayan@gmail.com oliver.gillie@outlook.com
At the heart of Westminster Platform is a simple vision: get bright state school pupils from underserved backgrounds into Westminster and WUS for lessons on Saturdays, designed to offer academic enrichment, cultural excitement, and a boost for applying to schools at 11+ or 16+.
By Solly Hardwick English Teacher and Director of Platform and Widening Access
The programme comprises three strands: Platform+ (year 10), Platform (year 5), and Platform Pups (year 2). Every year pupils love the experience, and frequently lament it when it passes. They tend to praise the opportunity for lessons which go beyond the curriculum, give them extra room for debate/discussion, and show them new subjects and academic pursuits which open up fresh areas of enquiry and discovery. At the end of last year’s programme one pupil put it simply: ‘our voices were heard’, which captured what we have been trying to do in empowering young people through education, and widening the circle of who is part of the Westminster community.
Platform+ at Westminster is thriving, with a fantastic and lively cohort involved this year, and multiple projects happening which build on the programme’s considerable success over the years.”
Platform+ at Westminster is thriving, with a fantastic and lively cohort involved this year, and multiple projects happening which build on the programme’s considerable success over the years. This year 45 pupils from 14 state schools across London are on the programme, selected via nomination forms sent to their teachers which focus on academic credentials, socio-economic background, and any barriers to learning they may have faced. As well as an exciting and intensive series of lessons in STEM and Liberal Arts, pupils have also benefitted from a collaboration with the charities WriteSpace and The Khartik Prabhu Foundation, which aim to inspire creativity in pupils from underserved backgrounds. So far there has been a creative writing workshop with prize-winning author and former Westminster teacher Rebecca Wait, and there are workshops in the pipeline for poetry with Susannah Hart (prizewinning poet), Anjana Ahuja (FT Science writer), and The National Theatre. This will eventually lead to submissions from Platform+ pupils to the Khartik’s Creatives writing prize. We have also begun sharing our facilities with Platform+ pupils, most notably the library, with one girl rushing to grab a Russian novel and saying with glee, ‘this is my home now’.
The programme also supports pupils who come to Westminster on bursaries, as we can identify talent and help people feel comfortable moving to an environment like Westminster. There are currently 4 former members of Platform+ in the 6th form, a testament to the school’s appeal.
Platform at WUS is enjoying characteristic success. At present, 44 Year 5 primary school pupils from ➽
14 mostly inner city primary schools across London are taking part. The boys and girls have been identified by their head teachers and class teachers as having high academic potential and coming from underserved backgrounds. The programme’s 11 Saturday sessions include extension and development classes in maths and English and other enrichment classes delivered by Under School teaching staff. They also receive assistance from ATOM learning and Keystone tutors, who have partnered with us to provide pro bono 11+ focused opportunities. Teachers on the programme wrote references for 17 pupils, who were applying to the independent sector, from the most recent cohort. There are also pupils from Platform on bursaries at both WUS and WGS.
Platform Pups In 2023, the inaugural Platform Pups cohort joined us as part of a pilot scheme. This was started off the back of the successes of both the Platform and Platform+ programmes. The current programme is working with 19 pupils in Year 2 selected from 6 of our partner primary schools. The aim of the course is to grow pupil confidence, build resilience and develop academic curiosity in English and Mathematics. ■
Have you ever pushed a weight of over a tonne with a single finger? Do you know the connection between one of the finest art deco buildings in the country, located nearby in the West End, and the School’s oldest alumni society?
The art deco building is Freemasons’ Hall in Covent Garden. Built in the 1920s its main role is as the headquarters of the oldest Masonic Grand Lodge in the world. It also doubles as an aweinspiring venue which has been used in many films and shows, including Assassin’s Creed, James Bond, Sherlock Holmes, Spooks and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
With roots going way back to the stonemasons who built the great cathedrals including Westminster Abbey, Freemasonry in its current form developed around 500 years ago. Groups of men decided to put aside the deep political and religious differences which regularly threatened to tear the country apart and to focus instead on what united them:
• tolerance and mutual respect for others;
• charity and help for those less privileged; and
• a desire to understand what it means to live a good life.
All these ideals are just as relevant today and are practiced in Masonic lodges. Masons in the UK give £1 million a week to charities, and are said to be the biggest charitable donors in the country after the National Lottery.
Exactly the same ideals were adopted by the first women Freemasons, who were well established by the late 1800s. A number of early women Freemasons were also suffragists, whose aims chimed well with those of Freemasonry.
