Governors

The School’s governing body was incorporated under the Royal Charter in 1890 and is made up of up to 24 people at any one time. 

Rossall’s governing Council exists to govern the School in all matters to ensure Rossall School is able to provide a general education of the highest class and to do all things necessary, incidental or conducive to the attainment of this. 

The implementation and effectiveness of decisions are monitored either directly by Council or indirectly through sub-committees, including:

  • Finance and General Purposes Committee

  • Education and Welfare Committee

  • Compliance and Safeguarding Committee

  • Senior Remuneration Committee

  • Health and Safety Committee

  • Nominations Committee. 

Council and its sub-committees meet once per term. The Chairman of Governors can be contacted through correspondence using the school address or through info@rossall.org.uk. The school address is also the registered address and the key telephone number is 01253 774201.

Life Governors

  • The Earl of Derby, DL

  • Mr A N Stephenson, MA

    Trustee Trapnell Scholarship and other trust funds

  • Mrs H N Trapnell

    Finance and General Purposes Committee, Trustee Trapnell Scholarship Fund

  • Mrs C M Preston, BSc ARICS

  • Mr C Holt, BSc (Hons)

Governors

Keith Budge, Chair of Council

Appointed: 2024
Committees: Member of the Finance & General Purposes Committee

Keith’s schooling was entirely at Rossall where his father was headmaster of the prep-school. He then read English and did his PGCE at University College, Oxford where he won three rugby blues. Starting out in teaching, he continued to play rugby at first class level. Having spent a year teaching in California and been a housemaster at Marlborough College, he became headmaster of Loretto School in 1995. He completed his second headship at Bedales School in 2016. He has experience as a governor of two UK boarding and day schools and an international day school. He is married with three adult children who have all had the benefit of 13–18 UK boarding. His Scottish roots take him regularly to the family’s hill farm in Northern Scotland.

John Fisher MA (Oxon), Vice Chair of Council

Appointed: 2011
Committees: Member of the Finance and General Purpose Committee; Member of the Education and Welfare Committee; Member of the Nominations Committee.

Educated at Rossall School and University College, Oxford where he read Geography and won a rugby blue. John has had a career in real estate spanning 35 years. Originally based in private practice in Lancashire, John’s career in corporate senior management has been throughout the North of England and in retirement he has completed a consultancy posting in the South Lakes.

John’s interests include sport and travel. His four children have all been boarders and music scholars in the independent sector.

Michelle Walmsley (née Reece) BA (Hons), Secretary 

Appointed: 2023
Committees: Secretary to the Governors of the Rossall Corporation

Michelle was educated at Huyton College, Rossall and Royal Holloway, University of London. She completed a degree in German with Italian and worked as an executive assistant at SG Hambros, Kingfisher and as a private EA. She also worked as a communications manager specialising in IT projects in the retail and public sectors in London. In 2017 she moved back to her roots in Merseyside and she recently qualified as a counsellor and clinical hypnotherapist. She is a counsellor in private practice and volunteers as a bereavement counsellor in West Lancashire and as a support volunteer for the Encephalitis International. She has a wide range of interests which include playing golf, pilates, the theatre and cinema, reading and cooking.

Jonty Arundel DipPFS, DipCII

Appointed: 2021
Committees: Member of the Finance & General Purposes Committee; Chair of the Nominations Committee

Jonty was educated at Rossall from 1972-1979 after which he began his career in insurance and financial services.  He established an advice practice in 1984, retiring in 2020 having represented St. James’s Place Wealth Management for 27 years. He specialised in providing financial advice and career transition guidance to service leavers from the Armed Forces. 

He plays cricket and participates in the Old Rossallian Cricket Club.  He is an average golfer and performs regularly in amateur stage productions in Surrey.   He lives in Hampshire with his wife Hazel and they have two sons.

