There are weeks at Hampton Prep when the threads of history, current affairs and our own shared values seem to weave themselves together with a pleasing, almost conspiratorial neatness. This has been one of those weeks!
In my assembly on Monday our subject was Hampton’s (arguably) most famous local resident: King Henry VIII. It is easy, of course, to reduce Henry to caricature. The vast silhouette, the succession of wives, the allegedly thunderous ego. I wanted the boys to look more carefully however as here was a man of Renaissance brilliance and catastrophic moral failure existing in the same formidable frame, and a King whose court sat just a short walk from where we gather each morning to be at school. Hampton Court Palace was not merely a royal residence, it was the beating heart of Tudor power and that power was exercised, time and again, at the direct expense of the women around Henry VIII.
This was a connection I was keen to draw out, not least because this week has been bookmarked with International Women’s Day last Sunday and Mother’s Day occurring this Sunday. The journey towards equality between genders has been long, hard-won and, in many respects, still incomplete. Thankfully, in my opinion, we inhabit a different moral landscape from Tudor England, and that difference is not incidental. It is the result of courageous women and enlightened men across generations who refused to accept that half of humanity deserved less.
At Hampton Prep, our Pride Values ask us not merely to acknowledge this progress but to embody it: to act with integrity, to show respect in every interaction, and to understand that the measure of a community is found in how it treats those who might otherwise be overlooked. I finished my assembly with a simple challenge: I asked every boy to make time this week to think about the remarkable women in their lives and to consider what they might do not merely to remember but to say something, give something, enact something – however modest – that showed they had noticed. I hope they will!
