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A NEW OPERA Peter White tells us about his opera based on scientist Rosalind Franklin CAPTAINING ENGLAND Fred Dove recounts how his love of cricket stemmed from his days at King’s

THE MAGAZINE OF THE OKS ASSOCIATION • № 16 • Autumn 2025

Raising a glass Read about this year’s events and reunions

MAKING A DIFFERENCE Kate Vavasour provides an account of her recent work in Uganda

OKS MAGAZINE • № 16 • Autumn 2025

From the Head

his past year has been one of real achievement and momentum for King’s, reflecting both the enduring strength of the School and its clear sense of direction for the future. Our A Level pupils achieved notably strong results this summer, which you can see detailed on page 6. We were delighted to open a new Day House in the beautifully restored former Choir House next to Linacre. The top two floors of this building now provide flexi-boarding spaces, meeting increasing demand from local families for day places with occasional boarding. With the launch of this new House, the school now stands at its largest ever size, with 910 pupils. Further afield, we have confirmed partnerships for two new King’s Schools in Bengaluru, India, and Cairo, Egypt, extending our global reach

and generating valuable income to support our work here in Canterbury. Meanwhile, the Charter Awards campaign has gathered real momentum, now close to reaching its first fundraising milestone ahead of schedule and already supporting several transformational bursaries. All of this helps to ensure that King’s remains in a strong position academically, financially and culturally at what is a challenging time for the independent sector. It is heartening to see the School not only holding firm but thriving, sustained by the energy of our pupils, the dedication of our staff and the ongoing loyalty of our OKS community.

Jude Lowson

From the OKS President

he oks association’s primary function is to keep you connected to each other, to the School, and to your younger selves! After starting the year with an epic dinner for 170 in the Houses of Parliament, the rest of 2025 maintained this pace. There have been reunions for Walpole, Luxmoore, the cohort of 1994-96, and a business networking breakfast at the Ned in the City of London.

Cover: Luxmoore House Reunion, 5 October 2025

There has also been increasing international activity, with OKS events in Dubai, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Nigeria, Tokyo, Bangkok, Singapore and soon in New York. Nothing illustrates the unique King’s “catnip” of ancient and modern better than this fusion of personal OKS history and international connectivity. A lifelong global alumni network of growing scope and relevance – turning the myth that King’s has ‘too many international pupils’ into an advantage. In

reality, 56% of pupils are domestic, 18% come from the EU, and the remainder from around the world, making King’s the envy of its peers (and many MBA programmes!) I hope to celebrate the success and dynamism of our School with as many OKS as possible at this year’s OKS Christmas Drinks on 4 December. A riotous assembly of OKS from all generations, backgrounds and countries that will leave you feeling nostalgic and very festive! Have a very happy Christmas, and make the OKS part of your new year.

James Phipson (SH 1988-93) OKS

Autumn 2025

Events

In this issue

OKS CHRISTMAS DRINKS

4 News from King’s: New House, Bengaluru and the archives

Thursday 4 December 2025 The Cavalry and Guards Club, London

WREATH MAKING

8, 12, 18 & 22 Features: Uganda, opera, cricket and the Western Front Way

Friday 5 December 2025 The King’s School Canterbury

10 Development News: King’s Calling

NEW YORK DRINKS

16 Events: Photos from our latest events

Tuesday 16 December 2025 Tanner Smith’s, New York City

20 OKS Overseas: On the beat in NYC

KSCBC & PILGRIMS BOAT CLUB DINNER

24 OKS Network: Networking and Choir

Saturday 17 January 2026 The King’s School Canterbury

26 OKS Update: News of OKS worldwide

DUBAI DRINKS

34 Unknown OKS: Son of the Admiral

Friday 13 February 2026 Dhow and Anchor, Jumeriah Beach Hotel

36 Lives Remembered: Obituaries

BREAKFAST NETWORKING: REAL ESTATE

46 Sport: Sailing and new sports rep

Thursday 26 February 2026 Knight Frank Offices, London

CCF MESS DINNER Saturday 28 February 2026 The King’s School Canterbury

TRADESCANT AND BROUGHTON HOUSE REUNION Sunday 8 March 2026 The King’s School Canterbury

OKS V. SCHOOL FOOTBALL MATCH Saturday 21 March 2026 The King’s School Canterbury

To book tickets to upcoming events, please visit kings-association .co.uk/events or contact community@ kings-school.co.uk

Sunday 17 May 2026 The King’s School Canterbury OKS MAGAZINE № 16 • Autumn 2025

OKS Summer Reunion Meister Omers Reunion

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Autumn 2025

Fill in the form on the address sheet or contact Molly Burgess. telephone 01227 595669 email oks@kings-school.co.uk website www.kings-association.co.uk facebook.com/groups/oksassociation twitter.com/OKSAssociation linkedin.com/groups/35681 instagram.com/oksassociation

MARLOWE HOUSE REUNION

COMING SOON IN 2026

We want to hear your news and so do your fellow OKS.

Printed in the UK on FSC® certified paper stock

The OKS Magazine is produced by an editorial committee chaired by Jenny Grant (Director of Development, Marketing & Communications). The Executive Editor is Molly Burgess (Engagement Manager) who is assisted by Associate Editor Stephen Woodley (CR 1969-98) and Peter Henderson (School Archivist, CR 1969-). Unless otherwise credited, photographs are by Matt McArdle, the contributors, or from the school archives. The magazine is designed by Nick Ebdon (nickebdon.co.uk).

News from King’s

SOUNDING OUT COMES OF AGE On the Saturday of King’s Week the Sounding Out Showcase in the Shirley Hall was a celebration of the joy of music making by Canterbury youngsters. Launched in September 2019 by Christina Astin and Will Bersey, Sounding Out is a programme to provide trumpet and violin lessons on Saturday mornings for children from local primary schools. It depends on the generosity of benefactors, music staff and pupils who provide the finance and the time. In July Sounding Out was shortlisted for an Independent School of the Year award for Outstanding Educational Partnerships. Then in September the project won the ‘Community Engagement or Charity Fundraising’ category in the Talk Education Awards for Innovation in Education. Just reward for a venture imaginatively conceived and skilfully executed.

FROM THE COMMON ROOM Jo Cook leaves Harvey House after twelve years as housemistress and Isobel Dutton takes over. Adam Vintner has stepped away from his role as housemaster of School House and Matt Thornby returns as acting housemaster until a permanent appointment is made. James Green is housemaster of the new – as yet unnamed – day house and Max Ganderton is Head of FlexiBoarding, both in the former Choir House next door to Linacre. Laura Holloway joins the School from St Mary’s Calne as Head of Sixth Form and Mark Orders is Head of Middle School.

FROM THE ARCHIVES In the last few months several interesting and unusual donations from OKS and others have been welcomed by the School Archives. Edward Peters (MT 1987-92) has sent us a wonderful letter written by Christopher Kent (KSC 1915-20) to his parents on 24 November 1918. It describes the exuberant celebrations of the Armistice, including fireworks aimed at the Cathedral and home-made bombs that went off inadvertently indoors. 4

Clive Austin (GR 1960-65), visiting the School in September with his brother Nick (GR 1965-69), gave us the LP of the Queen Mother’s speech at the opening of the Great Hall in 1957. Colin Arney (LX 1959-65) presented LPs of the 1961 and 1964 symphony concerts and the 1965 carol service. James Hardy (LX 1958-63) delivered a large packet of items, including a box of colour slides of School and house as well as several photographs of the opening of the Maugham Library, to add to a previous donation. Hubert Pragnell (Common Room 1973-2002) has generously given us a copy of the 1775 engraving of Prior Wibert’s Cathedral waterworks taken from Edwin’s psalter in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge. It is a spectacular and fascinating piece. And most intriguingly of all, Jack Wood (JKS 1997-2003) offered us the magnificent chair, illustrated here, OKS

Autumn 2025

NEWS FROM KING’S

from his parents’ house. It had been made out of an old boat by boatman Peter Willis for Stephen Woodward (Common Room 1967-97) and had been passed on to the Woods when they bought the Woodwards’ house. As Stephen notes, the early Boat Club eights were named after Chaucer’s characters in The Canterbury Tales. Thus there were the Knight, the Yeoman, the Wife of Bath, etc. We, and Stephen, are delighted that ‘The Squire’ has found its way to the School. Grateful thanks to all. Photos, clockwise from top left: James Green; Jude and Dr Kiran Pai signing the Bengaluru agreement; Somerset Maugham and Hewlett Johnson “the Red Dean”; The Squire Chair

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Autumn 2025

KING’S SCHOOLS IN EGYPT AND INDIA The international connections of the King’s School are now firmly established and widely recognised. In May it was announced that The King’s School Canterbury, Cairo will open in September 2028. Founded in partnership with New Era Education, the School will be located in New Sheikh Zayed within the prestigious IVY development. Applications for Year 9 will open

in September 2027. This was followed in October by an agreement with the Vidhyanidhi Education Trust to set up The King’s School Canterbury, Bengaluru. Planned to open in 2027, the School will be set within the Century OneWorld township development in North Bengaluru. Both Schools will offer a British education in the context of the local cultures and aspirations, and with a shared pursuit of excellence in learning.

THIS AND THAT School numbers passed 900 for the first time in the Autumn Term 2025. There are 910 pupils: 475 boys and 435 girls; 642 boarders and 268 day pupils; and 435 sixth formers. Bassoon player Felix Elliott has been selected to join the National Youth Orchestra. He is the latest in a distinguished roster of some fifty OKS musicians including Christopher Seaman, Andrew Marriner and Stephen Barlow. 5

ACADEMIC RESULTS

2024/25 Academic Results and Destinations EPTED INT ACC

IRES ATO

5 PUPI LS

A LEVEL RESULTS

82% of all grades at

A*-B

24%

USIC CONSERV OM

of all grades at

pupils have secured straight A* or A grades OVERSEAS DESTINATIONS

partial list

American University usa Brown University usa Cornell University usa Duke University usa The George Washington University usa

Moscow University russia New York University usa Rhode Island School of Design usa Rutgers University usa

86%

of applicants heading to Russell Group universities OKS

Autumn 2025

Join us for our Open Morning Saturday 16 May 2026

Co-educational day, flexi and full boarding for pupils aged 13-18

OKS Mag 2025 halfv3.indd 1

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05/11/2025 11:19:48

OKS FEATURE

Prevention over cure: making a difference in Northern Uganda Kate Vavasour (WL 2011-13) tells us about the work she has been doing overseas to increase access to cervical cancer screening.

n Canterbury each year every girl (and indeed since 2019 every boy) in Shell gets offered the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. In the UK every woman aged 25-64 is offered free cervical screening on the NHS. Largely as a result of this, I have not been exposed to any cervical cancer cases, even whilst working in gynaecology as a resident doctor in London. This shows how successful prevention can be. In Gulu, Northern Uganda, where I recently spent five months, cervical screening can be much more difficult to access. I had the opportunity to work in Gulu alongside Dr Nick Laing, a Kiwi doctor, who, with his colleague Emmanuel Ocola, set up the charity OneDay Health. Their aim is to provide high quality, accessible healthcare to people in healthcare “black holes”, rural areas with no government health centres within a 5 km radius. They have set up over 50 such centres across Northern Uganda with a view to extending to Malawi within the next year. I was working at one of the local Anglican 8

