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Distinguished international surgeon Kamran Baig returned to QE to give a speech at the Sixth Form Luncheon – and explained that it was his way of saying ‘thank you’.

Kamran (OE 1984–1991) has performed more than 2,000 heart operations, published 30 papers and delivered numerous international presentations, as well as lecturing at some of the world’s leading medical schools.

Yet, as he explained when he wrote to the School after the event, it had long been an ambition of his to return to QE – an ambition that had previously been thwarted only by his busy work schedule. “As I alluded to in my talk, gratitude is an essential quality and this was my way of expressing gratitude to QE for providing me with a platform on which to go on to greater heights.”

“It was an absolute pleasure and privilege to come back and share my experiences and reflections with the boys and staff.”

Now a consultant cardiac surgeon at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, Kamran lives in Barnet with his wife and four children.

Kamran’s speech covered many areas, but one of his observations was that he has learnt the importance of family and that he recognises the debt he owes this country for educating him and enabling him to qualify. As a result, he has turned down a number of opportunities including some very well-paid jobs in the US.

Around 150 Year 12 boys and staff attended the luncheon, during which he gave an entertaining and inspiring speech about his career.

When Kamran was at QE, the School was a very different place, with few boys progressing to degree-level disciplines such as medicine. He was a cross-country champion, representing Barnet in the All London Championships, and was Chess Captain, as well as representing the School at cricket.

After leaving QE, he obtained a first in Cardiovascular Science at King’s College London. He also excelled in cricket – his passion – captaining the King’s Cricket team.

After qualifying in 1997, he began his medical career as House Physician at Northwick Park Hospital, followed by the Professorial House Surgeon post at King’s College Hospital. After trying his hand at neurosurgery in Cambridge, he opted instead for cardiothoracic surgery in Southampton. He completed his Basic Surgical Training at University College & The Middlesex Hospitals and was awarded his Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons in 2000 (when he became Mr Baig again, instead of Dr Baig).

He then embarked upon a research scholarship at the leading surgical research institution in the United States, Duke University in North Carolina. He won the Bayer Fellowship Prize in 2002 – one of only two awarded in the United States – and was the first British recipient. He conducted pioneering basic science and translational research on cardiac surgery, which formed the basis of his Doctorate of Medicine, awarded by Imperial College London. He completed his higher surgical training across London at King’s, Royal Brompton & Harefield, Barts and Hammersmith Hospitals.

He has lectured and tutored students at the following medical schools: Oxford & Cambridge, Duke, Imperial, UCL & Bart’s and King’s.

In 2010 he co-founded the London Core Review Course in Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons London, attended by surgeons from around the globe. His latest initiative is a bespoke course for mentoring students for medical school applications and interviews.

After his visit, he offered to help boys individually who are seeking advice and to return to talk to the boys in the future on science and medicine-related topics.

Five QE old boys have teamed up to run the Paris Marathon for charity next month – the first time any of them have competed at such a distance.

Adeel Haque, Alister Heywood, Simon Nikolov, Jake Sittampalam and Jonathan Bradshaw, who were all at QE from 2005–2012, hope to raise £4,000 for The Children’s Trust, the UK’s leading charity for children with brain injury.

“As keen sportsmen who continued to remain active and play sport after leaving QE, we decided in September last year that we might like to complete a marathon at some point, despite our collective shortage of long-distance running history,” said Adeel.  “We were inspired by The Children’s Trust, a cause close to Simon’s heart in particular.” After an exchange of emails, the aspiration very quickly became a reality, with the charity offering the QE contingent, plus another friend, Parisian Clément Chenut, six places in the marathon on Sunday 12th April.

“Training has been hard through the winter months but is going pretty well and we are all quietly confident of finishing in at least respectable times. However, there does remain some trepidation for all of us as this is the first-ever marathon that any of us have attempted,” adds Adeel. Jonathan, Jake and Adeel went on a pre-season tour with the University of Warwick Men’s Cricket Club in Barbados and so were able to continue their training in warmer climates.

“Having known each other for almost ten years now (since September 2005 when we joined QE), our friendship goes back a long way. Simon, Alister, Jonny and I became friends whilst playing rugby together for the School, and Jake, Jonny and I all represented the School at cricket. We were, of course, also in many of the same classes together.”

“Despite the challenge ahead of us, we remain motivated by knowing that we are raising money for an excellent cause. We hope to reach our £4,000 fundraising target before long and so any donations from fellow QE alumni would be greatly appreciated!”

The group’s fundraising page is http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/QEParisMarathon

Adeel also provided an update on each of the QE runners. All are in their final year at university, with four of them at the University of Warwick and the fifth, Alister Heywood, at York.

