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2011 leaver Sam Sherman (School Captain 2010-2011) is studying Anthropology at Cambridge; the result, he says, of his study of the Maasai tribe as part of the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) that he took alongside A-levels.

Along with his other studies, Sam spent a year on his EPQ – which was introduced at the School in 2010. Equivalent to half an A-level, the EPQ offers students the chance to study a topic of their choice in depth.

Following his research and a visit to Kenya, Sam produced a 10,000-word dissertation looking at the impacts of the Maasai Mara National Park on the tribe.

“My Extended Project effectively introduced me to anthropology – which became my chosen discipline at university – and to the idea of ‘cultural relativism’. I found that before the project I had neglected the hugely significant psychological impacts of colonisation, focusing instead on the more tangible social and economic.”

His research took him from the libraries of universities in London to personal communications with ‘modern Maasai’ and anthropologists. Subsequently he returned to Maasailand and conducted a quasi-ethnographic study amongst the Maasai: spending a large part of his Year 13 summer holiday living with a family of Maasai in rural Kenya.

Ben Pugh (QE 2002-2009) has helped Pembroke College, Cambridge, reach the quarter-finals of the BBC’s University Challenge.

He played a leading part as his team beat St Anne’s College, Oxford, in the first round early in the autumn and then again this month as they saw off Nottingham University by 280 points to 125.

Ben, who is reading German and Russian, put in two impressive individual performances, answering questions on a diverse range of subjects, ranging from chemistry and history to identifying that the S in SIM card stands for ‘Subscriber’. In the first round he was also on the receiving end of presenter Jeremy Paxman’s trademark mockery for his ability to recognise the girl band Girls Aloud in a music round, but then demonstrated his depth of musical knowledge in the next round when he identified Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.

Ben studied English Literature, French, German and History at A-level at QE, securing a grade A in all four subjects – the top grade at the time. He was placed in the top five in the UK in AQA’s GCSE German and French courses. While he was a pupil, Ben supported younger QE boys in the weekly language clinics.

Having taken up Eton Fives again a couple of years after leaving the School, Sunil Tailor (1999-2006) has now become the first QE old boy ever to reach the quarter-finals of the sport’s national championships. He hopes one day it might be possible to set up a Fives club for Queen Elizabeth’s School alumni.

Sunil learned the game at QE and then, four years ago while in his second year studying Economics at UCL, he got in touch with QE Fives coach Ian Hutchinson to ask for advice on playing the game as an adult. Since Mr Hutchinson is a teacher at Mill Hill School, he urged Sunil to join the Old Millhillians Fives Club.  “We currently have teams in the first and second division and have competitive matches once a fortnight on average, running from about October to April,” explains Sunil.

Together with an Old Millhillian, Joe Coakley, Sunil entered the Kinnaird Cup, which is the national tournament. Thirty-three pairs entered this year’s cup, which was held at Eton College.

“We were given a slightly difficult first round draw, which we won three sets to one,” says Sunil. “Then we were drawn against the seventh seeds and, in a very close match, we lost the first two sets but were able to bring the match back to two sets all. In the fifth and deciding set, the game was getting very tight. In the end, the scores went to ‘sudden death’ and we won 13-12 to move into the quarter-finals.”

In its report, the sport’s official website, praised this game as “a real dogfight” and saluted “a miraculous shot that had no right to go up”, by which Sunil saved a match point.

The following day, Sunil and his partner faced the second seeds, who had been Kinnaird Cup winners or finalists several times in previous years. They were comprehensively beaten in straight sets but Sunil adds:  “It was a great experience and playing against the better or more experienced players can only make us better. It is a great sport to continue playing after school and I do recommend it fully to QE leavers – hopefully one day, we could also create a QE old boys’ Fives club!”

Sunil is currently training to be a chartered accountant and is a part-qualified ACA trainee with accountancy firm MHA MacIntyre Hudson LLP. He is due to sit his advanced stage examinations in July this year.

• The first Fives courts at Queen Elizabeth’s School opened at the old Wood Street premises in 1880, following a £10 grant from the Governors and a special fund-raising concert. The sport languished for some years after the move to Queen’s Road in 1932 and it was not until the post-war rebuilding programme in 1951-52 that plans for a new court were considered. By 1954, the court was complete and the following year the School was affiliated to the Eton Fives Association and entered the Public Schools Championships.

Ben Pugh (OE 2002-2009) and his team from Pembroke College, Cambridge, fought their way successfully through every round of the BBC’s University Challenge before losing narrowly in the final.

He then took the opportunity, along with the rest of his team, to meet the Duchess of Cornwall at a televised ceremony at Clarence House, during which the winning finalists, the University of Manchester, were presented with the University Challenge trophy.

In the 41^st series of the popular quiz, which was first broadcast 50 years ago, the Pembroke College team gained frequent praise from host Jeremy Paxman, with Ben’s breadth of knowledge and speed of thought proving key to their success.

In the first round, he got off to a good start against St Anne’s College, Oxford, giving a strong individual performance. But Ben also fell victim to Paxman’s trademark mockery after successfully recognising the girl band Girls Aloud in a music round. Pembroke won by 205 points to 140.

The margin of victory was even bigger in the second round, when Ben’s team trounced Nottingham 280–125.

Next up in the first leg of the quarter-finals were Balliol College, Oxford. Ben was very quick on the buzzer, answering a range of starter questions on diverse subjects including dance tempo, planet recognition, literature and geography, which helped his team to establish an early 90-point lead and secure an eventual 240–160 victory. Ben seemed particularly pleased, or perhaps relieved, to be able to answer correctly on the meaning of the Russian acronym ‘gulag’ – since he is reading Russian and German at Cambridge.

