Chronicle Summer 2024

38 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

In memoriam

Hamish Roots

Fred Tao at Henley

Fred Tao By John Wiggins

it, drafting in uncomplaining volunteers when numbers were required. His final hours were spent beside, and then on, the river, enthusing and herding novice scullers, tidying away scattered J14 sculling blades and then stepping into a boat short on numbers to avoid others in the crew having a wasted session. His journey to St Edward’s as well as his love of geography and rowing started at Kingston Grammar School under the watchful and inspirational eye of Ray Ward. Ray remembers an enquiring and enthusiastic teenager both in the classroom and on the river. Degrees from North London University and then the LSE did not

and his colleagues - be they geographers, rowers or domestic staff – but above all his love of Christ underpinned his attitude to life and the people around him. Fred’s respect for institutions was, however, always at risk of being undermined by his somewhat relaxed attitude to the rules that aspired to hold them together. His knowledge of where the lines were drawn was incomparable, largely because he was forever easing them aside or even stepping completely over them: a Health and Safety officer’s nightmare but a dream companion and the ultimate team player. First to arrive and last to leave, Fred had an eye for what needed doing and would quietly get on with

With heartfelt thanks to the Warden, Hugh Stephens, Tom Poynter OSE, Sixth Former Fifi Pucks-Fazel and Fred’s family for their contributions, here is a reflection on the unique and all-too-short life of Fred Tao. Anyone who attended the packed Olivier Hall for Fred’s memorial in January 2024 will not have been surprised by the number of people there, many dressed in colours to match the encouraged dress code of Fred’s beloved Henley Royal Regatta. They will have felt, overwhelmingly, the warmth and depth of the tributes paid by colleagues, friends and family. Fred loved his school, his boat club, the boarding houses and the children therein,