The School’s oldest alumni society is the Old Westminsters’ Lodge, founded in 1877 and meeting continuously ever since (wars and pandemics permitting). The members meet four times a year in School and dine in College Hall. The Old
Westminsters’ Lodge welcomes applications for membership from men young and old who are alumni of the School, as pupils or staff, or have some other sufficiently close connection with the School. Meetings are taken seriously, followed by a relaxed, convivial dinner in one of the most impressive dining rooms in the country. To find out how to join in this ‘serious fun’, or just to find out more about the Lodge, please browse the website oldwestminsterslodge.org or send an email to sec@oldwestminsterslodge.org. Enquiries are also welcome from women interested in becoming Freemasons, who will be put in touch with one of the many women’s lodges which also have a long and fascinating history.
And finally, the place to push the massive weight? That again is Freemasons’ Hall in Great Queen Street, where you can find a pair of magnificently engineered one-and-a-quarter tonne doors. The building is open to the public and tours are conducted most days. On each tour, one lucky visitor gets the chance to use a finger to push open one of those beautiful, and beautifully balanced, doors, which give admission to the spectacular 65-foot high art deco room beyond. Will you recognise it, maybe as the spaceship in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy? ■
Visit our website at oldwestminsterslodge.org
By Prof. Kevin Walsh Teacher of Physics, Theology, Philosophy and Astronomer- in-Residence
Dr William Barrie (GG, 2009-14) spoke on “10,000 Years in the Making: Unravelling Human History, Health and Evolution through Ancient DNA” at a recent Tizard Discourse at School.
William did his undergraduate degree (Natural Sciences) and PhD at the University of Cambridge, where he is now a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Genetics. His research uses ancient DNA from human skeletons to answer questions about human history, evolution and health, with a particular focus on the evolution of autoimmune diseases. Kevin Walsh interviewed him to find out more about his career post-Westminster and his memories of School.
Please could you say a little about what your current work involves, where it takes place and with whom?
I currently work at the University of Cambridge in the Department of Genetics. Broadly speaking, I use computational methods to analyse genetic data extracted from ancient and modern humans, to discover things about our evolutionary past. I am particularly interested in understanding the history of genetic variants which today cause diseases. For the last few years, I have been studying the evolutionary history of multiple sclerosis, but recently I have begun to expand this work to include other autoimmune diseases.
Everything I do is computational – I knew from an early stage that I didn’t like being in the lab! One of the advantages of this is that I can access our powerful computing servers from anywhere, and so can work from
anywhere. I currently split my time between London and Cambridge, but also travel regularly to Denmark where many of my lab’s other members are based.
Modern science is highly collaborative, especially when the research covers so many different topics. Mine ranges from evolutionary and population genetics and archaeology to medicine and even linguistics. One of the best parts of my job is that I get to collaborate with leaders in these fields from all over the world. The UK is genuinely world-leading when it comes to genetics and the life sciences, so being based here is ideal.
How did you end up doing what you do now? Is it something you’ve always wanted to do?
No. I wanted to make wildlife documentaries growing up, and my original interest in science was driven primarily by a love of the natural world.
Somebody once said that deep down, all biologists share the guilty pleasure of bird watching. I’m not sure I’d go quite that far, but an appreciation of the beauty of nature is often the starting point for a biologist.
It wasn’t until the third year of my undergraduate degree that I seriously considered pursuing academia as a career. The main change which drove this was beginning to do research, rather than just attending lectures and writing essays. The thrill of finding out something new about the world is addictive; this, coupled with an encouraging professor, prompted me to apply for a PhD. I’ve never looked back.
How do you spend time when not in the lab working?
Doing a PhD can be extremely absorbing, timewise but also mentally. This can be challenging, especially if the work is not going to plan, so it’s essential to have other interests. I play lacrosse, competing for the Scotland national team at the World Championships in 2023, and still play for a club in London. More recently, I have been swimming a lot. I also love the outdoors and travelling – last year I spent a month travelling around the South Island of New Zealand.
Tell us something about your time at Westminster; what are your most striking memories?
I have genuinely great memories of the school, and look back at my time with real fondness. It might sound cliché, but it is the place where I made the closest friendships of my life. It was also academically and intellectually rich, a place where we were encouraged to pursue all manner of niche interests. It is only with distance that I realise how unusual, and special, it is for an institution to be like that.
Being more specific, some memories which stand out: the 450th anniversary of the re-founding of the school in 2010, in which the late Queen and Duke of Edinburgh unveiled the statue in Yard; the anti-austerity protests against the Cameron government just
outside school, when several pupils were ‘kettled’ on Westminster Bridge and missed an afternoon of lessons; the extreme highs and lows of the Lyke Wake Walk; a week of well-organised protests against the banning of Yard Football; incredible musical experiences under Tim Garrard; and attending John Locke each week and hearing so many of the people who would come to influence the politics of our country in later years – Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, and Kier Starmer to name a few.
What advice would you give those who are inspired by what you do and would like to one day do something similar?