The Reverend Canon Grant Ashton

Appointed: 2015
Committees: Member of the Education and Welfare Committee

Grant was educated at Rossall, Durham University and Oak Hill Theological College. After his curacy in Lancaster he became an Army Chaplain in 1989. During his 25 years in the Army he served in many places, including the Gulf War, Bosnia, Northern Ireland, Kosovo and Iraq (again). He was appointed Assistant Chaplain-General in 2007 and in 2011 was appointed Queen’s Honorary Chaplain. After retiring from the Army in 2014 Grant became Vicar of Euxton. In 2018 he was appointed Assistant Archdeacon of Blackburn.

Grant loves books, music, photography and pretty much anything to do with mountains and fresh air.

Lillian Croston, B.Sc (Hons) PGCE, ALCM.

Appointed: 2013
Committees: Chair of the Education & Welfare Committee, Deputy Safeguarding Governor

Lillian has worked in the schools’ maintained and independent sectors, in an Academy Trust and in Further and Higher Education.  In 2012 she won the independent schools’ Lifetime Achievement Award for Education.

Educated at the Universities of Durham and Cambridge, she entered the teaching profession, and became the Principal for 25 years of a large independent day school in the north west.  For ten years she was an Advanced level chief examiner for the Northern Examination Authority, a trustee for the Independent Schools Careers Organisation and an ISI inspector involved mainly with HMC and GSA schools, occasionally working in collaboration with OFSTED.

During her headship she appointed, trained, appraised and mentored many Headteachers in both the primary and secondary sectors. She is currently the Chair of the Corporation Board of a large FE College and University Centre in the North West and a trustee of Samlesbury Hall, Lancashire.

As an Associate of the London College of Music, Lillian is very interested in performing arts.  She enjoys sport, playing golf and badminton regularly and is married with one son.

Belinda Doshi (née Winward) BA (Hons), LLM

Appointed: 2023
Committees: Member of the Finance & General Purposes Committee

Belinda was educated at Rossall School, the University of York, Nottingham Law School and holds a Master of Laws degree from the University of London. She is a commercial solicitor with over 25 years’ experience. She started her career in private practice rising to become a partner in the following international law firms, Field Fisher LLP and Nabarro LLP (now CMS LLP). Upon moving in-house, she was Global Chief Privacy Officer and Associate General Counsel at leading education company, Pearson. Since 2017, she has been at Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) where she is Head of Legal for Data & Digital. As such, she sits on various risk and governance committees for LBG and UK Finance. Belinda is married to Alpesh and has two teenage children. She is regularly on the Fylde Coast visiting family.

David Martin Elliott BSc, MB ChB, PostGrad in General Practice

Appointed: 2013
Committees: Member of the Education and Welfare Committee. Health and Safety Lead Governor, Chair of Governors' Safeguarding Committee, Lead Safeguarding Governor and Liaison Governor with Common Room.

David was educated at Wolverhampton Grammar School and University of St Andrews where he was a Harkness Scholar and he completed his BSC in Medical Science.  He then attended University of Manchester (MB ChB) and University of Central Lancashire where he completed his post graduate qualification in General Practice.

David was a Medical Practitioner for 33 years in a city centre practice in Lancaster. He was the Primary Care Cancer Lead for 12 years, a member of the Local Medical Committee for 20 years and a Trustee of Cancer Care, Lancaster and South Lakes for 20 years. He was also a Trustee and the Medical Officer at Inward House Therapeutic Community (drug and alcohol rehabilitation) for 33 years.

He is currently Governor at Loyne (Special Needs) School in Lancaster. Vice-Chair Westfield War Memorial Village Council. Volunteer and Member of Fairfield Nature Reserve Committee.  His interests are: fell walking, jazz music and art appreciation.

Dr Henry Fajemirokun, BA (Oxon), PhD (Imperial College, London)

Appointed: 2003
Committees: Member of the Education and Welfare Committee

Henry attended Rossall pre-prep, Junior School and Senior from 1971 to 1984. After a semester‘s exchange at Phillips Exeter Academy in the US, he took up a place to read Physics at Christ Church, Oxford University, where he graduated with honours. Henry did research in Plasma Physics at the Joint European Torus and gained a PhD from Imperial College London.

