Viewing archives for Alumni Newsletter

The Founder’s Day cricket fixture between the old boys and the current First XI was a keenly fought affair this year – with the School team winning with just one ball to spare.

The Old Elizabethans batted first, amassing 139-6, with Sebastian Feszczur-Hatchett (OE 2007-2014) making an unbeaten 67 and his contemporary, Nikhil Patel, the next highest OE scorer, on 27.

For the School team, Harry Riley and Shahil Sheth both ended their innings not out, with 59 and 40 runs respectively. Between them, they thus put on almost three-quarters of the boys’ final total of 140-4 and saw the School XI through to victory.

The fixture is the annual Stanley Busby Memorial Cricket Match. A similar School vs Old Elizabethans game was played regularly in the early 20th century, but fell into abeyance. It was revived in 1984 for one year only as a retirement ‘gift’ to teacher Eric Shearly. Born in 1920, he was a former pupil who was closely associated with the School for 76 years and devoted much of his life to it. He died in 2005.

Then in 2012 the match was revived permanently by the Headmaster, Neil Enright, and given its present name in honour of the late Mr Busby, who was a QE parent and also a Governor from 1989-2011.

Russell Scott has forged a successful career as a performer, coach, musical theatre director and impresario – all built on his passion for music.

An early starter, by the time he was eight Russell (OE 1985–1988) had already begun his professional music training and at that age secured an entry in the Guinness Book of Records as the youngest member of the Musicians’ Union.

A year later, he had developed a talent as a cabaret organist and made two LPs, as well as appearing internationally on TV programmes including Thames TV’s charity Telethon.

Between the ages of 13 and 18, he established a reputation as an overall entertainer, gaining two residences and performing five nights a week – all while he was still at QE. Although he did not attend music college, he spent his School years studying music, passing examinations with The Royal Schools of Music and attending the well-known Sylvia Young Theatre School.

After leaving QE, he threw himself into his career and, in 1995, after several years performing cabaret around the UK, Russell joined The London Philharmonic Choir. He performed many of the large-scale choral works, including Verdi’s Requiem, Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess, Beethoven’s Choral Symphony, Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony, Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust and Requiem. In addition, he was Librarian and Marketing Manager for the London Philharmonic Choir and became one of its board directors (1997-1999).

Since turning fully professional as a classical music performer in 1999, Russell has sung with many of the UK’s leading choirs and has sung as an opera soloist, performing repertoire ranging from Tavener and Tippett to Puccini’s La Bohème and Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro.

He began voice-coaching in 2000, specialising in musical theatre – projects have included working on the BBC’s Celebrate Oliver! special, on Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and on Les Misérables.

Over the following years, Russell’s career continued to expand. In 2007-2008 he was Artistic Director of Songbirds, where he coached and developed young talent, while in 2008–2009 he co-created and produced The Voice of Tomorrow – a West End project developing and showcasing new talent with support from Channel 4 and The Royal Academy of Music. Russell establish the New Talent Spotlight agency in 2009, dedicated to finding, developing and giving opportunity to emerging professional performers. He has also received regular invitations to act as a judge for competitions around the UK. Russell has produced and directed in the West End and around the country, including shows such as Godspell in Concert.

In 2010, he helped form the Next Stage Choir and was invited to become its Chorus Director. In 2012, Russell and his wife, Denise, took over the choir full-time. Like Russell, she has been performing from an early age and has played many leading theatre roles. However, she combines her musical career with a talent for baking and has created a cake business.

In 2013, Russell became Chorus Director of Waddesdon Manor Choir. He regularly directs masterclasses, and has worked with choirs and ensembles around the UK including the acclaimed Military Wives Choir. He is currently involved with a series of workshops for the Royal Opera House’s Trailblazers project, which seeks to boost creative learning and pupil development in schools.

In addition to his entertainment and production company, Russell Scott Entertainment Limited, and New Talent Spotlight, he also runs A Life in Music, with Russell Scott – a website platform for performers seeking to improve their skills, which features podcasts, a Youtube Channel and a blog. He retains his membership of the Musicians’ Union and also belongs to British Equity and the Association of British Choral Directors.

