FEATURE GREEN OPs YOUR IMPACT DONOR REPORT 2023–24
CAREERS WORKSHOP SUSTAINABLE FARMING STAFF PROFILE DEBORAH VERNON PURVIS
The School’s Green Team interviews Old Perseans about sustainable careers
Deborah Vernon Purvis (Taysom) retires after 23 years at The Perse
How your support made a difference this year
Former Perse Heads, and proud Perse grandfathers, view the School through a new lens
Spiny starfish on kelp. Photograph taken by Paul Naylor (1979) in Wembury, Devon. Read about Paul’s underwater photography on page 28.
YEAR 1 PERSE PELICAN PUPILS STAGED A MARVELLOUS MUSICAL PERFORMANCE OF EDDIE THE PENGUIN SAVES THE WORLD, A THOUGHT-PROVOKING TALE HIGHLIGHTING THE IMPORTANCE OF PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT
From the Head
Recent alumni will be very familiar with The Perse’s four values – endeavour, intellectual curiosity and scholarship, breadth and balance, and valuing one another and our environment. In many ways the last is our most important value and this edition of the OP News is dedicated to it.
As a historical geographer, I know how past societies have been shaped by their environments, and how environmental change can be a factor in precipitating social change, although the causal relationship is often complex and multifactorial. Deforestation and soil erosion probably did play a part in the collapse of the Easter Island society that built the famous Moai, but environmental stresses almost certainly compounded existing societal stresses to make an already bad situation worse. It wasn’t humans or nature that did for Easter Island, it was both.
A similar theme can be seen in the French Revolution of 1789, where repeated crop failures linked to the Laki volcanic eruption in Iceland and the Great El Niño of 1788–1793 contributed to a succession of cool, wet summers and harvest failures which helped bring longstanding political and economic tensions to a head. As the American commentator Alfred Henry Lewis wrote, “There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy”.
In a world riddled with political and economic problems, we should be wary of adding environmental pressures to the global burden as history shows that they can be triggers for momentous events.
In the 21st century, many societies do have the knowledge, technology and finances needed to mitigate environmental challenges. However, for this to happen we need positive human relationships grounded in kindness, care and consideration. This is why The Perse “values one another and our environment”. We are all a mix of the selfish and the selfless, but if we are too pre-occupied by our own needs, we will miss the impacts of our actions on others and the planet. Ethically we have a duty to care for our planet and all who live on it for we all share one interrelated home isolated in space. Practically, if we don’t care for our neighbours and look after our home, history shows that there will be a price to pay… But the good news is that with improving technologies, and a sense of care and common purpose, we can protect and enhance both the environment and society.
With best wishes,
Ed Elliott
School News
THE PERSE SCHOOL Singapore
The Perse School (Singapore) opens in January 2025 at 58 Chestnut Drive, Singapore, marking an exciting new chapter in Perse history. The School will offer a complete education from early years (3 years) to senior school (18 years). Johan Stromsater is the CEO of The Perse Singapore, having previously been CEO of the Canadian International School in Singapore. He is joined by Dan Cross as Principal, who worked at The Perse School Cambridge for 24 years, most recently as Senior Deputy Head, and Kephren Sherry as Deputy Head and Head of Pelicans and the Junior School, who has 28 years’ education experience with 12 years of them in the international education system.
PERSE CLARINETTIST celebrates musical successes
Alicia Li-Yan-Hui (Upper Sixth) has been named as principal clarinet in this year’s National Youth Orchestra (NYO), having also reached the quarter-finals of the BBC Young Musician 2024 competition. Alicia said: “The NYO is made up of people from 13–18 and being a principal is about looking after people who are new to the experience, as well as just being a mentor to the younger ones. All the principals I’ve had have been so inspiring to me and I hope I can be the same to them.”
MALARIA RESEARCH earns Perse student illustrious award
Versha Wahid (Lower Sixth) spent last summer in the lab at the Cambridge University Department of Pathology, assisting with research in controlling and eradicating malaria. Following her lab placement, Versha’s findings earned her a Gold CREST Award, a scheme run by the British Science Association for STEM project work that inspires young people to think and behave like scientists and engineers. Versha said: “Malaria is one of the most burdening global health challenges and I’m really interested in medicine, so I wanted to do a project that was scientific and would have a wide-scale impact on people’s lives for the better.”
TOP FIVE PLACING FOR The Perse School in Oxbridge offers table
The Perse is ranked fifth nationally and third within the independent sector in The Spectator’s highly regarded table with almost 40% of Oxbridge applicants receiving offers in 2023. This compares extremely favourably to prestigious independent schools such as Eton College (eighth), Winchester College (17th), Brighton College (43rd) and Harrow School (71st).
PERSE HISTORY TEACHER PUBLISHES
biography of King James VI of Scotland
Published by Routledge, Assistant Head Alex Courtney’s book James VI, Britannic Prince provides an analytical narrative of James’ life leading up to his accession as King of England and Ireland in 1603.
PERSE ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF wins national cricket cup
Ravi Mahendra played a part in Foxton Granta’s seven-wicket triumph over former champions
Dumbleton in the final of the national club competition at Lord’s Cricket Ground London, winning the prestigious Voneus Village Cup.
PERSE SPORTS CENTRE opening ceremony
The brand-new Perse Sports Centre was officially opened this autumn to both students and the public. Dignitaries from companies associated with the process of bringing the sports centre to fruition were joined by Perse staff who have been involved in the project over the last four years to celebrate the occasion with a special ceremony.
FROM LEFT: BURSAR ALISON SHAKESPEARE, PERSE GOVERNOR GRAEME
PROUDFOOT, HEAD ED ELLIOTT, DIRECTOR OF DELIVERY AT WILLMOTT
DIXON STEVE KITCHEN AND DIRECTOR OF SAUNDERS BOSTON ARCHITECTS
MARTIN LINDUS
CELEBRATING 50 years at The Perse
Perse Archivist David Jones celebrated his half century at the Upper this summer term 2024, having joined the School as Teacher of History in September 1974. When David joined The Perse, he was only one year into what proved to be a long and successful teaching career. During his subsequent 34 years of teaching at the Upper, he was involved in many areas of school life, including a 16-year tenure as Editor of The Pelican. David retired from teaching in 2008, but the term “retired” should be used loosely as he immediately took up the post of School Archivist, a post he continues to hold. We value his deep knowledge of the School’s history. Our thanks go to David for 50 years of service to The Perse (and counting!).
An Evening with OP Sporting Stars
Over 200 guests attended an evening with the elite sports athletes and alumni of the School Tess Howard (2017), Alex Coles (2018) and Zaman Akhter (2017). Led by Assistant Director of Sport, Ravi Mahendra, the speakers shared their experiences as professional athletes, memories from school and how they stay at the top of their game.
Parents, staff, pupils and fellow Old Perseans were all gathered in the Peter Hall Performing Arts Centre for an opportunity to meet and get to know three of our most inspiring sports role models from the Perse alumni community.
Tess Howard is not only an established and highly rated hockey player for England, helping them win Commonwealth Games gold in 2022, but has also been described as a “changemaker” on and off the pitch. Most recently, Tess represented Team GB at the Paris Olympics, helping the team to a top-eight finish.
She said: “The Olympics is one of those things that I dreamed of as a kid. It was really special to have everyone in my family in the stands supporting me”.
Notably, Tess’ team was also the first in history to wear both skorts and shorts at the Olympics. Since earning a first senior call-up for the 2018 Champions Trophy, Tess has successfully led a campaign for international hockey to change their clothing regulations. Where previously only skorts could be worn, female players now have a choice to wear skorts or shorts after research she conducted showed that many women and girls stop playing sport due to issues with clothing. She founded Inclusive Sportswear CIC, which partners with Youth Sport Trust to develop rigorously inclusive sportswear policies for schools, clubs, brands and sports organisations. Tess commented: “I was uncomfortable in the uniform I had to wear. You will never have equality in sport if you don’t tackle the root causes and create a sense of belonging.”
Alex Coles has been playing rugby since the age of 10 and was scouted by Northampton Saints whilst at The Perse. Alex progressed quickly whilst making his way through the junior ranks at Northampton and made his senior team debut in 2018, scoring a try in their win over Timisoara Saracens. Alex went on to make his England debut in 2022 and he recently won the Gallagher Premiership with Northampton following victory over Bath in the grand final. Alex said: “Every previous year was promising and then we would fall off. Luckily, we played really well
throughout the year to then win.” Alex also played in Test matches for England against New Zealand and Japan during their summer tour.
Zaman Akhter, who graduated from the South Asian Cricket Academy to sign a professional contract, had a stellar year for Gloucestershire CCC and the England Lions.
In the first game of the season against Yorkshire, Zaman took a five-wicket haul dismissing England’s leading Test run-scorer Joe Root twice. He was also named in the England Lions squad for a four-day match against Sri Lanka in August, taking 5–17 during an impressive first international outing.
The speakers shared their favourite memories from school, which ranged from cricket tours to a spontaneous a capella performance from Alex at the Christmas talent show. Tess emphasised the support she received as a young talent at The Perse, and how her teachers allowed her to flourish both academically and in sport.
She said: “My hockey development was recognised as something to be nurtured on its own rather than for the School’s benefit”.
Zaman shared his memories from sports lessons, commenting: “I was in awe of the vast cricket pitch and other sports facilities at school. I loved how much time I could spend just running around.”
Each speaker shared fond memories of their time at school, seamlessly weaving stories from The Perse into their reflections on their exciting careers. For them, it was clear that the foundation of their success began there. Tess summed it up well, saying, “At The Perse, it was cool to be keen – and I was definitely keen.”
FROM LEFT: ZAMAN AKHTER (2017), RAVI MAHENDRA, ALEX COLES (2018), TESS HOWARD (2017) AND RICHARD MORGAN
Green OPs
MEET
THE GREEN TEAM
A group of Upper Sixth students from the School’s Green Team met with Old Perseans Alex Clayton (2007) and Robin McGhee (2009) to ask them about their careers in sustainability and discuss how to drive change effectively.
As a school we are shaped by our values, which include looking after one another and our environment. Perse students learn the importance of environmental stewardship and are encouraged to act on sustainability issues within the School. Leading by example is the Green Team, a group of dedicated students who earned the EcoSchools Green Flag award for the Upper in 2024 thanks to their active support of sustainable initiatives and work to enhance the school environment. Five members from the Green Team had the opportunity to meet and interview two Old Perseans who are making a difference in their careers in sustainability.
FROM LEFT: AMELIA DALE, CELIA POWELL, MARTHA PRICE, AMELIE BACON AND MILLIE ELY (ALL UPPER SIXTH) FROM THE GREEN TEAM WITH OLD PERSEANS ALEX CLAYTON (2007) AND ROBIN MCGHEE (2009)
The Green Team Interview:
Alex Clayton (2007)
After eight years of teaching students about climate change at Winchester College, Alex landed his current post as Improvement Manager within the Environmental Regulations and Compliance team at the water company Severn Trent last year. His work involves reducing sewage spills in their Welsh business (Hafren Dyfrdwy), working with Natural Resources Wales to develop and implement novel policies on storm overflows and improving how Severn Trent handle and report on pollution incidents.
Robin McGhee (2009)
Robin joined the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in 2020, where he works as a political advocate on deforestation and climate change policy. Robin’s work involves changing laws and regulations to make them more environmentally friendly, obtaining funding for climate and environmental projects and working within Parliament to make sure that parliamentary processes always involve people speaking up for the natural world. His achievements at the WWF include successfully amending the Financial Services and Markets Act to change the remit of financial services regulators to protect nature, as well as setting up the Global Deforestation All Party Parliamentary Group.
“As Sixth Form students, many of us are applying for university and thinking about the next stages of our lives beyond The Perse. How did you find your way into your current job?”
Alex: Whilst at The Perse, I did geography, history, physics and maths for A level. I studied physical geography at Durham University, then stayed on to do a master’s in research using drones to map landscapes. From there, I switched to the University of Southampton to do a PhD in glaciology. Doing a PhD exposed me to teaching, which I enjoyed and led me to take up a position at Winchester College where I spent eight years teaching. In the last few years at Winchester, I did a lot of operational sustainability work at the school. My work on sustainability led to links with external stakeholders and from that emerged an opportunity to chair a local charity, Winchester Action on the Climate Crisis. All the above was enjoyable, but I felt I was often one step removed from actual impact on the environment and, frankly, I was also getting quite jealous of the amazing things my wife was achieving in her work on species reintroductions! I decided that a mid-career move was needed, and I am now at the water company Severn Trent. With the current reputation of water companies, it might not be the most obvious career as an environmentally focused individual. However, on a day-to-day basis I now have a very real impact on the state of our environment and we are making great progress.
Robin: After leaving The Perse, I studied history at Oxford. I went on to do various jobs in what is called political advocacy, which is basically political lobbying, for charities and not-for-profit organisations. Since 2020, I have worked as a political advocate for the WWF, the largest conservation charity in the world.
