ANDREW WILSON (A 83-87): GRATEFUL FOR A BRADFIELD BURSARY

Without the award it would not have been viable for my parents to send me to Bradfield, and I am enormously grateful for the ways in which my time at the College shaped my direction in later life.

I flourished in the Classical subjects, principally with Dr Stace for Latin and Mr Norwood for Greek. The three-yearly cycle gave me one opportunity to appear in a Greek play, as a chorus member in Antigone (1985). We were so comprehensively drilled I can still rattle off many of the lines and I’m pretty sure that my recitation of the Parodos from Antigone was instrumental in the offer of a place to read Classics at Cambridge! I also played the King in Love’s Labour’s Lost (1987).

For me, the most enriching and nurturing aspects of College life were the numerous clubs and societies, which provided a platform for engaging with ideas and culture as well as developing confidence in presenting in front of others. The energy and generosity of Dr Stace (The Club, Classical Society), Mr Read Wilson (Remove Club, Freelance), Mr Burgess (Parnassus, Bridge Club), Mr Farrar-Bell (Christian Union), Mr Whiffin (Junior Debating Society) and Mr Porter (Barry Society) were exceptional in broadening the horizons of this otherwise insular individual.

My first-ever experiences of going abroad were the Choir tours to the Netherlands (1984) and Germany (1986). Mr Harding exuded a passion for music that was infectious, and singing in choirs has continued to bring me great pleasure through most of my adult life.

I subsequently trained for a teaching career that has taken in a variety of settings and subjects, including Maths, Religious Studies and Classics.

I’ve been back to Bradfield a few times in the last decade, to see Antigone at the reopening of Greeker in 2014, Colin Burgess’s farewell in 2018, and one of the excellent jazz evenings in the Greek Theatre.

You may leave Bradfield, but Bradfield never leaves you!

Andrew Wilson (A 83-87),

Bradfield Scholarship and Bursary recipient

ANDREW WILSON (A 83-87): GRATEFUL FOR A BRADFIELD BURSARY

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