James Kirpalani (SH 80-83) submitted the following regarding his father, Heeru Kirpalani (SH 56-58), who died in January 2020 aged 80.
“My dad came to St Bees in 1956 at the age of 16 to do his A levels. Prior to that he spent six years at The Doon School in Dehrdun, India, which is known as ‘The Eton of India.’ Here he followed a largely British-based curriculum, but his Father (my Grandfather) felt his son's prospects in life would be much better served by having British qualifications, so following his elder brother, Raju, he was sent 5000 miles away to school in the UK.  Initially his Father had chosen Gordonstoun as the British school he wished his sons to attend, as Gordonstoun had a similar ethos to The Doon School, however at the time Gordonstoun was full but the Headmaster there recommended St Bees as a very good alternative.  So to St Bees he came via ship around the Cape of Good Hope as the 1956 Suez crisis had temporarily closed the Suez Canal. Initially he found the transition to life in a British school rather challenging, but he soon got used to the way things were done. My dad did well in his A levels and in 1958 he went off to Leeds University to study economics and accountancy and in 1963 he qualified as a Chartered Accountant, which is the career he chose. He married my mum, Cynthia, in 1964 and three boys came along: James in 1965, Mark in 1967 and Nigel in 1970. All three boys also attended St Bees in the 1980s.
Not surprisingly, being Indian, he absolutely loved cricket and was a member of the MCC for many years. He was also a very avid horse racing fan and for a while he owned several race horses, which were trained by Martin Pipe and ridden by Tony McCoy. He was very fortunate in this pursuit and he enjoyed a fair degree of success. In 2004 he was awarded the MBE for services to the Ministry of Defence and he retired from work soon after. After having lived here for so many years he felt more British than Indian, but then again, when he was born in Mumbai in 1939, India was ruled by the British and consequently English was actually always his first language!”

 

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