• • A Life in Music can be found at www.alifeinmusic.com; Russell’s Twitter address is @RussellScottUK

Frankie Vu combines a career as a live sports host and a presenter on the CBBC and Disney XD children’s channels with life as a professional in the world of freestyle football.

Frankie (Francis), who attended QE from 2000 to 2008, once raced from an AS examination straight to Manchester to appear in a music video – an early highlight of a media career that remains just as fast-paced today.

In the video, for The Way I Are (sic) by the American rapper, producer and DJ, Timbaland, Frankie is seen performing as a freestyler. Freestyle football is the art of self-expression with a football, with players performing tricks using various parts of their body.

“I was still at QE when I won the UK football freestyle championship in 2006,” he says. “This actually stemmed from a serious sports injury that I had sustained the previous year: I found that football freestyle was a good way to work on my rehab during the long period I had to spend away from team sports.

“I fell in love with the process of getting something wrong so many times and of eventually succeeding, but in my own time and on my terms.”

On leaving QE, Frankie studied English Language & Communication at King’s College London.

“I was unsure what I wanted to do after university, so during the holidays I completed two summer internships at Centrica and Barclays. Although I enjoyed both, I wasn’t convinced that either was a good ‘fit’.

“However, in my final year I had attended a talk on careers in the media. One thing led to another and eventually I was invited to screen-test for Disney.  Then – and this is a very condensed version of the story! – I secured my first TV contract at the end of the summer.”

Since then, he has been a host for the fencing and taekwondo events at London Olympics and for the wheelchair fencing at the 2012 Paralympic Games, as well as for other live sporting events, including rugby and NFL. He currently hosts at Arsenal’s Champions League home matches, interviewing stars from the past for its Champions Club.

His current TV work includes exploring the world of the future in CBBC’s Technobabble show – an interest he has also demonstrated in videos from the Mobile World Congress and through fronting previews for the Gadget Show Live.

Frankie has his own YouTube channel and is very much at home in the online world, being close to well-known vloggers including Zoella (Zoe Elizabeth Sugg), Marcus Butler, Caspar Lee and Jim Chapman.

• • Frankie can be contacted through social media on @theFrankieVu

One of TV’s most extravagant personalities, Judge Rinder, has recently diversified into a new series dealing with real-life crimes.

In Judge Rinder’s Crime Stories, a new ten-programme series that finished earlier this month, Robert Rinder (OE 1989–1994) delved into cases which ranged from a couple duped by a surrogate mother to the murder of a young woman and a doorstep attack involving sulphuric acid.

It is less than two years since he first appeared on our screens with Judge Rinder – a daytime show portraying a fictional small-claims court where he presides over cases such as disputes over consumer issues, personal and business fall-outs and allegations of negligence. With its combination of hapless plaintiffs and the stream of acerbic comment from the bench, the show was an instant hit for ITV and for Robert, who, although not a judge, was already a very successful criminal barrister.

“I practiced for a decade and a half, doing very serious national and international criminal law, including lots of high-profile cases,” he told Alumni News.

The website of 2 Hare Court, his London barristers’ chambers, states that his practice focuses primarily on international fraud, money laundering and other forms of financial crime.

He was instructed by the British Government as counsel to the Turks and Caicos Islands’ Special Investigation and Prosecution Team, which was established by the Foreign Office to prosecute allegations of bribery, international corruption and fraud. In the UK he has advised on and appeared in cases involving fraud against the NHS, counterfeit medicines, multi-million-pound money laundering and pension fraud.

However, he by no means confined himself to financial cases. Robert was also regularly involved in murder cases and other cases of serious violence, usually appearing for the defence. These included the manslaughter of detainees in Iraq by British servicemen and the New Year’s murders of 17-year-old Letisha Shakespeare and 18-year-old Charlene Ellis in a drive-by shooting in Birmingham in 2003.