In the second leg, Pembroke faced a fellow Cambridge team, Clare College. Ben’s team raced to a 145-point lead – a position from which fellow Cambridge team, Clare College, could not recover, despite a spirited fight-back. Once again, Ben made his mark by answering correctly on topics including politics, philosophy, the American constitution and geographical terminology. Pembroke won 250 – 175.

Pembroke were slow starters in their semi-final and had to come from behind to overhaul opponents UCL, finally winning 185 points to 125.This time, Ben came up with correct answers on Shakespeare, chess, classical music, geography and Home Secretaries. Paxman praised Pembroke as the only semi-finalists not to have lost a match in the competition and heralded their win as “another storming performance”.

However, that unbroken record was finally to fall in the final. Their opponents, the University of Manchester, enjoyed a very strong start and, although Pembroke fought back strongly, they were unable to catch up, finally losing 180 – 135. Ben made his usual significant contribution, answering a number of starter questions on subjects including anagrams, Chancellors of the Exchequer, Swedish chemists, Polish composers and Rift Valley archaeology.

Former QE pupil Piers Martin (1987-1995) is hoping for top podium places for British fencers at London 2012 after leading the transformation of the sport in the UK since 2008.

Recruited to be the Chief Executive Officer of British Fencing and appointed to the National Olympic Committee four years ago, Piers has made full use of his own international sporting experience, which began while he was still at the School.

Piers, who was the guest speaker at this year’s Founder’s Day, service, says: “These last four years have been hard work, but I am now looking forward to an exciting and successful Olympic Games on home soil. We have focused on taking the sport from an amateur committee to a successful business and I hope that will be seen in some gold medals – for the first time since 1956!”

He swam internationally during his time at QE, but then switched to water polo where he played for Great Britain as a Junior and Senior. He was therefore delighted when the School significantly upgraded its swimming facilities in 2006 with the opening of the Martin Swimming Pool, which is named after his father, Barrie Martin, the current Chairman of Governors.

His career path has brought together his knowledge of top-level sport and his business acumen. “As an international swimmer and water polo player, I made a natural move into coaching and tutoring whilst at Manchester University. I then took a job as National Development Manager for Water Polo with the ASA, the governing body for swimming. Although I never intended to stay in the role for long, I found myself there for a while and eventually moved to become a Director, running the North West Region.”

After completing an MBA at Manchester Business School, he remained in the city to take up a role consulting on the UK set-up of the World Academy of Sport – a global programme offering executive education to federations of sport. It was his success in this that led to his recruitment to British Fencing and a return to London.

During his address to the Founder’s Day congregation at Chipping Barnet Parish Church, he spoke of his work with the British Olympic fencing team and highlighted the steadfast dedication necessary to succeed at the world’s ultimate sporting event.

When Claude Francois Muhuza arrived in the UK in 1996, aged just six, he spoke no English and had received no formal education.

Since that time Claude (2001-2008), who was guest of honour at this year’s QE Junior Awards ceremony, has not only achieved high academic success, he has also thrown himself whole-heartedly into supporting human rights causes. In October he will be heading out to Nicaragua on a three-month volunteering placement with the charity, Raleigh International.

“I enjoy the study and the application of law, but one of my other passions is learning about international development and the way developing countries around the world pursue economic growth,” he explains.

Claude was born in Kigali, Rwanda, where he lived until he was four, when the outbreak of war forced his family to flee. For two years he was moved from country to country, living in Tanzania and Kenya, before settling in the UK with his mother. His first experience of education was at Harlesden Primary School, where he not only learnt English, but also revealed latent academic potential: at the end of Year 6, Claude was awarded the Harlesden Primary Cup for academic achievement.

Whilst at QE, Claude amassed nine A* grades at GCSE and four As at A-level (the top grade at that time, before A* was introduced).  During his time at QE he began to pursue his interests in law and human rights, spending a week shadowing two judges at Southwark Crown Court. In 2007 he was appointed Vice President of the European Youth Parliament Regional Session, which required him jointly to organise, co-ordinate and lead a regional debating forum. The following year he represented the UK in international debating forums in Greece and Turkey. He used his work experience placements to gain an insight into trading and international banking, with placements at Morgan Stanley in London and Merrill Lynch in New York.

From School, Claude progressed to Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he graduated in Law and won the Crowden Award for Outstanding Contribution to College Life. Once again Claude did not restrict his interests to the purely academic: for three years, he was a member of a committee concerned with fundraising for Pembroke College. One of its roles is to raise money for an African Scholarship scheme which provides a fully-funded place for a student from Africa to study at Pembroke. In 2009-2010, in his second year at Cambridge, Claude was President of Pembroke College Student Union, where he oversaw an overhaul of the constitution, an increase in charity work and the creation of an extra Access position on the JCR (Junior Common Room). The role also involved organising Freshers’ Week and welfare events throughout the Summer Term, as well as representing his fellow Pembroke College students at the University Students’ Union.

After graduating in 2011, he worked for Pembroke College at a summer school. He also spent a few weeks in Panama working with a charity called Global Brigades as a member of the first Cambridge Law Brigade.

Since September 2011, he has been studying at the College of Law in order to complete the Legal Practice Course (LPC), which will allow him to work as a solicitor.

Claude is now looking forward to his autumn placement in Nicaragua with a project based in a rural community. He hopes to work with local craftsmen to help them understand the principles for constructing composting toilets and with farmers to support them in developing a livelihood from the use and sale of crops. “I chose to engage in this project because I knew that I would gain hands-on practical experience of international development and the work of NGOs,” he says.

On his return, Claude will take up a training contract with Baker & McKenzie, a commercial City law firm, in March 2013.