Cervical cancer is the most common cancer amongst women in Uganda

diocese’s clinics, St Philip’s, that Nick is also involved with. This is a slightly larger healthcare centre than the OneDay Health clinics with both primary care as well as inpatient beds and a maternity department. One of the first patients I saw was a 28-year-old woman with intermenstrual vaginal bleeding and mild abdominal pain. She was initially concerned she was having an early miscarriage, but having ruled out pregnancy, on cervical examination I saw a large abnormal growth that was asymmetrical and sinister-looking and was later confirmed with histology to be cervical cancer. Over the next five months this sadly became a common presentation. Cervical cancer is the most common cancer amongst women in Uganda. Despite this, less than 10% of women have had screening at any point in their life, let alone every three years as recommended by the World Health Organisation. This is due to multiple factors. Often there is a financial element. Persuading people to pay for an investigation when they are asymptomatic and OKS

Autumn 2025

often having to tell them everything is normal, can be a difficult sell. However, a more prominent issue is often accessibility. As OneDay Health has highlighted, many rural areas have extremely limited access to basic healthcare. With around 70% of the Ugandan population living rurally this creates an obvious limitation in delivering cervical screening to these communities. The midwife team at St Philip’s were keen to address this and we created a ‘screening corner’ within the current maternity department, arranging the clinic on the same day as the HIV clinic to allow these women who are most at risk to be able to visit both services in one visit. The Diocese kindly put forward the money for the equipment required and on 25th August this year we managed to screen our first woman in the department. Our aim is to extend this service across the diocese’s other clinics, training more midwives to be able to offer screening so that they can provide outreach services to the OneDay Health clinics, thus expanding the number of women who can access this service. OKS

Autumn 2025

Above: a OneDay Health Center in Northern Uganda

In time we would like to invest in thermal ablation devices for each clinic, which would allow early cell changes to be treated simultaneously with screening. This would reduce the number of women needing to be referred on for future treatments, reducing the financial burden on patients. Additionally these devices can also be used remotely so could be available to be taken on outreach programmes. Whilst the Diocese has kindly committed to funding the initial basic screening equipment, we are still looking for investment, big or small, to help cover the cost of midwife training as well as of thermal ablation devices.

If you’d like to learn more about this project, or support it, please contact Kate at katevavasour@ hotmail.co.uk

If anyone has any contacts or knows of any person or charity who would be interested in investing in this programme or would like to talk to me about my time in Gulu please do not hesitate to contact me. I am currently working in Orkney for a year, but undertaking a Global Health Diploma with the hope of returning to Gulu at some point in the future. Watch this space! 9

Development News

King’s Calling 2025 The Development Office is proud to share the impact of this summer’s telephone campaign.

s we hope many of you will know, this summer, we held King’s Calling – the School’s first telephone campaign in over 15 years. Over two weeks, 13 enthusiastic and talented recent leavers gained valuable work experience as they reached out to our community. The results were remarkable: they connected with 571 members of the King’s family, including OKS and parents, both in the UK and overseas. Callers shared stories, listened to cherished memories, and engaged in meaningful conversations that often led to mentoring opportunities and career advice. Many of our community also chose to support our Charter Awards transformational bursary campaign. Thanks to their donations, we are one step closer to reaching our goal of funding 50 free places at the School, forever. Whether you answered the call, sent words of encouragement, or donated – thank you. Your support means the world to us, to our young callers, and especially to the bursary holders whose education you make possible.

It was a joy to reconnect with so many of you, and we’re excited to build on everything we learned. If you couldn’t take part this time, don’t worry – King’s Calling will now be a regular fixture in the School calendar, returning every two years. We look forward to speaking with you next time.

Our OKS callers were: Dami Solanke, Dylan Shearer (6a), Eleanor Symonds, Libby Mullen, Enoch Addley, Esme Martin, Kimberly Chiimba, Lili Clifton, Miles Packard, Scarlett Hounsell, and Zara Kolade.

opportunities to talented pupils from all The Charter Awards: backgrounds. transformational bursaries Thanks to your friendship, we have been able to welcome 5 Award Holders to the School, and for a brighter future our first ever Awardee has already graduated,

t the heart of the King’s Calling campaign lies the Charter Awards, a bold and visionary bursary programme launched in 2023. The campaign aims to provide 50 fully funded, means-tested places at King’s – forever. This initiative commemorates the 1541 Royal Charter, when the first 50 scholars were welcomed, and seeks to extend that legacy by offering life-changing educational

going onto exciting plans beyond King’s. None of this would be possible without the generous support of our community. • To find out more, please visit kings-school.co.uk/ support-us/home or contact Jenny Grant j.grant@ kings-school.co.uk

OKS

Autumn 2025

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

KING’S CALLING RESULTS

Your call was part of a wonderful initiative, and I must congratulate you on how well you played your part — a great reflection both on you and on the school. John Revington (SH 1961-66)

Amount donated

£80,445 44 571 New regular givers/members of The 1541 Society

Conversations with OKS and parents

155

Donors

Gifts in wills pledged

) nt

)

• Pa

119

13 %

• OK

18% 13%

69%

re n t

s 9 (1 8 % )

•F

e or m

Breakdown of OKS calls by decade

OKS

Autumn 2025

2010s

2000s

1990s

1980s

37 20 13 1970s

1960s

Personalised videos sent to thank donors and pledgers

Breakdown of giving by house 1 1 1

Expressed an interest in donating

3 3

7 14

7 7

6 9

BAILEY HOUSE BROUGHTON HOUSE CARLYON HOUSE GALPIN’S HOUSE THE GRANGE JERVIS HOUSE LINACRE HOUSE LUXMOORE HOUSE MARLOWE HOUSE MEISTER OMERS MITCHINSON’S SCHOOL HOUSE TRADESCANT HOUSE WALPOLE HOUSE 11

OKS FEATURE

Rosalind: A new opera Peter White (SH 1970-75) tells us about composing and staging an opera based on Rosalind Franklin, best known for her contributions to the discovery of the molecular structure of DNA.

t’s sometimes said that all you will remember about school are the things you did outside lessons, and when I look back at my very happy days at King’s in the early 70s, it does seem that my time was mostly spent in the old Music Department on Palace Street and I have only a very few vague memories of being in a classroom. Under the direction of Edred Wright with the wonderful Robert Scott by his side, it was a golden age for King’s music and for a lucky few the icing on the cake was the opportunity to study composition with Alan Ridout. As my time at King’s came to a close I couldn’t imagine a life outside the world of music but after Oxford, I quickly realised that to earn a crust I was going to have to turn to teaching. My first job was at Ampleforth where, as a nonCatholic and essentially urban creature, I found life quite tough. I only stayed there for four years but did find time to establish the Ryedale Festival which is still going strong. Then at the 12

age of 28 I became Director of Music at RGS Guildford, determined to model the department on my experiences at King’s. For several years I was finding my feet and writing music had to take a back seat but before long, composition increasingly became part of my life.

Opera is a hugely daunting prospect

Just as Alan Ridout had often written for the forces available at Canterbury, I found that at Guildford, where the Cathedral Choristers were part of the school and a well-endowed music scholarship programme meant we were blessed with large numbers of very able musicians, there were many opportunities to produce orchestral and choral music for the school. But I was also busy beyond the school and amongst several commissions I received over the years, one was to write an opera for Trinity Boys’ Choir, a group with which I’d had a long association. In the process of writing that work I learned so much and was keen to have another go at opera, but it seemed difficult to find a subject that chimed. And then a good friend, Dr. Clare OKS

Autumn 2025

OKS FEATURE

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Autumn 2025

writing an opera is a hugely daunting prospect. A good friend, Michael Chance (Artistic Director of Grange Festival Opera) was very helpful in the early days and he stressed the need for the libretto and dramaturgy to be absolutely right before a single note was penned. Eventually, it was to take about two years to get the score in shape and the first printed copy eventually appeared in early 2022. At this point we were incredibly lucky to be offered the possibility of a performance at the National Opera Studio with a cast of their alumni, some of the best young singers on the operatic scene. A week of rehearsals was followed by a studio performance which was well received and one member of the small audience, Dame Kate Bingham, immediately pledged £10,000 to help us get the work to stage.

Heath, mentioned that she was keen to write a libretto for an opera about the brilliant scientist Rosalind Franklin who for years was forgotten whilst Francis Crick and James Watson, who had used her crucial research, were awarded the Nobel Prize for discovering the structure of DNA. Clare had powerful connections with the story as her grandfather, Sir Lawrence Bragg, had been Director of the Cavendish laboratories in Cambridge at the time that Crick and Watson were working there. Opera has been an important part of my life. I was briefly in the chorus of Pesaro Opera House for the Rossini Festival, and I had conducted a lot of opera as Musical Director of Guildford Opera and Loseley Opera, but as you might imagine, actually 14

Previous page: Rosalind Franklin, 1946 © National Portrait Gallery, London Above: Alison Rose, who is singing the part of Rosalind Below: Peter White, 2010

We had to have a go, but knew well that the finances of established opera companies inhibit risk and they would be extremely unlikely to take a punt on anyone other than a composer with an international reputation. However, on hearing about the opera, King’s College, London became extremely excited about the prospect of a performance in the Strand in their chapel, only metres above the very laboratory where Rosalind had worked. Plans have started in earnest and musical and stage directors and a designer (all with experience in the UK’s leading opera houses) have been appointed, a cast of topflight singers is being engaged and the London Mozart Players have agreed to provide the orchestra. The green light is on for performances on 21 and 22 April 2026. As you might imagine, fund raising is also in full swing. Soon after we started planning these first performances I was delighted to be contacted by Cambridge University Opera Society and they too are now planning to perform Rosalind in 2026. It’s suddenly all terribly exciting! • If anyone is interested in supporting the project or would like any information about tickets, please contact helixmusic25@gmail.com or call 07735 407 878. OKS

Autumn 2025

Lost Women of Science

A life-long connection, a lasting legacy Remember King’s in your will and shape the next generation. To find out more, please visit kings-school.co.uk/support-us/legacies or contact Bryony Dutta on b.dutta@kings-school.co.uk 01227 595613. Thank you. Charity No. 307942 Charity Name: The King’s School of the Cathedral Church of Canterbury

in november, peter appeared on the Lost Women of Science Conversations podcast – an award-winning podcast and nonprofit that tells the remarkable stories of forgotten female scientists. He was joined by librettist Clare Heath in front of a London audience to explore why the story of Rosalind Franklin and the race to uncover the structure of DNA makes such a compelling subject for an opera. Peter explained: “Ater initially being so excited about the project, I had some doubts as to whether this story was sufficiently operatic. There are no love affairs, no murders. But the elements for a really good operatic story were there. There’s suspicion, betrayal, jeopardy – all sorts of things at the core of a good opera.” • You can listen to the podcast online. Search for “Lost Women of Science Conversation: Rosalind – The Opera.”