I NOW HAVE A VERY REAL IMPACT ON THE STATE OF OUR ENVIRONMENT AND WE ARE MAKING GREAT PROGRESS.
“What inspires you to take action for the environment?”
Alex: My personal motivations are based around a somewhat spiritual engagement with environmental values. My PhD was inherently environmental in focus, as the fieldwork on glaciers was significantly complicated by the pace of climate change. I felt very impacted when standing on melting glaciers. My rationale for taking action in support of nature is hard to ground in a purely rational framework. There is a much more emotive quasi-spiritual underpinning that can clash with the various frameworks and monetisation approaches that appear necessary for scaling nature-positive actions. There is an accumulation of experiences that have led me to this point but if I was to pick out a couple of negative ones, they would include a field season in 2012 where I really struggled to install devices on the Skálafellsjökull glacier in Iceland because the surface was losing three metres vertically that summer. Another was visiting a location in Switzerland to find a glacier I worked on during my undergraduate degree no longer exists. They were key triggers for taking action, but the fuel for doing so has been positive experiences of landscapes where nature restoration is happening, such as Ennerdale (Lake District), Glen Affric (Highlands) or the River Otter (Devon).
The route to impact is a product of innumerable conversations with a diverse network of people who have demonstrated what is possible.
Robin: I completely feel the same way. I think all environmentalists would agree they are not just motivated by creating green jobs in renewable energy, although that is important. We are probably more motivated by the spiritual sense that, hopefully, we all have of encountering the natural world. For example, I don’t know the rationale which caused me to be so concerned about deforestation, which is what I have worked on for the last three years. Forests are something I feel are of great spiritual value. They give you a sense as a human that you don’t get elsewhere. I see everything as political, and it is a political decision if a glacier is melting. It is important to grasp that, as humans, we are powerful. England’s landscape is completely shaped by humans. About 5,000 years ago, Cambridge didn’t exist and the landscape was heavily forested. People made a moral and political decision to cut down that forest to build a city, destroying wildlife there. I see myself as essentially making those moral and political decisions which would previously have involved cutting down forests. Because of how it speaks to our souls, everyone’s impression of nature is inevitably bound up in their personal history. For me, Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk
THE PERSE PROUDLY EARNED THE THE ECO-SCHOOLS GREEN FLAG AWARD, THANKS TO THE HARD WORK OF THE GREEN TEAM (UPPER) AND ECO TEAM (PREP). READ MORE ON PAGE 14
is particularly important because of how much time I spent there as a child.
“Are there any other areas of forest which you would recommend?”
Robin: Tragically, modern Cambridgeshire has very little forest, though I recommend Wandlebury and RSPB Fowlmere to anyone who wants to immerse themselves in woodland around Cambridge. Epping Forest is perhaps the most underrated forest in England, firstly because of its wonderful light and the beauty of deciduous seasonal change, but also because it is on the Tube and allows 8 million Londoners easy access to the woods. Internationally, I am incredibly keen to travel soon to the forests of New Guinea for their astounding diversity of geography, wildlife and culture.
“The Green Team is committed to support sustainability initiatives at The Perse. How can change be driven effectively?”
Alex: The key is having a clear ambition, reporting well and then having a clear decision process about how to reduce impact which is cost-effective and acceptable to the community. It can be tricky to encourage a whole institution to accept and agree on a direction. Unless you define your ambitions clearly as a community, there is a risk your audience doesn’t engage. Therefore, find the ambition and do a full-scale emissions check too. You might find that something like changing the school food can
be challenging and produce conflict. Instead, a small change may save far more in terms of emissions than some of the much more difficult conversations.
Robin: In terms of what The Perse is doing locally, I completely agree that reporting is essential. You must measure or get a sense of the impact of the choices you make. My answer would be to think about how you can influence political decision-making – that’s my job. Firstly, find out who the political decision-makers are. If you write to the MP of Cambridge about a specific objective, they will probably be interested in meeting you. Their job is to talk to you, and you can have a surprising amount of influence by just asking questions.
Alex: This means you can call people out as well. For example, I didn’t think it was justifiable to fly for any school trip when I was a teacher. To challenge this, we organised a trip to Cornwall to visit a farm which is converting itself to regenerative principles and replanting rainforest. We brought in a series of
YOU MUST MEASURE OR GET A SENSE OF THE IMPACT OF THE CHOICES YOU MAKE. MY ANSWER WOULD BE TO THINK ABOUT HOW YOU CAN INFLUENCE POLITICAL DECISION-MAKING.
ROBIN HAS BEEN WORKING AS A POLITICAL ADVOCATE ON DEFORESTATION FOR THE PAST THREE YEARS, AND TALKS ABOUT THE FORESTS WHICH MEAN THE MOST TO HIM
Back on familiar soil
Hearing first-hand from Old Perseans who have successfully integrated environmental stewardship into their careers was an invaluable source of inspiration for the Green Team. The conversation highlighted the complexities of environmental challenges, while emphasising the importance of critical thinking and clear ambition in driving change.
We are always eager to welcome back alumni who desire to share their experiences and expertise with current pupils. We asked Alex and Robin how it felt to visit their school again.
Alex: Despite the years that have passed, it was a familiar environment. The Perse retains a sense of pace that is distinct. It was also fitting to hold the discussion in the North Building as we were talking with a group of pupils that was consulted
speakers and ate incredible food, bringing a sense of luxury to the trip. This was cheaper to organise than going to Iceland. Trips can be academic, environmentally friendly and desirable too. Remember to be critical.
Robin: Additionally, think about what is happening with trade-offs. A good example is people stopping using plastic bags. It is common that the environmental costs of producing non-plastic bags or bags-for-life are much higher than small plastic bags. Similarly, electric cars don’t burn fossil fuels, but their production requires huge amounts of energy. Unfortunately, there is no guaranteed way to ‘do the right thing’ – there are always trade-offs.
“When it comes to careers, is it possible to find a balance between voluntary charity work and a fulltime job?”
Alex: In my last year at Winchester College, I did a lot of charity work externally. Teaching comes with high expectations in a pressurised environment, a large workload and high levels of personal obligation – because you care about the people you work with and teach. All of that can be difficult to navigate, so I made a conscious decision to develop myself by moving out of that sector. However, I had teaching colleagues who ran incredible community service programmes externally.
“When working at a charity like the WWF, can you choose your department or sector? Was deforestation a choice?”
about the environmental aspects of it ahead of construction. There is clearly more to be done, and the pupils we met had experienced a mix of successes and frustrations in trying to engineer sustainable approaches, but that will set them up well for trying to achieve impact beyond their time at school.
There are plenty of reasons for wanting to take action for the environment, but actually finding a purposeful niche is harder and that was reflected in some of the questions the Green Team asked us.
Robin: I was really pleased to come back to the School and see how many new buildings have been added to the site since I last visited. The best thing was of course meeting Sixth Formers who were so keen to talk about the environment and what it meant to them!
HOW DO YOU GET INTO A CAREER IN SUSTAINABILITY? THE STUDENTS WERE CURIOUS TO KNOW ABOUT THE DECISIONS MADE BY THE OPs TO END UP IN THEIR CURRENT JOBS
Robin: Careers are very strange things and a lot is down to chance. I happened to join the WWF and take the slot in the team that happened to be deforestation. Now, since I have been in my role for a few years, I am able to negotiate and there is more choice. Sometimes it is just luck, but my advice would be to try and make it not luck.
Global Green OPs
Many OPs have shown a dedication towards creating a more sustainable future, whether through advancing climate research, promoting wildlife conservation, accelerating business decarbonisation, or developing renewable energy solutions.
Rory Clark (2021), Canada
I studied geography and sustainability at St Francis Xavier University (StFX) in Nova Scotia, Canada. My focus was on the processes of solving climate change, including improving communication between academic and political communities. A key tenet of my studies was empowering communities to shape their futures, with a focus on the Mi’kmaq First Nation, on whose land StFX is situated.
Olivia Becher (2014), UK & Global
I help strengthen water sector resilience across the world. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development invests in developing economies across Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Türkiye, North Africa and the Middle East. My work includes supporting water transactions to ensure climate resilience, collaborating with investors on co-financing projects and enhancing client understanding of climate-related risks.
Jennifer Potter (2015), UK & Global
I work for CDP, a not-for-profit organisation focused on driving a 1.5°C-aligned, nature-positive future by requesting companies to disclose environmental data. My role involves developing new reporting questions and a method to score organisations on their transparency and environmental actions. Based in London, I contribute to CDP’s global efforts, with two thirds of global market capitalisation reporting through CDP in 2023.
Helen O’Connor (2010), UK
Protecting wildlife and wild places is inextricably linked to sustainability and addressing climate change. As Head of Development at Shropshire Wildlife Trust, I engage audiences and secure funding for our projects. Key initiatives include reintroducing beavers in Shrewsbury to improve water quality and restore habitats, and rewetting former peatland to capture carbon. I am excited to return to the sector after maternity leave to help protect our planet for my son’s future.
Richard James (1996), USA
My interest in weather and climate began at The Perse. My early career involved research on thunderstorm systems and flying in the ‘hurricane hunter’ aircraft, tracking storms over the US Plains. Later, I started a company to provide forecast tools and data to key industries and support UN locust monitoring and the growing climate insurance sector. With rapid AI advancements, the potential for managing weather risk and promoting sustainability has never been greater.
James Bradley (2008), Antarctica
I am an environmental and polar scientist with the CNRS in Marseille, France, studying how environmental change, including climate change, affects the Earth’s systems like glaciers, soils and oceans. My research brings me to extreme environments, such as Antarctica, where I collect and analyse samples to understand microbial life, element cycling and future changes in these fragile ecosystems.
Tristram Irvine-Fynn (1998), Svalbard
As Reader in Glaciology at Aberystwyth University, my research focuses on glacier hydrology, seasonal changes and the ecological roles of glacier surfaces and beds. I regularly work in Svalbard, Bylot Island, Greenland, Patagonia and the Nepalese Himalayas. My multidisciplinary work includes examining how microorganisms affect ice melt rates and water chemistry. I aim to understand the impact of climate change on high-latitude and high-altitude freshwater resources as glacier volumes decline.
Natasha Haworth (2023), Namibia
During my gap year, I am volunteering at ProNamib Nature Reserve in Namibia, which is restoring the Namib Desert by removing old cattle farm fences that disrupt wildlife migration. ProNamib also aims to reintroduce native animals, like the successfully re-established giraffes, with plans for black rhinos in the future.
Lucy Chimes (2016), South Africa
In 2022, I walked 259 km for the 259 rhinos poached in South Africa in the year’s first half. With global support, we raised over £9,000 for Wildlife ACT. I now work for Wildlife ACT, who monitor endangered species to inform conservation management. My work involves tracking wildlife and assisting with animal collaring, relocation, removal of snares and rhino dehorning. I am completing a PhD on the impacts of rhino dehorning as an anti-poaching technique to improve conservation practices in southern Africa.
Christopher Broadbent (1968), Singapore
In 2010, I co-founded the sustainability consultancy Robertsbridge Group. Now a leading advisory firm with offices in London, Dubai, Singapore and Jakarta, we help large businesses accelerate decarbonisation. Most of my work is in Asia, focusing on palm oil, extractives and automotive sectors. My passion for nature began when I transformed my land in East Sussex into a 60-acre paradise for wildlife, called Swallowtail Hill. robertsbridgegroup.com | swallowtailhill.com
Bradley Young (2016), UK & Global
While nuclear fusion may not solve the climate crisis, it holds great promise for meeting future energy demands. I am finishing my PhD in the Department of Materials at Oxford, where I’ve developed novel alloys for fusion power plants. My research on liquid metal corrosion led me to work with Oxford Sigma, a start-up advising global fusion energy organisations. We are developing technologies to overcome industry challenges and accelerate fusion energy commercialisation.
Sustainability at The Perse
Guiding our approach to education and operations at The Perse are our values, which include caring for one another and our environment.
We each play a vital role in creating a kind, considerate community for both people and the environment. As an educational institution, we have a responsibility to lead by example in environmental protection.
The Green Team
It is important that students and staff understand the importance of looking after the world around them. The School’s sustainability role models are the members of the Green Team, a group of students from the Upper who are passionate about caring for the environment. Led by Millie Ely (Upper Sixth), the Team meets weekly to share ideas and lead on projects that will have an impact.
The
Eco-Schools Green Flag Award
This year, The Perse proudly earned the Eco-Schools Green Flag Award with Distinction, thanks to the hard work of the Green Team (Upper) and the Eco Team (Prep), who led the initiative.
The Green Team developed an Eco Code outlining steps for a greener future, including local litter picks, educating pupils on food waste, water use and recycling, raising awareness of global environmental issues, and collaborating with the Staff Sustainability Committee to meet the School’s sustainability targets.
IT IS IMPORTANT THAT STUDENTS AND STAFF UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE OF LOOKING AFTER THE WORLD AROUND THEM.
Committed to reducing our impact
A range of sustainability initiatives have been implemented across our school grounds and we continue to improve our efforts. Some of them include:
• As of October 2024, the School has 176 PV solar panels
• 129 of these solar panels were installed during 2023–24 on new and existing buildings.