Indications of Robert’s talent for performance were clearly evident during his school years, demonstrated by his involvement in the drama club, which included title roles in productions such as Bugsy Malone, and involvement in dance at the School.  At the age of 14, Robert was successful in securing a place at the National Youth Theatre – where he joined the likes of Matt Lucas and David Walliams and starred opposite a young Chiwetel Ejiofor in a production of Julius Caesar.

While reading Politics and History at Manchester University, he at first continued with his ambition to be an actor, and it was there that he met fellow student Benedict Cumberbatch. Although Robert abandoned acting and took up debating instead, he and Cumberbatch became fast friends. In 2013 Cumberbatch managed to have himself ordained so that he could officiate at Robert’s open-air wedding in Ibiza to Seth Cummings, a fellow barrister. And Robert was in turn one of Cumberbatch’s three best men when he married Sophie Hunter, the theatre and opera director and playwright.

Robert excelled in inter-varsity debates, winning international competitions, and in his studies: he gained a double-first, enabling him to achieve the rare feat of going straight from university into a pupillage in barristers’ chambers.

He enjoyed the law and built a successful practice in the years after he was called to the Bar in 2001.

But he found himself increasingly drawn to television. In his spare time, he dabbled in script-writing and pondered possible formats. And, in a serendipitous turn of events, when he pitched (unsuccessfully) to do an updated version of the 1970s drama series Crown Court, he came to the attention of ITV bosses who were looking for the right person to front a UK version of Judge Judy, the long-running and hugely successful US daytime show.

His courtroom show, with its gowns and gavel, has proved to be the perfect foil for Robert’s impressive intellect and innate theatricality. And while the gavel may not be an authentic element of a British courtroom, the law certainly is: he is proud of the show’s accuracy in all matters legal.

In a review of Judge Rinder for the Radio Times, journalist Michael Buerk wrote: “…he is very smart indeed…and often very, very funny. His grip on each case seems total. His ability to summarise, simplify, condense, can be a joy to watch. The way he rips gaily through the stumbling obfuscations is thoroughly entertaining, if cruelly one-sided.

“The programme’s real USP [Unique Selling Point], though, is that he doesn’t suffer fools gladly, and most of the people brought up before him are clearly complete idiots.” Among the more famous of his waspish comments are: “That’s what’s called a Pyrrhic victory. Look it up,” and: “There’s a lovely phrase and, let me tell you, in Darlington they talk of little else. It’s called caveat emptor,” and, to a bride in a dispute with a wedding photographer, “If you’d been at the Last Supper, you’d have asked for ketchup.”

Robert is clear on the lessons to be learnt from the show, such as the importance of putting things in writing: “Never trust people, always trust paper. I’d marry a piece of paper if I could.”

A fitness enthusiast, he has run marathons in New York, London and the Swiss Alps.

His book Rinder’s Rules: Make the Law Work For You! was published last October. It dispenses dos and don’ts on making complaints and looks at everyday legal issues.

It has been widely reported – though not yet confirmed – that he is to perform in this year’s Strictly Come Dancing, which is due to start in September.

Russell Scott has built a successful career as a performer, coach, musical theatre director and impresario on his passion for music.

An early starter, by the time he was eight Russell (OE 1985–1988) had already begun his professional music training and at that age secured an entry in the Guinness Book of Records as the youngest member of the Musicians’ Union.

A year later, he had developed a talent as a cabaret organist and made two LPs, as well as appearing internationally on TV programmes including Thames TV’s charity Telethon.

Between the ages of 13 and 18, he established a reputation as an overall entertainer, gaining two residences and performing five nights a week – all while he was still at QE. Although he did not attend music college, he spent his School years studying music, passing examinations with The Royal Schools of Music and attending the well-known Sylvia Young Theatre School.

After leaving QE, he threw himself into his career and, in 1995, after several years performing cabaret around the UK, Russell joined The London Philharmonic Choir. He performed many of the large-scale choral works, including Verdi’s Requiem, Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess, Beethoven’s Choral Symphony, Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony and Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust and Requiem. In addition, he was Librarian and Marketing Manager for the London Philharmonic Choir and became one of its board directors (1997-1999).

