Dr James Partridge Fund Launched

The Trust is deeply saddened by news of the death of Dr James Partridge on 17 April 2009.

James was one of the founding trustees of the Buwan Kothi International Trust. He had also served as a Warwickshire County Councillor and had been a member of the board of the National Children’s Bureau. James was a retired paediatrician who spent 40 years treating sick children, rejecting private practice because he believed passionately in the egalitarian principles of the National Health Service. These views were reaffirmed in an article in the Guardian where James spoke about his illness. It was published the day after he died.

James had also been the Warwickshire representative of the Botanical Society of the British Isles and plants were undoubtedly an obsession. Many of us will remember him striding through the fields surrounding Buwan Kothi in Haryana in 2005, collecting and identifying samples of grass. Several species had never been formally identified before.

Our thoughts are with his wife Mary, his son Ben and his daughters Emily and Sarah.

On 26 April, Trustees agreed to rename our Assisted Places Scheme, which is funded by standing order donations from the our supporters in the UK.

It becomes the Dr James Partridge Fund in James’ memory and will subsidise free places for those who would otherwise be unable to attend the Gilly Mundy Memorial Community School.