• The School has five air source heat pumps and one ground source heat pump.
• To reduce car traffic on the school run, the School introduced the HomeRun app to encourage car sharing amongst parents and staff.
• The grounds & gardens team maintain extensive flowerbeds and wild no-mow areas on the school site to promote biodiversity.
You can read more and find our environmental sustainability policy at perse.co.uk
WILD NO-MOW AREAS AND FLOWERBEDS AT THE SCHOOL ENHANCES BIODIVERSITY ON THE SITE
Perse School Sports Centre receives BREEAM Excellent Accreditation
Since opening in September 2024, the brand new Sports Centre offers pupils and the local community access to state-of-the-art facilities, including a swimming pool and climbing wall. The building boasts a BREEAM Excellent Accreditation for its energy efficiency, materials used and water management. The pool features advanced water-saving technologies and a cutting-edge micro-filtration system which uses a ceramic filter to remove impurities, ensuring exceptional water quality.
Find out more at sportscentre.perse.co.uk
Deborah Vernon Purvis
Some of you may remember Deborah as Mrs Taysom. For 23 years, Deborah dedicated her working life to The Perse and all within it. To mark her retirement at the end of the Summer term 2024, she was presented with a book of messages from students, OPs and staff. Below, she reflects on her career as teacher of English and drama.
So many changes have taken place at The Perse since I joined the School in 2001 but fortunately the key ingredients remain – talented, motivated and intellectually curious students and hard-working staff committed to their subjects and to helping young people achieve their goals. These are the things that kept me here all these years and made it hard to leave, even though I have been teaching full time for more than 30 years and could perhaps be justified in wanting to shake things up a little!
I really believe that teaching English is probably the most fun you can have in your working life. I treasure the times of laughter, of surprise, of sudden or steady realisation that happen in the English classroom. Theatre trips, literary tours, drama and gallery visits have always been a core part of the English curriculum. If students leave my lessons with an appreciation of how integral the arts are to human happiness and personal fulfilment, I feel I have contributed something to their education.
There have been other parts to my work here too. As Director of Teacher Induction and Professional Development for more than a decade, I was able to work with all staff new to the School, ensuring they felt confident and empowered with the skills and systems they
I REALLY BELIEVE THAT TEACHING ENGLISH IS PROBABLY THE MOST FUN YOU CAN HAVE IN YOUR WORKING LIFE.
needed to do an excellent job. The circle of life turns quickly at The Perse and frequently those who I once taught, return here to be trained as teachers themselves – it was a real joy to reconnect and to see them giving back to the next generation of students.
Last summer, I was at a book launch in Cambridge by a former A level student, who saw me in the audience and said, “I can’t tell you what my next book will be about but there is someone in the audience who knows what my passion is and can probably guess.”
I did indeed know what her early interests were and felt privileged to have been right at the start of her developing career. I am always moved to hear what former students have accomplished in their lives and thoroughly enjoy it when people cross the road or walk down the train carriage to shake hands or give me a hug and tell me that they still remember their English lessons! I thank you all for sharing your ideas, your hopes and dreams and I wish you as much joy in your chosen profession as I have found in mine.
CAREERS WORKSH
Returning to the Family Business to Farm Sustainably
After 10 years in engineering consultancy, Chris Covey (2003) returned to the family business at Streetly Hall Farm in Cambridge.
Chris is now leading the farm’s transition to a more sustainable future by growing biomass crops to generate renewable energy.
Our farm has a new office. It is not exactly grand – a converted old farm building from where I write this – but a necessary change to a bright and functional space, and one which represents a generational shift in management of our business.
Generational change in a family farming business is a challenge even in stable market conditions, but, unfortunately, its timing is not something we are in control of. The passing of the baton has occurred during a major transition in UK agriculture, so much so that Farmers Weekly issues a new supplement to help us farmers make sense of it all!
We have two (perhaps three) circumstances to blame for an unstable market. First and foremost, Brexit. Specifically, the withdrawal of EU support payments to UK farmers. Secondly, climate change, and the critical position global agriculture takes as both an identified cause of the problem and its potential to solve it. The third, though transient, is the Ukraine War and the associated disruption to food and energy markets.
My role on the farm is to guide the business through this transition to a more sustainable future. How I arrived in this position is somewhat unconventional. I grew up on the family farm, and while farming was close to my heart, I realised that an agricultural career may have left me rather constrained. Therefore, I chose to pursue an engineering degree. While studying, both at school and university, I worked on the farm when I could, driving tractors and combines during harvest. After graduating, I spent 10 years in engineering consulting near Cambridge, earned an MBA from Judge Business School and worked in the US for two years before becoming more involved with the family farm again in 2020 – this time from a business management perspective. No more tractor driving, sadly!
This route into agriculture has enabled me to view our business with open-minded naivety, and it begins with considering how we use our land. We have always been an intensive arable farm, which means that we use a high input of capital and labour to maximise the production of food crops on a small area of land. Our fertile soil is ideal for food production, yet the market doesn’t reward it, especially as UK government support is being phased out. Despite its recognised importance for food security, domestic food production lacks market protections for UK growers. Farmers face higher production costs due to the UK’s labour market, tax system and regulations, making it hard to compete on open international grain markets with no tariff barriers or subsidies against major exporters like the US, Russia and Ukraine. Therefore, we struggle to remain competitive.
Climate change represents both a challenge and an opportunity for farmers. The challenge is to become more sustainable by using fewer inputs and emitting
less greenhouse gas (methane or CO2) for a given unit output, alongside growing crops in an ever-changing climate. The opportunity is to extract atmospheric greenhouse gases or displace other polluting forms of energy production and be rewarded for doing so.
Our farm intends to sequester CO2 from the atmosphere and produce renewable energy by growing biomass crops for conversion into renewable gas for the gas grid. This process, called anaerobic digestion, involves the fermentation of energy-rich crops in the absence of oxygen to produce biogas, a mixture of methane and CO2. The gases are separated and purified, with methane injected into the gas network and CO2 shipped to a North Sea terminal, then sequestered in a disused gas field in Norway. This carbon-negative process, unlike solar and wind, removes CO2 from the atmosphere. Additionally, it produces a carbon-rich organic fertiliser as a byproduct, replacing fossil fuel-based synthetic fertilisers.
In addition to producing renewable energy, farmers also have a responsibility to ecological sustainability – the balance between the necessary operations on the land for carrying out our business and the preservation of areas of natural habitat to promote biodiversity in the countryside. This leaves British farmers with three potential uses for their farmland, including food production, renewable energy production or ecological preservation. Each farm will approach this differently, but for our farm it involves a rebalancing of our land use to include renewable energy, such as energy crops or wind or solar, alongside dedicated areas of unfarmed natural habitat to promote biodiversity.
If successful, our farm will use its resources in a more circular way, drawing on less fossil-fuel-derived inputs yet remaining highly productive and, hopefully, profitable. This transition to a more sustainable farming model for all British farms should protect our way of life and beauty of our countryside for future generations.
YOUR IMPACT 2023–24
THANK YOU to everyone who has supported The Perse School over the past academic year. Whether you are a loyal donor, volunteered for the School or made your first donation this year, you have provided young people with excellent opportunities and we are extremely grateful for your generosity.
One of the highlights of the year was Perse Giving Day 2024, where the whole Perse community came together to raise money for the bursary and community partnership funds. This was our second Giving Day and we received amazing support from alumni, parents and staff across all schools. The 36-hour event saw £104,346 given to support the campaign courtesy of the backing of more than 240 individual donors
During Giving Day, a series of fundraising challenges were successfully completed, allowing further funding to be unlocked towards the campaign. More than 1,615 items of food and vital goods were donated to Cambridge City Foodbank as part of the Pupil Challenge, ensuring an extra £2,500 boost to the appeal. The PPA Challenge was also met with the Perse Parents’ Association generously matching the first £1,000 donated by parents.
Including the total from Giving Day, you raised just over £317,400 overall in 2023–24, which has contributed towards bursaries, community partnerships and building work. Every gift makes a difference, and we can’t thank you enough.
WHO GAVE TO THE PERSE?
Philanthropic donors
2023–24
TOTAL 585 DONORS
Old Perseans: 303
Current parents: 207
Friends of The Perse: 58
Current staff: 9
Other: 8
WHAT DID YOU SUPPORT?
Bursaries: £179,221
HOW YOU MADE A DIFFERENCE THIS YEAR
Bursaries
76 pupils received a MEANSTESTED bursary.
1 IN 5 bursary recipients received a 100% BURSARY
Number of donors and new donors
TOTAL number of donors: 585
Of which NEW donors: 189
Leavers’ Gift
UPPER SIXTH Leavers’ Gift: £24,571 YEAR 6 Leavers’ Gift: £2,818
VOLUNTEERING
Giving time and sharing expertise is highly valued at The Perse. We are incredibly grateful to those alumni who have returned to the School to give 42 LECTURES and participated in CAREERS CONVENTIONS and MENTORING SESSIONS Parents and Friends of The Perse have also generously DONATED THEIR TIME to volunteer as speakers at events and careers seminars. We are lucky to have a talented and engaged community.
MUSICIAN, COMPOSER AND GROUP HEAD OF EDITORIAL, JAMES WELLAND (2006), GAVE AN INSPIRING 42 LECTURE TO PERSE STUDENTS ON MUSIC PUBLISHING, COPYRIGHT AND THE IMPACT OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ON THE WORTH OF MUSICAL IDEAS
THANK YOU to everyone who has volunteered this year. If you would like to get involved, please contact PerseADO@perse.co.uk.
SACHIN GOYAL (2019) GAVE A LUNCHTIME TALK TO PERSE BIOLOGY STUDENTS AT THE MEDICAL SOCIETY ABOUT HIS EXPERIENCES SO FAR AT MEDICAL SCHOOL
We were delighted to invite the whole Perse community to our second Perse Networking Event this year, featuring a panel discussion on Sustainability and Climate Change, chaired by the Head, Ed Elliott. Guests had the opportunity to gain insights from industry leaders and experts from the cutting edge of climate science, decarbonisation and sustainability leadership, featuring the panellists Dr Joanna Depledge, Pippa Howard and Gillian Secrett (all former Perse parents) and Matt Goodridge (1997)
DONOR LIST 2023–24
The generosity of all those who have donated to The Perse during the last academic year, both those listed here and those who wish to remain anonymous, is sincerely and deeply appreciated.
Donations are listed in alphabetical order by decade at the School.