I have several pieces of advice, other than ‘do it!’. The first is to nurture a wide range of skills. Scientists come in many moulds, each with different strengths, and each in demand. Even if you don’t fit the classic conception of a scientist, you could still thrive in science. Secondly, read widely and freely – everything is useful. The cross-fertilisation of ideas
The thrill of finding out something new about the world is addictive; this, coupled with an encouraging professor, prompted me to apply for a PhD. I’ve never looked back.
How does it feel to be back?
It’s strange how quickly somewhere like Westminster ‘moves on’, filled with new faces enjoying their own time here. There is, though, still a strong affinity for me despite leaving ten years ago this summer. One of my closest friends, Alex Bishop, has recently returned to the school to teach, so I get updates from him, and many of my teachers are still here. It’s always good to hear what’s going on at the school. Physically, I have the unsettling experience of everything feeling familiar, but smaller than I remember as a child. There is of course also a healthy dose of nostalgia. It’s a good feeling.
Have you any plans or aims for the future?
I am lucky enough to be starting a Junior Research Fellowship at Magdalene College, Cambridge, in October this year, but I’m not blind to the fact that a career in academia can be challenging, in terms of job security, constantly chasing funding, and the stochasticity that research necessarily entails. While it continues to go well and interest me, however, I plan to stay. Who knows what might come next…
between disciplines is one of the most fruitful places to be in research. On that theme, be open minded about new subject areas that you might not have come across before, especially when you go to university and are exposed to new disciplines. Work hard, because although getting good grades is not the be all and end all, it certainly makes things easier. Regarding hard work, time off is as important as time at a desk, so invest time in your leisure; burn-out is probably a bigger danger for a Westminster pupil than lack of motivation. And finally, I’d point out that education is enriching for an entire life, as well as valuable for a career, so cherish it for its own sake. ■
Dr Elizabeth Wells Archivist and Records Manager
The next few years will see the biggest shift in Westminster Under School’s history, as it expands to take pupils from age 4 and becomes fully co-educational.
or most of Westminster School’s past there were no fixed rules about the age at which pupils should join the school. As a result, boys were enrolled whenever their parents thought they were ready to attend – and some started at a very young age. Jeremy Bentham, who went on to become a famous philosopher, joined Westminster aged seven, alongside others twice his age. Forms were organised by ability and pupils would move up, and sometime down, according to how well they performed, not how old they were.
All the forms were taught together in School – the large hall which was once part of the monastery of Westminster Abbey. The lower forms, which tended to include the younger pupils, were based at the south end of the room, while the upper forms were based at the north. The two were sometimes separated by a curtain which hung from an iron pole spanning the room. This bar is still present, but is better known for the role it plays in the Shrove Tuesday Greaze, when a pancake is thrown over it by the school chef. The boys taught at the southern end of the school came
to be known as the ‘Under School’ –‘Under’ comes from the Under Master and is a direct translation of the ‘Hypo’ bit of ‘Hypodidascalus’, the Under Master’s title as given in the 1561 Elizabethan Statutes.
In the early 20th century school practices became more formal and the age at which boys joined Westminster became fixed at 13. New pupils were drawn from a number of different preparatory and feeder schools. It is likely that this would have continued to have been the case, were it not for the Second World War. The conflict was very disruptive for the school, which had to be evacuated away from London. It moved first to the south coast and then to Exeter before finally settling in the villages of Whitbourne and Bromyard, on the boundary of the counties of Worcestershire and Herefordshire, in 1941. The school became exclusively boarding, and pupil numbers fell, dropping from 339 in 1938 to 146 in 1942. The worst of the blitz was then over, but many of the school
buildings in central London had been damaged, including School and College Dormitory. Westminster was rapidly entering financial difficulties, and it was necessary for the Head Master, John Christie, to come up with a plan to ensure school’s survival.
Christie first mentioned the idea of a ‘junior department’ to the school’s Governors in June 1942, but it wasn’t until 1943 that he truly embraced the idea. It was hoped that this new school would help grow pupil numbers in preparation for Westminster’s return to London when the war finished. It also provided employment for teachers who were increasingly redundant as the school had shrunk. The Under School was established in September 1943 in No. 2 Little Dean’s Yard, a building which had been requisitioned by the Government but was released back to the school that year. It accepted boys between the ages of 9 and 14 and was run by Arnold Willet, an Old Westminster. Willet had been due to retire, and agreed to work as Master for free to ➽
help save the school money. The prospectus noted that ‘in the present shortage of supplies it is difficult to insist on uniformity of dress, but the regulation School dress will consist of grey flannel shorts, with grey flannel coats to match, shirts of grey or khaki flannel, detachable collars are recommended’.