OKS

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Events 16

Duruflé Requiem

OKS Summer Reunion

On 14 March 2025, over 30 OKS and parents joined the School chorus for a performance of Duruflé’s Requiem in the Cathedral. The concert for 2026 is Poulenc’s Gloria and OKS are once more invited to sing. Contact the OKS team to register your interest.

OKS gathered for a summer lunch on the Saturday during King’s Week. With the whole school enjoying activities at Birley’s, it was the perfect setting to soak up the King’s Week atmosphere. We’ll be back next year on Saturday 27 June 2026!

Luxmoore Reunion

Oxford Drinks

The Luxmoore House reunion on 5 October 2025 celebrated 80 years since the house was founded. Many were delighted to see former Housemistress Fiona Tennick (Common Room 1981-2005) and Karen Pears (Luxmoore Matron 1998-2019).

We have reintroduced our regional events starting with an Oxford drinks event on 16 October 2025. It was particularly wonderful to have been joined by Anthony Phillips (Headmaster 1986-96).

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EVENTS

To read full reports and see photos from each of these events, please visit kings-association .co.uk/news Check out our 2026 events calendar on page 3

Gala Drinks Reception 65 OKS and parents enjoyed drinks hosted by the Head before the King’s Week Gala Symphony Concert on 2 July 2025. The event was in recognition of our brilliant volunteers, magazine contributors and ambassadors.

1994-96 Reunion Ben Massingham (GR 1990-95) inspired a reunion for leavers from 1994, 1995, and 1996 on 26 September 2025. A total of 120 OKS attended, with guests travelling from as far as the USA, Uganda, and the Cayman Islands. We also welcomed several special guest teachers from this era, including Geoff Cocksworth, Bill Browning, Hubert Pragnell, Marc Dath, Peter Henderson, Andrew Dobbin, and Tim Hands.

Walpole Reunion On 27 April 2025, 130 Walpole House OKS came together to celebrate the house’s 90th anniversary. Martin Vye (Housemaster 1978-90), Janet Pickering (Housemistress 1990-94) and Jean Watson (Housemistress 1994-2007) were in attendance.

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OKS FEATURE

From Walpole lawn to Lord’s Fred Dove (WL 1977-80) tells how his love affair with cricket lead to him captaining England at Lord’s.

ennis ball and chair/wicket, on the Walpole lawn, in the shadow of the Archbishop’s Palace – that was my introduction to cricket. And nearly twenty years on, I’d be captaining England at Lord’s. Having lived abroad until nearly sixteen, I started at King’s in summer 1977. Despite my upper limb disability – the result of Thalidomide – I’d grown up playing football, squash, handball and other sports. ‘Cricket’? Not a clue. But not for long, once the passion took hold. When I first picked up a bat, though I am strongly right-handed, I instinctively adopted a lefthander’s stance. Just like David Gower, that other OKS England captain. Unlike him, I never played for the School, but I did play for Walpole in interhouse games – I vaguely remember taking a hattrick at Birley’s – and in my last term played for the staff and students team, the Haymakers. At college, I became a regular first XI spinner and tail-end batsman. Somewhat strangely, the 18

local team I also played for put me in their top order; I didn’t score many runs, but was hard to get out. I did once bowl for them, but not for long. The opposition captain had a quiet chat with our skipper, and that was the end of my short bowling spell. The only time in nearly thirty years of playing cricket that my bowling action was ever questioned. It was admittedly unorthodox, but I definitely bowled with a ‘straight arm’ – that just happened to be short and naturally bent.

Just like David Gower

After college, I spent four years teaching in Sudan, where – under scorching desert skies and circling vultures – I played at Khartoum Cricket Club. My abiding memories there were taking a wicket with my very first ball in Sudan, and successfully surviving four fiendish balls bowled by a VIP club guest, one Derek ‘Deadly’ Underwood. Once back in the UK, working for the BBC World Service, I also did some reporting for Radio 4’s disability-issues programme “Does He Take Sugar?” That first brought me into contact with OKS

Autumn 2025

OKS FEATURE

Left: Fred is presented the Lord’s trophy by Alistair Burt, the Government’s Minister for People with Disabilities at the time Below: Newport 1997 (Fred says this shot was posed for the camera!)

‘disability cricket’, when I reported on the UK’s firstever international game for players with disabilities, between England and Wales, indoors at Lord’s. Since the 90s, disability cricket has developed significantly; there are now several official international teams. In 1995, however, it was the volunteer-run Cricket Federation for People with Disabilities which staged that first match at Lord’s. Facing other disabled players for the first time threw me a bit. CFPD cricket brought together physical disabilities as well as intellectual impairments. We played with the softer ‘Incrediball’, but still – used as I was to playing ‘hard-ball’ cricket’, should I perhaps hold back a bit? My arrogance didn’t last long; we all played to win. In fact, the worst punishment my bowling ever took in any game – disability or ‘normal’ – was from an opponent in a wheelchair. While the CFPD tried to make things as inclusive as possible, on the pitch no quarter was given – we OKS

Autumn 2025

even used wheelchair players as ‘human barricades’, sitting as close to the batters as they dared. Some of the action I witnessed was truly remarkable – I once saw someone with arms half as long as mine take a catch, off his own bowling. I was offered the captaincy of the CFPD England XI in 1997, and during my two years as skipper, we twice beat Wales indoors at Lord’s. In the first game, I took the winning catch; in the second, the winning wicket, with a ‘leggie’ that turned a mile (at least, that’s how I remember it). Outdoors, we beat Wales once and lost once; a defeat made worse by my own ignominious dismissal. It was a hot, sticky day, and as I swung at the ball, my hands lost their grip – no gloves, remember – and the bat crashed into the stumps. Out, hit wicket. You win some, you lose some. But thankfully a rare blip in a long love affair kindled on the Walpole lawn. 19

OKS Overseas On the Beat in New York City

the underground clowning scene inspired by Phillipe Gaulier. You can read my articles online: laborfiles.substack.com

OKS committee member, Mabel Pickering (MR 2014-19) tells us about moving to New York and studying Journalism.

Naturally, the mayoral election has defined my early weeks here. I’m currently profiling Zohran Mamdani’s Press Secretary and writing a piece on how the Mamdani campaign is allegedly silencing the ‘Hot Girls for Zohran’ at canvasses.

hanks to a Postgraduate Award from the OKS Trust, I am pursuing my master’s at Columbia Journalism School. I’ve spent most of the time darting across the city with my notebook, reporting on my beat: nightlife labour. Tasked by Keith Gessen to file a breaking news story each week, I follow compelling political, cultural, data and social leads. In doing so, I’ve found some brilliant stories. I have reported on Manhattan’s noisiest neighborhood, Ozempic-taking Fashion Week models, Trump’s tariffs on EU-imported alcohol, Green-Wood cemetery’s queer batwatching society, New York City’s cruisers, and

Alongside the intensity of beat reporting, I’ve been learning the foundations of investigative reporting – recently uncovering alleged abuses at a network of wilderness therapy programs for struggling teens. The parent company behind them appears to use a maze of shell corporations and LLC to quietly rebrand after scandals, reopen under new names, and avoid accountability. I’ve also explored the complexities of media law but now, I’m moving into data journalism and historical feature writing. Before Columbia, I worked as a Production OKS

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OKS OVERSEAS

The King’s Association Goes Global The Development Office reflect on global gatherings in 2025.

NIGERIA On Friday 17 January, Jason Mycroft (LN 1983-88) gathered OKS, parents and former staff together for drinks at the Lagos Yacht Club in Nigeria.

DUBAI Our first event in Dubai took place on Friday 7 February at the Dhow and Anchor Bar. The event was hosted by Jon Peach (Head of International Student Recruitment).

HONG KONG The annual Hong Kong drinks event took place on Friday 19 September. A strong community – 76 OKS, parents and prospective families were in attendance.

SHANGHAI Guests enjoyed drinks with a view of Shanghai’s skyline on Monday 22 September. Our first visit was a huge success with 30 guests coming along.

Coordinator for Coulson Partners and helped produce the Crisis What Crisis? audio-visual podcast – an experience that deepened my fascination with how people, institutions, and governments handle pressurised situations.

TOKYO Saturday 26 October marked our first event in Tokyo at the Tokyo American Club. Thank you to Pelham Higgins (LN 1986-91) who rallied the community together for this occasion.

That grounding in crisis communications (as well as my foundation in history) is what brought me to the U.S. to study journalism, at a time when global politics feels more fragile than at any moment since the fall of the Iron Curtain and breakdown of the Soviet Union. I like to report on people in crisis. One day, I hope to be a crisis correspondent, broadcasting from war zones and making documentaries. For now, I just know I want to stay over here, continue reporting and contribute to the American media landscape. I’d love to meet other OKS in New York – feel free to get in touch via my LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mabelpickering OKS

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SINGAPORE Our second visit to Singapore took place on Saturday 1 November. Thank you to Brian Sun (MO 1987-91) for helping us find a suitable venue and supporting our activities in Singapore.

New York Drinks Tuesday 16 December Photos, clockwise from top left: Mabel at Columbia Journalism School; Shanghai; Hong Kong; Nigeria

This December, we’ll be tagging along to the Sixth Form Economics trip to host drinks at Tanner Smith’s cocktail bar. Tickets are free and you can RSVP on our website: kings-association.co.uk/events

OKS FEATURE

From zero to the sea: cycling the Western Front Way Andrew Rankin (LN 1972-76) rides from the Vosges to Nieuwpoort: a challenge and a commemoration.

great House, excellent Housemasters, academically ‘in the peloton’, played a bit of cricket and hockey and ended up tight head prop for the Second XV in 1976 much against my will. King’s was a very happy time for me and last year’s Linacre celebration was a wonderful opportunity to renew friendships and have a laugh. In May / June this year I cycled the 1035km Western Front Way, the origin of which was the idea of 2nd Lieutenant A.D. Gillespie who envisaged, in 1915, the creation after the War of “one long Avenue from the Vosges to the sea… so that every man, woman and child might think and learn what war means from the silent witnesses on either side”. The WFW was finally mapped in its entirety in the early 2020s. Why did I do it? Reaching pensionable (almost typed ‘perishable’ there) age, I wanted a physical and psychological challenge and the WFW dovetailed this perfectly with my long standing

interest in the First World War. A significant element was to visit the memorial at Le Touret Cemetery, near Béthune, where my relative Private Bernard Tod is commemorated. Tod, a member of the London Scottish battalion, went to France in October 1914 and his diary details his experiences. After fighting in the First Battle of Ypres, on December 23rd he was shot by a sniper whilst digging a trench and died within an hour. He was 18. He was buried near to where he died but subsequent fighting destroyed any remains.