• Adeel Haque and Simon Nikolov are both studying History. Adeel is due to commence his training contract with multinational law firm Baker & McKenzie in September 2017 after the completion of legal qualification courses at the University of Law, Moorgate. Simon aspires to become a commercial lawyer upon completion of his degree.
• Alister Heywood and Jake Sittampalam are both reading English Literature. Alister plans to go into marketing/PR.
• Jonathan Bradshaw is an Economics undergraduate and upon the completion of his degree, he will take up a position with FTI Consulting.

Pictured left to right are four of the group: Alister, Jake, Adeel and Jonathan.

2015 is fast becoming an annus mirabilis for George Mpanga, or George the Poet, as he is now better known. Already a favourite on youtube, George has soared to new heights in his career in the past three months.

His politically and socially motivated work earned him a runner-up spot in the 2015 Brits Critics’ Choice Award. Soon after, George (OE 2002-2009) came fifth in the prestigious and influential BBC Sound of 2015 competition and tenth in MTV’s Brand New for 2015 competition. In each competition, he was competing as a poet against a field that comprised largely musicians: previous winners of the Brits Critics and the BBC awards include Adele and Sam Smith.

His first poetry collection, Search Party, was published in February. George appeared at the Penguin Random House 2015 conference and discussed the book on BBC Radio 2.

His first headline tour, to venues from Glasgow to Brighton, completely sold out, so he has added an extra date, at the London Scala venue at King’s Cross on 14th April.

He was invited on to BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House programme to discuss the day’s news and has also featured in several broadsheet newspapers since the start of the year.

George’s video for the Prince’s Trust highlighting the emotional problems faced by young people has been published. The video features his poem, Only One You, which was written in response to the Prince’s Trust 2015 Youth Index, which found that one in every ten youths felt so anxious that they were unable to leave the house and more than half worried about everyday situations.

And in February he featured in a BBC Radio 1 documentary. He hit the headlines after calling people who joke about autism “ignorant” in the radio programme. George’s own brother, Kenny, was diagnosed with autism at the age of seven. “It’s not something that should be cured or fixed. It’s a point of difference which should be appreciated and understood. The rest of my brothers and I had to realise that the way we tease each other might not be fair for Kenny,” he added.

After gaining A grades in English Literature, Sociology and Politics A-levels, George won a place at King’s College, Cambridge, to read Politics, Psychology and Sociology (PPS). He was elected Chair of King’s College Student Union.

His early career high spots included winning a £16,000 prize from The Stake competition, sponsored by Barclays and Channel Four. The prize funded a series of poetry workshops called The Jubilee Line (TJL) aimed at empowering underprivileged young people.

George’s work is forceful and uncompromising, turning a spotlight unflinchingly on a society which he sees as intrinsically unjust and tackling issues including marginalisation and dysfunctional family life.

MTV’s head of music, Anna Karatziva, who voted for George in the Sound Of 2015, called him “engaging and mesmerising”.

“No matter what he is talking about, you find yourself clinging to his every word and the venue always erupts when he breaks into song.”

George previously performed as MC Shawalin, before deciding to focus on the spoken word.

Only four years after graduating from Oxford, Andrew Kramer has already put his desire to help young people develop their skills into practice in three different countries.

He has developed an e-learning app, taught in China and, in his current role with global business consultancy McKinsey & Company, has worked with clients focusing on education and young people.

Andrew (OE 2001-2008) got in touch with QE after being impressed at the calibre of current QE Year 13 pupil Bilal Hussain, whom he met at the McKinsey Leadership Academy.

He wrote to the Headmaster: “I was thrilled not only to hear about how QE continues to thrive, but also because of a wonderful conversation I had with Bilal about what leadership means.” He and Bilal compared notes on their respective ambitions for the future. The academy involves a two-day residential workshop for sixth-formers, followed by another residential the following year and the opportunity to enter a competition for a leadership award.

After leaving QE, Andrew read History at Jesus College, Oxford, from 2008 to 2011. He then spent ten months teaching and lecturing English Language and British and American literature at Hengshui University, Hebei, northern China.

In 2013, he worked at a technology start-up in Berlin to develop Unlock Your Brain, an e-learning app for Android phones.

Later that year, he joined McKinsey in London as a consultant. “I have served a real mix of private, public and social sector clients. I have tended to focus on clients in the City, in Whitehall, or those with a focus on education and young people, reflecting my interest in building young people’s skills.”