The Under School was a great success and had 75 pupils aged 8 to 13 by the early 1950s. Pupil numbers also steadily increased at the Great School, particularly after it returned to Westminster in September 1945. Many boys who had started at the Under School in 1943 continued to the Great School when they were the right age. Initially both schools ran alongside one another using the buildings around Little Dean’s Yard, but by 1952 this situation was no longer workable. The school considered a number of possible locations for the Under School, including the top floor of Lambeth Palace and sharing Westminster Abbey’s Choir School building. Ultimately new
The school was recently given photographs of this Under School trip to Wimbledon Common in June 1962 which show teacher Mary Bazalgette neé Gillespie handing the pupils cherries.
Under School – ‘Under’ comes from the Under Master and is a direct translation of the ‘Hypo’ bit of ‘Hypodidascalus’, the Under Master’s title as given in the 1561 Elizabethan Statutes.
premises were found in Eccleston Square (the buildings cost the school £11,272 for a 99 year lease and £14,950 was spent on renovation). Thus, in 1953, 10 years after the Under School has been founded, it completed the move away from Little Dean’s Yard.
The success and growth of the Under School necessitated a further move in 1980, when the school acquired the former Grosvenor Hospital, which closed in 1976. Appropriately, the building had started out life as dispensary for women and children and was used as the gynaecological wing of St Thomas’s Hospital following the foundation of the NHS.
Over the past five years we have been working to secure and enhance the archival record of the Under School. Sadly, its records have been the victim of neglect and sometimes destruction as the school moved site from Little Dean’s Yard to Eccleston Square and finally Vincent Square. Basic resources, such as a list of alumni from 1943 to the present, have been difficult to locate.
Thankfully we have received some generous donations from alumni and others associated with the Under School which have filled some of the gaps in the archive. If you have any items pertaining to the history of the Under School please do consider getting in touch with us to donate or allow us to make copies. We are currently working to compile a written history of the school and any additions would be much appreciated. ■
Thanks
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all OWW who have donated time, money towards conservation, reminiscences and archival material to the school over the past year. We love adding new things to our collections, which are widely used both within and outside of the school. Please keep the donations coming!
The
Development Office
have been made aware
of the deaths of the following members of the Elizabethan Club and greater Westminster School community.
If any OWW have tributes they wish to submit for any fellow Old Westminsters or Former Staff, please email them to alumni@westminster.org.uk and they will be printed in the next edition of the Newsletter.
David J. Cooksey (AHH, 1953-58)
Stephane R. Khasru (LL, 1980-84)
Ian Michael (LL, 1971-75)
Peter S. Wilson MBE (RR, 1964-69)
Stephen L. Wakefield (WW, 1965-68)
Dr Simon W. Kilgour (RR, 1971-75)
Martin Dolton (AHH, 1948-50)
John F. Mortimer (RR, 1952-56)
David C. Chaundy (GG, 1944-46)
Raymond G. Monbiot (WW, 1950-55)
Dr Mark M. Crosse (AHH, 1952-57)
Anthony F. Monkman (GG, 1962-66)
John D. Wallace (WW, 1955-60)
David J. Berkoff (WW, 1956-60)
Henrietta J. Brooks (LL, 2002-05)
Martin Hill (Former staff)
Russell Dudley-Smith (Former staff)
Richard J. Woollett (Former staff)
Shane P. MacGowan (AHH, 1972-3)
Sir Jonah Walker-Smith (RR, 1953-57)
Right Reverend Michael Edgar Adie (CC, 1943-48)
Nicholas M. Kulukundis (LL, 1980-82)
Herbert J. Day (BB, 1940-44)
Rhiannon A. Williams (LL, 2015-17)
Tim B. Woods (GG, 1969-74)
Christopher Cheadle (CC, 1960-65)
Richard G. Acton (GG, 1940-44)
Christopher R. Duttson (RR, 1954-59)
Frank C. Herrmann (BB, 1940-45)
George J. Bruce (GG, 1943-44)
John Monk Bretton (RR, 1941-42)
Christopher H. Lawton (GG, 1956-61)
Martin G. Williams (WW, 1961-65)
Stewart J. Neal (Home Boarders, 1938-40)
Anthony V. Farnfield (BB, 1952-55)
Simon J. Squires (CC, 1956-61)
Bob G. Jekyll (WW, 1948-51)
Richard K. Franklin (BB, 1949-53)
Philip J. Dunlop (CC, 1952-57)
Kenneth George Wakley (CC, 1952-57)
Justin Thomas (AHH, 1953-58)
1980-82)
d. 8th December 2023
Nick left us far too early, 2 weeks before his 57th birthday following a long and painful battle with cancer. He leaves behind his partner of 27 years, Sangita, daughters Maya (LL 2016-2018) and Kali and son Luke (LL 2009-2014). His brother Johnny (LL 1981-1986) and sister Christina (Darby) (LL 1986-1988), nephew and niece John and Nell Darby (LL 2024-2026), parents Miltiades (Miles) and Joan, and his second cousin and OW Elias Kulukundis (RR 1963-1967) and a much larger extended family.