Since turning fully professional as a classical music performer in 1999, Russell has sung with many of the UK’s leading choirs and has sung as an opera soloist, performing repertoire ranging from Tavener and Tippett to Puccini’s La Bohème and Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro.

He began voice-coaching in 2000, specialising in musical theatre – projects have included working on the BBC’s Celebrate Oliver! special, on Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and on Les Misérables.

Over the following years, Russell’s career continued to expand. In 2007-2008 he was Artistic Director of Songbirds, where he coached and developed young talent, while in 2008–2009 he co-created and produced The Voice of Tomorrow – a West End project developing and showcasing new talent with support from Channel 4 and The Royal Academy of Music. Russell establish the New Talent Spotlight agency in 2009, dedicated to finding, developing and giving opportunity to emerging professional performers. He has also received regular invitations to act as a judge for competitions around the UK. Russell has produced and directed in the West End and around the country, including shows such as Godspell in Concert.

In 2010, he helped form the Next Stage Choir and was invited to become its Chorus Director. In 2012, Russell and his wife, Denise, took over the choir full-time. Like Russell, she has been performing from an early age and has played many leading theatre roles. However, she combines her musical career with a talent for baking and has built a cake business.

In 2013, Russell became Chorus Director of Waddesdon Manor Choir. He regularly directs masterclasses, and has worked with choirs and ensembles around the UK including the acclaimed Military Wives Choir. He is currently involved in a series of workshops for the Royal Opera House’s Trailblazers project, which seeks to boost creative learning and pupil development in schools.

In addition to his entertainment and production company, Russell Scott Entertainment Limited, and New Talent Spotlight, he also runs A Life in Music, with Russell Scott – a website platform for performers seeking to improve their skills, which features podcasts, a Youtube Channel and a blog. He retains his membership of the Musicians’ Union and also belongs to British Equity and the Association of British Choral Directors.

• A Life in Music can be found at www.alifeinmusic.com; Russell’s Twitter address is @RussellScottUK

   

To anyone who watches British TV, Judge Rinder probably needs no introduction. But what is less well-known is that Robert Rinder is also a distinguished international barrister.

One of TV’s most extravagant personalities, Robert (OE 1989–1994) raised his profile to new heights with his appearance in the BBC’s primetime Strictly Come Dancing throughout the autumn of 2016. With his professional dance partner, Oksana Platero, and appearing under the name ‘Judge Rinder’, he competed against other celebrities including former Chancellor Ed Balls, Olympic long-jumper Greg Rutherford and pop star Will Young. Robert performed well and was not eliminated until the 11th week of the 13-week series.

Robert first appeared on our screens in the summer of 2014 with Judge Rinder, which portrays a fictional small-claims court where he presides over cases such as disputes over consumer issues, personal and business fall-outs and allegations of negligence. With its combination of hapless plaintiffs and the stream of acerbic comment from the bench, the show was an instant hit for ITV and for Robert as well.

Although not a real-life judge, he was already a highly successful criminal barrister. “I practiced for a decade and a half, doing very serious national and international criminal law, including many high-profile cases,” he told the School.

The website of 2 Hare Court, his London barristers’ chambers, states that his practice focuses primarily on international fraud, money-laundering and other forms of financial crime.

He was instructed by the British Government as counsel to the Turks and Caicos Islands’ Special Investigation and Prosecution Team, which was established by the Foreign Office to prosecute allegations of bribery, international corruption and fraud. In the UK he has advised on and appeared in cases involving fraud against the NHS, counterfeit medicines, multi-million-pound money laundering and pension fraud.

However, he by no means confined himself to financial cases. Robert was also regularly involved in murder cases and other cases of serious violence, usually appearing for the defence. These included the manslaughter of detainees in Iraq by British servicemen and the New Year’s murders of 17-year-old Letisha Shakespeare and 18-year-old Charlene Ellis in a drive-by shooting in Birmingham in 2003.

Indications of Robert’s talent for performance were clearly evident during his School years, demonstrated by his involvement in the drama club, which included title roles in productions such as Bugsy Malone, and involvement in dance at the School. At the age of 14, Robert was successful in securing a place at the National Youth Theatre – where he joined the likes of Matt Lucas and David Walliams and starred opposite a young Chiwetel Ejiofor in a production of Julius Caesar.