Andrew, who has offered to visit the School to speak to current pupils, is currently on an assignment in Trinidad & Tobago, working with a client in oil and gas, and “exploring the beauty of the Caribbean”.

QE contemporaries Joseph Masters and Priyank Patel have amassed a remarkable collection of accolades during their medical studies.

The pair, who were both at the School from 2004 until 2011, have won no fewer than eight awards and scholarships between them, with a record of success that began as early as their very first term.

Joseph and Priyank are at ‘Barts and The London’ (The London School of Medicine and Dentistry), which is the medical school faculty at Queen Mary University of London.

Priyank has passed all three years of his medicine course so far with distinction, which means he is in the top 10% of students in the year. He is intercalating this year in Medical Education, having completed the third year of the medicine course last year, which was his first clinical year. (UK medical students are permitted to intercalate, that is take a break from studying from their main medical degree, in order to pursue a separate but related research degree, normally for one year).

“This year, as part of my Medical Education BSc, I am undertaking a research project evaluating the current patterns and practices of educational supervision in postgraduate medical education in England,” he says.

Joseph intercalated in Neuroscience last year, gaining his BSc, and has now started his first year of clinical medicine. “I am thoroughly enjoying the clinical placements and the more practical side of things, which gives me the opportunity to apply the knowledge built in the first two years of the course,” he said. “I’m looking to pursue a career in academic neurology, combining research with clinical practice.”

After their first-term examinations, both OEs secured recently established scholarships that are awarded according to a combination of merit and financial need – specifically, for the top two medical students whose household income was less than a certain level. They are worth £3,500 for each of the five years of the course, subject to the holders’ satisfactory progress each year.

Joseph won The John Abernethy Scholarship, which commemorates the founder of the Barts Medical College, who lived between 1764 and 1831. Priyank gained The Dean Rees Scholarship, which is named after Dame Lesley Rees, the emeritus Professor of Chemical Endocrinology and Consultant Physician and the first female Dean of the Medical College of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, who led the College to its merger as part of Queen Mary University of London in 1995.

The pair also won merit-based awards from a City of London livery company, The Worshipful Company of Tallow Chandlers, to support their year intercalating.

In addition, Priyank has gained these awards, based on his academic performance over the past three years:

• James Knott Family Trust, Intercalated Award.
• Barts and The London Alumni Association Intercalated Award.

And Joseph has won the following:

• Association of British Neurologists’ Intercalated Degree Award – which is awarded to just two medical students nationally.
• A merit-based award from the Eleanor Rathbone Charitable Trust, again for his year intercalating.

Antony Pink has realised a long-standing ambition to become an entrepreneur with the launch of his own mobile start-up company, Laundrapp.

Antony (OE 2000–2007) was a keen rugby-player at School and was then known as Kishan, having subsequently begun using his middle name, Antony, instead.

Since leaving QE to study Business Management at Nottingham University, a fascination with business has been a constant theme of his life. While at Nottingham, he was involved in business start-up societies and says it was already in his mind that he would one day like to launch a business of his own.

After university, Antony joined multinational management consultancy Accenture as a strategy consultant, where he worked in financial services.

Nearly four years later, he took the decision to leave a secure job and instead start Laundrapp with two business partners. They have raised £1.5million of seed funding from well-known investors Rupert Hambro (former Chairman of Hambros Bank) and Dominic Perks.

Laundrapp offers customers a door-to-door laundry and dry-cleaning collection and delivery service. It is currently operating in London and moving into five other UK cities.

“The business has only been trading for five months, but is already doing well and is the market leader in its field,” says Antony, who is Laundrapp’s Chief Operating Officer. One of Laundrapp’s strategies has been to advertise heavily and to invest in PR. A six-figure marketing investment has resulted in TV and radio commercials, online and outdoor advertising, posters on the Underground (in stations and in trains). Features in the Daily Telegraph, Guardian and Daily Mail, as well as articles in the specialist business and technology press, have also formed part of the marketing mix.

Laundrapp is available on iOS (iPhone/iPad) and Android.

Matteo Yoon (OE 2003-10) sent Alumni News this photo of a recent meal which brought together a number of Old Elizabethans all studying at Cambridge.

Organised by Yemi Ogunyemi and Bilal Khan, the meal was held at Bilal’s college, Sidney Sussex. All of those pictured were at QE in broadly the same period as Matteo.

Since the meal a few months ago, Matteo, School Captain in 2009-10, has spent time travelling in Australia. Having graduated in Law from Pembroke, he has now started the post-graduate Legal Practice Course at BPP Law School, through which he will qualify as a solicitor. Matteo is due to return to QE in July this year to be the guest speaker at the Junior Awards Ceremony.