Nick’s somewhat brief time at Westminster was marked by the sort of rebellious questioning and outside the box thinking that served him so well in his career. Contemporary Robin Catto (RR 1979-1984) recalls one school expedition with Nick: “In 1981 I was on a school expedition with Nick (and Piers and CJ and Jan Grove) where we were expected to walk the 35 miles from Monmouth to Hay-On Wye over two days. We had big heavy backpacks and were forbidden to hitch-hike. Since the rules didn’t mention taxis, we slightly dragged our heels as the main party (including Piers) yomped off down the road and as soon as they were out of sight we called a cab. It cost six quid and got us to the end of the route in under an hour”.
Who could forget the Shrove Tuesday when The Greaze had to be cancelled. A Westminster School tradition since the 1700’s, because someone(s) unknown had “relocated” the Greaze Bar from Up School. The very bar the pancake needed to be tossed over! Responsibility was attributed to the very unofficial Westminster Roof Society – a band of intrepid student mountaineers who spent their nights exploring the roofs of not only Westminster School but the Abbey as well. Of which it is rumoured Nick was a founding member!
After Westminster Nick went on to work in technology, where he excelled. His first feature film work was for the sci-fi horror movie HARDWARE (1990) in which he created the first ever cinematic animated dive into the Mandelbrot set. Subsequently he worked in technical and creative roles in designing film and digital media. He was a multimedia technician, sound engineer and composer, sound designer and re-recording mixer. He developed an innovative transmission system for film, which re-invents the way cinema is watched.
Nick was a very talented musician and music was a central part of his life from an early age. Some of his music is available on soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/search?q=Nick Kulukundis . He was involved in many musical projects and collaborations and was a founding member of the band Gunville Flats: https:// youtube/rnW4uwXQ5PM?si=rVRExaFjtdmySYFZ
Later Nick worked offshore maritime sector in India and the United Kingdom for a number of years. The worldwide shipping industry was a significant part of Nick’s, his family and extended family’s lives. Nick spent over twentyfive years involved in the maritime space, working in insurance, offshore oil and gas and ocean transport and operations, handling subsea and surface spheres in both India and the United Kingdom. He specialised in strategic business development, management, complex insurance for offshore and energy risks, human element, training and simulation training design, development and implementation. Nick was the GM of Strategic Planning at Great Offshore, at the time the offshore arm of Great Eastern Shipping, the largest private shipping company in India, established over 70 years ago.
Nick’s experience in offshore marine and technology led him to work and consult in offshore oil and gas exploration operations and marine and offshore information technology. His insurance background enabled him to handle marine and offshore risk management; marine, offshore and related insurance especially third-party liability insurances. His love of technology also led to his work in training technologies including simulation and adaptive use of simulation in the development of human element skills in all areas of ocean facing industries. Nick’s multiple skills and abilities would lead him to senior advisory positions in the burgeoning offshore renewable energy sector, offshore wind marine operations and installation and maintenance.
On his return to England Nick returned to music, film and technology and became a music post-production expert, sound designer and sound engineer, composer, cinematographer, photographer, multi-instrumentalist, computer programmer and technology expert. He always followed an innovative, out-of-the-box and disruptive path. For nearly forty years he occupied a unique position at the leading edge of technology convergence. A selfconfessed eccentric he always believed that to think outside of the box you must also live outside of the box. His core philosophy –borne from his own creative frustrations with the computer systems available when he was starting out –
had been to conceive, design and build new and better ways to facilitate creativity at the highest professional levels, through the application of affordable and accessible technology. Many of the software and systems he developed remain a part of the fabric of today’s computing world, across a wide gamut of sectors, including deep sea mining.
Nick’s good friend Jason Kouchak (DD, 1980-85) shared: “Nick. Creative and destructive in equal measures. A beautiful force of nature, a Renaissance man and my friend and inspiration forever. X”
Nick will be missed by everyone who knew him, however briefly. A life cannot be measured in days, hours and minutes but in how much you inspire and inform the world and people around you. In this respect, Nicholas was indeed an enormously generous and at the same time complicated force of nature. He has left all who knew him a little richer for knowing him and a lot poorer for his leaving.