A physical and psychological challenge

Wanting to get the Vosges out of the way to begin with, I flew to Basel with my bike in the hold and via trains and a bus replacement service (even in Switzerland and of course it was timed perfectly with the trains) I reached the start of the Way at Kilometre Zero literally on the French / Swiss border. The route took me through the vineyards of Alsace with the mountains always there to my left, quietly beckoning me. I reckoned on cycling between 70 and 90 kms a day so booked accommodation accordingly along the route. The last thing I wanted was to arrive somewhere and OKS

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OKS FEATURE

cycle with me to Arras. A highlight was Verdun where on my first ‘day off’ I hired a local guide to take me around the battlefields. Preserved battlefields and trenches, excellent museums and as I travelled further north, hundreds of cemeteries. The scale of the French nécropoles nationales at Douaumont and Notre Dame de Lorette in particular, together with the memorials at Thiepval, the Menin Gate and Tyne Cot cemetery, are jaw droppingly tragic in the sense of scale of loss of life. Silent witnesses indeed. It was encouraging to see so many schoolchildren visiting the area with the hope they will carry on the flame of remembrance. It is virtually impossible to recreate in one’s mind the battlefields when all you can see are fields of wheat, potatoes and legumes so I focused on how farming and nature had reclaimed the land yet still ploughing up each year wartime detritus. Lochnagar crater was the closest we came to seeing how even the slightest rise in the land could give one side a height advantage which was used to mechanically devastating effect. Arras and then Ypres and the Menin Gate. So much has been written about the daily ceremony of remembrance at the Menin Gate but nothing can prepare one for the emotion as, listening to The Last Post, your eyes gaze upon the thousands of names of the Missing of the Ypres Salient. Tears were shed.

find nowhere to stay and as I was selfsupported I had no intention of taking a tent etc., etc. Over the Vosges and into Lorraine and the Marne, I cycled through parts of France I had never been to before. Great food, accommodation and welcoming people made for a wonderful nine days when I reached Reims and met up with an old friend who would OKS

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Above: the Menin Gate in Ypres © Chris Dorney Below: Andrew Rankin

And so to Nieuwpoort and the northern end of the WFW. All I can say is that Flanders really is very, very flat and makes for boring cycling despite the speeds one can achieve. I did my ‘PB’ of 28kph cycling to Dunkirk – not bad for an old fart carrying about 19kgs of gear with him. It was a most fantastic three weeks during which I was met with warmth, kindness and generosity. It was emotionally and physically draining but I wouldn’t have missed a minute or kilometre of it even on those days when the rain was heavy and the wind was in our faces. I thoroughly recommend this adventure to anyone whether walking or cycling, in one go or in stages. Brilliant! 23

OKS Network The OKS Crypt Choir in Monaco On Saturday 18 October 2025, 13 former members of the Crypt Choir travelled to Monaco to perform at a special choral concert.

ed by will Bersey (Director of Music), the OKS Choir represented King’s on an international stage to mark the Centenary of St Paul’s Anglican Church, Monte Carlo. The trip was generously sponsored by Simon Groom (LN 1964–68), who lives in Monaco and is a longstanding supporter of Music at King’s. The concert, held on Saturday 18 October, followed just four hours of rehearsal. The choir gave an excellent performance of choral treasures across the seasons in the first half, followed by Fauré’s Requiem in the second half. The following morning, the group sang for Eucharist, performing Jonathan Dove’s Missa Brevis. The newly appointed Suffragan Bishop of Europe was in attendance, and the choir closed

the service with the hymn Let us light a candle, with words by the late Robert Willis (Dean of Canterbury 2001–22). Robert had visited Monaco twice in recent years and attended the St Paul’s Church centenary reception almost exactly a year ago. He was much loved by the community there, and it was especially meaningful to make a musical connection with him through the voices of former Crypt Choir members. A heartfelt thank you to Simon for supporting this special opportunity for our young OKS singers. It was wonderful to see former Crypt Choir members performing together once more and continuing the rich musical tradition of King’s beyond the Precincts. The OKS choir included: Theo Amies, Iona Bastin, Annenora Benians, Catherine Bennett, James Bennett, Arthur Elliott, Matilda Eriksson, Joe Fuller, Charlie Lineker, George Mitchell, Grace Stephens-Spada, Romola Woodhouse. Our organists were Toby Davies and the Cathedral Assistant Organist, Jamie Rogers. OKS

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OKS NETWORK

Breakfast Networking: Medicine and Veterinary On Thursday 2 October, we visited The Ned for our first networking event focused on medical and veterinary careers.

ver coffee, pastries, and avocado toast, guests heard from three OKS panellists who generously shared their insights on their career so far. The panellists were: Nathan Hudson-Peacock (MR 2005-10) Doctor and expedition medic Minnie Liddell (CY 2005-10) Small animal veterinarian Grace O’Donovan (WL 2004-09) Equine veterinarian The discussion began with each panellist reflecting on what inspired them to pursue their path. Despite very different starting points, they each spoke about following longheld passions – whether a love of horses, a fascination with animals, or family influences in the medical field. They went on to describe the variety within their careers. Nathan shared stories of life as an expedition medic, working in challenging environments across the globe. Minnie recalled her time as a sea turtle vet in the Maldives, where she had to learn on the job and now continues to advise. Grace spoke about working overseas in New Zealand and the unique opportunities that brought. While all agreed their careers are deeply rewarding, they were candid about challenges too – from NHS pressures to the high dropout rates among young vets. Work–life balance was highlighted as essential. Asked about proudest moments, all three emphasised the adaptability they had gained through their professions, and the resilience it built. Audience questions ranged from the role of AI in medicine to OKS

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Below, left to right: Nathan, Grace, and Minnie

opportunities for collaboration between human and veterinary medicine. It was a lively and inspiring morning, with plenty of practical advice for university students, and food for thought for parents who have children at King’s considering these paths. A huge thank you to Nathan, Minnie and Grace for sharing their journeys, and to everyone who joined us for our first networking breakfast. We look forward to building on this success with future events!

Real Estate Networking Our next networking event, with a focus on Real Estate careers, is scheduled for Thursday 26 February 2026, at the Knight Frank offices in London. Further information and RSVP can be found at kings-association.co.uk

OKS Update

1950s

As part of the Morpurgo Society and Running Wild co-curricular programme at King’s, Sir Michael Morpurgo (GL 1957-62) returned on Monday 6 October for a very special evening. The Mint Yard area was transformed into a relaxed outdoor setting, complete with a small stage, glowing campfires, and clusters of deck chairs, bean bags, and picnic blankets spread across the grass. It was here that Michael read excerpts from his books to pupils and invited questions. The evening ended with Compline, led by the School Chaplaincy team, bringing a calm and reflective close to a memorable night of storytelling.

Roger Lawrence (GR 1948-54) sent this message: “Christopher Bayston (GR 1953-58) and I met in 1953 when Christopher joined The Grange where I was Head Monitor. Christopher was an ex-chorister and I was a leading tenor in the choir and principal oboe in the orchestra, so both were involved in School Music – including the newly formed Madrigal Society, (started not by the Music Department, but by a Latin teacher, John Waddell). We both became teachers – Christopher as Choral Director at Eton, and I as Director of Music at Felsted. We met again when Christopher retired to Essex, and became Organist of the marvellous Thaxted Church, where I would frequently “Dep” in his choir. The photograph shows Christopher’s last service as organist at Thaxted – where I also sang.” Richard Bates (LN 1951-55) has written a short autobiography Daddy doesn’t do anything, which is a production diary of his career in television. An extract reads: “Good days, bad days, happy days, sad days – life’s rewards come in many shapes and sizes. But the greatest reward is to spend one’s professional life in the company of creative and talented people (including my own dear father) and for that I shall be eternally grateful.” 26

If you would like to read more, please contact the OKS Office for the full document.

1960s On 26 September, Clive Austin (GR 196065) and Nick Austin (GR 1965-69) returned to King’s for a tour. Clive is a member of the unbeaten 1963 rugby team, who wrote the collaborative OKS book, A Golden Age. The pair were visiting from Canada and enjoyed a tour around the School grounds, including inside the (now old) Grange building and lunch in the Main Dining Hall. In May 2025, Chris Kilbee (LN 1968-73) became the Chairman of the UK Association of Average Adjusters. The Association is a worldwide acknowledged body which manages and oversees administration and professional integrity in the world of hull claims in the marine insurance profession of Average Adjusting.

1970s In March 2025, unable to make the Walpole Reunion, James MacBain (WL 1970-75) and Paul Girling (WL 1971-75) had their own reunion and returned to King’s for a tour and to celebrate 50 years since leaving. They write: “From the moment we stepped through the Mint OKS

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Yard Gate, it was like “back to the future!” Whilst there have of course been changes to physical aspects of the school – new and repurposed buildings – it nevertheless felt just the same as 50 years ago. Molly was an exceptional host and very knowledgeable about the School and all that it has done and is doing to move with the times. We were also lucky enough to talk to the catering staff in the Dining Hall, the Walpole Matron and her colleague and the ladies running the School Shop – all of whom were most welcoming as they went about keeping the wheels of the School turning. A truly memorable visit – and as they say, you can take the pupil out of King’s but you can’t take King’s out of the pupil!” Dave Chisholm (MR 1974-79) has provided the illustrations for River Ratting, a new book by Nick Ford. The book is a tale of nature and friendship. It follows Dave and two friends – the OKS

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Photos, clockwise from top left: Roger Lawrence and Christopher Bayston; Sir Michael Morpurgo; the River Rats; Clive and Nick Austin

“River Rats” – as they journey by kayak through waterways in Britain and Europe. Dave is a cartoonist and has frequently contributed cartoons and illustrations to the Sunday Times since 1989.

