Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
‘Killer husband’s’ life in Kent revealed
More details have emerged about George Pattison’s life in Kent, years before the suspected murder-suicide at Epsom College.
The former Canterbury schoolboy is thought to have shot dead his wife and seven-yearold daughter Lettie before taking his own life at the school in Surrey.
The Gazette revealed last week that George attended Barton Court Grammar School between 1994 and 2001, with ex-classmates expressing their shock at what had happened. Further information about his time living in the county has since been revealed. George’s parents lived in Eythorne, near Dover, in the late 1990s, where they ran the Post Office, it has been reported. One resident, who has lived in the village for almost 40 years, told the Daily Mail that George and his younger sister were “very pleasant” children. The Pattisons later moved to Sandwich, where they are said to have set up their own travel agency.
They also lived in Deal, and a former neighbour there told the
newspaper George was “rather shy” and “extremely polite”. Detectives believe the 39-yearold accountant shot his wife and daughter before turning the gun on himself at their home in the grounds of £42,000-a-year Epsom College.
The mother of one pupil has said “everyone is still in shock” following the horrific tragedy last Sunday.
Tributes have poured in for Emma, who five months ago
became the private school’s first female head, after six years at Croydon High.
One former colleague described her as “adored” and a “real inspiration”.
The Pattisons had been married for 12 years and appeared to have a happy life together. But it has since emerged George reported Emma, 45, to police in 2016 for allegedly hitting him. Emma was questioned by officers but no further action
was taken.
At about midnight last Sunday, Emma made a distressed call to her sister Deborah who jumped in her car and drove to Surrey from London.
But when she arrived just after 1am she found the couple and their daughter dead.
It has also emerged Surrey Police made a routine phone call to George on Thursday, February 2, to check his shotgun was being stored correctly.
Detectives believe he used the same weapons just days later to kill his wife and child before using it to take his own life. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) confirmed it will not investigate Surrey Police over the contact its officers had with George regarding his firearms licence. Speaking last week, Dr Alastair Wells, chairman of the board of governors at Epsom College, said: “On behalf of everyone here, I want to convey our utter shock and disbelief at this tragic news.
“Our immediate thoughts and condolences are with Emma’s family, friends and loved ones, and to the many pupils and colleagues whose lives she enriched throughout her distinguished career.
“She was a wonderful teacher, but most of all she was a delightful person.”
One of George’s former Canterbury classmates told the Gazette last week: “Everyone who remembers him from Barton Court is shocked and sad. “Our thoughts are with their loved ones.”
After leaving Barton Court, George studied at Durham University before training with Deloitte and was admitted as a chartered accountant in 2008. Epsom College won the top prize at the Independent Schools of the Year Awards 2022, with judges calling it a “beacon of excellence”.
It was also named the winner of the student wellbeing award at the October ceremony thanks to its “approach to mental health and the wellbeing of its staff and pupils”.
More than 850 boys and girls attend the school, which was founded in 1853.