Billionaire inventor Sir James Dyson has donated £35 million to his former school, which allowed him to continue his studies there for free after the death of his father.
The 76-year-old entrepreneur was a nine-year-old pupil at the private Gresham’s School in Holt, Norfolk when his father Alec Dyson, a Classics teacher at the school, died of cancer.
Mr Dyson was 43 years old when he died in 1956.
Sir James said the then-headmaster, Logie Bruce-Lockhart, allowed him and his brother to continue their education at the school with a bursary.
His donation will fund a prep school with a new building incorporating STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) facilities for pupils aged seven to 13.
Sir James said: “I’m forever grateful for the generosity Gresham’s showed me when my father – who was Head of Classics at the school – died when I was nine.
“Logie Bruce-Lockhart, the Headmaster, allowed my brother and me to continue our studies with a bursary when it would otherwise have been impossible.
“I’m so pleased to be able to support the school and to see it shaping incredible young people who go on and flourish.”
Sir James, who invented the revolutionary bagless vacuum cleaner, and his family were ranked as the fifth richest in the UK in this year’s Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated fortune of £23 billion.
He previously donated almost £19 million to Gresham’s for the Dyson STEAM building, which opened last year.
Douglas Robb, Gresham’s Headmaster, said: “We are enormously grateful for the generous donation of Sir James Dyson and the James Dyson Foundation.”
Earlier this year, Sir James pledged £6 million to his local state primary school in Malmesbury, Wiltshire but said this was blocked by officials – a claim denied by Downing Street.
The billionaire businessman said he had been trying to give a grant to the Malmesbury C of E school through his charitable foundation to help with the building of its new science and technology centre and expansion by 210 places.
“But the local authority and Department for Education say no, citing the risk of other schools having insufficient numbers,” Sir James wrote in a letter to The Times.
Asked why the Government was stopping the new science and technology centre from being built, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman told reporters in October: “That’s not an accurate characterisation.
“There is a formal process that rightly needs to be followed, a decision hasn’t been made. Certainly, we are extremely grateful for Sir James Dyson’s generosity.
“We’ve been dealing with that request to expand the school as quickly as possible since it was submitted over the summer.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here