The Neil Gracey Bursary
Neil Gracey died in June 2007. He had been a pupil at Birkenhead School from
1950 to 1958, and he was perhaps the best known OB not only of his own
generation but indeed known to many outside that era.
Neil was the quintessential Old Birkonian – a team player through and through.
The great guiding principles of his extraordinary life were established and
honed by the education that he was privileged to have received at Birkenhead
School, and it was the School that remained the great passion in life. Neil
became the focus through which so many OB’s kept in touch with their widely
scattered friends; his extensive email list enabled him to keep in touch with
Old Birkonians both in the UK and throughout the world but above all it was the
School itself that remained always at the centre of his attention.
To say that Neil was passionate in his belief about the ethos of the School
would be an understatement, he lived and breathed, and indeed died, believing
that the benefits of its educational excellence should be available to all
talented pupils however disadvantaged they may be He was highly critical of the
political folly which denied those able pupils the education that that their
abilities demanded but whose parents were unable to afford the full school fees.
Before he died we told him that we would establish a Birkenhead School Bursary
to perpetuate his name and his ideals that would enable the great principles of
his life to be passed on to others, whose parents, like so many of us, could not
afford the full school fees. His gratitude for this simple act was unbelievable.
The Neil Gracey Bursary has now been established. Thanks to great generosity of
many of his friends, a sum, including Gift Aid, of nearly £40,000 has been
raised. The capital has been invested in a fund which is controlled by the OB
Society and from which, at the discretion of the Headmaster, the annual interest
will go to help pay the fees of a potentially talented pupil of financially
disadvantaged parents.
Not only that, but thanks to the efforts of Tony Moody in distant Australia, the
fund also incorporates an annual Neil Gracey book award which will go to the
pupil who most reflects those wider abilities, encouraged by the School, which
so characterised Neil.
The fund will remain open for at least five years, so may I take this
opportunity to request that if you are interested in helping talented pupils of
financially disadvantaged parents to take advantage of the unique education
offered by the School that instead of allowing the Treasury to take your hard
earned cash that you donate what you can to this extremely worthwhile fund.
Please send your cheques, made out to the ‘Birkenhead School Endowment Fund -
Neil Gracey Bursary’ to:- Trevor Mathew-Jones, Old Birkonian Society, The Lodge,
58 Beresford Road Birkenhead CH43 2JD
If you are a UK taxpayer please let us know and we will send you a Gift Aid Form
which will enable us to reclaim the tax that you have paid on your donation.
Alternatively you can download one by clicking the link below and printing one
which you can complete and send with your donation.
Very many thanks, David Allan.
