West Heath Girls' School was an English girls' private school established in 1865, initially in London and from 1932 near Sevenoaks, Kent. It closed in 1997.
West Heath Girls' School was an English girls' private school established in 1865, initially in London and from 1932 near Sevenoaks, Kent. It closed in 1997.
Philip Bennet Power and his wife, Emma, undertook the education of their own daughters at their Abbey Wood home, West Heath House. The quality of the girls' education attracted other local families to ask the Powers to teach their children and West Heath School thus opened in 1865. [1] [2]
In 1879 the expanding school moved to 1 Ham Common, in what was then the agricultural community of Ham, Surrey. The house, set in over 10 acres (4.0 ha) of grounds, was the former residence of the Duc de Chartres. [1]
In 1890 Sarah, Maria and Anna Buckland and Jane Percival who owned a similar school in Reading joined forces with the ageing Emma Power at Ham Common and they ran the school until its purchase in 1900 by Emma Lawrence and Margaret Skeat. Miss Elliott[ who? ] joined the staff in 1928 and was appointed principal the following year. [1] [3]
The development of nearby shops and housing prompted a second move, Ham having become "too suburbanised for a high class girls' school". [3] In 1932 the school moved to its final site, the 18th-century Ashgrove House, near Sevenoaks, the former home of the Elliot family. The larger premises allowed the school to grow from its previous capacity at Ham of about seventy boarders, to over one hundred by the end of the Second World War. [1]
Diana, Princess of Wales, then Diana Spencer, attended the school from 1974 to 1977 and won an award as "the girl giving maximum help to the school and her schoolfellows". [4]
In the 1990s the school had financial difficulties due to falling numbers of pupils, and it was placed into receivership in 1997.
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund considered buying the school, but decided against it, and Mohamed Al Fayed stepped in to buy West Heath for £2,300,000 on 20 May 1998 as new premises for the Beth Marie Centre. He later pledged to contribute a further £550,000 towards equipping the school. In a statement, he said:
The New School at West Heath, a special school, opened in the same premises on 14 September 1998, and was renamed as West Heath School in September 2015. [6]
Mohamed Al-Fayed was a British-based Egyptian businessman, whose residence and primary business interests were in the United Kingdom from the mid-1960s. His business interests included ownership of the Hôtel Ritz Paris, and Harrods department store and Fulham Football Club, both in London. At the time of his death in 2023, Fayed's wealth was estimated at US$2 billion by Forbes.
Diana, Princess of Wales was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of Charles III and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her activism and glamour, which made her an international icon, earned her enduring popularity.
Emad El-Din Mohamed Abdel Mena'em Fayed, commonly known as Dodi Fayed, was an Egyptian film producer and the eldest child of the businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed. He was romantically involved with Diana, Princess of Wales, when they both died in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997.
Harrods is a British luxury department store located on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, London, England. It is owned by Harrods Ltd, a company currently owned by the state of Qatar via its sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority. The Harrods brand also applies to other enterprises undertaken by the Harrods group of companies, including Harrods Estates, Harrods Aviation and Air Harrods. Recognised as one of the world's leading department stores, it is visited by 15 million people per year.
Trevor Rees-Jones is a British author and former bodyguard who was badly injured in the car crash in Paris that killed Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997. Because he sustained a serious head injury, he does not recall any details from the crash.
West Heath School is an independent school in Sevenoaks, Kent. It caters for children for whom mainstream schooling has become insufficient, for varying reasons. The school's motto is "Rebuilding Lives Through Education."
Woldingham School is an independent boarding and day school for girls, located in the former Marden Park of 700 acres (280 ha) outside the village of Woldingham, Surrey, in South East England.
During the early hours of 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, died from injuries sustained earlier that night in a fatal car crash in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris, France. Diana's partner, Dodi Fayed, and the driver of the Mercedes-Benz W140, Henri Paul, were found dead inside the car. Dodi's bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, was seriously injured but was the only survivor of the crash.
Lady Elizabeth Sarah Lavinia McCorquodale is one of the two older sisters of Diana, Princess of Wales, the other being Jane Fellowes, Baroness Fellowes.
Cynthia Jane Fellowes, Baroness Fellowes, is one of the two older sisters of Diana, Princess of Wales, the other being Lady Sarah McCorquodale.
Operation Paget was the British Metropolitan Police inquiry established in 2004 to investigate the conspiracy theories about the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in a car crash in Paris in 1997. The inquiry's first report with the findings of the criminal investigation was published in 2006. The inquiry was wound up following the conclusion of the British inquest in 2008, in which a jury delivered its verdict of an "unlawful killing" due to the "gross negligence" of both the driver of Diana's car and the pursuing paparazzi.
Diana: Last Days of a Princess is a television movie broadcast in the United States by TLC on 12 August 2007 and subsequent dates. It also has aired on Five, UKTV History and UKTV Drama in the United Kingdom, RTÉ in Ireland, ProSieben in Germany, TF1 in France, RTP in Portugal, Channel 7 in Australia, Channel One in Russia, Jim in Finland and the History Channel in India.
There are many conspiracy theories surrounding the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, on 31 August 1997. Official investigations in both Britain and France found that Diana died in a manner consistent with media reports following the fatal car crash in Paris. In 1999, a French investigation concluded that Diana died as the result of a crash. The French investigator, Judge Hervé Stephan, concluded that the paparazzi were some distance from the Mercedes S280 when it crashed and were not responsible for manslaughter. After hearing evidence at the British inquest, a jury in 2008 returned a verdict of "unlawful killing" by driver Henri Paul and the paparazzi pursuing the car. The jury's verdict also stated: "In addition, the death of the deceased was caused or contributed to by the fact that the deceased were not wearing a seat belt and by the fact that the Mercedes struck the pillar in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel rather than colliding with something else."
Unlawful Killing is a 2011 British documentary film about the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed on 31 August 1997 directed by Keith Allen and financed by Dodi's father Mohamed Al-Fayed at a reported cost of £2.5m. It had a single trade screening during the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.
4 route du Champ d'Entraînement, also known as Villa Windsor, is a historic villa in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, within the northwest section of the Bois de Boulogne, close to the southern edge of Neuilly-sur-Seine. The house from 1929 is owned by the City of Paris and leased to the family of Mohamed Al-Fayed. From 1952 until 1986, it was the Paris home of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
Michael Cole is a former BBC television journalist and royal correspondent. After leaving the BBC, he worked as director of public affairs for Harrods, and thus also as a spokesman for its owner Mohamed Al Fayed.
Innocent Victims is a copper statue of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed, which was on display at the Harrods department store in London, England, between 2005 and 2018. It was commissioned by Dodi's father Mohamed Al-Fayed when he owned Harrods, and designed by William Mitchell.
The sixth and final season of The Crown, which follows the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II, was released by Netflix in two volumes. The first volume of four episodes was released on 16 November 2023, and the second, consisting of six episodes, was released on 14 December. The season began production shortly before the death of Queen Elizabeth II on 8 September 2022.
The fifth season of The Crown, which follows the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II, was released by Netflix on 9 November 2022. It was the first season of the series to be released following both the death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh on 9 April 2021 and the death of Queen Elizabeth II on 8 September 2022; filming took place between the former and the latter's death.
Emma-Louise Corrin is an English actor. They portrayed Diana, Princess of Wales in the fourth season of the Netflix historical drama The Crown (2020), for which they won a Golden Globe and were nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. They have since starred in the 2022 romantic drama films My Policeman and Lady Chatterley's Lover, and in the 2023 thriller miniseries A Murder at the End of the World.
Trustees agreed to change the school's name from The New School at West Heath to its present name from September 2015.