Also among those pictured are:

• Adam Kuo, the son of current QE Chemistry teacher Dr Elizabeth Kuo, who, Matteo reports, is completing his Master’s degree at Christ’s College
• Pawan Katta, who is on the Assurance Graduate Scheme at professional services firm PwC and is working towards becoming a chartered accountant
• Nicholas Niem, who is currently Publicity Officer for the Association of British and Chinese University Students (ABACUS).

From left to right, the diners are: Adam Kuo (Christ’s – Natural Sciences); Sagar Thanki (Selwyn – Economics); Pawan Katta (Trinity – Economics); Alastair Macfarlane (Fitzwilliam –Natural Sciences);  Charlie Scutt (Girton – Geography); Rowan de Souza (Clare – Medicine); Nicholas Niem (Homerton – Engineering); Eigo Takeda (St John’s – Mathematics); Yemi Ogunyemi (Pembroke – Engineering ); Bilal Khan (Sidney Sussex – Theology and Religious Studies) and Matteo Yoon (Pembroke – Law).

Daniel Isenberg (OE 1999-2006), who has won a string of law prizes and academic scholarships, is now working towards becoming a barrister after a brief spell as a civil servant.

These include first place in a competition run jointly by the Guardian and the influential UK Supreme Court Blog for his essay entitled Do we need more or fewer dissenting voices in the UK Supreme Court?

“So far, so good with the career change (perhaps chiefly because I’m yet to start properly!) – and it’s always reassuring bumping into another OE around the Inns of Court,” he says. These legal alumni include Daniel’s QE contemporary, Peter Morcos, as well as barrister Tom Cleaver.

While at QE, Daniel achieved 12 straight A* grades at GCSE (including being in the top five in the country for German and in the top ten for History and Mathematics) and then earned a distinction in his English Advanced Extension Award before going on to gain straight As in his A-levels.

Daniel’s legal interest was stimulated during his 2006-2007 gap year, when he studied Jewish Law at the Yeshivat Har Etzion, a seminary in Israel.

He went up to Pembroke College in 2007, where he took a double first in History, focusing on the history of political thought. He gained a number of accolades at Cambridge, including being elected as a Scholar. (He was twice awarded a Foundation Scholarship.)

Daniel then spent two years as a fast-stream graduate Civil Servant at the Ministry of Defence, before deciding to switch careers to go into Law.

He excelled at City University London, coming first in his year studying for the Graduate Diploma in Law, then going on to the Bar Professional Training Course, also at City. During this period, he has again stood out among his peers: his prizes and awards include the City Law School Prize for Excellence (Highest Mark for an Intending Barrister) and the City GDL Mooting Competition, in which he beat 100 other entrants in the mock judicial proceedings, with the final judged by Lord Mance, a justice of the Supreme Court.

Currently a member and scholar of Middle Temple (Inn of Court), after some further post-graduate academic legal studies, he will be starting his pupillage in September 2015 at Brick Court Chambers, which specialises in commercial, EU/competition and public/human rights law.

David Pardoe’s memoirs give a fascinating insight of his long years at QE, from arrival at the age of just nine in 1942 – which proved to be quite literally the dark days of war for the pupils – to his departure at the dawn of a new Elizabethan age.

Now retired and living in Australia, David took an electrical engineering degree at Queen Mary College, London, on leaving QE in July 1952.

National Service followed: in 1955, he joined the RAF and was commissioned as Pilot Officer, Technical Signals Branch, and posted to Bempton on the east Yorkshire coast. On promotion to Flying Officer, he was moved to Linton-on-Ouse, just north of York, where he stayed until demobilisation in 1957.

He then forged a successful career at the forefront of telecommunications, joining Standard Telephones and Cables (STC) at New Southgate, where he was one of a team designing STRAD, a new type of message-switching system. This eventually took him to Mauritius to commission the first installation of a new type of message-switching system for the Royal Navy and then to Sydney to oversee the handover of a further two systems for the Royal Australian Army.

While in Australia he met his future wife, whom he married in Sydney in 1964. He returned to England the following year with his wife. For ten years, he worked for STC on computer-based communication systems. But in 1975, he and his wife decided to make a change. “Our family moved to Sydney, ‘on spec’, without a job or a house or school to go to. Eventually, I took a technical/marketing job with AWA, a communications company and in 1984 joined a consultancy firm as research manager from which I retired, at age 71, in 2003.”

Today he and his wife, a retired nurse and social worker, live in St Ives, a northern suburb of Sydney. His two sons both work in IT.

