A Musical Legacy | Wykeham Journal

He concluded that it was a school dedicated to educating people to be kind. ‘It’s not the exam results or what they have gone on to do since school. What the school produces is kind and generous people. I have a sort of surrogate uncle, a Wykehamist, who I’ve known since I was two years old. Such a nice person.

James and Linda outside their home in Devon — At home in Devon with dogs Lily and Alice

James and his wife Linda joined the Goddard Legacy Society when they pledged to leave the majority of their estate to Winchester.

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Quiristers are provided for in the College Statutes

When James was at prep school, he might have been headed for Winchester. His father was a naval officer and could count on half the fees being paid by the Navy. But James had a terrible memory and struggled to remember things for exams. ‘It didn’t impede my life, but it did impede my childhood.’ He sang well and won a music scholarship to a school in Dorset. At the age of 66 he is as keen on music as ever and that is the theme of his gift to Winchester. I asked him to name his favourite pieces of choral music. He has, he said, a long list of favourite choral and organ music ‘most of which I listen to every day’. He thought that the very best would be a tie between Charles Stanford’s The Bluebird and Hubert Parry’s Crossing the Bar.

What the school produces is kind and generous people. I have a sort of surrogate uncle, a Wykehamist, who I’ve known since I was two years old. Such a nice person.

£228K

a year is invested into the Quirister programme

He works only one day a week now, and he and Linda lived on a barge sailing the canals of Europe for two years after James stopped full-time work. They have lived in 14 places in all. Their current home is a Devon farm where James can indulge two passions. He has restored two antique tractors and revived a cider-apple orchard which now produces 300 litres of cider and apple juice a year.

Playing his Viscount Cantorum digital organ

£2M

was received from legacies last year.

Ten years ago James wanted to settle what happened to their assets when he and Linda died: they had no children and money to leave. ‘It’s much easier to be charitable when you’re dead,’ he said with a chuckle. ‘I didn’t want to divide up my money … so much for the donkey sanctuary, so much for the cats’ home and so on. I wanted to stick it all in one place where it would have more impact.’ Why choose Winchester? James listed three reasons: a better school than the one he had been to, lots of flint buildings (this was said somewhat tongue in cheek) and Winchester succeeds at what it does. ‘It’s an elite school and perhaps better than most elite schools.’ He added that he thought Winchester’s ‘core skill’ is its ability to move with the times while keeping its basic values intact. ‘Shrewd management of money and assets really helps too.’

When the Turners were contemplating this choice they lived in Bishops Waltham
and James was the Organist and Choirmaster at nearby Upham. Simon Beloe (I, 1958-63) was a member of that choir and put James in touch with the school’s Development team. James made clear that he wanted to support a music award which would go to ‘children whose parents would otherwise not be able to afford the school fees’. His legacy will be divided between two purposes: a bursary for a pupil with a particular interest or ability in music and helping the school fund the cost of the Quiristers’ education (and that may include scholarships or bursaries).

‘I’d like to encourage more people to do what I have done,’ James said. ‘It seems to me that the RNLI is awash with money. Battersea Dogs’ Home doesn’t know what to do with a dog. Money will help education to grow if it’s used judiciously.’

I’d like to encourage more people to do what I have done. Money will help education to grow if it’s used judiciously.

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Winchester College only exists as we know it today thanks to the generous support of those named over the next few pages, and the many generations of donors who have come before us, going right back to our Founder, William of Wykeham, in 1382. Our pupils past, present and future cannot thank you enough.

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