1980s Ewan Pearson (MR 1975-80) marked the 40year anniversary since winning the Silver Goblets with a row past during the tea interval on the Saturday of Henley. Having really enjoyed visiting Ukraine during the Euros in 2012, Simon Brake (MR 197781) wanted to help when Russia invaded in 2022. He founded the non-profit company, Mighty Convoy, to purchase ambulances and pick-up trucks, fill them with medical aid, and drive them to Ukraine. So far, they have raised over £500k, and 27

OKS UPDATE

Left: Simon Brake and his Mighty Convoy Right: the class of 1985 reunion in London Below: 1984 leavers with Stephen Woodley

sent 17 convoys with 75 vehicles, 50 tonnes of aid, and over 100 drivers. Volunteers commit to raise £7,000 from their own networks to pay for a vehicle and passage, and drive to Ukraine in pairs. If you are interested in driving with Mighty Convoy, or can help source surplus medical supplies, please visit www.mightyconvoy.org or contact simon.brake@mightyconvoy.org In September 2025, the Development Office welcomed back a group of 1984 leavers to King’s. The group were: James Rushton (GR 197984), Henry Tattersfield (GR 1980-84), Gara Gharagozlou (GR 1979-84), Richard Briggs (GR 1979-84) and Charles Bird (GR 1980-84). Every year, they gather for lunch with their former housemaster, Stephen Woodley (Common Room 1969-98), to share memories and reflect on their time at King’s. After lunch, they enjoyed a tour of the Old Grange building, the Shirley Hall and the Green Court. After 25 years, Robert Gibbs (GL 1980-84) retired from his role as Catering Operations Manager at the House of Commons. On 17 July 2025, the Speaker of the House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, made a statement to the Commons Chamber to thank Robert for his dedication and service. 28

In May 2025, Magnus Bashaarat (WL 198185) organised a reunion for the class of 1985 to celebrate 40 years since leaving King’s. The drinks event took place at Thames Rowing Club and 55 OKS were in attendance. Since leaving King’s, members of the class of 1985 have gone on to pursue an impressive range of careers, including politics, textile design, teaching, radio presenting, real estate, the military, engineering, and more. To kick off the 2025/26 academic year, Professor Catherine Conybeare (MR 1982-85) visited King’s from the USA to talk to pupils about her new book, Augustine the African. Catherine’s talk was focused on Augustine of Hippo, one of the world’s most influential theologians. Much of the discussion was centred around Augustine’s African identity, tracing his travels from North Africa to the European continent and back again, placing his African origins firmly at the centre of his story. We were pleased to welcome Catherine’s former housemaster, David Reid (Common Room 1965-2002), and Janice Reid (Common Room 1986-2012), who joined to show their support. At the end of the talk, Catherine answered pupil and staff questions and signed copies of her book. OKS

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OKS UPDATE

Left: L-R Dan Cardinal, Catherine Conybeare, David Reid and Janice Reid Right: Anna Morris (furthest right) Below: Jude Lowson and Sarah Knight

Augustine the African is out now and can be purchased from Profile Books, Amazon and bookshops.

1990s Along with three other parents at the Dragon School, Anna Morris (née Record, LX/MR 1990-93) set up Dragon Oxford Aid, a project which supports Ukraine with medical equipment and aid. Over time, they have set up mobile blood banks, water purification systems in villages, kitted out hospices and hospitals and provided over £1.6 million worth of medical aid to over 100 doctors, often in vehicles which become field ambulances. Anna’s contribution is largely logistical – she is in charge of organising and focusing the team. For her voluntary efforts, Anna was awarded a medal by a battalion fighting in Sumy by their acting commander, and Dragon Oxford Aid has been mentioned numerous times in The Oxford Times, BBC South Today and Oxford Mail. Anna writes: “I am an OKS from the first girl Shells, starting in Walpole and ending up in Luxmoore. I now live in Oxford

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(my husband is Director of Music at the Dragon School), with my husband and three kids. I am a Para Dressage Rider (I was paralysed seven years ago with Transverse Myelitis, and although now walking, riding has helped enormously), and I run the Equestrian teams at the Dragon School.” On 5 May 2025, two OKS were involved in leading and reporting on the VE Day 80th anniversary parade. Lieutenant Colonel Charles Foinette (MR 1991-96) was in charge of the parade. Ashitha Nagesh (MT 2003-08) spent the day on the Mall reporting live for BBC News online. Having previously met at an OKS Careers Day, Charles and Ashitha managed to meet on the day for a quick interview. Charles told Ashitha about the importance of commemorating 80 years, saying: “This is probably the last time that significant numbers of veterans will be available and able to come and participate in commemorations, and I think it’s important to recognise what they did and what they left us.” This Summer, Sarah Knight (LX/JR 1991-96) and Jen Meakin (née Stubbings, LX 1991-96) returned to King’s to unveil a purple plaque. The plaque was awarded to Sarah 29

OKS UPDATE

as part of her prestigious Women in Innovation Award earlier this year, which marks her achievement as CEO and Founder of The Allergy Team. A purple plaque is a commemorative sign dedicated to honouring the achievements of remarkable women who have made significant contributions to society, culture, politics, or public life.

Right: Alicia Van Coillie, Nick and baby Margot Below: Rupert Davies

The day started with Sarah and Jen delivering an insightful talk to pupils, followed by tours of the School. The plaque was then unveiled by the Head, Jude Lowson, and Sarah at Jervis House.

2000s Marc Chapman (MT 1999-2005 and Current Head of Fencing at King’s) is the star of a new short documentary film, King Putt. The film follows Marc in his pursuit of his third world champion title in crazy golf. The courses may be small, but the personalities are big, and his success turns many in the close-knit crazy-golf community against him. King Putt has been screened at a number of film festivals, including Hasting Rocks International Film Festival, where it won best documentary. Christina Astin (Common Room 200020) has been honoured by the Institute of Physics with the Phillips Award. The citation reads: “for outstanding leadership for over 30 years in widening participation in physics, especially for women and girls, through innovative education, outreach and mentoring initiatives with national and international impact.” The award was presented on 5 November at the Oval. Ed Newton-Rex (GL 2001-06) has been included in TIME’s list of the 100 most influential people in AI in 2025. Ed is the CEO of Fairly Trained and is currently based in California. He has previously worked for Snap Inc, TikTok and Jukedeck. Margot Isabelle Teresa Ball was born to Alicia Van Coillie (BR 2001-06) and her partner Nick on 26 March 2025. 30

Rupert Davies (MO 2004-09) was included in Brummell Magazine’s London’s rising stars, combining professional accomplishments in the capital’s financial services, law and allied fields with other inspiring endeavours. This list includes 30 individuals under 40 years of age who have been selected for their outstanding accomplishments in their day jobs, as well as their passion for making the world a better place for others by undertaking inspirational endeavours off the side of their desks. Rupert is the Founder of ESG Sum, an independent firm providing sustainability advisory services to buy-side firms and a platform for disseminating industry news. Jin-Hwan Kim (GR 2007-09) married Michelle Lee in South Korea. They both visited King’s in April 2025 to take wedding photos around the School and Precinct grounds.

2010s Camilla Jessel (HH 2005-10) has been awarded the rising star award at the 2025 British Legal Awards. Camilla is a Managing Associate at OKS

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OKS UPDATE

Left: Jin-Hwan Kim and Michelle at Canterbury Cathedral Right: Edward Kendall and Zina at the Vatican

Simmons & Simmons, where she has worked since 2015. Henry Phillips (MR 2005-10) was a contestant on this year’s MasterChef UK competition on BBC. The competition started with over 50 contestants, and Henry managed to make it all the way to the semi-finals, finishing in 6th place. Edward Kendall (TR 2008-11) married Zina Vas at St Elizabeth of Portugal Church in Richmond on 27 September 2025. OKS guests included Edward’s sister, Laura Kendall (WL 2011-16), Robert Campbell (CY 2011-16) and Richard Norton-Taylor (WL 1957-63). The wedding was followed by a trip to the Vatican on 1 October to shake the hand of Pope Leo and receive the Sposi Novelli blessing – all whilst Edward was wearing his OKS tie. The OKS Office heard from five OKS who ran in the London Marathon 2025. No doubt there were many more. Natasha Methven (LX 200813) ran for the Brain and Spine Foundation, in memory of Dominic Hamlyn (MT 2008-13). Alex Preston (TR 2010-15) ran for a charity close to his family, the Brain Tumour Charity. Umar Shariff (MT 1991-96) ran for Mencap. OKS

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Two OKS brothers also ran – Hamish Courtauld (MO 2008-13) for Home Start Essex and George Courtauld (MO 2006-11) for Suited & Booted. • If you’re planning to run the London Marathon in 2026, please get in touch. We’d love to hear from you. Temi Otedola (JR 2009-13) stars in the lead role of new Nigerian supernatural horror film Ms. Kanyin. The film, shown exclusively on Amazon Prime, remained in Nigeria’s top-ten streaming rankings in the months following its debut. George Maughan (CY 2009-14) was recognised at the Worshipful Company of Needlemakers’ annual dinner. He received the Salerno Sword on behalf of the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment. George says: “The sword is awarded to the best Junior Officer, as nominated by the Commanding Officer, to one of our sponsor Livery Companies. In this case it is the Worshipful Company of Needlemakers. My Commanding Officer wrote in my citation for the award that “alongside a busy role in civilian life as a Company Director for an Insurance Brokerage, Lt Maughan is this year’s stand out young officer in the 3rd Battalion Princess of 31

OKS UPDATE

Wales’s Royal Regiment. He has shown vigour and enthusiasm for soldiering, leading from the front at all times. Lt Maughan passed the challenging Platoon Commanders Battle Course, the first to do so for several years. Since passing he has deployed on various exercises, leading from the front and demonstrating the capability of Reserve Junior Officers.” Charlie Metcalfe (SH 2011-14) has been selected as a finalist for the Wallace House Center for Journalists’ Livingston Award in the International Reporting category. Charlie is a freelance International Correspondent and has produced exclusive reports from across Europe, Ukraine and Iraq for over 20 major media organisations including Wired, The Telegraph and BBC News. His September 2024 article for MIT Technology Review titled ‘Meet the radio-obsessed civilian shaping Ukraine’s drone defence’ was one of the publication’s 10 most read stories of the year. Charlie says: “Previous winners include journalists I’ve looked up to for years, so the consideration itself is an unexpected honour.” Congratulations to Helena Barton (MT 2010-15) on a third consecutive Henley win. Having won the Wargrave Challenge Cup in 2023 and 2024, she won the new intermediate event for eights, the Bridge Challenge Plate. Antonia Martin (MT 2011-16) appeared on the BBC One Show on 12 August 2025. She appeared as part of a segment about the Royal Horticultural Society’s Herbarium. Antonia says: “In my role as Plant Collecting Coordinator I spend most of my time travelling around the UK to collect plants specimens from amazing gardens, national collections and nurseries. Our current project, Plants for Purpose, aims to collect a representative specimen of every ornamental plant available in the UK, which is estimated to be over 400,000 plants! 32

It was a pleasure to be part of this film and showcase the valuable work of the RHS Herbarium. In the show, we visited two fantastic plant collections. They were exceptional in both plant quality and the wonderful people that tend to them. Also, a pinch me moment to be interviewed by Will Young!

Above: George Maughan (first on left) Below: Daisy Rex

After three and a half years at the RHS, I am now planning my next collecting adventures further afield. In November, I am taking a sabbatical to visit some fantastic collections in Singapore, Australia and New Zealand with the hope to broaden my botanical knowledge to an even wider range of fantastic plants!”

