The Patterson Prize for Recitation

The Patterson Prize for Recitation is named after Robert Patterson, a former head of English. It makes tough demands of competitors, who memorise a poem and then recite it, in a face-off not only with each other, but also with their nerves. There is a junior competition, for the Third and Fourth forms, and a senior one.

The quality of this year’s recitations were better than ever. Our judge, another former Head of English – Mrs de Pelet – said that nine people could have won this year, and the supportive audience of boys and staff found several of the performances profoundly moving. The close, excellent runners up in the junior competition were Ian Liu (3d) and Benjamin Brady (4d); the winner was Forest Purvis (4b). The senior cup was awarded to Harry Trudgeon (U6f). His performance of Harry Baker’s “Paper People” was breath-taking, even though the poem didn’t give him much of a chance to take actual breaths.

Tom Payne, English Teacher