As a fitting acknowledgement to Nick’s dedication and importance to the maritime world the Connecticut Maritime Association Education Foundation in the United States are in the process of establishing an annual prize in Nick’s name to benefit maritime students in India. The Connecticut Maritime Association Education Foundation “Nick Prize” will be awarded annually to maritime students, studying in India, demonstrating financial need and those that best represent Nick’s qualities and talents. While still in the formative stage, details will be available here: https://cma-edu.org
Those of us who for a two brief years were taught Chemistry by Tony Roberts (Mr Roberts – as he was then) will realise the considerable influence he had on us. In a small class of science-stream students – then a minority activity at the School – he treated us as though we were university students. As well as inspiring us in class, he encouraged many of us to work on extra-curricular chemistry projects. The range of ideas he spread out before us took root and influenced many of our careers, some of us using the chemistry he taught, and all of us benefitting from how he encouraged us to think.
Tony came to the School with a biology degree from Cambridge and took over the teaching and some duties of Martin Rogers who had taken a sabbatical. He probably had not anticipated what it would be like to be faced by a class who taunted him mercilessly to see whether he would lose his temper. But even we noticed how much he gained in confidence during that time. Tony also found himself involved with activities of the combined cadet force, then considered essential character forming for many Westminsters, but he managed to gather a small cluster of radio enthusiasts, assembled in an attic room of Ashburnham House as a ‘signals’ section. It is hard not to believe it was Tony’s cunning subterfuge to provide us with some escape from the seemingly pointless rigours of parading around Yard.
Tony was born on the Wirral, and after his spell at Westminster, he went on to teach at St Edmund’s School, Canterbury in 1964. Three years later, he returned to Cambridge to read ➽
medicine, eventually becoming a clinical psychiatrist specialising in paediatrics. After taking up positions in London, Edinburgh and other hospitals, he eventually settled in Kettering, working for the Child and Family Guidance Unit where he was a popular and much admired consultant. He did however maintain connections with the School and remained a loyal friend to the School’s distinguished classicist Theo Zinn (1922-2015). During the pandemic in July 2020, six of his former pupils including the three of us joined Tony for a Zoom celebration of his 80th birthday. Tony Roberts took early retirement when he was 55, and a few years later married Jeanette Scott whom he had known for many years. His interests remained extremely wide, not only writing and music, but also exploring many organised religions, seeking ‘something’ that he thought had always eluded him. He did however return ultimately to the Quakers where he found the silence, friendship and acceptance inspiring. Jeanette, her children and grandchildren survive him.
Jonathan Ashmore FRS
David Neuberger FRS
Martyn Poliakoff FRS
(LL, 2015-17)
d. 16 September 2023
Rhiannon’s Tribute read at her funeral on 13 October 2023 by her father Gareth. Edited for Westminster School Obituary January 2024 by Rachael, her Mum.
“Rhiannon was born in January 1999 in Bath, and we were over the moon with the arrival of our beautiful baby daughter. All the family piled into the hospital bedroom and the nurse told us off as there were too many people.
Rhiannon’s milestones of growing up were all firsts to us, such as her eagerness on her first day at school; birthday parties; teenage house parties; and the close friendships that she built over the years. A good number of those friends are here today.
We loved watching Rhiannon take on new things including ballet; sailing; playing the flute in the school orchestra; and playing the piano. When Rhiannon played the whole house stopped to listen.
We recall the fun family Christmases and Easter gatherings, and the fabulous family holidays at L’Hacienda in Ste Maxime, France.
From an early age at school Rhiannon was conscientious, organised and able. She went to Westminster School as a border for Sixth-Form (September 2015) where she experienced central London life and took part in many of the opportunities that came with that. She was involved in both acting in and producing school plays. She read a passage at the school Christmas service in Westminster Abbey. She also volunteered at a school for the deaf.
Rhiannon always loved literature and poetry. From a young age she loved to
curl up in a chair with a book for hours on end. A fond memory we have is of Rhiannon coming downstairs to announce proudly that she had won yet another poetry prize, that we knew nothing about. A lot of her later writing and works were at a level above us. We remember attending prize-giving receptions where we were simply known as “Rhiannon`s Mum and Dad”. Once, Rhiannon was interviewed on BBC Radio 3 and we were as proud as could be to hear it.
Rhiannon went to Edinburgh University to read English and she got a First-class honours degree. She loved student life, particularly with so much on her doorstep. She enjoyed the arts which Edinburgh could offer her in abundance.
Having graduated, she worked briefly in London, but independent London life was proving to be too difficult for her. Rhiannon moved back home with us in January 2022. A few months later we moved to Mumbles, on the coast in Wales. We saw Rhiannon go for coastal walks with her beloved dog Jet (whom she started to call “puppy” even as he enters his dog-old-age). Rhiannon would watch the sun on the sea from her bedroom, laugh at TV programmes with Granny Wales and take tea to the builders next door! We heard her talking to friends on the phone which meant a lot to her. She’d receive cards and presents from them and she would be so pleased to get post.