2020s On 1 August 2025, Daisy Rex (LX 2016-21) embarked on a challenge to trek the Himalayas from West to East. It is an epic journey, spanning 1,700km of remote and unforgiving terrain, that usually takes 120-150 days. Daisy set a goal to finish in under 90 days and surpassed it by completing the trek in just 80. Daisy was raising money for the Gurkha Welfare Trust, and at the time of publication has raised over £7,000. Daisy says: “I have been extremely fortunate to OKS

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Right: James, Alistair and Trajan Below: Eliza Michie

grow up amongst the Gurkha pariwar including now living in Kathmandu. Supporting all the life changing and essential work that the GWT does is therefore hugely important to me and will certainly be the motivation on those tougher high altitude passes and throughout!” In October, Eliza Michie (MR 2019-23) competed in the Fonteyn Awards International Ballet Competition in São Paulo, Brazil. She got through to the semi-finals, just missing out on the final 12. Kai Smith (MO 2021-23) made his first class debut for Warwickshire against Sussex (April 4-7). He kept wicket and made 27 in the first innings but was caught by fellow OKS Ollie Robinson (MT 2007-10). Bear Cochrane (MR 2018-23) competed in the British Beach Sprint Championships. “Unfortunately, I was disqualified in the repechage for what was judged to be a false start. In my view, it was a harsh call by the umpire. Normally, if a false start occurs, the race is recalled and reset – this is allowed once. Alternatively, the OKS

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race may be allowed to continue. In this case, however, the race was not recalled, it was allowed to run, and only afterwards was I disqualified. It was a disappointment, especially since I had comfortably beaten my opponent.” Tabitha Butterfill (LX 2019-24) has made a strong start as a fresher in her rowing career. She raced for Durham University in the Island Challenge Cup. She reached the semi-final. In September 2025, Trajan Majomi (TR 202024), James Bonney (SH 2019-24) and Alistair Green (SH 2019-24) embarked on a successful journey to Ukraine. Their mission was to purchase a van, drive and deliver it to Ukraine where it would be used to support the Ukrainian military’s medical efforts. With the help of friends, family and OKS, they raised over £2,800. Trajan writes: “We were really motivated by the fact that our efforts will hopefully culminate in one of the most effective and direct methods of charity towards Ukrainian defence efforts. I am also half Ukrainian and spent three years living in Kharkiv when I was younger, so this mission is in large part motivated by my personal connection to the conflict.” 33

UNKNOWN OKS № 34

guardians were William Brodnax and Samuel Milles, both OKS. Although George does not appear in the lists of King’s Scholar, he joined the Feast Society – the ‘Society of Gentlemen educated at Canterbury School’ – in 1719, so we can be confident that he was a Commoner. He was admitted to Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1717/8.

George Rooke (1702-39): Son of the Admiral

eorge rooke was born on 30 June 1702. He was baptised at St James’s Church, Westminster and his godparents were Queen Anne and her husband Prince George of Denmark. His father was Sir George Rooke, the famous naval officer and Vice Admiral of England, whose best known exploit was the capture of Gibraltar in 1704. His mother was Sir George’s second wife Mary, daughter of Colonel Francis Luttrell of Dunster Castle, but she died giving birth to George. The family home was St Lawrence House on the [Old] Dover Road and there are several Rooke memorials in St Paul’s Church. It would be nice to think that Sir George, who was born in Canterbury, went to the King’s School, but there are no records of any kind to substantiate this possibility. Lawrence Rooke, King’s Scholar 163435, the astronomer and founder member of the Royal Society, was a relative. Sir George died in January 1709 when his son was six and his widowed stepmother Katharine remarried in December 1710. George’s

He was a regular subscriber to the Feast Society and was named a steward in 1723, though strangely he is marked as absent that year in the Society’s records. It was a busy year for him. In June he celebrated his coming of age: “On which Occasion a very great Entertainment was made at the Feathers Tavern in Cheapside”. In October he married Frances Ward, daughter of the late William Ward of Sedgley, MP for Staffordshire. Then in December it was reported that he and Sir Thomas Colby were candidates for Rochester at the by-election on the death of Sir Thomas Palmer, another OKS. In the event Colby was returned unopposed in January. The newspapers provide a few more glimpses of the life of a young gentleman in town and country. In 1726 George’s horse won the Plate at Barham Downs. He was a member of the Grand Lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons and chosen as a Grand Warden in 1732. He was involved in a complicated legal dispute when Jacob Banks, MP for Shaftesbury and related to his mother, died intestate in 1738. And in 1739 he was reportedly “making great Interest… to represent the City of Canterbury in Parliament”. The closest we come to any personal detail of George is in the entertaining if not wholly trustworthy Memoirs of Laetitia Pilkington. She devoted 16 pages to her encounter with him “at a Shop… where they hired out Books” on, supposedly, 23 November 1739. He is described, incorrectly, as having “a Seat in the House… representing the ancient City of Canterbury” and she is muddled about the family connections of his wife, “a Lady unmatched in Wit, and Beauty”. Mrs Pilkington nonetheless provides a diverting account. “The Tea put him into such high Spirits, that he, finding me a Sort of a Politician, told me many entertaining Stories about Sir Rob—t OKS

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UNKNOWN OKS № 34

W——1e’s various Schemes to have always the Majority of the House on his Side …” There follow some six pages of anecdotes about the Minister and “time stole insensibly away with such agreeable Amusement; we sat till the small Hours without Drowsiness, nor did we desire the Aid of Bacchus to keep up our Spirits”. Rooke also told her about his typical day. “I rise about Nine, drink Coffee, not that I like it, but that it gives a Man the Air of a Politician; for the same Reason, I always read the News; – then I dress, and about Twelve, go to the Cocoa Tree, where I talk Treason; from thence to St. James Coffee-House, where I praise the Ministry; then to White’s, where I talk Gallantry; so by Three I return Home to Dinner; after that, I read about an Hour, and digest the Book and the Dinner together; then I go the Opera or Play, Vaux-Hall or Ranelagh, according to the Season of the Year; from thence Home to Supper, and about Twelve to Bed.” Her story ends with flirtatious comments and then a dramatic postscript. “The very first News I heard next Morning, was, that Mr. Rooke, a little while after he arose, fell down in an Apoplectic Fit and instantly expired.” George died on 24 November 1739 – “after a short Illness, at his House in King’s-Row near HidePark” according to The Kentish Post. He was buried, as his father had been, in St Paul’s. He left no children, and his widow Frances did not remarry, staying on at St Lawrence House until her death in 1770. The magnificent memorial to Sir George in St Michael’s Chapel, Canterbury Cathedral has a fulsome list of his achievements – in Latin. Then, after the details of his three wives, comes the single line: ‘Quarum ex secunda GEORGIUM Filium Unicum Reliquit’. Thanks to the garrulous Mrs Pilkington George surely deserves to be more than just a footnote to the life of his illustrious father.

Left: Memorial of Admiral Sir George Rooke in Canterbury Cathedral

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Lives Remembered

William Thomas

Nelson Graburn

(LX 1950-54)

(WL 1950-55)

William Eden Sherwood Thomas died on 30 September 2025, aged 89.

Nelson Hayes Henry Graburn died on 27 February 2025, aged 88.

orn in india, he joined King’s in January 1950 from Dover College and was a Senior Scholar and Editor of The Cantuarian. “A clever boy. Excellent.” noted Canon Shirley on his record card. On leaving in 1954 he did two years of National Service: “I did my basic training in the West Yorkshire Regiment, was commissioned as an officer in The Green Howards, and later transferred to the East Yorkshire Regiment.” In 1956 he went to Magdalen College, Oxford with a Demyship in Modern History and obtained 1st class honours. Thereafter he was Junior Research Fellow at Merton College, Oxford (1960-63), Lecturer in Modern History at the University of York (1963-67) and then Student [i.e. Fellow] of Christ Church, Oxford and Tutor in Modern History (1967-2003). He spent the Spring Term 1987 as James J. Hill Visiting Professor at the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis) Department of Political Science. A historian of distinction, his main area of expertise was politics and reform in the early nineteenth century, and his major works were The Philosophic Radicals (1979) and The Quarrel of Croker and Macaulay (2000), as well as Mill (1985) in the Oxford Past Masters series. He also wrote the articles on Thomas Creevey, John Wilson Croker, James Anthony Froude, Francis Place, and Thomas Babington Macaulay for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. • A full tribute from Professor Brian Young can be seen on the Christ Church website.

elson joined king’s from Hillside School, Godalming. He was a King’s Scholar, Senior Scholar and monitor, and actively involved in the Natural History, Somner, Photographic, Harvey and other societies. Canon Shirley summed him up: “An able boy & a good worker – cheerful – will get on with people & should do well.” He was awarded an Open Exhibition to Clare College, Cambridge to read Natural Sciences. There he turned to social anthropology under Edmund Leach and went on to McGill University, and the University of Chicago, before moving to the University of California, Berkeley. A full version of the tribute below can be found on the UC Berkeley Anthropology website. Joining UC Berkeley in 1964, Graburn spent nearly five decades shaping the Department of Anthropology and the Canadian Studies Program, where he served as co-director and later as the first Thomas Garden Barnes Chair in Canadian Studies. A pioneer in the anthropology of tourism, he introduced the concept of “tourism as a sacred journey,” profoundly influencing the field. His prolific scholarship includes 19 books and edited volumes, notably Ethnic Tourist Arts (1976) and Tourism: The Sacred Journey (1977) and later works such as Multiculturalism in the New Japan (2007). Even after retirement, he continued to teach, mentor, and foster academic exchange, earning the Constantine Panunzio Distinguished Emeritus Award (2022) and a Lifetime Contribution Award for Critical Tourism Studies in the Asia Pacific (2025). Professor Graburn leaves behind a lasting global legacy through his students, collaborators, and his foundational contributions to tourism and cultural anthropology.

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Born of Victor and Vera Trice, John was raised in Petts Wood and remained living in his childhood home all his life. He came to King’s from Bickley Hall School and was a wonderful member of School House, achieving Head of House in his final year and contributing to all elements of school life. Following King’s, John took great pride in going to work for the family business in the carpet trade and earnt a place as a Freeman of the City of London. Reading subsequent school reports (not all glowing!) John’s discipline shone through, as did his cheerful disposition, willingness and work ethic. From one master: “He has always been extremely helpful and I much appreciate his cheerful loyalty to the house. His skill and speed on the rugger field have already stood us in good stead and I know he always gives of his best.” Another in 1953 wrote: “He does his work well. He plays his cricket well and he is a very pleasant boy into the bargain.” John’s own recollections of his childhood and being an evacuee, as well as reading his school reports really resonated with the John that my family knew and loved. His loyalty to those he cared about was unwavering, he never forgot to send a birthday or Christmas card and he was a letter writer.

John Trice (SH 1950-56) John Trice died on Friday 6 February 2025, aged 87. John was a member of King’s legacy club, the Robert Rose Society, and we are very grateful for his support. Karen Sahlsberg, John’s cousin, shared this extract from John’s eulogy.

