WE LIVE IN HISTORY NIGEL PATON

WE LIVE IN HISTORY

BY NIGEL PATON (66-76)

We live in history. It’s a truism but not appreciated when you’re at school when the past is yesterday’s homework and the future is tomorrow’s double Maths. Not appreciated as you rush through career, relationships, maybe parenthood, and transactions of varying value and complexity.

“As the current Chair of the Bursary Campaign I want to record both my own personal appreciation of all those who have contributed in their many ways, and that of the school itself.”

Photograph by Ruth Gibson

David Goldwater’s (51-62) article earlier

in this magazine reflects on nearly 500 years since our school was founded, and Thomas Horsley’s original intent. In another

article James Miller (94-08) explains the

chequered post war funding for places at the school, to the benefit of so many of us baby boomers, including me. But we live in history, and nothing remains the same.

As James says, Assisted Places was abolished in 1997, and James Miller (Headmaster), John Armstrong (72-03) (Second Master) and Louis Taylor (75-85) (Chair of Governors), with the help of various committed volunteers, set about establishing a Bursary Campaign. The RGS does benefit from some long-term charitable support and has enjoyed the generosity of ON benefactors like Sir Arthur Munro Sutherland (1878-1883) over the years, but there is no great history of transformational endowments, in sharp contrast to some of our peer schools. Put simply, there was no money to support students whose families were unable to afford the fees. If the very ethos of the school as envisaged by Horsley in 1525 was to survive, funds needed to be raised, and quickly.

Since that time, the Bursary Campaign has generated over £7.3 million that has supported over 375 young people with fee assistance. As the current Chair of the Bursary Campaign I want to record both my own personal appreciation of all those who have contributed in their many ways, and that of the school itself. The key drivers of the campaign in the early years included the late Ashley Winter (64-74), Louis Taylor, Crispian Strachan and Catherine Wood, who remained involved until 2018. Successive Headmasters James Miller, Bernard Trafford (08-17), and now John Fern, have given their unstinting support, and John Armstrong remains involved to this day. Others have played important roles in maintaining that initial momentum, including Charles Penn (69-79), Tove Elander, Jane Medcalf, Richard Metcalfe (retired Bursar 99-16), Mike Barlow (53-64), David Goldwater and my immediate predecessor, Andrew Major (86-90). To all of them, and the many others who have contributed time, effort and money down the years, including all those Fellows of RGS who appear on the plaque in the school’s main reception, a heartfelt thanks.

But of course, the most important appreciation is reserved for our donors. Some of our funding comes from charitable trusts, some from generous legacies, and a large proportion comes from individuals, contributions made in amounts great and small, all very much appreciated. Our largest donors are honoured on the plaque, alongside the Fellows, but we know, all too well, that significant numbers of our donors are giving regular gifts of what they can afford, and those contributions are equally vital. As a result of all such generosity we’ve been able to provide funding which changes lives, as described elsewhere in the various testaments from our bursary holders, and along the way we’ve been able to maintain something of Horsley’s original ideal.

We live in history, almost 500 years of it, and the work goes on. The current Board of Governors stand four square behind the campaign, seeing it as integral to the future of RGS. We look forward with great optimism, but we recognise we can only do that because of the generosity and commitment of those who came before us.