An Aussie female first for Rishi’s alma mater
NOT long from now, it may add the name of the new prime minister to its roll r call of illustrious alumni — already a tapestry of Nobel Prize winners, judges and philosophers.
But before learning whether Rishi Sunak has become the first incumbent of Asian heritage at 10 Downing Street, his alma mater, Winchester College, where fees are £45,000 a year, has made an arguably even more radical decision — appointing the first ever female headmaster in its 640-year history.
What’s more, Elizabeth Stone isn’t transferring her allegiance from another British public school — she’s
being lured away from her native Australia, where she’s currently Principal of Queenwood School, a girlsonly establishment in Sydney.
‘She’s a brilliant teacher and a really nice person,’ a friend tells me. ‘Very, very bright, very organised and cuts through all the bull***t.’
Neither of Winchester’s great
rivals, Eton and Harrow, has ever appointed a woman as head. Fond of asserting that it’s defined by its motto, manners makyth man, Winchester tends to be better known for its academic atmosphere. But that will present no problem for Stone.
She graduated from the University of New South Wales and won a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford, where she completed a master’s in law.
‘She practised law for a few years before she went into teaching,’ the friend adds.
Her teaching career has been similarly spectacular, and has included stints Down Under and here, where she spent two years as vice- principal of Cheltenham Ladies’ College and three years at Winchester.
This will be of particular importance as Winchester takes its first step towards co-education. ‘The first daygirls arrive in September. Then there will be boarders once a couple of new boarding houses have been built.’
Stone takes up her new role in September next year. ‘She will get a grip on the things that need to be gripped.’
And as a judo black belt, she certainly knows a thing or two about that.