Grafton
Grafton House Newsletter - Michaelmas 2011
Grafton House Newsletter - Summer 2011
Grafton House Newsletter - Lent 2011
Grafton House Newsletter - Lent 2010
Grafton House Newsletter - Summer 2009
Grafton House Newsletter - Lent_2009
 of Gavin Moffat.jpg)
Gavin Moffat - Housemaster
Gavin Moffat arrived at Stowe in September 2010 and is married to Rebecca and has two children, Isabel and Lottie. Gavin is a linguist who has taught at The Leys School, Cambridge, where he was Head of French and Modern Languages as well as Director of Rugby and an Assistant Housemaster. He then moved to Sherborne School, Dorset to teach A Level, IB and GCSE French as well as being Director of Rugby. Having represented England U21s at Rugby and gained a cricket blue at Cambridge, Gavin is clearly sports mad. He does, however, also enjoy the theatre, cinema and French culture. The Moffat family enjoy holidaying in Aberdovey, West Wales, as well as skiing in Switzerland.
Terri Bosman - Matron
The resident matron in Grafton is Mrs Theresa Bosman (Mrs B), and has been at Stowe since 2003. She is in charge of House medical matters, and has lived in USA, Saudi Arabia, and now the UK, although she is South African by birth. She has two grown up sons (Andre and Conrad). Terri upholds all the best virtues of public school life, and is universally popular!
Alan Hughes - Assistant Housemaster and Fifth Form Tutor
Alan has been at Stowe since 1997, initially as our Rugby Professional. In September 2006 he took on the role of Head of Boys' Games, and became a House Tutor in Grafton. As well as his duties at Stowe, Alan has also been coach to the England Junior sides up to the Under 19 level. Outside of rugby, he enjoys coaching tennis. Alan is married to Elena and they have two teenage daughters.
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Neil Crossley - Under Housemaster and Third Form Tutor
Neil arrived at Grafton in 2010 having transferred across from Walpole to become resident Under Housemaster. As Master in Charge of Athletics, Neil devotes much of his time to developing our most promising athletes up at the state of the art athletics track. Neil is the Third Form Tutor within the House as well as teaching in the Sports Science Department. As a national standard javelin thrower, Neil has his sights set on the GB Olympic Games Team for Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
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Nick Mellor - Fourth Form Tutor
In 2011, Nick transferred to Grafton after 2 very enjoyable years as a Tutor in Queen's. Nick looks forward to guiding his group towards their exams with a firm and steady hand! Nick is involved in teaching staff and pupils how to get the best from their IT and enjoys responsibility for a dedicated IT team which undertakes the maintenance and development of the Stowe IT infrastructure. Nick relishes the opportunity to guide pupils to organise and make the best of the busy and varied daily schedule within the School.
Iain Young - Non Resident Tutor
Iain Young joined Stowe's History of Art Department and was appointed its Head of Department in September 2007. He also helps out with the swimming and runs the History of Art Society and XX group for Fourth Form scholars.
History of Grafton House
There is no known family connection, the name coming from the local fox hunt, the Grafton Hounds, which takes its name in turn from the Dukes of Grafton who were the 'rangers' of nearby Whittlebury Forest.
The following text has been taken from the Grafton History, Volume 1, 1926
Some explanation of the Grafton motto - how it came to be chosen, who chose it, its meaning - it may be of interest to future members of Grafton: The name "Grafton" appears between the two good old Latin words "virtus" and "integritas". The words were chosen by Grafton's first Housemaster, and were intended to express an ideal for all Graftonians, which cannot adequately be translated by any two English words. It is hoped that all generations of Graftonians will be able to say, "The lot is fallen unto me in a fair ground: yea, I have a goodly heritage." This will only be possible if those qualities of perfect manhood signified by virtus and integritas are the aspirations of Grafton. Both words can be translated "virtue", yet virtus means "manliness" - the qualities of a man, and integritas "purity", without which no true manliness is attainable. The phrase which best sums up the ideal is: "Quit you like men; be strong." The motto is in no sense a boast, but it expresses at once an ideal worth striving for, and a hope that Grafton may never forget her manhood.
Written by the first Under Housemaster, H. B. Playford
| Housemasters |
|
|
PB Freeman |
1926 - 1929 |
|
RR Timberlake |
1929 - 1932 |
|
Fritz Clifford |
1932 - 1934 |
|
BT Wace |
1934 - 1936 |
|
Fritz Clifford |
1936 - 1955 |
|
Bruce Barr |
1955 - 1967 |
|
Muir Temple |
1967 - 1979 |
|
David Mee |
1979 - 1984 |
|
James Larcombe |
1984 - 1993 |
|
Charles Johnson |
1993 - 2003 |
|
Richard Knight |
2003 - 2003 |
|
Chris Townsend |
2003 - 2010 |
| Gavin Moffat | 2010 - |