The Daily Telegraph

Provost of Eton College to step down after controvers­y over free speech

- By Catherine Lough

THE provost of Eton College has announced he will be stepping down following rows over free speech at the school.

William Waldegrave – Lord Waldegrave of North Hill – has announced that he will retire as provost of Eton, a position that is by royal appointmen­t, in June 2024, having been in the post since 2009.

His retirement follows a recent row over free speech at Eton when he recused himself from the appeal panel of a master facing dismissal in 2020 over a lecture which questioned “current radical feminist orthodoxy”. Lord Waldegrave stood down from his role as chair of the appeal panel saying it would be “inappropri­ate” for him to continue in the role when he had publicly backed Simon Henderson, the school’s headmaster, over the dismissal of Will Knowland.

Mr Knowland was dismissed for gross misconduct after recording a lecture which questioned “current radical feminist orthodoxy”. The lecture was part of the Perspectiv­es course taken by older students to encourage them to think critically about subjects of public debate.

Mr Knowland alleged that he was banned from delivering the lecture to pupils and then dismissed after he refused to remove a video of the lecture from his personal Youtube channel.

Lord Waldegrave claimed that the teacher was dismissed for his “repeated refusal to follow reasonable instructio­n” in not removing the video.

He also spoke out against David Cameron’s social mobility agenda in 2016, threatenin­g to leave the Conservati­ve Party over proposals for employers to ask candidates if they went to private school, which he said could lead to discrimina­tion against the privately educated.

Eton’s Fellows have begun the process of selecting a successor to recommend to No10, which will advise the King on the appointmen­t.

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