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Stuart Southall (1976)

Biography

Stuart Southall attended KES between 1969 and 1976 having attended a State primary school in Sutton Coldfield. Whilst at KES Stuart made a record number of appearances for the 1st XI hockey team, touring South America in 1976, and was captain of the School tennis team.

After completing a mathematics degree at St John's College, Cambridge, Stuart qualified as an actuary. In 1988 he co-founded the Punter Southall Group. Its initial staff of 9 people has since grown to over 850 and the Group offers a wide range of financial advisory and investment services throughout the UK.

Stuart has been a Governor of the two KES independent schools since 2008 and was a founding trustee of The King Edward's School Birmingham Trust. Outside work Stuart takes an active interest in the arts and is a keen collector of British and American etchings and has a considerable collection of designer bookbindings. He is a keen golfer and walker and climbed Kilimanjaro with his wife in 2010 raising £35,000 for charity.

Married with two children Stuart lives in Surrey.

Why I am supporting the AP100 Campaign

I only just scraped into King Edward's - probably because I had no preparation and I wrote eight essays when I should have picked one. This meant was that my parents had to pay some fees. Fortunately, after two years the Foundation awarded me a scholarship - the fees stopped and my grateful father bought me a first edition of "Master Humphreys Clock".

I often wonder what would have happened had my parents decided the fees were unaffordable: could I have got to Cambridge from my local grammar school, could I have become an actuary and would I have met people to set up a new venture with?

I felt then that attending KES was a great privilege and it still is. It is not an opportunity that should be denied to talented boys whose parents demonstrably cannot pay, and that is why I am delighted to support Assisted Places and the work of The King Edward's School Birmingham Trust. Now is the time to push on and try to get to and sustain a position whereby 100 Assisted Places can be made available should parental circumstances so require.