Donors who have given to the School for 10+ consecutive years*
Donors who are members of the 1615 Society1615
Class of 1940s
The late Mr M A J Anderson*
The late Mr P Armitstead
Mr I G M Dalgleish*
Mr R Few*
Major E G S Lachlan
Mr J Roberts
Class of 1950s
Mr I R Alexander*
Mr J W Ashman*
Mr J C Boocock1615
Mr D Bowley
Mr I Burton
Wing Commander
E B Bywater*
Mr J Charles*
Dr D Cheng*1615
Mr A S Crawford
Mr R Gee1615
Mr J D Greenhill1615
Mr J M Hammond*1615
Mr M Herring
Mr M Johnson*1615
Mr J Kidd*1615
Mr R Kidd*
Mr R Lanham*1615
Mr T Laurie*
Mr I Lyon
Mr R Mansfield*1615
Ms A May*1615
Sir Mark Potter1615
Professor M Potts
Mr & Mrs M Powell*1615
Mr P Scarlett*1615
Mr R M Scott*
Mr R L Shadbolt1615
Mr R B Simmonds*
Mr T Sweeney*
Dr J Thurman
The late Mr R Wheatley*1615
Commander D Wilkie
Class of 1960s
The late Mr D Alexander*1615
Mr J Andrews
The Reverend G A Barber*
Mr M Beloe*1615
Dr B C R Bertram*
Mr G C J Bird
Dr J Bradshaw*1615
Mr J Brinsden*1615
Mr E Brookes
Colonel R M G Brooks*
Mr C Byrom*
Dr J Calvert
Mr R Camping*
Mr P Cannell
Mr J Cheffins
Dr J Cheney
Professor R Cheng*1615
Mr C Chitty*
Professor J Clarke*1615
Dr A Cook1615
Mr R Covill*
Mr D Crawford*1615
Dr J Crossman
Dr H Davies1615
Mr G Ditcham*
Mr P Draper
The late Mr R Eastcott
Mr A Eden
Mr D Field*
Mr R Genochio
Mr E E Gibbs*
Mr R Goddin1615
Mr D Gomez-Ibanez
Mr R Gould*1615
Mr K J Hardingham*
Mr M Harper
Mr W Hodges
Mr J Holy*1615
Dr R Jeffery
The Reverend C Kemp
Mr S Kemp
Dr G S Kenyon
Mr M J Lott*
Mr R Loukes*1615
Dr P Main*
Dr R Marsh
Dr J Marshall1615
Dr M Mason*1615
Professor J Miller1615
Professor J Mintz
Dr R Mitchell*
The late Mr G Palmer*1615
Mr G A Palmer*
Mr A P Peel
Mr R Perkins*
Mr S Perrin*
Mr R J Pinney*
Mr M C Robinson
Mr J Sacks1615
Mr G Sanderson*
Mr A Shaw*
Dr J Sills*
Mr G Sims*
Mr I W Slater
Mr J Smart
The Honorable R S Smith
Mr P Smith*
Dr M Spencer*1615
Mr R Squibbs*
Mr S Stanley*1615
Mr R Stearn*1615
Sir Quentin Thomas*
Mr P Thompson*
Mr R Thomson1615
Mr G Waller*
Mr V Walne*1615
Professor A Wensley1615
Professor J Wheatley
Dr P Williamson
Mr H Wiseman*
Mr A Wright1615
Class of 1970s
Mr C Bell*
Mr A Brookes1615
Professor S Buttrey
Mr R Clarke1615
Mr C Cook*1615
Mr & Mrs A Cuthbert
Mr S De Boo*1615
Professor T T Dingle
Mr A Donoghue1615
Mr T Empson1615
Captain J P English1615
Mr D Farndale
Dr A France1615
Mr T C Freane
Mr B C Gill
Mr S Graves
Mr J D Gunningham*
Mr C P Hancock*1615
Dr W Handley*1615
Mr P Harlow1615
Mr D Hart*1615
Mr M Hawkins
Mr A Homer1615
Mr R Hutt1615
Mr P & Mrs R Johnson*1615
Mr A Kemp
Mr G R A King*
Mr B Lanaghan1615
Mr D J Lloyd*
Mr L Marr
Mr T Marsh
Mr M Massy1615
Mr K McFarlane*
Mr R Morgan*1615
Professor D Nixon
Mr S Pain*1615
Mr R Partridge1615
Mr W Pattison
Dr H Pearson1615
Mr C Rushton*1615
Mr R Russell*
The Reverend R Smail1615
Dr A Sumnall1615
Mr D Thompson*1615
Mr W Thompson
Mr R Thomson
Professor M Threadgill1615
Dr G Wattles*1615
The Reverend Canon J Westwood*
Mr J H Wilkinson*
Mr K C Yau
Class of 1980s
Mr D Alexander
Mr A W Bligh*
Mr Y Chew*1615
Mr J Collins*1615
Mr D Dorai Raj1615
Mr C Edwards*
Mr A J Finch*1615
Dr A R Gande
Mr S Groom1615
Dr I M Handley-Schachler1615
Captain P J Haslam*1615
Mr M Kapoor
Mr M Leake*1615
Mr S A H Lello*
Mr A Liddle
Mr B Lijadu
Mr T Matthews*
Mr M Melford*
Dr F Moscuzza*
Mr J Newman*1615
Mr M Newman*
Mr O Ojehomon1615
Mr P Peglar
Mr A Pitt1615
Mr K Rees*
Mr S Riley1615
Professor J Salzman
Dr M Sharp
Mr N Tait*
Mr N J Twitchett*
Mr M Wilkinson1615
Dr S Wright*1615
Class of 1990s
Mr N Amery*1615
Mr P W Bogle
Mr H Borno & Dr J Yip
Dr M W R Brittain*
Mr P Brotton*
Mr J Butler*1615
Mr P Cave-Gibbs*1615
Mr R Challis*
Mr S D L Clark
Professor G Csányi*1615
Dr R Dunn*1615
Mr T Edgar*1615
Mr M Edwards
Mr N Elvidge1615
Dr G Evans
Mr P T Eyres
Mr A Farboud*
Mr A Farboud
Mr D M Goodridge*1615
Mr L Green1615
Dr W Hage*1615
Mr M Hawkes
Mr A Herriot1615
Dr A Kumar1615
Mr JC & Mrs D LeBraud
Mr M Lynn
Mr V Mahindran1615
Mr O Metherell
Mr A Moir*1615
Mr T Morfett
Mr R N Oakeshott1615
Mr J Odell*
Mr A T Patman*
Dr C P H Power1615
Mr A Rabarts
Mr W Reeve*1615
Mr S Sharp
Dr N Shenker & Dr B Fischer
Dr T Sivayokan*
Mr J Stobbs &
Ms E Pettipher*1615
Mr V Sujendran1615
Mrs & Mr A Sutherland
Mr J A Trevelyan
Dr M Whitaker*1615
Mr D Young*
Class of 2000s
Miss R Abulafia*
Mr E Aston
Mr J Bakewell
Mr J Bell*
Mr N Chilvers
Mr L Clayton
Mr E Copeland
Mr Q Croft1615
Mr G Dean*
Mr & Mrs T Doble
Mr P Dunn*
Mr T Eccles
Mr E Fray
Mr B Freedman*
Mr H Grigg
Mr J Hale
Mr A Harris1615
Miss C Pettit
Mr P James
Mr R Jones1615
Mr & Mrs S Keen
Mr T Latimer
Mr Y Liu1615
Mr M Loach
Mr C Lyon*
Mr D Meese Grove
Mr A Milne*
Miss S Nolasco
Mr P Norton1615
Mr N Paulson
Mr J Pearson
Mr O Pindar
Dr G Saklatvala & Dr G Law
Dr S Smart
Mr S Smith1615
Mr M Swan
Dr R Tharakan
Miss M Wadham
Mr L Wild
Class of 2010s
Mr I Altschuler
Mr T Anderson
Miss E Barker
Miss I Black
Mr L M M Blackman
Mr F Brown
Mr B Brown
Mr K Chahwala
Mr D Chapman
Mr A Coles
Mr S Doel
Mr M Du
Mr A Glinsman
Mr D Graves
Mr D Jennings
Mr & Mrs C Kingstone1615
Miss H Knowles
Mr P Miozzo
Dr A North
Mr F Perkins
Mr E J W Racher
Miss C Taylor
Mr A Taylor
Mr M Thompson
Miss I Wadham
Mr B Young
Class of 2020s
Mr J E Black
Mr R P Dodsworth
Miss I G Elliott
Mr C W Fowkes Bolt
Mr S Mantis
Mr B Nathan
Mr I S O’Connor
Parents and Friends of the School
Mrs J Abensour
Professor D & Professor A Abulafia*
Mr P Addis & Ms S Nicholl
Mr T Agarizaev & Mrs I Agarizaeva
Dr S Ali & Dr P Rastogi
Mr D Wilson & Dr F Allen
Mr & Mrs F Amen
Mr & Mrs S Atkinson
Mr & Mrs P Bagla
Dr & Dr S Horvath
Mr P D Baker
Mr & Mrs A Balfour1615
Dr A Kambli & Dr V Bansiya
Dr & Mrs T Bapiro
Mr J Barker & Dr C Hubbard1615
Professor R Beale & Ms E Hudson
Mr S Belyaev & Mrs A Belyaeva
Mr J Higgins & Dr S Benyon
Dr H Bettinson
Ms A Beznosyuk
Dr & Mrs B Bhardwaj1615
Mr P & Professor R Blakesley
Mr & Mrs L Bogdanel
Mr & Mrs T Boyden
Mr T W Carrell & Mrs L J Brazg Carrell
Mr & Mrs N Brent1615
Mr & Mrs D Brigstocke
Mr & Mrs C Bristow
Dr C & Mr A Buchanan
Dr A Sinha & Ms T Budhrani
Dr K Buse & Professor S Hawkes*1615
Mr & Mrs A Busher
Mrs V Carroll
Mr T Hunter & Mrs M Castro
Mr S Manavski & Dr P Cecchini
Mr & Mrs L Cetrez
Mr & Mrs R Chandraker
Ms M Chandran
Ms E Charles
Mr & Mrs J Chatterjee
Mr & Mrs D Chen
Dr T Zhu & Dr Y Chen
Mr D Zheng & Ms A Chen
Mr & Mrs D S Cheng
Dr S Wong & Dr Y Cheng
Mr X Cheng & Mrs Y Chen
Dr S N Chin & Dr H Y Cheng
Mr A Bernardo Ciddio & Dr M Ciuffa
Mr & Mrs P Clarke*
Mr & Mrs I Colvin
Mr R Short & Mrs S Costello
Drs T Stainsby & L Crawford
Dr N Crockett & Dr J Greenwood
Mr & Mrs F Crossley
Mr N Tadepalli & Mrs M Dasika
Dr & Mrs G Davies
Mr M de Kock & Mrs B Leow
Dr F Rigat & Mrs M de Lucena Rigat
Mr J De Macedo Claudino & Mrs J Saibrosa da Silva
Dr & Mrs D De Silva
Mr & Mrs J Deacon
Mr L Delibashev
Dr & Mrs P Denny-Gouldson
Mr & Mrs I Devereux1615
Mr & Dr T Dodd
Mr & Mrs E Downey1615
Ms B Downing
Mr & Mrs H Edmundson*1615
Mr & Mrs C Edwards
Mr E & Dr S Elliott*1615
Mrs J Ellis*
Mr S Endacott & Mrs S Bombe-Endacott
Mr S Oguz & Professor F Erhun Oguz
Mr F Wan & Mrs M Fang
Dr & Mrs O Fawehinmi
Dr & Mrs G Follows
Professor R Franklin
Mr A Furlano & Dr M Mazza
Mr S Gangadharan & Mrs D Ghatke
Mr & Mrs E Gibbes
Dr & Dr J E Gibson
Mr & Mrs S Goddard1615
Dr & Mrs T Gouliouris
Mr & Mrs R Govender
Dr & Mrs A Grace*1615
Mr & Mrs J Graham
Mr & Mrs R Greensitt*
Mr & Mrs L Gregory
Dr & Dr J Griggs
Mr W Jones & Mrs C Guzzo-Jones
Mr & Mrs D Gwilt1615
Mr & Mrs E Hardy
Mr A & Dr J Hartree*1615
Mr X He & Mrs Y Xue1615
Dr & Mrs T Hesketh*1615
Mr C Lee & Miss V Higham
Mr S Hilaire & Mrs H Ahn
Mr & Dr P Hill
Dr N Low & Dr A Hodkinson
Mr C P Elliott & Miss P Holland
Mr & Mrs Y Hong
Dr N Howarth
Mr J Liu & Mrs X Hu
Mr T Han & Mrs H Hua
Mr H Huang & Mrs Y Min
Mr H Jaing & Mrs S Huang
Mr D Xiao & Mrs Q Huang
Mr Y Li & Mrs Y Huang
Dr C Hunt & Dr V Stephenson*1615
Mr & Mrs M Hutchinson1615
Mr C Ingram1615
Ms L Ip
Dr M Hassanain & Dr L Istratescu
Mrs J Janes1615
Dr & Dr M R Jarvis
Mr S Jayasiri & Mrs S Nawarathna
Miss X Jiang
Mr C Jiang & Mrs M Zhang
Dr C Jon & Ms S Liu
Dr N & Dr G Jonas
Mr & Mrs D Jones
Mr D Jones
Mr J Jose & Mrs R Kalathilparambil George
Mr & Mrs T Joyce*
Dr I Triantis & Dr E Kalyvianaki
Dr A Kaser & Dr N Kaneider-Kaser
Mr & Mrs S Kelliher
Professor R Kemp & Mrs R Rhodes-Kemp
Mr S Kern
Mr M & Dr K Kingstone1615
Mr & Mrs G Knight1615
Dr T K Kondel-Laws
Mr & Mrs O Kreiter
Mr A Yoldas & Dr A Kupcu Yoldas
Dr & Mrs M Lally
Mr & Mrs D Lawrence
Mr & Mrs A Lay1615
Professor P Cicuta & Dr C Lee
Mr J Keeler & Mrs K Lee
Mr & Mrs N Ley*
Dr H Chen & Ms L Li
Mr J Li & Mrs Y Zhou
Dr P Ke & Dr L Liang
Mr M Liu & Mrs X Zhou
Mr & Mrs W Lu
Mr R & Dr A Lyon
Mr & Mrs L MacGillivray
Mr & Mrs I MacLeod
Dr & Mrs R Mahadeva
Dr & Dr A Malaviya
Dr S Lim &
Ms R Maniccavasagar
Mrs E Mannion
Mr & Mrs C Marinas
Mr & Mrs T Mawby1615
Mr & Mrs I McLaren
Mr & Mrs A Meadows
Mr & Mrs M Menon
Mr & Mrs R Millhouse
Mr C Mok & Mrs T Au-Young
Mr A Gonzalez-Fonseca &
Mrs A Monge Sunol
Mr & Mrs N Morrison
Mr & Mrs J Moss
Mr L Chen & Mrs A Mou
Mr & Mrs P Munns
Mr D Nadarajah & Ms D Kraus
Mr J Newitt & Ms V Forwood
Dr B Nguyen &
Dr N H Bui Xuan
Mr R Nolasco & Ms L Arthur*1615
Dr P & Dr S North
Mr & Mrs S Norton
Dr S Nowozin & Mrs J Gao
Mr & Mrs S O’Reilly
Mr & Mrs G Pacitti
Dr A Papandreou & Dr S Papadopoulou
Dr I Papatheodorou
Mr & Mr N Parker
Dr N Peabody & Ms B Hare
Mr & Mrs G Pendell
Mr & Mrs P Perkins
Mr & Mrs I Perkins
Mr S Podesta & Dr E Faraglia
Mr & Mrs G Pomeroy
Mr & Dr W Ponder
Mr & Mrs M Porter
Mr & Mrs T Pullan
Mr J Racher & Ms K Church
Mr & Mrs G Rainey*1615
Mr & Mrs K Ramsden
Mr S Reed & Mrs R
Vasconcelos Reed1615
Dr & Mrs N Richardson1615
Mr & Mrs B Rickards
Dr & Mrs D Riddoch
Mr & Dr P Robinson
Mr A Robinson & Dr J Lockie1615
Mr & Mrs J Robson
Mr & Mrs D Rosenwold1615
Mr & Mrs H Rowan-Robinson
Mr & Mrs M Ryan
Dr & Mrs A Sathiaseelan
Mrs K Sawtell
Dr M Gilchrist & Dr K Schmitt
Mr C Seal & Dr M Patel
Dr A Selby & Ms I Jendrzejewski
Mr & Mrs J Sepanski
Mr & Mrs B Shannon*
Dr D & Dr M Shrimpton
Mr S Siddharth & Mrs S Porob
Mr & Mrs A Simpson
Mr D & Dr S Sinclair
Mrs J Skeete
Mr & Mrs A Smith
Dr E Soh & Ms W Chen
Mr J Baek & Mrs Y Sonn
Mr J Spence & Mrs M Cano Lantero1615
Dr & Mrs Y Spivak
Dr T Stainsby
Dr S Stewart1615
Mrs S Stobbs
Dr & Dr D Stubbs
Dr & Mrs D Symes
Dr & Mrs K Tan
Dr L Taylor
Mr & Mrs J Thorpe
Mrs L Tibbs*1615
Mr J Rickett & Ms E Traugott
Mr K Tse & Ms S Chan
Dr M Catley & Ms T Tshalibe
Dr & Mrs S Varghese
Dr A Skordos & Mrs A Velioti
Mr R Christmas & Ms S Vignes
Mrs S Virji
Dr & Mrs V Wan
Dr H Zhang & Dr J Wang
Mr X Bai & Mrs L Wang
Mr M Lu & Ms M Wang
Mr J Wang & Ms L Zhao
Mr Z Zeng & Mrs D Wang
Dr W Wang & Ms M Li
Mrs J Wang
Mr & Mrs C Ward-Thomas
Mr R Weingarten
Mrs H Whiting1615
Mrs A Wild
Mr & Mrs P Wilkins
Mr & Mrs D Wilkinson1615
Mr & Mrs Y Wong
Dr S Wong & Dr H Lin
Professor T Turmezei & Dr V Wong
Mrs K Wright*
Mr & Mrs I Wright
Mr G Ballhache & Ms R Xuereb
Ms L Yang
Dr W Shao & Dr H Yang
Dr & Mrs S Yates
Mr & Mrs R Yeoman1615
Mrs R Young
Mr Y Wei & Mrs C Yu
Mr & Mrs M Zeitlyn1615
Dr & Mrs J Zhang
Mr G Zhang & Ms D Wang
Professor K Li & Mrs D Zhang
Mr J Travers & Ms J Zhou
Dr Y Zhou
Mr X Zhang & Ms W Zhuang
Dr S & Dr A Zia
Dr & Mrs A Zupan1615
Organisations
Benevity
Easy Fundraising
Perse Parents’ Association
Perse Prep Parents’
Association
TTP Group
Vindis Group
and 29 anonymous donors
Dr Perse Society Members
The Dr Perse Society recognises those who have made provision for The Perse in their will.
