Mr Trevor Rowell 
Chair of Governors

Trevor Rowell joined the Board of the Royal Hospital School in December 2023 as a nominee of Greenwich Hospital, where he is Education Member of the Advisory Board.

Trevor has extensive experience of educational leadership and governance.  Educated in a state grammar school, he began teaching in an independent boarding school as a resident tutor, and went on to lead a state comprehensive school in Gloucestershire, a Further Education College near Portsmouth in Hampshire, an international school in Bermuda and as the CEO of a group of six British international schools in The Netherlands.  For over a decade, he was Chair of COBIS - the leading association of British international schools based in London – dealing with UK and other governments, institutions, and corporations at the highest level.  He has been a non-executive director of various educational and commercial bodies including the Kings Group UK and High Performance Learning UK Ltd, and was for several years a director of the UK Independent Schools Council.  His work advising and training schools and their governing bodies has taken him to the Americas, Far and Middle East and Europe, and he has been a governor of 14 UK and international schools.  He is currently a Board Director and Chair of the Education Committee of Misk Schools in Saudi Arabia, the Hon. Vice President of COIBUS and an Advisory Board Member of GISA (the Global Independent Schools Association).

Mr Rowell is an Exhibitioner and graduate of Christ Church, Oxford, Trinity College Cambridge, and graduate Scholar of the University of Hull.  He was appointed FRSA in 1994, is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors, and was a Schoolteacher Fellow Commoner of St John’s College Cambridge in 1983.

Trevor has a long-held admiration for the Royal Navy – since his teenage days in the naval section of the CCF and his close connection with Royal Navy recruitment when a Principal in Havant College. 

Mr Tony Stenning
Vice Chair of Governors

Tony Stenning is CEO of Catley Lakeman May Group, the market leading provider of defined returns investments. Tony has worked in the financial services sector for almost three decades, beginning his career as an economist and fund manager. Following a number of years within UK wealth-management he moved to a leading global asset manager in 2000 holding a number of senior roles, latterly as Head of their UK Retail Business and Head of Retirement for EMEA.

In 2017 Tony took a year’s sabbatical which enabled him to undertake several benevolent projects within the industry and society more broadly. Since returning to his career, he has held a number of advisory posts with a focus on asset management, FinTech and governance.

Tony is also currently the non-executive Chair of a consumer-focused industry association and also Chair of an asset servicing company.

Tony has a wide range of sporting and arts interests and has three daughters at RHS. 

Professor Tan Arulampalam
Professor Tan Arulampalam qualified as a Doctor in 1992 from St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. He completed his surgical training in London before undertaking a Fellowship with Professor Cristiano Hüscher in Rome. He was appointed Consultant Surgeon at Colchester Hospital in 2003.

He is a surgical oncologist specialising in bowel cancer treatment. He has an extensive research portfolio, which includes studying molecular imaging in the early diagnosis of colorectal cancer at The Institute of Nuclear Medicine, University College London and proteomics at Essex University. He has been appointed visiting Professor at the School of Medicine, Anglia Ruskin University in order to pursue his teaching and research interests.

He is on the faculty at the European Surgical Institute in Hamburg. He continues to publish his work in peer-reviewed journals and was on the editorial board of the Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He acts as a medical advisor to the charity Bowel Cancer UK. He has worked on Department of Health projects on Enhanced Recovery Programmes, Bowel Cancer Awareness and is a trainer on the National Laparoscopic Colorectal training programme.

Professor Arulampalam has contributed to the ICENI Centre for Surgical Research and Training over the last 10 years with his teaching and training as well as leading the project to secure its funding. He was elected onto the Research Committee of the European Association of Endoscopic Surgeons in 2015 and serves as Honorary Treasurer on the Council of the Association of Laparoscopic Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland.

Tan is married to Katy and they have five children, four of whom have been to or are currently attending the Royal Hospital School.

Mrs Tessa Bartlett
Tessa spent seven years working at the University of Essex, five as Director of Communications, with a diverse portfolio of responsibilities including increasing the representation of students from underprivileged backgrounds into higher education.

Prior to this much of her career was spent working in professional sailing as Sailing Operations Manager for London 2012, Ellen MacArthur, the British Olympic Sailing Team and the British America’s Cup Team.

Tessa spends much of her free time on the water either sailing or coaching.

Ms Alison Beech
Alison works as a business coach and mentor and has particular skills in executive coaching, organisational development and change management. With broad and diverse experience in growing, developing and transforming businesses, she has worked as a mentor and adviser to a London based PropTech start-up, and set up a new mortgage lender. Alison's last full-time role before semi-retiring in 2018 was leading a £13m turnover national chartered surveying business. Previous roles include HR Director for a UK plc, Managing Director, Business Development Director, HR Director, and Non-Executive Director for a Ministry of Defence agency.

In 2013, Alison joined the board of governors at Suffolk New College and, at the time of leaving in August 2023, was Vice Chair of Corporation, Chair of Governance and Search committee, a member of the Remuneration, Academy Standards & Quality, and Strategic Safeguarding committees.

Since 2013, Alison has volunteered for Anglia Care Trust as an Appropriate Adult, supporting juveniles and vulnerable adults in police custody. A member of Ipswich Jaffa Running Club since 2009, she has served on the committee in various roles and held the role of Chair from 2016 until 2022. Alison is currently the club’s Vice President and is Volunteer Manager for the Ipswich Half Marathon and Ipswich Twilight races. She also volunteers with Locate International, investigating cold cases of unidentified and missing people.

