Mr Fraser Bolton | Head of Senior Boys Boarding

It’s wonderful to welcome everyone back into our boarding community for Semester 2. Firstly, I must commend the boys for the resilience and maturity they showed last term while living under some pretty strict COVID restrictions – the true measure of a person is surely how they respond to challenging circumstances. We are cautiously reaping the rewards of our vigilance with the resumption of sport and extra-curricular activities, and I am delighted to again see a high uptake of participation by our boarders.

It’s great to also have multiple codes of football returning to live television broadcasts, as watching a game with your mates is a weekend tradition in Hawkins House! Personally, I am thrilled that Liverpool have finally taken out this year’s English Premier League title. This year, however, the club’s anthem “You’ll Never Walk Alone” (popularised by fans after Liverpool’s Gerry and the Pacemakers made the song famous) has taken on an additional meaning, being adopted in some areas of the UK and Europe as an anthem of support for medical staff, first responders, and those in quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The song also received further attention when Captain Sir Thomas Moore, a former British Army officer and centenarian, released the song as a charity single as part of his fundraising efforts for the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). “Captain Tom”, using a walking frame, walked laps of his garden in the lead-up to his hundredth birthday. His goal was to raise £1000; when the campaign closed, he had raised in excess of £32.79 million. Moore now holds two Guinness World Records: as the fundraiser raising the greatest amount of money in an individual charity walk, and as the oldest person to have a number-one single on the UK charts. When asked what his message to others was, Moore replied, “We will get through this and come out of it stronger, more united and ready to face any challenge together.” I can’t help but think that that is a wonderful sentiment for our boarders to keep in mind as Term 3 begins.