Above: John Trice

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Importantly John’s ‘family’ extended far beyond blood lines. It has become very apparent that John became an integral part of the family of many of his friends, joining them for holidays and celebration events. His enjoyment of being part of these extended families was apparent and loyalty to them was typically unwavering. On every level, John was a true example of ‘a life well lived’. He will be missed and remembered by so many of us not because of any high drama but because he was always there and always ‘John’.

ohn was a man of his time, a true gentleman with an entrenched desire to do the right thing, maintain standards and ultimately to look after the people he cared about. 37

Rupert Collingwood (GL/SH 1950-56) Rupert Collingwood died on 14 July 2024, aged 87. His wife, Cynthia, sent this tribute.

hilst at king’s, Rupert with his two close friends, Richard Lane (GL 1951-56) and Colin Lawrance (GL/SH 1949-54), provided morning tea and coffee to fellow pupils to buy for £35 a 1930 Austin 7 in which the three of them had many an escapade in the Kent countryside at weekends. After leaving King’s, Rupert studied medicine at Bart’s Hospital in London and then trained as an osteopath running two practices: one in London and the other in Liverpool. Upon retirement Rupert moved to West Cornwall and is survived by his wife Cynthia and daughter Emma.

Above: Rupert Collingwood, fourth from the left on the back row Below: Carl Lardner

Carl Lardner (LN 1951-55) Carl Lardner died on 16 July 2025, aged 87. His son, Eddie, sent this tribute.

fter attending king’s, Carl settled in Herne Bay and worked in the field of computing for many years, particularly at Bowaters in Sittingbourne and then in Rainham. When that employment finished, he did contracting work around the South East and in Belgium.

He was very happily married for 32 years to Janet, who sadly died in 1998, and they had three sons. Carl was every inch the family man and, wherever he was working, he made sure that he always came home for the weekends. Carl had a passion for anything technical, mechanical or maritime, particularly for steam railways. He built three garden sheds in the OKS

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LIVES REMEMBERED

form of railway carriages and made many model locomotives and carriages. He regularly attended model railway get-togethers and had a small layout in his garden.

Right: Andrew Redpath

As well as being a voracious reader with a particular interest in wartime history (and of course railways) Carl loved rabbit-keeping, which he did for 40 years, and listening to classical music. Carl was also interested in farming, and in the mid-1970s bought three sheep, which he kept in his garden for several years. Carl is much missed and is survived by three sons and two granddaughters.

Andrew Redpath (GL 1952-58) Andrew Redpath died on 16 April 2025, aged 86. His daughter, Leila, sent this tribute.

ndrew was born on 11th March 1939, in Banstead, Surrey. Six months later he would be voyaging out by ship to India. His father, Alexander Redpath (later CBE), was in the Indian Political Service, posted to the breath-taking mountains of the North-West Frontier, where Andrew spent his idyllic early years. India would remain a key part of Dad’s life, right through to retirement when he ran a charity, Jeevika Trust, for sustainable village life. In 1946, aged just seven, Andrew came back to England to boarding school, in Broadstairs at first, followed by Canterbury, where he attended The King’s School. Here he shone as an allrounder and eventually became Head of Galpin’s House and a Classics scholar. As young children, we were fascinated by stories of his days at King’s, especially those relating to the privileges senior prefects had to enlist the free labour of younger pupils! In 1958, Andrew was offered an exhibition to Trinity College, Oxford. His parents and headmaster, Canon Shirley, decided he should OKS

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read Law instead of Classics, which, fortunately, resulted in a wonderful 32-year career with Gillette Industries. He rose to become Director of Legal and Government Affairs, Eastern Hemisphere, a role he relished for its intellectual stimulation and travel opportunities to India, Pakistan, Iran, Morocco, the US, Europe and more. This experience with brands – including Papermate and Oral B – meant that he was perfectly placed to become a founder member and eventually Chairman of the British Brands Group, which still goes strong today. In life, as at school, Dad was many things – incredibly practical, a carpenter, a poet and a spiritual thinker. He was kind, loving and encouraging to others, and in turn, muchloved. He is survived by his wife, Christine, by three children from his first marriage, and two grandchildren, Elena and Zara.

LIVES REMEMBERED

Martin Mansergh

Left: Christopher Pringle

(LN 1960-65) Martin George Southcote Mansergh died on 26 September 2025, aged 78.

artin joined the School from St Faith’s, Cambridge and was a Scholar, monitor and tennis player. He appeared in the 1965 Tempest and Chris Gillespie in The Cantuarian noted: “Mansergh, hampered by a costume that recalled Dick Whittington, did well as Caliban.” He won an Open Scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford and his degree in PPE was followed by a DPhil in 18th century French History. As his father Nicholas Mansergh was a noted historian of the Commonwealth, India and Ireland and a Cambridge professor, it might have seemed that an academic career was beckoning. Instead he joined the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs in 1974 and moved into politics as an adviser on Northern Ireland to successive Taoisigh of Fianna Fáil. It was in that role that he helped open back-channel talks between the Irish government and Sinn Féin / Provisional Irish Republican Army in the late 1980s and early 1990s – work which underpinned the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Elected to the Seanad in 2002 and then to the Dáil for Tipperary South in 2007, he served as Minister of State between 2008 and 2011, holding responsibilities including Tourism, Culture and Sport and Public Works. His scholarship continued with publications such as The Legacy of History for Making Peace in Ireland (2003) and his later role on the advisory group for the Decade of Centenaries reflected his deep interest in the intersection of history, identity and reconciliation. Martin is survived by his wife Elizabeth, their five children and twelve grandchildren, and by his brother Nicholas (LN 1964-68). Among the many obituaries were those in The Irish Times (6 October) and The Times (16 October). Colleagues across the political spectrum remembered him as a thoughtful intellectual and steady agent of peace whose impact will be felt for generations. 40

Christopher Pringle (GL 1961-65) Christopher died on 15 February 2025, aged 78. His family sent this tribute.

hristopher followed his brothers Robert (Robin) and William (Bill) to King’s, but whereas they had been at Luxmoore, in 1960 he entered Galpin’s. After leaving King’s in 1965 Christopher joined a firm of Lloyds Underwriters as a junior but eventually decided not to pursue a career in the City, opting instead for the rough and tumble of life as an entrepreneur. Christopher devoted his working life to English Language and business skills training. Together with others, in 1973 he founded the Frances King School of English in Kensington. From that time until his death he steadily built up the school, buying out his original partners and adding several other schools and colleges to his portfolio. This included several highly reputable secretarial and business colleges, notably Lucie Clayton, Queen’s Secretarial College, Langham Secretarial College, London College of Secretaries, St James’s Secretarial College as well as the University Tutorial College, an O & A level college in Russell Square, London. OKS

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Right: Gavin Wilson

Concurrently he incorporated and merged three of the most prominent secretarial and finishing schools in London to form Quest Professional. He was a founding member of the Quality English accreditation board – an institution that has done much to set and maintain standards in this field. Chris’s innovative ideas and his kindly manner made him an inspiring and dynamic person to work with. As regards his teaching methods, he aimed to create an environment where learning takes place through an interactive process rather than the conventional model where the teacher talks at the front of the class while students take notes. His leadership and entrepreneurial skills were tested to the full by Covid in 2020-21. Whereas many private schools were forced out of business, Christopher’s steadfastness and dedication helped the schools and colleges under his control to survive. They all still exist. Taking all these schools together, the total number of students taught during Christopher’s management is in the region of 225,000. Christopher was a quiet, gentle person who was passionate about education for post schoolleavers. He is survived by his wife Olwen, whom he married in 1993, and their two sons – Frederick (b. 1996) and William (b. 2000).

Gavin Wilson (GR 1965-70)

In his last year he became Captain of School, an unusual choice for a boy who was not always an outstanding sportsman. With a degree from St Andrews University in 1973, he started his working life as a council street cleaner where we met once – Gavin wielding his corporation broom beside his City of Westminster barrow. This was not a permanent career, however, and so, after gaining a PGCE qualification from Goldsmiths’ College, he started teaching at St Nicholas School in Shepperton. It was here that, with his wife, Liz, he developed his passion for writing, producing and directing big scale school plays. These had huge casts, original musical scores and strong social messages including poverty, evacuation and suffragism. This creativity continued when he became Headteacher of Ashford Park C of E School producing yet more plays. He was seconded to a school in special measures which he was able to ‘turn round’ in short order before retiring in 2010. He was now able to indulge his love of Venice, which he and Liz visited 14 times, and for the theatre where they were regular visitors to London’s West End. Gavin was an inspiring teacher and encouraged several of his students to become professional actors through the plays he created and staged. He was always wise and humorous company at the many restaurants he enjoyed with friends and family. He leaves his beloved wife, Liz, two stepchildren, five grandchildren and many, many devoted friends and former colleagues.

Gavin Wilson died on 3 June 2025, aged 72. His friend, Philip Osman (GR 1964-69) sent this tribute.

y lifelong friend, Gavin Wilson, and I first met at King’s in 1965 when he soon showed his strong musical and thespian talents. He appeared in many school productions especially during King’s Week using his clear and powerful voice while both singing and speaking.

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Left: David Miller rehearsing The Curmudgeon, 1975

David Miller (Common Room 1962-76) David John Duppa Miller died on 2 April 2025, aged 89. Andrew Maynard (WL 1972-76) sent this tribute.

avid had been a boy at the Dragon School, then at Westminster. At Trinity College, Cambridge, he took a First in Classics, then read Theology. After King’s he was appointed Head of Classics at Bristol Grammar School, and on retiring he taught for some years in the Classics department at Bristol University. His academic background, and his energy, had given him a profound knowledge of the languages and a wide acquaintance with the literature. He was an outstanding teacher. Of course, people can be outstanding teachers in very different ways. To my mind what made him exceptional and an inspiring role model (not just as a Classicist) were the following: his massive integrity, both moral 42

and intellectual, his fascination with the ancient world, so rapidly and easily conveyed, and above all his total commitment to those whom he taught. It was perhaps in reading texts with us that he was most remarkable. In this the onus lay almost entirely on the student to prepare a certain number of lines for each lesson, i.e. make an attempt to work out what they meant. No vocabulary lists were provided, and we had to use dictionaries. He produced no official translation. This was terrific training for the budding Classicist. What was so special about David in these lessons? He made no attempt to dazzle with his learning, he did not entertain the troops with humorous banter, I cannot remember ever coming out of his lesson thinking “What an amazing display by DJDM – what a brilliant teacher he is!” He would have disdained such behaviour. His aim, I think, was to arrange matters so that we the students worked out for ourselves (with his guidance) the translation and then the significance and depth of what we were reading. OKS

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So the homework preparation and the lessons themselves were adventures, as we explored the (to us) terra incognita of great literature. It was relentlessly exciting. And it would not have been possible without him. He set the tone. He put on no display, but his intense emotional and intellectual commitment to what we were reading was unmistakeable and, because of the strength of his personality, highly infectious. You could never, ever, be bored in his lessons. And you could not leave any of his lessons without thinking that you had just spent 40 minutes doing something deeply worthwhile. Such study was not just about preparing for exams. It could change your life. Here are three further distinctive features of his teaching. He insisted on idiomatic translation, on the grounds that the Greeks and Romans we were reading about were, in most respects, just like us. Secondly, if a pupil was struggling over a word, he would not tell you what it meant, but would give you a clue, and make you do the rest. So you had to do the thinking, which was not only good training, but also rewarding. This feature, of helping pupils to discover something for themselves, goes to the heart of what he was doing as a teacher. Thirdly, he was as attentive to those who struggled with Latin and Greek as to the strong. He was never impatient with those who found it difficult but encouraged them by enabling them to succeed and then praising them for doing so.

