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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’.
We are deeply saddened by Dr Beesley’s sudden loss. We wanted to express our condolences to his family and friends, colleagues, students (present and former) and to all whom he touched. While we mostly experienced Ed through our son’s experiences (the Deep South trip, the A-levels history class and his diligent tutelage to all the students wanting to read history in university), it was clear that he provided a great deal of both care and guidance, something so important for the boys. Ed was warm yet demanding, when needed. He fostered respect without expecting it. We have to admit Dr Beesley was the one that our son, as a young Historian, tried to please – if he thought it was good, it was good. His influence on our son’s continued interest in history is undeniable. Our son truly valued Dr Beesley and this news leaves a gap in his academic world . Dr Beesley will be very much missed.
Dr Beesley taught me for both History GCSE and A level coursework, bringing both his passion for the subject and enthusiasm to teach to all lessons, without fail. I would always look forward to my time with him each week and the thoughtful discussions his words would incite amongst his pupils. He was an absolute hero of the history department at St. Paul’s and was someone that all students wished to be taught by. I will truly miss Ed and I doubt that my experience with history will ever compare.
Dr Beesley was an absolute inspiration. A model schoolmaster, he balanced deep experience with pedagogical innovation, the pushing of his students’ intellectual boundaries with unbounded kindness, and genuine academic heft with admirable modesty and effervescent good humour. All the while, he maintained a trademark impish relationship with higher authority, always putting the interests of his pupils before protocol.
His teaching was outstanding. It is hard to convey here quite how apprehensive I was about studying the English Civil Wars for the Pre-U Special Subject, believing them to be, in my naive schoolboy philistinism, as boring, irrelevant and overworked conflicts, fought, as far as I could work out, over equally awful hairstyles. Under Dr Beesley’s expert tutelage, however, my conversion was nothing short of a miracle. The infectious passion with which he delivered his lessons was mesmerising and I was soon completely engrossed in the richness and complexity of the period’s events and characters. Through his leadership and influence, our class was quickly transformed from a group of spotty adolescents crassly chasing examination grades into the real History Boys, romping through the cut and thrust of the historiography with new-found confidence and enjoyment, even if my own contributions were often rather more Rudge than Dakin. These lessons remain some of my fondest memories from St Paul’s and Dr Beesley’s continued mentoring and guidance played an enormous role in enabling me to study history at university; for this I am forever grateful.
I still find it hard to believe, given my prior total lack of interest in the Civil Wars, that I found myself, inspired after one of Dr Beesley’s particularly engaging classes, plotting my own book in the field. Admittedly, this book has not yet come to fruition and may have to wait for my retirement. If it is written, however, with apologies to my family, there is no doubt to whom it would be dedicated. To Dr Ed Beesley. Teacher, sportsman, friend. Gone, but never forgotten.
Ed made me feel very welcomed as a Colet fellow at St Paul’s. Before I even arrived he made it clear that there was a place for me in the history department. I respected him tremendously, and looked forward to observing his lessons and chatting with him about both life and history. His students were so lucky to have him– I know how deeply he will be missed. My thoughts and prayers are with his family.
Deeply saddened by the news of Dr Beesley’s passing. My thoughts and prayers are with him and his family, as well as his colleagues in the history department.
I was a history student in 8th form when Dr Beesley took over the department. Although I was never personally taught by him, he is one of the most memorable figures from my time at SPS.
Dr Beesley was a deeply knowledgeable, passionate and affable department head. Despite being an extremely busy man, he always took the time to cultivate genuine relationships with all the history students at SPS, no matter their ability in the subject.
I’m sure that his presence on the second floor, and the energy that he brought to the department will be sorely missed.