While reading Politics and History at Manchester University, he at first continued with his ambition to be an actor, and it was there that he met fellow student Benedict Cumberbatch. Although Robert abandoned acting and took up debating instead, he and Cumberbatch became fast friends. In 2013 Cumberbatch managed to have himself ordained so that he could officiate at Robert’s open-air wedding in Ibiza to Seth Cummings, a fellow barrister. And Robert was in turn one of Cumberbatch’s three best men when he married Sophie Hunter, the theatre and opera director and playwright.

Robert excelled in inter-varsity debates, winning international competitions, and in his studies: he gained a double-first, enabling him to achieve the rare feat of going straight from university into a pupillage in barristers’ chambers.

He enjoyed law and built a successful practice in the years after he was called to the Bar in 2001.

But he found himself increasingly drawn to television. In his spare time, he dabbled in script-writing and pondered possible formats. And, in a serendipitous turn of events, when he pitched (unsuccessfully) to do an updated version of the 1970s drama series Crown Court, he came to the attention of ITV bosses who were looking for the right person to front a UK version of Judge Judy, the long-running and hugely successful US daytime show.

His courtroom show, with its gowns and gavel, has proved to be the perfect foil for Robert’s impressive intellect and innate theatricality. And while the gavel may not be an authentic element of a British courtroom, the law certainly is: he is proud of the show’s accuracy in all matters legal.

In a review of Judge Rinder for the Radio Times, journalist Michael Buerk wrote: “…he is very smart indeed…and often very, very funny. His grip on each case seems total. His ability to summarise, simplify, condense, can be a joy to watch. The way he rips gaily through the stumbling obfuscations is thoroughly entertaining, if cruelly one-sided.

“The programme’s real USP [Unique Selling Point], though, is that he doesn’t suffer fools gladly, and most of the people brought up before him are clearly complete idiots.” Among the more famous of his waspish comments are: “That’s what’s called a Pyrrhic victory. Look it up,” and: “There’s a lovely phrase and, let me tell you, in Darlington they talk of little else. It’s called caveat emptor,” and, to a bride in a dispute with a wedding photographer, “If you'd been at the Last Supper, you'd have asked for ketchup.”

Robert is clear on the lessons to be learnt from the show, such as the importance of putting things in writing: “Never trust people, always trust paper. I’d marry a piece of paper if I could.”

He has also diversified into a series dealing with real-life crimes. In Judge Rinder’s Crime Stories, a ten-programme series that aired in the summer of 2016, he delved into cases which ranged from a couple duped by a surrogate mother to the murder of a young woman and a doorstep attack involving sulphuric acid.

A fitness enthusiast, he has run marathons in New York, London and the Swiss Alps.

His book Rinder's Rules: Make the Law Work For You! was published in October 2015. It dispenses dos and don’ts on making complaints and looks at everyday legal issues.

Well-known figures from the media and entertainment industry are being expertly supported by Paul March’s talent agency.

Paul (OE 1985 – 1991) has put his experience as a lawyer with nearly two decades of expertise in the industry to good use by establishing London-based Marchy Management, which provides representation and professional services for radio, television and media clients.

Paul was a prefect at QE and showed both commitment and early promise. He threw himself into School life, getting involved in cricket, tennis, journalism and debating. His report card describes him as “an excellent character”, adding: “This boy did a great deal for QE – a true friend of the School throughout.” Current Head of Politics Liam Hargadon remembers him as one of his earliest Politics students.

After A-levels, he went to Leeds University to read Law, where he took up student radio and continued to work in journalism. He went on to law school and gained a Master’s degree in Law (intellectual property) at University College London. He then became a trainee with Covent Garden-based Clintons, a boutique law firm specialising in the entertainment, digital media and creative worlds.

For the next 16 years, Paul was a key member of the practice, advising celebrities, musicians, writers, broadcasters, DJs, format creators, radio and television executives and independent production companies. A member of the Board of Trustees of the Radio Academy, he has for many years written on media and legal matters for publications including The Guardian, Herald and Broadcast. In 2013, he wrote a practice paper on television format rights for LexisNexis, the international legal publishing company.