Right: John Sugden

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Alongside Maurice Milner he coached the fencing team, at a time when it had considerable national success. Outside the classroom, he regularly coached boys for the Kent Classical Reading competitions, and every other year, during King’s Week, he produced and directed a classical comedy (Aristophanes, Plautus or Terence) in the Memorial Court – his last production being Menander’s Dyskolos. It was typical of David that he involved boys in the production from the start – in 1975 we read the Menander (in Greek) in class and then made our own translation – taking about a hundred lines each, I suppose. No doubt he polished up our efforts, but there was no question of his doing it all for us, let alone of our

using the Penguin translation! David’s main interest outside Classics was music, especially the bassoon. He met Ida through their shared interest in the instrument, and she taught the bassoon at King’s. She survives him along with his three sons, Toby, Luke and Amos. David died in his 90th year. I am glad that I visited him recently, and that I had the opportunity to tell him how much he had influenced my life, and what a difference he must have made to countless individual pupils in boosting their confidence, and in conveying so infectiously the delights of the life of the mind.

John Sugden (Common Room 1967-86) John Brayshaw Sugden died on Easter Sunday, 20 April 2025, aged 84.

ohn was educated at Bradford Grammar School and St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and after four years at Portsmouth Grammar School joined the King’s School Modern Languages Department in 1967. He was the epitome of the all-round schoolmaster. Head of French and then of Modern Languages, he produced plays and was King’s Week Manager, did a stint in the CCF, was involved with Athletics and in charge of Cross Country. He was housemaster of School House from 1973 to 1985 and among many other achievements there he pioneered the attachment of sixth form girls to boys boarding houses.

As Head of French he appointed Marie-France Pignol to be French assistante for the year 1969-70. They were married at Puylaurens, near Toulouse, in August 1971. “Just shows”, he told Headmaster Peter Newell, “how seriously Senior Subject Masters and Assistantes take their job.” 43

LIVES REMEMBERED

He left in 1986 to be Vice-Principal of Newcastleunder-Lyme School (1986-89) and then became Headmaster of Leicester Grammar School (19892001). In ‘retirement’ he joined the Independent Schools Inspectorate. In his valedictory tribute for The Cantuarian Stephen Woodward noted that on John’s arrival “here was a ‘véritable force de la nature’; the keen eye, the springy tread, the decisive speech with its hint of Northern stubbornness all announced a man who was going places; ‘low profile’ did not come into his otherwise extensive vocabulary.” The King’s School was fortunate to enjoy and benefit from his company for so long. Many tributes have been received. More can be seen on the OKS Facebook group. Nick Brown (MR 1970-74): A splendid teacher who somehow inculcated sufficient knowledge of the language into me to get me a German ‘O’ level. My most significant memory of ‘Twiggy’ however is of a cross country event. At some point on the course I was gaining on one of the Harrovian runners when I became aware of Twiggy on the side of the course. As I passed he offered encouragement in his own unique style. Whether “go on Brown you ruddy great yob” was intended to encourage me to barge my opponent into a hedge I don’t know but he certainly didn’t upbraid me for the unwitnessed offence. Felix Binggeli (SH 1973-77): RIP Mr Sugden – my house master from 1973 to 77. My mother was worried that I didn’t write home to Austria, but he told her not to worry; if they don’t write they are usually happy. My abiding memory of him was showing me how to use the OKS Room on Saturdays. It had a TV (!) and allowed me the pleasure of watching footie focus and in the evening Starsky and Hutch and then Match of the Day! As a foreigner coming to England those were key impressions and joyous moments of freedom. Sarah Gurr (SH 1974-76): Such a caring and compassionate man – and one who, with his wife Marie-France, welcomed us, the first three girls (Sarah, Sarah and Linda) to SH. He also encouraged me academically and helped me to develop social skills. 44

Nicholas Clements (Headmaster 2008-10) Nicholas Clements died on 10 June 2025, aged 68.

ducated at the Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham, and at Magdalene College, Cambridge, Nicholas joined the Army and then took up teaching. After seven years at Eton College and five at Wells Cathedral School, he became Headmaster of Pocklington School in 2000. He joined King’s as Headmaster in January 2008 and left in July 2010. The valedictory tribute from the 2009-10 Cantuarian noted: “He was first and foremost a man of great personal integrity with a strong Christian faith. He was conscious that the School was very privileged to be part of the Cathedral foundation and he always saw the community of School and Cathedral as one. His personal qualities were exemplified in those areas of school life in which he took a particular interest. He enjoyed teaching Mathematics, he was responsible for the revival of the CCF, he was a regular presence on boundary and touch-line and he was ready to concern himself with minutiae such as the etiquette of flagraising. The two articles he wrote for the staff magazine were about Montgomery as a military commander and about Saint Anselm. He must also have been the first Head to run in the InterHouse Cross Country.” On leaving Canterbury he undertook two international headships, in Dubai and in Washington DC. In 2014 he became Proprietor and Headmaster of Bronte School, Gravesend. He retired as Head in 2017, but continued as Proprietor. He leaves a widow, Fenella, and three children, Lucinda, Oliver and Dominic.

Above: Nicholas Clements

IN MEMORIAM Chris Pitcher (GR 1940-44) 26 February 2025 Miranda Ponsonby (GR 1946-50) 8 October 2024 Dee Locke (LX 1955-58) 8 June 2025 Roger Khanna (WL 1959-64) 22 October 2024 OKS

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Remembrance: 1925 and 1945 1925 This year’s Remembrance Day service commemorated the centenary of the unveiling and dedication of the First World War memorial plaque. On Armistice Day 1925 – “a bitterly cold and wet morning”, reported The Cantuarian – the Archbishop of Canterbury Randall Davidson performed the ceremony and delivered a short address. The Archbishop’s original speech is in the School Archives and extracts were read on Sunday 9 November 2025: It is our proud bereavement, in deliberate hope, to commemorate the achievements of these great years in the doings of our Country’s sons, and to-day particularly in the history, the OKS

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present-day history, of our great School. Could we do it any way more fitly than by setting in the midst of our School life this upstanding Cross which was solemnly dedicated four years ago? And now we have added, upon our grey wall, the record which preserves for the generations which are hereafter to spend their school years here the names of those whom the School delighteth to honour.

1945 On 8 May 1945 (VE Day), Field Marshal Montgomery wrote a letter to the Headmaster John Shirley enclosing a copy of the ‘Personal Message from the C-in-C’ signed in red ink. In a postscript he noted: “I find this captured German paper very useful!!” Five months later Montgomery read the lesson at ‘A Service of Thanksgiving for the preservation of The King’s School during the late war, and for its safe return to Canterbury’ held in the Cathedral on 20 October. 45

Sport Weathering the Storm at the Arrow Trophy 2025 Kate Chernyshov (SH 1984-86) reports on the OKS entry in this year’s Arrow Trophy competition.

he forecast on Friday predicted the arrival of Storm Amy so we made an early start from Port Hamble and spent several hours tacking and gybing round markers in the Solent, which was strangely empty with all distant shorelines obscured in the gloom and squalls. Andy kept us alert to imaginary competitors and practising tactics for the race. Strong gusts prevented any spinnaker hoists. The storm was developing as forecast and by 4pm we were safely in Shepards Marina in Cowes, sinking our first beers to the sound of rain slashing on the decks. The Arrow Briefing confirmed that there would be no racing at all on Saturday, so Andy generously provided a plan B which involved hiking up to St Catherine’s Oratory and watching the storm force winds lash the coastline. We were back in Cowes for dinner at the Royal Ocean Racing Club, swapping school stories and memories of Canterbury. Sunday morning brought three races in stiff winds and sunshine with a rather choppy

sea state. The Race committee mandated no spinnakers and one reef, so we knew we were in for some fast times. Our approach to the start line in the first race was a little delayed while we made a change to our sail plan and let out our second reef. Despite some great team work we couldn’t recover from our position at the back of the fleet. Race Two, with Andy on helm, started at the same time as a very strong gust that threw the fleet into a hasty reconfiguration and the King’s boat was lucky to emerge unscathed although once more at the back of the fleet. Goosewinging downwind saw Nathan holding the genoa by hand, showing some admirable core strength. For Race Three, Nathan took on the helm, with Jonathan on the bow and Nick maintaining his stance in the cockpit, handling mainsheet and vang like a Roman charioteer. With a good start and excellent teamwork and encouraging instruction from Oliver, we moved up the fleet. We gave a light kiss to the committee boat as we rounded it and made good speed until we had a brief encounter with another boat playing outlandishly aggressive tactics. A smooth recovery and a bit of retaliatory wind-shadowing brought us to a finish halfway up the fleet. Thanks again to Andrew Dean for taking on the management of our Arrow Trophy entry for another year and giving the crew an opportunity to sail among friends and represent the OKS. OKS

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Left page: OKS sailors Right page: the OKS football team

friends, making new ones from different A new era for OKS Sports old year groups, or simply lacing up your boots

GET INVOLVED There are several existing OKS sports clubs including football, sailing, fencing, rowing and rugby. If you’re interested in joining a club or learning more about fixtures, please visit the ‘clubs’ page on kings-association .co.uk If you’d like to get involved in establishing something new, please contact Ollie Mann via the King’s Association website.

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Ollie Mann (LN 2011-16) introduces himself as the new OKS Sports Representative.

uring my time at school, I was fortunate to represent the 1st teams in Rugby, Football, and Cricket, which gave me some of my fondest memories of King’s. Today, I work in the world of sport, selling sponsorships to global brands. Since leaving school, I have continued to keep sport at the centre of my life, representing the OKS Football Club for the past five years, playing for the OKS Cricket Team, and more recently spending plenty of time out on the golf course with friends. For me, sport is about more than just competition. It provides connection, escapism, and a sense of community. Whether it is meeting

on a Saturday morning, sport offers that rare opportunity to switch off from the pressures of the week and immerse yourself in something positive. That is why I wanted to take on the role of OKS Sports Representative. My ambition is simple, to grow participation in OKS sport, launch new clubs and competitions, and give OKS more chances to reconnect with King’s and with each other. Playing sport through the OKS is open to everyone, whatever level you are at. OKS sport has so much to offer, fitness, fun, friendship, and even networking in a relaxed setting. Over the coming year, I am keen to build new initiatives and to create more opportunities for OKS sport to be a central part of our community, including a greater presence at King’s Week next summer. 47

The Development Office The Old Grange, The King’s School, Canterbury, Kent CT1 2ES Email: oks@kings-school.co.uk kings-association.co.uk Registered Charity No. 307942