In his memoirs, David, who is pictured above in his mid-20s, devotes many pages to memories of QE which remain crystal-clear more than six decades later.

Born in 1932, in his younger years he lived with his parents and brother in Crown Lane, Southgate, north London. “The county boundary ran down the centre of the road—I was on the appropriate side to be eligible for Queen Elizabeth’s…

“In 1942, when I was enrolled, I knew nothing of its history or achievements but was only aware that my father wanted me fixed up in a secondary school before he went overseas with the RAF. Accordingly, one morning I went along to the school with mum, took the Entrance Exam and went home.  A few weeks later my parents were told that I had passed and that there would be a place for me in September 1942, when I was still nine.”

The School had moved to its site at Queen’s Road only ten years before, with classrooms that were, in David’s words, “designed to be large and bright and airy”.

“However, this was not possible under wartime conditions, which required that splinter-preventing fabric was glued on to each pane of the windows and sand bags were stacked up outside, in some cases restricting the light entering the rooms on the ground floor.”

He soon established his place in the School, which was thriving under the long headmastership of E H Jenkins. The Library fostered his fondness of reading – Agatha Christie was an early favourite – while he devoted many hours to helping backstage with School plays, an outlet for his love of theatre.

His account of Founder’s Day shows that proceedings on that highlight of the QE calendar are to a large extent unchanged today.

“There were two specially empathetic masters, ones whom I could really relate to,” he writes. “The first was Mr Brian Dickson, the Chemistry master. His use of homely analogies to illustrate chemical reactions and concepts was so good that most boys achieved excellent results in the subject, as I did, gaining a Distinction in the School Certificate.

“He was especially nice to me when my mother died, and I still have the letter of sympathy that he wrote to me. I can remember phrases from his letter today and I have used them myself when writing to people who have lost loved ones. He was a devout Christian and was the president of the School Christian Union. He later took holy orders and became a priest.”

“The other master who I got on with, and owe a debt of gratitude to, was Mr A H Raines, whose subjects were Maths and Chemistry. I believe Mr Raines was responsible for turning my school career around. He firstly showed me that I could do Maths. I was always good at arithmetic, but algebra was almost a closed book. I realise now that a minute spent at the beginning of a problem to properly understand it and to seek the method of solving it was the key and this could be applied to many situations in life. Mr Raines showed me this and by doing so let me find out for myself how easy the subject is.”

1952, the year he left School, was the end of an era not only for him, but also for the country:  “On 6 February, a dark, cold and rainy morning, we were called to the Hall at about 11.30 for an Assembly. The Headmaster walked to the rostrum in his usual manner and briefly explained that King George VI had died in his sleep and that there would be no more lessons for that day and we were to go home.  He concluded with a short prayer and declaimed: ‘The King is dead; God save the Queen.’”

David concludes: “I find that, in writing this account of Queen Elizabeth’s, I still have (mainly) fond memories of my teachers, and I appreciate the efforts that they made to create interest in their subject, and admire the way that they put up with some very mischievous behaviour from the boys on some occasions!  It must not have been easy for the School authorities to find teachers of quality under wartime conditions and I thank the Headmaster and the Governors for the job that they did.”

Current QE teacher and old boy of the School, Nicholas Bird, welcomed more than a dozen fellow alumni and colleagues to his wedding on New Year’s Eve.

Nick (OE 1995-2002), is a Physical Education teacher and is in charge of water polo – a sport which has gone from strength to strength at the School in recent years. Several boys have gained national places in the GB water polo squad this term.

He is also a PGCE Professional Mentor at QE, helping trainee teachers, especially those specialising in PE.

Seven old boys and their partners came as guests to his wedding to Samantha, a Metropolitan Police Officer, at Theobalds Park, Waltham Cross.

“They were all from my year group across various houses and now own businesses, work in the media or in the City. Some I would have played rugby with, whilst others were just classmates who I have kept in touch with,” says Nick.

“A number of my friends from School now live abroad in various countries, from Hong Kong and China to Canada and the US, and therefore although they were not able to make it to the wedding, they sent their best wishes – and it was very nice to receive such kind words. We would like to thank the School for all the good wishes and for the gift, which we have put towards an iPad.”

Also at the ceremony at the Georgian mansion were six members of School staff and their partners.

After leaving the Sixth Form, Nick took his first degree in Sports Science and Business Management at Brunel University, one of the UK’s leading universities for sport. He studied on the Graduate Teacher Programme at the University of Hertfordshire and gained his MEd at Middlesex.

The happy couple are looking forward to a summer honeymoon taking in New York, Las Vegas and Barbados.