In the same year, he established Marchy Management. “I felt that there was room in the market for an agency focused primarily on broadcasters and presenters and welcomed the opportunity to apply legal and business affairs skills and experience more creatively than the context of private practice and a purely law focus allowed,” he says.

The agency’s roster of clients includes broadcaster Justine Greene, the writer and newsreader on BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 6 Music, as well as Dave Kelly and Lucy Horobin, who jointly present the drivetime show on Heart London.

Paul has maintained his interest in Politics and explores major national and international issues on his blog.

He has also maintained his friendship with the School. He has helped at various QE careers events, providing current pupils with information and guidance on legal careers. In 2016, he was instrumental in securing a visit to the School by the Daily Telegraph’s Senior Political Correspondent, Tim Ross, who gave boys an insider’s view of the 2015 General Election in a lunchtime talk to the Politics Society. Paul accompanied his friend, Tim, on his visit.

He is not an academic historian, yet Hugh Small’s books on Victorian history have been acclaimed by experts for overturning received wisdom.

Hugh (OE 1954–1961) conducted extensive original research for the volumes on Florence Nightingale and the Crimean War and has taken part in several broadcast programmes on his findings.

The two books were written after Hugh had already enjoyed a distinguished career that took him to California’s Silicon Valley and to Chile and France and saw him advising governments in Europe and Asia on the liberalisation and regulation of the telecommunications industry.

He studied sciences in the Sixth Form at QE and then read Physics and Psychology at Durham, graduating in 1966. He began his career as, in his own words, a “junior suit” at Ford’s Dagenham plant.

From 1976 to 1981, he was the principal network architect for the world’s first commercial internet, the SITA multi-airline reservations network, where he designed routeing and flow control procedures and commissioned packet-switching hardware and software.

Then, in 1983 he became a partner in two US strategic management consulting firms, Arthur D Little and A T Kearney, managing telecommunications industry consulting teams. He stayed in this role until 1999.

In 1990 as a personal pro bono initiative he lobbied for stronger regulation of British Telecom (BT) to prevent the company from delaying investment in digital exchanges. The Thatcher administration implemented his recommendation in the face of fierce opposition from BT’s Board of Management and their party-political supporters. Notwithstanding this opposition, BT’s share price trebled in 18 months as the regulation forced upon the company enabled competitors to generate new mobile telephone traffic on BT’s network. “The lesson is that industry-specific regulation can be beneficial to shareholders even when management’s natural reaction is to lobby against it,” says Hugh.

He has a long-standing interest in Victorian public health reform. Florence Nightingale, Avenging Angel was first published in 1998. Described as a “masterly piece of historical detective work” by medical historian James le Fanu in the Daily Telegraph and as a “shattering blow” by Nightingale’s biographer, Mark Bostridge, it details the sanitary disaster in Florence Nightingale’s wartime hospital and explains why the government covered it up against her wishes. The book goes on to look at her work after the war to put the lessons of the tragedy to good use to reduce the high mortality levels among the civilian population at home – the work which in fact established her reputation in her own lifetime. A second edition of the book, published in 2013, added more detail of her journey from tragedy to triumph. Among the most recent programmes to feature Hugh’s research was BBC 4’s The Beauty of Diagrams, presented by Professor Marcus du Sautoy.

Hugh’s next book, published in 2007, was The Crimean War, Queen Victoria’s War with the Russian Tsars. It had a similarly striking impact: the Journal of the Crimean War Research Society stated, “One of the most original and thought-provoking books on the Crimean War…He has shaken the foundations of ‘accepted knowledge’ on the war.”

Hugh is the former Secretary of the Westminster branch of Living Streets, the national charity that campaigns to promote walking and cycling, and for improvements in the urban environment to encourage this. He lives in Marylebone and is a committee member of the St Marylebone Society, the area’s oldest amenity society.