Society members are listed in alphabetical order.
Mr G Addison
Mr D I Alexander
The late Mr P Armitstead
Mr P W Bogle
Mr D Bowley
Mr & Mrs T Boyden
Mr A Brookes
Mr E Brookes
Mr I Burton
Mr P Cannell
Mr P Cave-Gibbs
Mr J Cheffins
Dr J Cheney
Professor J Clarke
Mr E Copeland
Professor T T Dingle
Mr G Ditcham
Mr P Draper
Mr A Eden
Mr M Edwards
Mr E & Dr S Elliott
Mr R Genochio
Mr R Goddin
Mr S Graves
Mr & Mrs D Gwilt
Mr M Herring
Dr C Hunt & Dr V Stephenson
Dr P Jackson
Mr P & Mrs R Johnson
Mr D Jones
Mr A Kemp
Mr S Kemp
The Reverend C Kemp
Dr G S Kenyon
Mr R & Dr A Lyon
Mr R Mansfield
Mr L Marr
Mr T Marsh
Dr R Marsh
Mr O Metherell
Professor D Nixon
Mr S Pain
Mr R Partridge
Professor M Potts
Mr W Reeve
Mr J Roberts
Professor J Salzman
Mr R L Shadbolt
Dr J Sills
Mr J Smart
Mr & Mrs A Smith
Dr M Spencer
Mrs S Stobbs
Mr R Thomson
Dr J Thurman
Mr V Walne
Dr A Weeds
The late Mr R Wheatley
Commander D Wilkie
Dr P Williamson
Mrs K Wright
and one anonymous member
We are incredibly grateful to those who have left a legacy gift to the School this year.
YOUR IMPACT continued
COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
LEGACIES
THE PERSE would simply not exist without a legacy. Our foundation depended on a generous provision to support education in the will of Dr Stephen Perse, one of Cambridge’s greatest benefactors.
Pledging a legacy to The Perse will leave a lasting impression on generations of pupils to come. We are extremely grateful for every legacy gift that we receive, regardless of its value.
Your legacy may also have the effect of reducing Inheritance Tax on your estate if part of it is left to a charity. We recommend speaking to a solicitor for advice about this, and reading the HMRC website.
In helping others, you are helping yourself. Qui facit per alium facit per se.
Local History Field Trip with King’s Hedges School
Highlighting The Perse’s commitment to community partnerships, King’s Hedges School pupils explored the local history of Castle Camps and Bartlow Hills during a Giving Day trip led by Head Ed Elliott, Assistant Head Emma Rothwell and Sixth Form mentors. Following the history outing, the King’s Hedges visitors returned to the Upper and got to grips with the climbing wall and toasted marshmallows with the Perse outdoor education team.
Perse Community Concerts
Following on from the success of the O Fortuna! Community Concert at Saffron Hall in 2023, choirs from the Upper and Prep teamed up with local primary schools including St Alban’s Catholic, The Bellbird, St Paul’s CofE and Teversham Primary Schools to perform The Voyage at West Road Concert Hall. Together with the power of live musicians, around 200 singers brought the moving and evocative piece by Bob Chilcott and Charles Bennett to life.
DR PERSE SOCIETY
THE DR PERSE SOCIETY was formed to recognise and celebrate the special commitment of people who have chosen to support the School with a legacy gift.
“It is a privilege to support a school as fine as The Perse, and I see no more worthy cause than the bursary programme.”
HUGH M DAVIES (1966), DR PERSE SOCIETY MEMBER
Recently, we reached out to our Dr Perse Society members to express our gratitude and ask what motived them to leave a gift to The Perse in their wills. If you have a story to share, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please give us a call at 01223 403971 or email PerseADO@perse.co.uk
ONCE UPON A TIME in the School Hall
Stephen Shute (1973) is Professor at the University of Sussex where, from 2014 to 2021, he was also Pro-Vice-Chancellor. In this recollection of school dances, he considers some of the live bands Perse pupils enjoyed in the 1970s.
Perse boys who left around 50 years ago may, like me, remember attending the annual School Dance. In 1972, for the first time, this featured live bands. Top of the bill was the Boogie Band which consisted of Twink* from Pink Fairies on drums, Jack Monck, formerly of Delivery, on bass, and ‘Syd’ Barrett, formerly of Pink Floyd, on guitar and vocals. Barrett had only recently returned to live performances after leaving Pink Floyd in 1968 and rarely played afterwards. Ending at 11.34 pm, the Dance was a departure from the general buttoned-up mindset which dominated school life at that time.
In his subsequent report in the Pelican Record an anonymous pupil, signing himself “William Slickey, Society Correspondent”, said that the Boogie Band had lived up to its name by playing “boogie woogie and rock and roll”, adding – surely tongue in cheek – that the “grand finale” was ‘God Save the Queen’. Remarkably, this was not Twink’s only appearance in the School Hall. A year earlier the Fairies had played at a charity concert which also featured Principal Edwards Magic Theatre (PEMT) and a heavy metal support band, Guts. The event must have raised a few eyebrows, especially when it was covered in the Pelican Record in an article written by Jim Chapman (1971). Adopting the jokey style found in many boys’ reports of that period, the article noted that the Prefects’ Room had been taken over by “weird personages sporting amazing fashions and plucking abstractly at guitars” and, within 20 minutes of Guts leaving the stage, “the freaks” who were wont to accompany the Fairies during their visits to Cambridge had filled the
School Hall. The visual side of the Fairies’ performance was further enhanced by borrowing PEMT’s light show which was “beamed from numerous bedsheets”. When PEMT eventually played at 10.30 pm, the “chiffonic patterns” they created in ‘Asmoto Celebration’ may have enthralled the audience but the set also contained another memorable moment. During the band’s rendition of ‘Total Glycerol Ester’ a “certain member of staff” – presumably either Mr Buckland or Mr Raby, both of whom were “in attendance” – was observed “employing his vocal chords” to one of the riffs. Eight months after the Perse gig, PEMT broke up but there is no known association between that and the concert at The Perse. Chapman ended his report by congratulating the parents of those who attended “for their remarkable ability to cope with adverse situations”, expressed the hope that Buckland and Raby had “enjoyed the experience”, and thanked Mr Melville for his “cooperation and interest”!
* Previously a member of the Pretty Things and later the Fallen Angels, Twink’s real name is John Charles Edward Alder. His soubriquet derives from the bottles of Twink home perm lotion that were given to him by his fans.
From Head to Grandparent
Their families have moved from across the world for the grandchildren to be educated at the school which they once led. Former Perse Heads Dr Martin Stephen and Dr Nigel Richardson are both proud to be Perse grandparents. From participating in school pick-ups to attending open days, both former Heads have had the opportunity to view The Perse through a completely new lens – how has The Perse changed?
My son Neill, his wife Rachela and their two children were living in Berkshire, and the boys were at Lambrook School. Neill and Rachela didn’t want the boys to board, and the day provision in their area didn’t fit the family. They looked at day schools in areas from which they could commute to work in London – the new Elizabeth Line had meant that it was only a half-hour commute from their Berkshire home to work – and of all the ones looked at The Perse Prep School and the Upper came out on top by a big margin. They decided that if the boys were offered places at The Perse they would move to Cambridge, helped of course by a desire to be nearer to family and Neill’s warm memories of living in Cambridge. Neill didn’t go to The Perse like his brother did, but had his 18th birthday party at the Upper. When the offer came through the decision was taken, the whole family would move to Cambridge. Education, education, education, as Tony Blair once famously said. My family didn’t move and then find a school. They found a school, and moved as a result.
Another result was that, as a grandfather on the school run, I was suddenly plunged into a totally new relationship with the School which I had been Head of from 1987 to 1994. And my impression, as an outsider, of the school I left not much short of 30 years ago? I think it’s brilliant.
I remember when we went round being bowled over not just by the amazing building development, and the wonderful focus on the creative arts as well as STEM, but also by the fact that intellectual curiosity seemed almost to scream at you from the walls. There was a buzz in the air, an excitement, that struck me as quite remarkable. The pupils were so excited by learning. Merely being in the School gave a massive energy boost.
I have been so impressed by the teachers I have met, and the atmosphere they create. Almost the last thing I did at The Perse was ask the Governors to agree to a co-educational Sixth Form, with the clear understanding that this would inevitably in due course of time lead to full co-education. My impression from
my grandparent contact is that co-education has been a resounding success, something so natural that it seems it might have been that way since 1615. Mine was the easy job, getting the green light for the change. Others had to make it happen, a far harder task, and they clearly did a superb job.
The growth of the School in terms of numbers and facilities seems to me exactly right. A swimming pool was a mere dream in 1987. It is a testimony to those who followed on after I left that they had the ability to turn a dream into a reality.
Oddly enough, The Perse as it now is reminds me of the words of a boy at St Paul’s School London, of which I was privileged to be Head for seven years. Like The Perse, St Paul’s is fiercely proud of its
A Journey back to The Perse
unashamedly academic standards, and blessed by the high quality of its pupils. In my first few weeks at St Paul’s I was being pinned against the nearest wall by a prospective parent who was jabbing a finger at me (how I hate that habit!), and insisting on telling me that St Paul’s was “an academic sweat shop, a sausage machine, a mere exam factory”. In desperation I stopped a passing member of the Lower Sixth, who was one of the few boys at that stage whose name I knew, and said,
“Justin, you are entering into your fourth year in the school. Tell me honestly, is it an academic sweat shop, a sausage machine, an exam factory?”
