St Edmund's

On Friday, it was pleasure to welcome two hundred guests to the first public lecture of our 275 programme.  Our school was founded in 1749 with just a single pupil John Pyrke in Thirsk, North Yorkshire. Its original purpose was to provide an education for the orphaned sons of clergymen. We now have 650 pupils from Kent, the wider UK and all over the world. We are fully independent, fully co-educational and are a diverse and inclusive community.

The last 275 years have been an interesting journey for St Edmunds and have seen a fascinating evolution in our work and identity as a school. So it seemed fitting to me that as we celebrate our 275th anniversary this year and look back on where we came from our first speaker should be a historian.

Since 1749 (during the lifetime of the school) there have been 11 UK monarchs. So it also seemed appropriate that we should hear about the life and importance of Queen Elizabeth II who served longer than any other. Royal historian and constitutional expert Professor Kate Williams was the ideal person to deliver this lecture. Her talk was a brilliant, entertaining, insightful and thought provoking journey through 1000 years of British history as she compared Elizabeth with some of her famous and (infamous predecessors) and then took a number of questions from the audience.

Prior to the talk, Professor Williams also ran a workshop for our Sixth Form historians.

It was a wonderful first public event of the 275 series and my thanks go to everyone who supported the evening.