He stood as the Green Party candidate for the Cities of London and Westminster constituency in the 2015 General Election. He also writes a blog on political economy.

Hugh is a widower with two daughters and five grandchildren.

Copies of both his books now grace the shelves of the School’s Queen’s Library.

Jake Schogger has packed more into the nine years since he left QE than many achieve in a lifetime.

Having already sampled life as a professional rock musician, a drum teacher, a marathon-runner, a football manager, a Bollywood film extra, a writer and an entrepreneur, Jake (OE 1999–2006) is now on track to start a new career as a lawyer at multinational firm Freshfields next year.

On leaving School, he embarked on a gap year, safe in the knowledge that he had a place to study Animation at Bournemouth University. During that gap year, however, a band in which he played as the drummer along with two other QE leavers – bassist Justin Pither and guitarist Michael Lane –was offered a small record deal.

“The band was (quite embarrassingly) called Minus IQ,” says Jake. “We spent the next four years recording and touring around the UK, and eventually released an album. Our singer quit at this stage so we all applied for university!”

He went to Warwick, where he studied Law & Business. “At Warwick I got very involved in a number of societies and helped to establish the Commercial Law Society.” He regularly assisted younger students with their CVs, job applications and interview preparation.  “This gave me the idea to write a short guide to help these students to enhance their commercial awareness. This guide was initially distributed free throughout Warwick University, but demand was so high that I decided to develop it into something more substantial and release it nationally the following year. There is now a series of four books aimed at different City careers (Commercial Law, Investment Banking, Consultancy and an Application, Interview & Internship Handbook). These are complemented by a website (www.citycareerseries.com) and approximately 7,000 have been sold during the past 12 months in more than 15 countries.”

While studying for his degree, Jake was elected president of Warwick Finance Societies, which, with its sub-societies, is regarded as the university’s largest society. He also won places on vacation study programmes in H R College of Commerce in Mumbai, India, and at Shandong University China. Over the years, he has completed the London and New York marathons, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and reached Mount Everest Base Camp. A keen footballer, he founded and now manages a team. Jake also has a 12-year record of teaching drums, helping a number of students through grades 1-8, while also regularly playing drums in the University Big Band. Jake has given his time to a number of charities and has worked towards making various festivals carbon-free.

He is currently following the Legal Practice Course at BPP University, which he completes in February 2016.  In August next year, he starts his training contract with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which is believed to the oldest international law firm, where he took part in a summer vacation scheme during his degree.

“I plan to spend the six months I have off prior to that developing additional books and travelling,” he says. “I am about to release a handbook on Consultancy, then next plan to work on a Business Writing Handbook. Who knows where things will progress from there!”

Jake has recently been in touch with the School to discuss helping current pupils with their career plans.

Nathanael Jackson, who was School Captain in 2011–2012, is now heading for a rank of a different kind, as he heads off to Sandhurst early in the New Year to join the commissioning course.

“I am currently visiting different regiments, but am hoping to join the infantry,” he wrote to the School recently.

It is a new departure for Nathanael (OE 2005–2012), who was neither a member of the QE CCF nor of the University Officer Training Corps at Durham, from where he graduated with a 2:1 in History in the summer.

Characteristically, he threw himself fully into university life. “I had a great time studying History. I kept up playing rugby and played football for college, but mainly I have been playing lots of music, especially trombone with the University Big Band, with which we have been performed at gigs in Durham, Darlington, Newcastle, Manchester and as far south as London, at the Pizza Express Jazz Club in Soho. We even won the Great North Jazz and Big Band Festival last year.

“I have been heavily involved with the Christian Union and my local church up in Durham, leading small group Bible studies for the last couple of years. Last year I was also fortunate enough to have been chosen to lead a charity expedition to Tanzania, where we climbed Kilimanjaro and completed the construction of a local school, as well as relaxing and enjoying what the country had to offer.

“Somewhere amongst all this I have also managed to fit in my History degree, which I have loved! In my final year, I worked on changes in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, the fall of Roman Gaul and the rise of ‘barbarian’ successor states, and wrote my dissertation on the emergence of the newspaper in the years preceding the English Civil War.”