Justin was a boy who lived on a planet so far unmapped by any astronomer, but who was perfectly happy to fly to my planet and talk to me, before flying back home. He was also extraordinarily polite.
“Well, sir,” he said, “I have never been asked that before. Let me think for a moment. No, I don’t believe we are any of those. I think we are more of a free-range organic exam farm.” I think those words apply wonderfully to The Perse School of 2024.
Too many schools think their pupils exist to serve them. In my book, schools exist to serve their pupils. I think The Perse, in its modern form, is doing just that.
There are only a very few things that make me glad I am no longer a Head, just a proud grandparent. I am so glad I don’t have to cope with the impact of social media on the young people in my care. I am Chair of Governors of an inner-city London all-ability comprehensive school serving a disadvantaged area – two-thirds of its pupils are on Pupil Premium, the Government’s definition of disadvantage – and its results are outstanding. A major reason for these results has been the quality of pastoral care. The Covid Generation suffered two years out of normal social contact with their peer group. And we all know how much friendship matters within the peer group. The result is that a single message on a WhatsApp class group reading, “Get off our group!” can do as much damage as the old-fashioned bully. I haven’t been a proud grandparent long enough to know how The Perse as it is now deals with problems I could never have dreamt of all those years ago.
Yet from what I have seen, it will deal with all these issues as successfully as it has dealt with all the issues that faced it in 1994 when I left. The Perse has moved with the times, and moved for the better. I am a very proud grandfather.
DR MARTIN STEPHEN
(Perse Head from 1987 to 1994)
First, a warning to parents: never underestimate the enduring travel itch created by a gap year… Our son Tom spent time before university in Vietnam, and then worked in Japan, China, America and Australia after graduation. In 2012 he married Linh, of Vietnamese heritage though born in Perth. Life on the extreme Northern Beaches of Sydney had many advantages but, as for many ‘Ping-Pong Poms’, the possibility of eventually returning to the UK remained open. With family and friends here and three children aged six to 10, looking to the future educationally became a priority.
What determined their eventual decision? A trip to the UK in June 2023 for our annual family pilgrimage to the Isles of Scilly gave them the opportunity to visit several schools including the Prep which they found hugely impressive. From then on, Cambridge it was. This set in motion a whirlwind of activity – packing up in Australia, arriving here in November 2023, finding new jobs in the UK, finding a (very good) primary school to accept their trio for two terms from January, and simultaneously dealing with the challenge of the Prep assessments.
All that has impacted on us grandparents nearly as much as on them. We have enjoyed the obvious benefits of more regular family contact, but we have lost our annual visit Down Under. Our relatively tranquil life in Harston has given way to three generations sharing our house. After a lifetime of asserting that I could never share a house with a dog, I have had to eat my words.
Early in 2025, we, the grandparents, will downsize a mile away leaving them, parents and children, to take over the house. At our time of life this makes sense for us but also for them as the early morning Perse bus stops at the end of the road. I now appreciate far better the pressure on parents of the rush-hour journey into Cambridge, and the level of organisation required to get three children out of the house on time.
I share Martin Stephen’s enthusiasm for how the School has developed, including the breadth of what it now offers in and beyond the formal timetable – which was exactly the answer my grandchildren quickly came up with when I asked them what they most like about the Prep.
So, after 16 years of consultancy, Heads’ appraisals and governance reviews in schools across the UK, and of trying to mind my own business away from The Perse, how do I now view it?
Pupil numbers are much larger: 640 in two schools when I arrived, nearly 900 in three when I
left and now, over 1,700 in toto. The intake is so much more international, yet two things don’t seem to have changed. One is the power of a collective expectation of what can be achieved by able pupils brought together, which is something that made a very forceful impression on me from day one in 1994.
Another is that Cambridge, despite its dramatic growth, remains small enough for parents to be well networked socially for a gratifying number of 1990s’ OPs to be current Perse parents, and for pupils to have a wide circle of local friends within and beyond the School. A school which is co-educational all through, and with a close to 50–50 girls/boys split, enhances that.
Other things have changed. Better developed pastoral systems, including the reintroduction of houses at the Upper. The School is more outwardlooking, as in its support for local primary schools. Economies of scale which have made the School much more stable financially. Most dramatic of all are the vastly improved facilities, both academic and extra-curricular. The swimming pool is a project we aspired to in my time but which was not possible, and both the School and the community will benefit.
I was very fortunate to take on a school which already had great strengths, at a time when the ‘new’ high-tech Cambridge was just starting to emerge. I fronted my first Open Morning in 1994, from the steps of the main building a short distance from what was then the life-expired, concrete all-weather hockey pitch. Thirty years on, at the equivalent event in September, I stood where that pitch once was – a skilfully landscaped social space in a quadrangle of
I SHARE MARTIN STEPHEN’S ENTHUSIASM FOR HOW THE SCHOOL HAS DEVELOPED, INCLUDING THE BREADTH OF WHAT IT NOW OFFERS IN AND BEYOND THE FORMAL TIMETABLE...
buildings including a sports centre, extra labs, new classrooms, a library and a theatre.
Nearly all of this has appeared in the past 40 years. I like to think that it proves how much schools benefit from continuity and focused intent – in The Perse’s case by successive bursars and governors as well as Heads and teaching staff (but I would, wouldn’t I...) However one views it, this generation of children and grandchildren are the beneficiaries.
Big challenges, however, lie ahead for independent schools right across the UK. So much respected abroad, they are perilously short of political friends at home. VAT will inevitably bring fee rises, which puts affordability and accessibility at risk. This in turn may have consequences for grandparents, as well as parents – and for schools, which may need to promote themselves to three generations.
Meanwhile, I can enjoy being an anonymous hasbeen Perse grandparent. I have been gently chided as a driver for misunderstanding the Prep’s afternoon pick-up arrangements, and an Open Day pupil-guide asked me “Have you ever been here before?” It was an understandable question, but it reminded me of the very first week of my post-headship ‘journey’ (to use a term so fashionable these days). I was pushing my trolley around the supermarket aisles when a Perse mother greeted me with the words: “Has it come to this then?”
Now, a somewhat different return journey is just beginning, as we reconnect, albeit at a suitable distance. Half a term so far, and so far, so good.
DR NIGEL RICHARDSON (PERSE HEAD FROM 1994 TO 2008)
Climate Creatives
Communicating the impacts of climate change through music, poetry and visual art is a growing movement within the creative community. These innovative OPs are using their talents to inspire action and raise awareness about the urgent need to address climate change.
The OP Who Got Greta Thunberg Dancing the Macarena
Oli Frost (2010) began a career in creative advertising whilst working on various side projects that eventually became “the” project – writing novelty songs about the climate crisis. Since 2020, when Oli released The Greta Thunberg Song which Greta Thunberg danced to on social media, his work has gained widespread recognition.
It is unlikely that the predictions about me in my Perse yearbook entry will ever come to be. My friends wrote “most likely to be drumming at Reading Festival”, not because of any apparent musical talent but because I spent most lunch breaks trying (and failing) to twirl drumsticks, wearing a worn Reading Festival 2009 t-shirt. I pushed the Sixth Form dress code to its limits… However, if my classmates had written “most likely to play novelty songs about the climate crisis at Latitude Festival” they would’ve been correct, though it would be an odd thing to write. I spend most of my days writing songs, telling the story of the climate crisis from the perspective of various characters, such as vampires, pirates, witches and medieval bards. This niche genre has somehow amassed over 250,000 followers on social media, having been seen over 30 million times. The process of writing the songs through to recording, editing, and publishing them is hard work, but I am lucky to be able to do it. Unlike a ‘normal job’, the type of
work I do means that the income sources are varied –contributions from my audience, streaming revenues and the occasional grant.
I believe that when addressing the climate crisis, our contributions should probably involve what we enjoy and are good at. Alongside writing songs, I make humorous myth-busting videos for Greenpeace and recently co-founded a campaigning group with another Old Persean. With funding from a foundation, we have been tasked to challenge industries such as finance, advertising and PR, which still work with fossil fuel companies, in creative ways. This year, I visited the offices of an asset manager in Edinburgh, carrying an arcade game we created about their company’s investments (titled Asset Manager Quest).
I am not sure if the story of how I got to this point will be of much use to others. Although, I will say that you don’t have to change your career overnight – I did it over about 10 years. After studying a degree in philosophy, I began a career in creative advertising whilst working on various side projects that eventually became “the” project. My other advice would be that you don’t need to always have been a ‘climate person’ to work on climate-related projects in your career. The last project I did before I made the move to focus on the topic of climate change in my work was playing hip hop songs on a recorder for Simon Cowell. That would’ve made a good yearbook entry too.
olifro.st @olifrost
Mesmerised by the Marine World
Paul Naylor (1979) has been captivated by marine life since his first snorkelling experience on the Norfolk coast. Now an underwater photographer and marine biologist, Paul aims to highlight the importance of looking after the marine environment through his photography. His work has been used extensively in campaigns for better protection and awareness of British marine animals.
My love for marine life started while I was at The Perse, sparked by watching shore crabs and other animals when I was snorkelling on the Norfolk coast. Their behaviour captivated me, and I even incorporated my observations into an unusual field-based A level project with encouragement from our biology teacher, Mr Revell.
After a gap year working at the Marine Biological Association (MBA) in Plymouth, I studied environmental biology with a marine emphasis at Liverpool University and then went back to the MBA to work on a PhD. My research into the effects of metal pollutants on molluscs involved the use of radioactive tracers. This led to my career taking an unexpected turn. I finished my PhD shortly after the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 and, suddenly, there was a greater interest in what happened to radioactivity in the environment. With my background in radionuclide chemistry, I began a 30-year career working on
environmental radiation protection for government bodies including the Environment Agency.
As interesting and challenging as this work was, it didn’t fulfil my passion for marine wildlife. By then a qualified diver, I took up underwater photography, first as a hobby then increasingly to share what I was seeing through articles, talks and eventually books on marine animals. Despite enjoying overseas holidays to exotic diving locations, it was the habitats and species around the UK that really enchanted me. I also felt the most important message to get across was that there is wonderful marine life “on our doorstep” that deserves more attention and better care to sustain it for the future. My images are used extensively by groups such as the Wildlife Trusts and the Marine Conservation Society in their campaigns to raise awareness and improve protection of our seas.
My fascination with animal behaviour remains and I now concentrate most on portraying animals in action, with photographic and video sequences of
I ALSO FELT THE MOST IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO GET ACROSS WAS THAT THERE IS WONDERFUL MARINE LIFE “ON OUR DOORSTEP” THAT DESERVES MORE ATTENTION AND BETTER CARE TO SUSTAIN IT FOR THE FUTURE.
their intriguing habits. From fish that build intricate nests of seaweed or fiercely retain territories for more than five years, to crabs that “decorate” themselves with sponge for camouflage and cuttlefish that flash skin patterns for deception and communication –there is so much to show! Not only do these ‘stories’ reveal new biological information, but they are also an excellent way of engaging wider audiences with the marine world. My footage, for example, has featured on the BBC’s Coast, The One Show, Blue Planet UK and Countryfile
In 2019, I retired from the Environment Agency to concentrate solely on marine photography, filming, research and education… but there is still never enough time!
Explore more of Paul’s marine photography in his acclaimed guidebook Great British Marine Animals or follow @paulnaylormarinephoto on Instagram.
LEFT: COMMON SUNSTAR IN BRITTLESTAR BED. TOP RIGHT: CORKWING MALE WITH NEST. BOTTOM RIGHT: CUTTLEFISH PAIR
News & Notes
After running the Edinburgh Marathon in support of the charity Women in Sport, Alex Pitchford (2022) was inspired to volunteer at Lifted Strong, an organisation which aims to support women in Tanzania through education. Alex said: “I had the privilege of volunteering at Lifted Strong in Arusha, Tanzania, where we educated and empowered local women by teaching English, business, health and sewing. This initiative enriches the social and economic development of women and their communities but relies heavily on volunteers. My experience was incredible. The community was welcoming and receptive despite facing many disadvantages. Although travelling to a remote, less developed country can seem daunting, knowing it is achievable and impactful might have encouraged me sooner. I would like to promote Lifted Strong, or any other women’s empowerment/charity work, to Perse students.”
Sarah Marshall (2021) and Brett Taylor (2020) were selected for their respective teams in the annual 2024 Gemini Boat Race. Sarah rowed for the Oxford Women’s Blue Boat in the Main Race. Brett won the Reserves Race, rowing for the Cambridge Goldie Squad.
Harry Wilkinson (2018) completed the TCS London Marathon in style with a time of 2 hours 58 mins. As a former member of the Running Club at the Upper, he knew how to prepare well and was energised by great support from OPs. He raised over £3,200 for Khandel Light, a charity established by his family GP, Dr Peter Gough, supporting development, particularly in education of women, in Rajasthan.
Wafia Zia (2017) was featured on this year’s Forbes List of people under the age of 30 who have made a significant impact on society, the 30 under 30 – Europe – Social Impact 2024 list. She is a procedural advisor for the Committee on Standards in the House of Commons which heads up the disciplinary process for members of Parliament, and was previously the policy advisor for the Gender Workplace Equality Network.