Rhiannon tried yoga, swimming, and she helped at a coffee shop for a few months earlier this year. She regularly volunteered at Oystermouth Castle. Recently she said to us she ‘felt her old self’ when she attended two book club meetings. So, we took hope.
We cannot fully explain or understand what happened recently. There was optimism in the bright sunshine of the 2022 summer, but it dipped from April 2023 when her symptoms included physical limb pain, which inhibited her doing many of the things she enjoyed. What we saw was a troubled young person battling to make sense of it all and trying to get better. She’d often say to us; ‘I am doing my best’.
But despite all this, her anxiety and troubles were far deeper than we had appreciated. With Rhiannon we got
the full, complex package. Her fierce intelligence and creativity came with perfectionism and anxieties. Despite our love, the love of her family and friends, and the comfort and security of her environment, the illness overwhelmed her.
So, we are left with memories, and they are good ones.
Rhiannon could light up a room with her big wide smile. She would create moments of stillness in Summer House when her elegant hands got going on the piano. She looked beautiful. We remember her great kindness, her gentleness, her awareness and consideration for others, and her enthusiasm for the issues that mattered to her.
Tom and Olly remember the stories and games that Rhiannon would invent when they were younger, filled with her imagination. Unable to pronounce her name, they would beg ‘Ya-Ya’ to play with them. As young adults all three grew even closer and were very supportive of each other. They loved their sister dearly and looked up to her, with her trendy outfits and bold creative expression. They would share long conversations together and playful jokes. This was heartwarming to see.
Rhiannon was a huge presence in her wider family – her three sets of grandparents, her Aunts and Uncles; and her cousins.
We have no monopoly over the loss and longing that is felt for Rhiannon who has touched all our lives here today. As parents we know that our love for Rhiannon, and for our two boys, is unconditional and knows no limit. The grief and loss we feel is directly proportionate to, and the price of, that love.
Nature can be kind and we are hopeful that the privilege and joy of having raised our lovely daughter will comfort us as we learn to live with our heartbreak.
The four of us thank everyone for their kind words and support.
Farewell Rhiannon, we are comforted that you have peace; you will live in our hearts forever, and you will never fade or grow old.”
Anyone wishing to contact Rhiannon's parents can do so using the Alumni at School.
d. 27 May 2023
Timothy Bryan Christian Hamersley Woods died suddenly on 27 May 2023 at the relatively young age of sixtyseven. He was born into an Army family in Hilden, Germany, on 17 February 1956. He was the second of two sons – his older brother, Simon, was also educated at Westminster.
While at Westminster, he took up running and in 1971 won the Middlesex Junior 800 metre title. He participated in the first London Marathon, completing the course in 2 hours, 19 minutes. He also represented the England B Team in France and Switzerland.
After leaving Westminster, he went on to Durham University where he read Economic History. He joined the Grenadier Guards in 1979 on a short service commission, where he spent some time in Berlin. The highlight of this posting, as he remembered, was keeping the Russians out of the West and Rudolph Hess inside Spandau Prison.
In 1983, he left the Army and had various private investment manager jobs in the City before joining Jupiter Asset Management, where he spent several happy years, until the Jupiter Private Client Department was sold to Rathbones in 2014.
Due to his interest in running, Tim kept himself extremely fit, often running to and from Jupiter’s office at Hyde Park Corner to his home in Clapham, as well as occasionally cajoling colleagues to join him for a lunchtime run in Hyde Park. However, unbeknown to him, he had a heart condition and had two operations over a period of three years,
the latter of which was deemed to be a success but, partly due to his health, he retired from Rathbones in 2017. Wherever he went, he established and maintained long term friendships – Westminster, Durham, the Grenadier Guards, work colleagues and clients. He had a great sense of humour (sometimes mischievous) and was loved by all. It was, therefore, no surprise that after leaving the Army, he subsequently devoted significant time to Westminster, where over the years he held several positions within the Elizabethan Club. He was heavily involved with the Old Grantite Club (which he was President for many years) and in 2006 was elected as Chairman of the Elizabethan Club, a post he held with great distinction. He was deeply involved with the success of the Westminster/Elizabethan Club Ball as well as the organisation of a well-attended Abbey Tour, followed by a successful Reception in College Garden. In November 2021, he was elected as President of the Elizabethan Club, a position that he took very seriously and conscientiously.
In July 1984, Tim married Susie (née Harlock), with whom he had a daughter, Katie). Sadly, this marriage was dissolved and in August 1990, he married Katie (nee Jones) in the Guards Chapel with a Reception in Ashburham House. Between them, they had a son and a daughter, Alexander and Phoebe.
His death occurred suddenly, in Ireland, while on his annual walking holiday with former Durham contemporaries. A well-attended Thanksgiving Event was held Up School last September in his memory.
