News

Michael Brand

19 April 1938 – 11 September 2020

 

Michael and Anne Brand were at the heart of the College community from the 1960s to the 1990s when Michael was Housemaster of Elizabeth Fry Hall for many years. A Head of House at Wymondham College is a very responsible and demanding role for both the Head and family and he was lucky to have had incredible support and loyalty from Anne. Michael and Anne were invited to the Queen’s Garden party at Buckingham Palace in recognition of their contribution to boarding education at Wymondham College.

For a time Adrian, Housemaster of Cavell lived next door to Michael. They were very good friends and rivals. Though Adrian was ‘keen’ enough, he had nothing on Michael who spent much of his precious free time on the games field supporting his teams who were invariably successful.

Many pupils have reason to be grateful to Michael who was an excellent and successful Science teacher.

During the time when Michael was out of the boarding house, he and Andrew Seeley worked hard to foster the ‘out of school activities’ which were a vital part of boarding school life. He was always on hand as well, to help Chris Sayer with the Saturday night film.

One of his passions was tennis and he gave a lot of his time to running the College tennis teams. Another of his talents was singing. Many will remember with pleasure seeing Michael as Major General Stanley in Gilbert & Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance. It was one of the many leading roles he took on.

As a supporter of the Parents Staff Association he organised a group of pupils to go out early in the morning with him to pick strawberries for sale at the Summer Fayre. He was a champion of the Old Wymondhamians and a great supporter of the Wymondham College Trust Appeal whose efforts saved the College from closure in the 1980s. He continued to serve the Trust during his retirement.

There have been tough times for Michael and Anne in recent years, but he leaves behind a wonderful family, Simon and Jen, Aidan and Lisa, Justin and Jo, Katherine and Alex and their children Jacob, Rupert and Beatrice, Gracie and Alice, Eva and Eddy.  But there is also an even larger family out there whose home was Elizabeth Fry Hall.

Michael had very high standards for himself and others but there is no doubt that at the heart of everything he did was the welfare of Wymondham College students.  In that regard he was the school’s ‘Mr Chips’.             

- Adrian & Anne Hoare