Alexander Henderson (2019) and Oliver Buckingham (2020) both successfully commissioned on 9 August 2024 as officers in the British Army. Oliver has commissioned into The Royal Dragoon Guards, whilst Alex has commissioned into The Queen’s Royal Hussars. They are now at the Royal Armoured Corps Training Regiment in Bovington, learning about the Ajax and Challenger II platforms respectively. Alex comments: “We are thankful to the School for giving us the skills needed to succeed in a competitive and challenging environment and would be keen to reach out to current pupils in order to promote what the Army has to offer.”
Michael Pepper (2016) (Essex Eagles & London Spirit, Cricket) was announced in the England’s One Day International Squad for the tour to West Indies in November 2024.
Alastair King (1988) was elected as the 696th Lord Mayor of the City of London in September 2024.
Hannah Okechukwu (2018) was awarded the Akindolie Medical Scholarship, a privately funded scholarship supporting minority ethnic medical students in UK medical schools, for her outstanding dedication to supporting children through volunteering work as well as academic success in her final year as a medical student at Imperial College London. Hannah hopes to pursue a career in paediatrics with a focus on child health.
After debuting with his album Beyond New Domains (Part 1) in 2021, Ashwin Ranasinghe-de Silva (2021) is set to release a new album in 2025 as part of his ongoing music project. Whilst pursuing his studies in medicinal chemistry, Ashwin continues to develop his unique musical narrative. His YouTube channel reached 59,200 subscribers in August this year. Recently, he toured Sri Lanka, generously donating all concert profits to support Save the Children International. Follow Ashwin’s work by subscribing to his socials.
svono_svono @svono_svono_music
OP News continued
Bubz Townsend (2018) and Alex Pitchford (2022) won the Ladies’ British University and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Trophy 2023–24 in hockey at Loughborough, playing for Edinburgh against the Bournemouth team. Meanwhile, also at Loughborough, Alex Cross (2023) played for Exeter in the men’s BUCS hockey finals against Durham.
Oli Frost (2010) won the pFITE24 (Poetry and Folk In The Environment) music and poetry competition with his song The Greta Thunberg Song, which was voted by the public as most popular out of over 200 entries. The competition invites musicians and poets to share their passion for the environment, raising awareness for an important cause and inspiring their audience.
make more accurate predictions of glomerular filtration rate, a measure of how well kidneys are working, in ethnic minority
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE OLD PERSEANS AND FRIENDS
FACEBOOK GROUP
Lobie Daughton (1970) sends his greetings from France wearing his Pelican colours blazer. In this photo, Lobie is visiting Michael Richards (1970) in Bordeaux.
Bruce Gill (1971), in Perse uniform, and his younger sister. “I was about 11 years old. We were on holiday in this picture and my mother made me dress in school uniform for the entire time.”
Bryan White (1947) is dressed in his Pelican colours blazer and Perse Combined Cadet Force beret.
Obituaries
We are saddened to report the deaths of the following OPs:
John (1961), Michael (1966) and Richard Sills (1978) write: Our brother, David, was the third of four sons born to Joan, a teacher, and Tony, a Cambridge GP, who all followed their father into medicine. Born in Cambridge, David entered the Prep in 1958. He proved himself to be a gifted individual. Academically and musically talented with the drive to excel at sport, along with an outgoing personality, he was uniquely popular. He excelled at rugby and cricket and was a keen dinghy racer at weekends. He also found the time to play guitar in local rock bands.
David went on to enjoy a flying scholarship through the School’s Combined Cadet Force and gained his Private Pilot’s Licence. Dreaming of being a Spitfire pilot, he might have pursued a career as an RAF pilot if his height didn’t pose a risk to his feet during ejection.
David studied medicine at Queens’ College, Cambridge and qualified as a doctor in 1976. Despite showing considerable academic ability, he was determined to do good and pursued a career in General Practice in the
Southend area. There, he had the fortune to meet and the sense to marry Sally in 1981.
Becoming a partner in a local practice he soon established himself as an approachable and respected family doctor with the ability to listen and get to the heart of issues. Known as ‘Big Dave’, he was a sociable pillar of the local golf club where he spent much of his retirement. He adored Sally, who was always supportive, and together they raised four children and enjoyed seven grandchildren. They were avid travellers with many a tale to tell, not least the time when David’s quick thinking rescued the situation when Sally fell ill in the forests of Borneo.
David was diagnosed with prostate cancer around New Year 2023. He fought bravely but the disease refused to respond to treatments. David died peacefully on 27 March 2023 surrounded by his family. A life well lived. He is much missed.
Neal Marsh writes: Born in Cambridge in 1929, Graham entered the Prep in Bateman Street in 1934. He recalled school life as having been very happy years. In 1940, he moved to the Upper and witnessed the School Hall and other buildings on fire from World War II bombs. A few days later the bombs had hit, his schooling
resumed and classes were instead accommodated within the Technical College. He recalled having acted in several school plays with Sir Peter Hall. He also joined the Scouts and the Sea Scouts, where he learnt to sail. His favourite sport was tennis, which he continued to play regularly into his 80s.
After leaving school, he went into social work, starting his career in Birmingham where he met Cecelia, whom he later married. He later ended up in Buckinghamshire, where he took on the role of Director of Social Services, first for Hillingdon and then for Buckinghamshire, retiring at the age of 61. Dad numbered among the first Social Services Directors in England.
Although he took retirement early, he loved the challenges within his job, worked tirelessly and earnt the nickname ‘the dynamo’. Dad also had a strong Christian faith, was a lifelong member of the Methodist Church and, in his later years, became a local preacher. He continued preaching into his 95th year, accepting an invitation to speak last autumn at Castle Street Methodist Church in Cambridge, where he had attended as a child. Consistent with his faith, he always tried to help people wherever he saw a need.
John Boocock (1957) writes: Graham Percy Davies Marsh was born on 3 April 1929 in the Castle Hill area of Cambridge. Percy was his father’s name and Davies, the maiden name of his mother Minnie who hailed from Caerphilly in Wales. Graham grew up as a single child, two sisters having died in infancy. Castle Street Methodist Church, its Sunday school and youth club had a great influence on his life. So too did attending The Perse.
Being a teenager during the war made him aware of its horrors. He became a conscientious objector and undertook work on the farm at the National Institute
David Sills (1969)
Graham Marsh (1947)
of Agricultural Botany. He drew on that experience in later life when setting up horticultural projects for disabled young people as part of his lifetime role as Children’s Officer for social service departments around the country. This took him finally to Gerrards Cross, Bucks for his retirement.
He has attended several OP events, acknowledging his gratitude for a Perse education. Tennis was his favourite pastime as well as being involved in Methodist Church activities. He became a lay preacher, the fourth in line of his ancestors to do so.
In 1954, Graham married Cecelia Cadamy, daughter of another Percy, a Methodist Minister at Thetford. Cecelia died in 2015 and Graham married again to a retired United Reformed Church minister Jean Wilkinson, who also predeceased him a year ago. He leaves his son Neal, a doctor in Sherborne, and his daughter Caroline in Auckland, New Zealand.
Graham died in his sleep on 23 March 2024 shortly before his 95th birthday. At his funeral, the words hopeful, determined and enduring were used to sum up his life, as befitted his ancestry, education, beliefs and Cambridge origin.
Peter Thomas Armitstead (1946)
Nigel Armitstead (1973) writes: Peter Armitstead completed his life on 19 September 2023 at the age of 95 years. Since leaving The Perse, he has firmly held to the values of his Perse education, remaining interested in, grateful to and connected with the School.
Peter entered The Perse from his junior years as a chorister of King’s College Choir. He was by all accounts, notably his own, a moderate scholar but a star of the School’s sports teams. He accelerated beyond reach over 40 yards of rugby pitch, tackling aggressively in the good old-
fashioned way and cracked his cricket bat against incoming leather with frequent disturbance of the boundary. Being of the ‘good egg’ variety of persons, he was elevated to Head Boy.
Peter often talked of his school friends with great affection. Names such as Peter Biggs, Fernando Torres, Richard King and others would drift wistfully from his distant memories. A teacher who remained high in his respect throughout his life was Keith Barry, who he found strongly influential on his adult years.
After Peter undertook national service, he became a teacher of English at Brighton College and then at the Prince of Wales School in Kenya. He later returned to England for a career variously as a teacher training lecturer, a local authority advisor and an inspector of schools. A lifelong committed Christian, he spent retirement guiding tours at Winchester Cathedral and later Sherborne Abbey, where our family celebrated his well-lived life.
As a parent, with our mother, Anne, family life was and remains joyous in their powerful wake. In summary, Peter devoted his career and much of his personal effort to the wellbeing and life quality of others. He cherished a hope that his life would, in this way, nudge the world towards a better place for all of us, including himself. Perhaps a life of Peter’s kind is a good realisation of the Perse motto: qui facit per alium, facit per se.
Peter Eagling (1961)
Ralph Yarrow (1960) writes: Peter Eagling joined The Perse in 1954 when his father became Headmaster at the Cambridgeshire High School for Boys. On the way to A levels in English and classical languages, he was active in the Scouts, especially sailing and climbing in Scotland and the Pyrenees. Peter read English at Magdalene College, Cambridge and trained as a teacher before moving to the Teachers’ Training College (later University) in Winchester. After 15 years, he returned to primary teaching for a spell to reset his skills.
Marrying Elaine in his 40s, he had two children, Eliza and John. Subsequently and for many years he reconnected with former school friend Ralph Yarrow to trek across the Pyrenees in the company of colleagues from their respective universities, as well as reconnecting with Old Perseans John Sills and Pat Schicker for more watery activities. Peter was an excellent musician, performing widely as a folk violinist. He contracted meningitis after a stint in Yugoslavia as a socialist volunteer helping to reconstruct the country, and subsequently suffered increasingly from respiratory problems. However, he was for many decades an indefatigable walker and utterly reliable colleague in many domains, including post-retirement activity in his local community.
Roger Wheatley (1956)
Ian Codrington writes: Our respective fathers were great friends during their time at The Perse, maintaining a close friendship throughout their lives which naturally extended to Roger and me as we were just a few months apart in age. Growing up in Bedford, our families frequently met, and Roger and I formed a lasting friendship that continued until his death. We often met in Cambridge or Bedford and stayed in touch through regular phone calls.
Roger qualified as a chartered surveyor and practised as such on his own account. He was keen on music and established a prize in this field, to which a legacy will soon be added.
Roger didn’t marry and remained in the house in Gilbert Road where his parents had lived since it was built. He succumbed to cancer rapidly at the end of 2023, aged 86.
Stephen Brough (1969)
Born in 1951, Stephen has always been deeply attached to his Irish background and, growing up, spent most family holidays in Dublin visiting his grandparents. Stephen read law at Exeter University and qualified as a barrister after taking his Bar exams at the College of Law in London. He quickly left the profession to discover journalism, which led him to become a successful publisher as well as meeting his wife, Liz. Stephen started a publishing business together with co-founder Andrew Franklin, called Profile. His children apart, Profile was his proudest achievement.
When Stephen retired, he carried on mentoring young entrepreneurs and being treasurer of the Wynkyn de Worde Society’s Charitable Trust, a charity which
provides apprenticeships and bursaries for graphic art students. Stephen was diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer in late 2022 and passed away in 2023. He is survived by Liz, his daughter, Eleanor, and son, Tom, and two grandchildren.
Read his full obituary at thebookseller.com/obituaries/ obituary-stephen-brough
Ian Doggett (1959)
Ian Doggett was a highly respected councillor at Torbay Council in Devon. Ian was first elected in May 2003 and served the Clifton and Maidenway ward since then. In 2018, he was elected Chairman of the Council. Ian loved cats and was a keen supporter of the Teignbridge and Torbay branch of Cats Protection.
Ian died after a short spell in hospital. Tributes flowed from across the council chamber and the wider community mourning the loss of Ian who was “a friend to all and a champion of those in need”.
Rufus Fox (formerly Keith Meggison) (1962)
Martin Coles (1964) writes: I was saddened to read in the OP News many years ago that my old school friend, G.K. Meggison, had died. It now turns out that the report of Meggie’s death was incorrect. Instead, George Keith
Meggison resurrected himself as an artist named Rufus Fox and set up a studio in his flat near Mill Road. Rufus Fox became a much loved character in that part of Cambridge and his death from Covid-19 in 2020 was a source of deep sorrow to the many who knew him.
William Pye (1997)
After leaving The Perse, William read philosophy at the University of Bristol before building a successful career in business and charity work. At age 31, a brain cancer diagnosis inspired a new direction in his life. William became a transformational coach, speaker, author and spiritual teacher, sharing the art of gratitude with a global audience. His inspirational books on his experiences and spiritual beliefs have touched and transformed many lives.
William died on 20 July 2024 in Australia, where he had lived for many years.