MARK MORTIMER CROSSE (AHH 1952-1957) d. 14 May 2023
Dr Mark Crosse FRCA, who died on 14 May 2023 aged 84, was a Consultant Anaesthetist and Chairman of the Shackleton Department of Anaesthesia at Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust.
Mark was born on the 8th January 1939 in Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire, second of four sons of Captain (later Brigadier) John Crosse, an army doctor, and Olive née Dodwell. The family spent most of the war years living in the safety of rural North Wales, before moving south near the end of the war. He went to Eaton House Preparatory School before going to Westminster in 1952. He was up Ashburnham (initially housed in what is now part of Liddell’s) under Francis Rawes and then Denny Brock. Unusually, when his parents moved with the army to Gibraltar in 1956, Mark was allowed to live in digs in north London rather than become a boarder, so letting him remain up Ashburnham. Mark loved Westminster and all the activities it had to offer. He got the second largest piece of pancake in the Greaze, which, being in the unrestored School, was rather memorable for the hard concrete floors and exposed heating pipes on which the scrum landed. He played football for the 1st XI and got his pinks, once playing against a Chelsea juniors team which included a soon-to-be-famous Jimmy Greaves (unsurprisingly, Westminster lost). For some years he played for the Old Westminsters, on one occasion playing alongside his two OW brothers, John (AHH 1949-54) and Stephen (AHH 1960-65).
Mark was a school monitor and head of house, therefore working closely with his housemaster, Denny Brock, whom Mark greatly respected and admired. Mr Brock was also his maths teacher – when Mark was moved down a set after poor exam results, he worked extremely hard to be moved back up again to Mr Brock’s class! He was always intrigued by DSB’s ability to write on the blackboard with either hand.
As part of the generation who could remember the war, Mark was a very keen member of the CCF. He joined the RAF section, and got his pilot’s licence
before he learned to drive. He planned to enter the air force, and was offered an RAF Flying Scholarship to go to Cranwell. However, he turned this down, on his father’s advice, and instead went to Queens’ College, Cambridge to read Medicine. His place had to be delayed by a year after he failed an exam, which he resat after attending a crammer. This left him having what would now be called a ‘gap year’, during which he did a variety of jobs, including working in a pub, working in Marks and Spencer (the best job), and working as the lowest grade of temporary civil servant (the worst job). He then hitch-hiked down to join his family in Gibraltar, getting a glimpse of Spanish life under Franco on the way.
At Cambridge he was not studious and had to resit many exams; instead, he filled his time by flying with Cambridge University Air Squadron (still thinking he would drop medicine and enter the military) and playing table tennis for Cambridge. But ultimately he decided against an air force career, and he completed his clinical training at St Bartholomew’s Hospital.
Having been, in his words, a rather ignorant junior doctor, he found his métier when he trained as an anaesthetist, starting at St George’s in 1967. To everyone’s surprise, he passed all his specialist exams first time. At the young age of 34, he became a Consultant Anaesthetist in Southampton, officially with sub specialties in vascular and paediatric anaesthesia, although he anaesthetised for a full range of specialties. He chaired the department from 1990 to 1995. In the anaesthetic world, he will be best remembered as a distinguished trainer of anaesthetists. With a colleague he set up a new training programme for beginner anaesthetists in Southampton, which he ended up running for 30 years. Although Mark’s very high standards in matters of patient care, which he applied to himself and expected of his trainees, could make him quite intimidating to juniors, this was tempered by his good humour, enthusiasm, genuine interest in people, and his reassurances that things would be ‘a piece of cake, old boy!’ Messages from former trainees describe him as respected, loved, inspirational, a great mentor and a ‘legend’. In recognition of his
commitment to the specialty and to teaching, the Association of Anaesthetists awarded him the 2002 Evelyn Baker Medal – their award for clinical excellence.
Outside work, he was utterly committed to his family. At St George’s, Mark had met Suan Kee Kan, a theatre nurse. They married in 1976 and had two children, who both went to Westminster. Mark greatly enjoyed returning to events at Westminster during this time. He enjoyed walking in North Wales, near where he grew up, and he remained interested in the military and aviation. There were many holidays in his battered yellow campervan, which he also drove in to work for many years. He was once asked to remove the van from the hospital consultants’ car park by someone who could not believe a consultant would drive such a vehicle. For someone so motivated by his work and sense of duty to patients and colleagues, retirement was always going to be difficult, but sadly he soon also started showing signs of dementia. Nevertheless, he took great pleasure in spending time with his grandchildren, and he managed to live a fairly independent life until his final illness – he was still walking a mile each day on his own a week before he was admitted to hospital. He is survived by his wife, Kee, by his two children, Alex (AHH 1995-2000) and David (AHH 1998-2003), and by two grandchildren. David Crosse (AHH 1998-2003)
