OLD SUTTONIAN FEATURES
Blair Gulland (1969 F) Richard Harvey (1963 C)
F
ew families have a greater connection with the school than the Gullands, and two of them - Blair Gulland, head of the family law firm, and his father John (1933 F) - donated the building which now houses the School’s Art centre.
This is particularly appropriate as Blair has been a significant figure on the Kent arts scene for many years, another example of an OS who has more than matched his professional achievements with outside interests which have had a major impact both here and abroad. Blair enjoyed a successful seven-year stay at SVS, gaining relevant A Level passes to join the family legal practice in Maidstone, as well as playing first team Hockey, and second team Rugby and Cricket. Now chairman of Gullands, with offices in Maidstone and Gravesend, Blair is still a practising solicitor with a particular interest in what many may consider a fading relic of the past - almshouses. On the contrary, whilst almshouses have been in existence for more than a thousand years, providing affordable housing for the needy and vulnerable, the demand for them is stronger than ever, and Blair is a nationally-recognised expert on the management of these properties. His interest in the movement was sparked by his appointment as clerk to the Cutbush & Corrall Maidstone charity, which administers more than 150 almshouses. However the relevance of looking after social housing resulted in Blair joining the board of a company which arranged the transfer of 6,300 Maidstone council houses to an independent housing charity, a unique exercise at the time.
And the list of his contributions to spreading the message of music and the arts goes on. So it was particularly apt that when Blair bought The Manse in Sutton Valence village as his home, he and his father also acquired the old Congregational Church, which has now been converted into Gulland Hall, the School’s Art centre. For more information on that, and the importance the building still plays in Art at the School, please refer to the story overleaf. So, as Blair heads towards his 50th anniversary with the family firm, how does he possibly find the time to devote to so many charitable and musical interests? “Fortunately, I only need about five hours sleep a night”, he says. “and being involved keeps me sane. I consider myself very lucky to be able to do what I do - it’s such a rich variety”. He credits his time at the School with contributing to an ability to manage effectively and stay energetic and focussed. Not that SVS masters have always considered their pupils to be potential beneficiaries to society. His father John recalls that when he was at the school in the 1930s, one master said that boys he was teaching were the worst class he had ever encountered. They included Charles Groves (1932 W), later Sir Charles, one of the world’s greatest orchestral conductors, world mile record holder Sydney Wooderson (1933 W) and Peter Grafton (1933 M), who went on to become president of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and chairman of the SVS Board of Governors!
Blair was also asked to chair the estates committee of the Royal British Legion Industries at Aylesford, which supports veterans of the armed forces, many of them returning from the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts. RBLI has just completed building 24 new flats, an award-winning project, and Blair and his colleagues are now turning their attention to creating a centenary village. But it is in the field of arts where Blair’s enthusiasm and commitment has also yielded remarkable results. Hundreds of young musicians across Kent owe their training, at least in part, to Blair, and many have gone on to become professional musicians. He was chairman of the Kent Music School, which at one time involved more than 14,000 students and 400 schools, and also chair of Sounds New, a contemporary music charity with artists-in-residence including John Tavener, Harrison Birtwhistle and Peter Maxwell Davies. Blair is a passionate believer in music’s ability to help and heal, and is a trustee of Canterbury Cantata, which promotes the benefits of music to sufferers of Parkinson’s Disease and dementia - patrons include Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac. He works with guitarist John Williams, film composer Richard Harvey and film producer Robert Young in the MAE Foundation, which has provided thousands of musical instruments to the dispossessed Karen tribe in northern Thailand.
Page 15 - The OLD Suttonian 2018