Henry then went into Investment Banking and served at MD level around the globe at various institutions including Barclays and Dresdner. He has since worked as a tech entrepreneur and investor, set up a 6th form college abroad, worked as a consultant and has served on advisory boards. In the charity sector Henry has served on the board of The Thames Festival Trust, Roedean School and The Poetry Society.

Henry is a keen scuba diver, has been a commercially rated pilot and loves playing cricket and soccer. His interests include history, astronomy, and music, and he especially enjoys gigging on guitar. Henry has two daughters.

David Gill, FCA, DCha

Appointed: 2018
Committees: Member of the Finance & General Purposes Committee

Born on the Isle of Man and educated at King Williams’s College, David took articles to train as a Chartered Accountant with a firm in Manchester.  After qualifying he joined Moore and Smalley in Preston where he acted as the School’s auditor for more than 30 years until he retired in 2011.  He holds a Diploma in Charity Accounting and is Chairman of Lytham Town Trust which owns the Grade 1 Lytham Hall and manages the Grade 2 Lytham Assembly Rooms.  He is also the Finance Director of Centaur Technologies Ltd.  David’s interests include Scuba Diving and has been a PADI Divemaster for more than 20 years.

Canon John Hall BA (Hons), MA

Appointed: 2015
Committees: Member of the Education & Welfare Committee

Canon John Hall gained a BA in Theology and Sociology at Leeds and a Masters in Theology from Lancaster.  He was ordained in 1986 and spent his entire ministry in Lancashire.  Prior to retirement in 2022 he served in Preston, Nelson, Carnforth and Fleetwood.  For ten years he has served on the General Synod of the Church of England and he was Chair of the House of Clergy for Blackburn for over fourteen years.  He is an honorary Canon of both Blackburn and Bloemfontein Cathedrals.

Jason Holt, B.Sc (Hons), LLB, MBA, FRAeS 

Appointed: 2022 
Committees: Member of the Finance & General Purposes Committee 

An Old Rossallian, Jason initially read psychology and then law at London University. Subsequently, he studied for an MBA at London Business School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Law School. He won Royal Air Force flying and university scholarships and attended The Empire Test Pilots’ School as well as serving in Iraq. Thereafter, Jason’s career included directorships in Virgin Atlantic, easyJet and British Airways together with time in private equity and airline start-ups and acquisitions. He was the Chief Executive and board member of Europe’s largest airfreight airline in Luxembourg and latterly Europe’s largest airport services business. Thereafter, he was Whitehall’s Chief Executive for the United Kingdom’s Covid testing programme during the pandemic. He was appointed by the Secretary of State for Transport to be the chair of Dover Harbour Board as well as chairing EDX Medical plc, a London and Cambridge diagnostics business. Finally, he chairs European Cargo – the UK’s largest dedicated air freight business - as well as the Board of Trustees of the Great Western Air Ambulance.

Gillian King BA, FCA, MBA, LLB, MCISI, MCIBS

Appointed: 2018
Committees: Member of the Finance & General Purposes Committee

Gillian is an Old Rossallian, a parent and President of the Rossallian Club alumni association.  She graduated from Durham University with an honours degree in Economics before joining Price Waterhouse where she trained in accountancy.  She completed a further first class bachelor’s degree in Law as well as two MBAs in Finance and Banking.  She also holds professional memberships with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment and the Chartered Bankers Association.  She has 25 years’ experience in banking and finance having conducted key change programmes across the top banks in the UK.  She is currently Head of the Global Cyber Programme for HSBC.

Rodney Wilson MA (Cantab)

Appointed: 2017
Committees: Chair of Finance and General Purposes Committee, Member of Senior Salaries Committee

Rodney was educated at Sedbergh School and Queens’ College, Cambridge where he read Natural Sciences followed by Law before qualifying as a solicitor.  He practised in a leading insurance law firm and specialised in defending claims involving catastrophic injury.  He was senior partner of the firm’s Liverpool office and was also a member of the firm’s management team and partnership board.  He retired in 2017 and joined Rossall Council in the same year. He is a member of Formby Golf Club, where he was Captain in 2019, and also of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews.