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Back to all news
Members of the St Paul’s Community are invited to share their messages of condolence, following the sad loss of Dr Ed Beesley, Head of History at St Paul’s.
Ed’s wife is extremely grateful for the kind words she has received so far and wanted the school to share this message with the Pauline community:
Normally, I am extremely assiduous in writing thank-you cards for the gifts I receive but, after today, this would be an Herculean task so please excuse the impersonal nature of this message.
Ed was loved and respected wherever he worked and it is an enormous help to Augusta, Theo and me to see this marked so palpably by the hundreds of cards and messages we have already received. We have long since run out of vases for beautiful flowers and the massive box which just arrived with so many envelopes, gifts and expressions of love from SPGS and SPS is quite overwhelming. The Rugby community also holds Ed deep in their hearts and so we are drawing on our collective good memories to keep us strong. Ed will live with us forever, of course, but you have all already played a huge part in supporting us and I know he would love you all the more for it.
With our best wishes, Lizzie, Augusta and Theo.
If you would like to share your message on this page, please add your comment in the below box.
If you wish to include your name with your message, please add it to the message box as well as the field marked ‘name’.
I am so sorry to hear this very sad news. I met Dr Beesley once when I visited his class as part of my induction as a governor, and saw how brilliantly he engaged with pupils and how passionate he was about his subject. I know he was loved by the school community and widely respected. He will be very sorely missed, my thoughts and prayers are with his family.
We were so saddened to hear about Ed’s untimely passing. If you could “build a teacher”, you would build Ed. I know he would always have waved this off modestly, but it’s true.
His huge enthusiasm and passion for his subject was visible in every detail of the way he prepared and then shared lessons with boys. He was immensely knowledgable and had the characteristic of all great teachers – he gave the boys a long term love for the subject. His kindness, patience and humour were appreciated not just by the boys, whose confidence was always boosted after a session with him. He knew just how to deal with parents.
In a world where the young need all the role models they can get, there was none better than Ed.
Thank you Ed, for enriching our lives. Your legacy will be a lasting one. And may this bring your family some small comfort in the days ahead
Our condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Dr Ed Beesley who are in our thoughts. This is a huge loss for the SPS community. We and our sons feel fortunate to have known Dr Ed Beesley, and our boys feel incredibly lucky to have have been taught and mentored by him through History A Level. He was an outstanding, kind, witty, inspirational and hugely intelligent teacher and a very erudite, knowledgable and incisive historian. Of all the parents evenings we have attended over the years at SPS, the wit, words and wisdom of Ed Beesley are by far some of the most memorable. He will never be forgotten. Sarah, Julian, Alex and Luke Barker
It was a privilege to work with Ed at SPS. He was a brilliant mind, inspirational teacher and a very fair man. He was a champion of all pupils and supported his colleagues wholeheartedly. I will miss our early morning chats but will remember him with great fondness. My thoughts are with his family and friends at this most difficult time, he will be missed.
Dr Beesley was a figurehead not only of the History department at St Paul’s, but in the wider school community as a whole. The passing of such a wonderful and eminent man is a universal loss.
Dr Beesley was deeply invested in his craft and continually inspired other students to cultivate a love of learning. He took a keen interest in exploring how his students approached a subject he so clearly loved, and would do everything in his power to ensure that we pushed ourselves past our intellectual boundaries. Be it the English Civil War, the Soviet Union, US Presidential History; Dr Beesley knew it all. His depth of knowledge was incredible, and his charisma truly enlightened myself and my fellow students.
When it was my turn to apply to university, Dr Beesley was there at every step of the way, always ready to prepare me for interviews and exams and more than eager to support my applications.
His last email to me was a farewell in which he told me he had no doubt I would make the most of my time as a historian at university and beyond. The last words he actually spoke to me were an inquisitive, to-the-point, and fundamentally genuine, “How are you?”
Dr Beesley believed in me, and I am eternally grateful for that. Thank you, Dr Beesley. You will be missed.