Robert Lee-Wade (Bottom) (1963)
Cherry Lee-Wade writes: Robert Bottom was born in Cambridge in 1944. He was a pupil at The Perse until his early teens, when the family moved to Beckenham in Kent. After suffering a burst appendix, he needed a long period off school, and spent
the time drawing and painting. Although his parents were not keen, he was determined to go to art school, but compromised by training as a teacher as well.
Robert went on to study at film school in Newport and worked on various television productions in London, including the drama series The Frighteners. Robert got married and moved to Northern Ireland where he opted for a steadier career as Head of Art at Campbell College. During this period his two children, Tristan and Megan, were born.
Although living in Belfast was sometimes a challenge in the period of the Troubles, Robert was able to explore the wild Irish landscapes in areas like Donegal, which proved a lasting inspiration for his painting.
Robert retired at the age of 50, giving him more time to work on his own paintings. He applied
to be an ‘artist on cruise ships’ at the Voyages of Discovery, and Robert became their first artist-inresidence. He travelled on many cruises around the Baltic and Mediterranean, teaching art classes and demonstrating his work.
When Robert met Cherry Gilchrist, a writer and fellow guest lecturer on board ship in 2006, he was by then a widower. Robert and Cherry married in 2009, both taking the surname Lee-Wade, one name from each side of the family. They journeyed on a few more cruises together as guest lecturers to exotic destinations and Robert helped to co-run painting holidays in Morocco with his artist colleague Colin Watson. Robert became ill at the start of 2024 and, in August, died of complications following a kidney operation. His art can be viewed on his website at robertleewade.co.uk
Rufus Fox (formerly Keith Meggison) (1962)
We remember
George Thomas (1966) Died January 2023, aged 75
Martin Coles (1964) writes: I was saddened to read in the OP News many years ago that my old school friend, G.K. Meggison, had died. It now turns out that the report of Meggie’s death was incorrect. Instead, George Keith Meggison resurrected himself as an artist named Rufus Fox and set up a studio in his flat near Mill Road. Rufus Fox became a much loved character in that part of Cambridge and his death from COVID-19 in 2020 was a source of deep sorrow to the many who knew him.
Peter Jackson (1955) Died May 2023, aged 86
Michael Leech (1949) Died 25 August 2023, aged 92
Christopher Howarth (1967)
Died 28 August 2023, aged 74
Graham Palmer (1963)
Died 7 November 2023, aged 79
John Scott (1948)
Died 11 November 2023, aged 93
Peter Marr (1946)
Died 16 November 2023, aged 94
Michael Anderson (1948) Died December 2023, aged 93
Roger Cro (1960) Died 11 January 2024, aged 82
Edward Lachlan (1949) Died 11 February 2024, aged 93. “A staunch Old Persean.”
Rodney Herbert (1945) Died 16 April 2024, aged 95
Thomas Bussmann (1956) Died August 2024, aged 86
Trevor Sanderson (1963) Died 30 August 2024, aged 79
This list was up-to-date when we went to print.
Ken Edwards (Chair of Governors 2002–2009)
Gerald Ellison (Bursar 1997–2018, Clerk to Governors 1998–2022) writes:
The ability to chair a board successfully – particularly in a time of change – is rarer than one might think, requiring a combination of skills that few people possess (far fewer than the many who think they do). Ken Edwards was brought onto the Perse School Board precisely because he did have those skills, and he exercised them to the School’s advantage during his transformative tenure as Chair.
Ken came to The Perse shortly after retiring as ViceChancellor of the University of Leicester where, inter alia, he had overseen a growth in student numbers from 5,000 to almost 15,000, the establishment of the National Space Centre and the development of the Attenborough Arts Centre and become Chair of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals. He had previously been Head of the Department of Genetics, Chair of the Council of
Schools of Biological Sciences, and Secretary General at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St John’s College.
He had abundant experience in areas that the Board sought and brought an always impressive acuity to sit alongside a commanding grasp of the big picture which better enabled him to handle the transition, not always an easy one, from the scale of university organisation to that of a school. He was to be the perfect appointment.
At the time of Ken’s arrival, intermittent and inconclusive discussions had taken place for many years with The Perse School for Girls over a possible merger. Ken brought an immediate impetus at board level to these discussions. An agreement was reached to commission a joint feasibility study into the provision of a larger, combined school on a single site that would be able to provide those facilities that the two schools lacked independently and be better placed to face the challenges of the new century in a rapidly expanding city. Ken was clear and led the Board to
agree on the need to use external consultants (to an extent then unusual in independent schools) in many of the specialist fields required by such a study. By such action he ensured that the burden on the executive remained manageable while augmenting their expertise.
Disappointingly, the study failed to produce a way forward to which both schools could agree. However, the belief that change was necessary (something about which Ken had been clear since his arrival) remained. Much of the work undertaken in the joint feasibility study was able to be immediately used in a further study that was then commissioned to inform the independent development of The Perse School. This led to a development plan for a move to full co-education, a material increase in pupil numbers at the Prep and the Upper, and, largely financed by the extra revenue from increased numbers, the provision of enlarged, additional and improved facilities for both existing and future pupils.
The development plan proposals represented the greatest changes to the School since its move to Hills Road in 1960 – and, arguably, were even more fundamental and lasting. However, the changes, although great in scale and reach, were logical and evolutionary. Ken ensured that the Board, with strengthened make-up, structure and processes, was united in its support for the plan. He tirelessly stood alongside the executive in meetings with staff (as ever nervous of the prospect of change), parents (mainly attended by single-sex education purists) and alumni and friends of the School (whose support was seen as critical). He was authoritative, empathetic and persuasive and was very influential in bringing and keeping the many different parties involved on side.
When Ken stood down in 2009, the development plan had been accepted, initial building works – especially in science and for sport at the Upper as well as New School at the Prep – had been completed, a major new classroom block including a new library and IT department were under construction, the phased increase in pupil numbers had started and all-through co-education was well under way. The changes set out in the development plan that Ken so firmly believed in had been wrought or were under way. The development plan, by any measure successful, has subsequently provided the basis for considerable further expansion and development. The Board in which Ken had instilled a modern, dynamic approach
to governance has remained well able to oversee the challenges of near continuous change that are common to our times.
Ken was notably committed to whatever he undertook – a characteristic strikingly exemplified by his arrival at a Board meeting in a wheelchair and in plaster, having the previous day broken his leg. His attendance at that meeting and in the following weeks was made possible by the support of Janet, a constant in his life to whom the School also owes so much, who on top of her usual unobtrusive support suddenly found herself with an additional, almost full-time job driving Ken (and his wheelchair) everywhere.
Ken was an acute questioner – whether of staff or fellow
governors – and as alert to bad grammar or itinerant punctuation as to sloppy thinking or poor research, but his questions and comments would be kindly expressed and were always helpful. His insight and rigour combined with collegiality and humour will remain in the memory of those of us who were honoured to work alongside him.
The Perse can only be grateful that such an eminent man gave so much time, so willingly and unstintingly to the School. Ken’s legacy is enormous, and he will long shine brightly in the Perse pantheon.
Ken Edwards died on 1 May 2024, aged 90.
Anthony Melville (Headmaster at The Perse from 1969–1987)
Nigel Richardson (Headmaster at The Perse from 1994–2008) writes:
The 13 Perse Heads of the past two centuries have tended to be long stayers – 15 years on average. Tony Melville’s 18 years is the fourth-longest in that succession.
Awarded a First in History and English at Sydney University, he taught at Geelong Grammar Junior School and then moved to the UK, adding a starred First in Part II of the Historical Tripos at King’s College, Cambridge. In 16 years at Haileybury from 1953, he taught history and became a housemaster. His impact was dramatic, and the number of Sixth Form historians grew rapidly: four of his first ‘History Boys’ met up with him annually for the rest of his life, one of whom (a distinguished QC) recalls his “intellectual buzz and effervescence”, rigour laced with humour, and his delight in promoting good argument. His wide range of enthusiasms was
exemplified by the popularity of his play readings.
He arrived at The Perse in 1969. Different headmasters contribute their own pieces to a multi-faceted jigsaw. On either side of him, Stanley Stubbs’ era was defined by the relocation of both the Upper and the Prep (1954/60) and Martin Stephen’s by the raising of the School’s public profile in a city starting to undergo profound change. Given the dramatic expansion of The Perse over the past three decades since then, it is easy to underestimate Tony’s time as headmaster. It was a period era more of evolution than revolution, but it saw momentous developments nevertheless.
In material terms there was the first Sixth Form Centre in 1971, a new science wing, the Senior Mummery, seminar and music rooms, the Common Room, new kitchens, staff changing facilities above the gymnasium, the first all-weather hockey pitch and, at the Prep, the Hall and the arts and crafts building. Numbers at Hills Road grew from 420 to 470 with the introduction
of the 13 Plus entry in 1982, achieving necessary economies of scale at a time when energy charges were rising and buildings needed to be better insulated.
This expenditure was no mean feat in a school and a city far less prosperous than nowadays and bearing in mind the restrictions on using Direct Grant funding for capital projects. It was made possible by generous Old Persean donors such as Laurie Marsh, Sir John Gray and Macfarlane-Grieve, along with a host of others who gave the School a huge vote of confidence in contributing to the 1979 appeal run by Keith Barry which raised well over twice its initial target and laid the foundations for today’s bursary scheme. This was timely in a school with no significant endowment.
In educational terms, Tony managed to ride the twin horses of academic excellence and curricular breadth, introducing economics as a subject into the Sixth Form, avoiding excessively early specialisation and reducing class sizes in the middle part of the School. Although, he was deeply
and publicly unhappy at what he saw as the diluted standards which came with the replacement of O levels by GCSE in the 1980s.
Above all, he steered the School through its change from Direct Grant status to full independence (1976). Moreover, faced by the growing popularity of the Sixth Form colleges on The Perse’s doorstep, he also trod a necessary but delicate balance – so familiar to his successors – in continuing to demand high standards of behaviour and dress whilst simultaneously relaxing existing rules. This also explains his move to set up a school council.
Tony Porter spoke eloquently at Tony’s funeral about his human qualities, echoing tributes which appeared in The Pelican at the end of his final term. These testified to his continuing love of teaching, his belief that “you never really know a boy until you have taught him” and his support for the widest range of school events – a familiar figure on the touchline in his duffle coat and wellingtons – and to the extent that staff of that era came to value his support for their work.
His was a long and fruitful retirement. There were regular visits to his family in Australia – “Part One of War and Peace on the way out, Part Two on the homeward journey”. A man of deep faith, he was a stalwart participant at Great St Mary’s, a tutor at the University of the Third Age, proud of his garden yielding fruit and many vegetables, art galleries in London and holidays in Cumbria and Norfolk. His final years were marred by the progressive loss of sight – a sad affliction for one so steeped in books – and the philosophical way in which he accepted his final diagnosis was an example to his many friends and visitors.
He was wonderfully supported by Pauline, whom he met at Haileybury when she was the (Head)Master’s secretary and to whom he was married for nearly 60 years. She was always such a welcoming presence in their post-retirement home in Field Way, just as she had been in the headmaster’s house in Glebe Road, where so many staff and other visitors were welcomed, entertained and fed.
Others knew him much longer, for I first met him only after his Perse years. I rather think he enjoyed life after headmastering – he turned up to my first Speech Day in October 1994, when I’d been just six weeks in post. As I fussed around the front of the Hall just before proceedings began, I heard a cheery voice from the front row booming: “Get someone else to do it!”. His 70th birthday party, held there five years later and attended by many of his former Heads of School, was a happy occasion in which, as usual, he self-effacingly underplayed his intellect and talents.
Every day in my own time at the School I passed his photograph in the corridor outside the headmaster’s study. It must have been taken just before he retired and I thought it made him look distinctly careworn, but with the passing of the years those burdens seemed somehow to have fallen away, making him rejuvenated. I hope so, for I always enjoyed his company. He was a shrewd assessor of people, with a dry wit and wry outlook on life, always ready gently to poke fun at the latest fashionable trend in education or at life in general.
However, he always recognised that times change and he declared regularly that headship had certainly not become any easier since his own day. As such, to me he was a highly valued source of encouragement, but never of interfering advice. I shall greatly miss him.
Tony Melville died peacefully in the Arthur Rank Hospice in Cambridge on 3 February 2024, a few weeks short of his 95th birthday.
Upcoming Events
OP Sports Festival and Tommy Dann
Memorial Match
Saturday 29 March 2025
The Upper, Open to all
One Year On Reunion: Class of 2024
Thursday 24 April 2025
The Upper, Open to Class of 2024
Half Century Club Lunch
Saturday 17 May 2025
The Upper, Open to Class of 1975 or earlier
Benefactors’ Event
Saturday 14 June 2025, By invitation
London Drinks
Spring/Summer 2025
Date and venue TBC
Open to all
For more information
Please visit perse.co.uk/old-perseans/whats-on or contact the Alumni & Development Office by telephone on +44 (0)1223 403 808 or email PerseADO@perse.co.uk
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Old Perseans
The Perse School is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales with number 05977683. It is a charity registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales with number 1120654.
