Month: September 2023
I am sure many of you will never have heard of Ian Charles Gray and it isn’t often I put out an appeal to honour someone.
However, in my many years of service to the Club I have never been so struck by an individual, in particular one I never knew.
Ian suffered life-long disabilities following a car accident soon after he left Sedbergh. For the last ten years he has been in care. He was supported by a fellow Sedberghian, Alistair Pirie, a life-long friend from Hart House days, who made sure his affairs were looked after when Ian found it difficult to manage without assistance. Such are the Sedbergh bonds of friendship.
Ian passed away a few weeks ago and left his estate to the School so that future generations might have opportunities in life that he unfortunately could not have. This gift will have life changing consequences for others.
I will be there at his funeral to honour a man I never knew, whose final act was to help others when he himself had suffered so much. The funeral of this tremendous, very decent, and a most honourable Old Sedberghian, will be held on Friday 6 October at 2.00 pm in the chapel at Whitgift House, 76 Brighton Road, South Croydon CR0 6AB (the care home where he resided).
If you knew him, please join us. If you didn’t know him, please come anyway. He deserves our respect and a last farewell from his fellow Siblings of Sedbergh. If you are coming, please let me know (jcv@sedberghschool.org, 07714 677007).
Jan van der Velde
(Ian Gray is pictured above in his final year at Hart House, left of centre with glasses on the back row).
For many Sedberghians the reassurance of having financial affairs in order can be a great comfort. To mark Free Wills Month in October the Foundation is delighted to launch a new partnership with dedicated will writing service Squiggle. Jan van der Velde, Director of Alumni Development has worked with Squiggle Estate Planning Consultant, Maria Greenwood, for 25 years and highly recommends her work.
Through the partnership with Sedbergh School Foundation, Squiggle will offer both a free dedicated will writing service, and access to their wider paid-for estate planning services. There is no obligation to take up additional services or leave a legacy to Sedbergh School. The will writing service can be delivered over the telephone and via video calls. Alternatively, face-to-face appointments can be arranged for members of the Sedbergh community in the south-east of England. Squiggle will guide clients through the process of writing a will, cutting through the legal jargon and making it a straightforward process. Squiggle are also happy to review existing wills for free to ensure that they are up to date with the needs of each client. All wills created through this scheme are logged with the ‘National Wills Register’ meaning that the wills are transparent and accessible when the time comes. Sedberghians using this service will receive a copy of the will for their own records.
Some Sedberghians chose to remember Sedbergh School in their will and may choose to join the 1525 Society which recognises commitments to leave a legacy to the school. The main priority of fundraising at present is to create opportunities for Roger Lupton Scholarships. Children of exceptional talent who do not have access to the financial resources to make a Sedbergh education accessible are offered 100% scholarships to attend the school. These life changing opportunities are only possible due to the generosity of donors in the Sedbergh community. One of our recent Roger Lupton Scholars reflected this month on his time at school:
If I had not had the opportunity to come to Sedbergh I may be in a completely different place. Sedbergh has given me an advantage of high-level training environments for my sporting endeavour. Despite being a keen academic my concentration in this area wasn’t always consistent, and so the structured, fast paced school terms created an environment where I thrived. The school’s culture is embedded into Sedberghians and people respect this.
Recent decades have seen the benefit of these legacies compounded as past scholars have chosen to ‘give back’ in later life, creating opportunities for young people to benefit as they themselves did. This perpetual giving generates valuable continuity in our efforts to provide life changing opportunities to more young people and means that your legacy will continue to give benefit to the young for generations to come.
If you’d like to learn more about the free will writing service, please contact Maria Greenwood of Squiggle, maria.greenwood@squiggleconsult.co.uk, 01732 92740.
If you’d like to discuss becoming a member of the 1525 Society, or to learn more about it, please contact Jan van der Velde jcv@sedberghschool.org, 07714 677007.
Sedbergh publishes a new book charting the history of the school
‘A History of Sedbergh School 1525 – 2025: ‘Tis the Hills that have stood around us’ is the definitive book charting the history of Sedbergh School, published to mark the 500th anniversary. Sedbergh School was founded by Roger Lupton to provide an academic education and a moral grounding to young people in the parish of Sedbergh. 500 years later the school is world famous and internationally recognised for providing excellence in the classroom, boarding houses, on sports pitches and in the extensive range of extra-curricular activities on offer to our pupils. This book charts the history of Sedbergh School from a one room chantry school to a global brand. The author, Michael Raw, was keen that this book be an accurate account of Sedbergh’s history, not a sanitised version of events. As such, it faithfully records the varying fortunes of the school from its early years during the challenges of the reformation through to the achievements and drama of the later centuries. The rapid Victorian expansion of the school, arrival of the first female teacher, the departure from single sex education, and the loss of not one but two generations in World Wars are recorded in the author’s words, through exerts from contemporary school documents, and in memoirs and letters of characters who lived through these events.
The book will be available from September 2024 and will cost £50 including packing and postage. However, it is available now on pre-sale at a cost of £40.
To order copies of the book click here.