The school beside the sea

When you see the name Lawson in The Spectator, it would be understandable if you thought of financial or political matters. And it’s true that Tom Lawson, the headmaster of Eastbourne College, did study PPE at Oxford’s Christ Church like his father, Nigel, and his half-brother, Dominic, before him. But unlike the rest of his family — who have ‘all been journalists, all the way down’ — this Lawson decided to become a teacher.

‘There were two reasons,’ he explains. ‘Firstly I loved my subject; I was wonderfully taught, and I didn’t just want to use my PPE as a stepping stone to another job. I wanted to carry on with lifelong learning. The other reason was I quite fancied being a stand-up comedian. The best thing is, the kids are
a captive audience, and if they don’t laugh you can give them detention.’

And so from Christ Church he went straight to Winchester, covering a teacher’s sabbatical, then asking the headmaster for a contract after two years ‘as it seemed to be going quite well’. He stayed for 15 years, spending eight as a housemaster, and two as under master. From there, he went to Christ’s Hospital in West Sussex, where he was deputy head.

Was it a bit of a shock moving from Winchester to a co-ed environment? (Lawson, after all, is an Old Etonian himself, and credits former head Eric Anderson with helping him realise what a difference a good headmaster — and his wife — can make.) ‘It was a change, but it was a welcome change. Winchester is an absolutely superb school, but I feel there’s a slight gap in the socialisation of a Wykehamist, and that gap is girl-shaped. Christ’s Hospital works as a co-ed school really beautifully, and I believe in co-ed with the zeal of a convert.