Commodore Rob Bellfield RN
Robert is the Naval Regional Commander for London and Eastern England and is the Governor who leads with the school’s relationship with the Royal Navy.

A career of well over 30 years has largely been at sea and supporting operations. He spent most of 2020 commanding CCTF SENTINEL, a multi-national Maritime Task Group in the Gulf, prior to which he was the Commander of the Devonport Flotilla. His last sea appointment was as the Executive Officer of HMS ARK ROYAL for her final commission until her retirement in late 2010. Previous sea time included command of the Type 23 frigates GRAFTON, PORTLAND and ARGYLL, and second-in-command of SUTHERLAND.

Shore appointments include the Fleet Operations Centre at Northwood; training young officers at BRNC Dartmouth; on the strategic planning staff in the Ministry of Defence in London and the Capability Manager for all surface ships, in Navy Command HQ. More recently he commanded HMS Raleigh in Cornwall, a training establishment that delivered initial and specialist training for sailors. He was also a Governor of a State Secondary School in Cornwall.

Living in Suffolk, Robert is a passionate sailor, still competing at high level in dinghies and yachts. He is a Life Rear Commodore of the Royal Naval Sailing Association and a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron. He is also a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Leathersellers, a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights, a Freeman of the City of London, a Younger Brother of Trinity House, and President of TS Orwell Ipswich Sea Cadets.

Miss Yvonne Spencer
Yvonne Spencer is a partner at top 100 law firm, Veale Wasbrough Vizards.  The firm is renowned for its national practice with the education and charity sectors. Yvonne specialises in education law and has practised in this area for over 28 years. She works with independent schools and academy trusts and is based in the firm's London office. Her publications include Butterworth's Law of Education, Croner's Education Law Guides, contributions to the LexisNexis Education Law Journal and the Times Educational Supplement.

Yvonne has a Master's degree in the Theory and Practice of Human Rights from the University of Essex.  She has worked on projects in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Jordan and Japan on the reform of child protection systems, equality legislation and the deinstitutionalisation of children with UNICEF, DfID and the international children's charity 'We Are Lumos', founded by J.K. Rowling. 

Yvonne was a Trustee of the Institute of School Business Leadership from 2014 to 2023 and in 2023, was made 'Companion of the Institute' in recognition of her valued service to the sector. 

Yvonne knows RHS well as she was previously a Governor from 2005 to 2011 and was an education guardian to her niece who attended RHS from 2003 to 2010. 

Yvonne has a wide range of sporting and arts interests, including half marathon running, medieval architecture and early nineteenth century Norwich School paintings.  

Yvonne has lived in Suffolk for over 24 years. 

Mr Paul Torrington
Paul is a director of BPL Holdings where he has worked for 34 years and is chairman of its French subsidiary. Its UK trading subsidiary BPL Global is a specialist insurance broker in the area of political risk and export credit.

Paul is a keen musician and sings with the Marenzio Singers. He is a trustee of Brass for Africa, a UK-registered music charity which transform the lives of disadvantaged children in Africa.

Paul’s children Dominic, Martha and Lydia have all been educated at RHS.

Dr Martin Coles
Martin Coles has spent a lifetime working with and for children. His career includes being Primary School Headteacher in Oxfordshire, Vice-Dean for Education at The University of Nottingham, The Head of Schools and Learning for Swindon Local Authority, Assistant Director at The National College for School Leadership, and CEO and Principal of The British School in The Netherlands. 

Martin holds degrees from the universities of Oxford, London and Nottingham. Since retiring from full-time employment, Martin has built a portfolio of advisory roles including as a Trustee of The Radius Trust, and Anthem Multi-Academy Trust and as a Board member of The Council of British International Schools and Geneva English School. He was a member of the Independent Monitoring Board of Huntercombe Prison, and is currently a panellist for the Teacher Regulation Agency’s Professional Conduct Panel. 

Martin has also published 19 books and over 50 articles on literacy, school leadership and school improvement, most recently How to Have Happy Children (2019). He has two daughters and four grandsons, and enjoys skiing in the winter and mountain walking in the summer.

Mr Oliver Roe
Staff Governor

Oliver Roe is a current staff member at the Royal Hospital School, where he holds the role of Housemaster of St Vincent.

Starting his teaching career in state education, Oliver completed placements through the Norfolk Teacher Training Centre (NTTC) at City Academy Norwich and Sheringham High School. He subsequently taught history and politics and served as the Duke of Edinburgh Co-ordinator at King Edward VI School from 2017 to 2019.

Oliver joined the Royal Hospital School in 2019 as a Teacher of History and Politics and Assistant Housemaster of St Vincent. He took on the role of Head of History and Politics from 2021 to 2024 and guided the department to achieve the Gold Quality Mark for History through the Historical Association.

In 2022, Oliver took the lead in raising pupils’ awareness of wellbeing at RHS and enhancing pupil provision as part of a change committee. These initiatives contributed to the school achieving the Optimus Education Wellbeing Award for Schools in November 2022. A key component of this effort was the introduction and editing of a termly magazine called ‘RHS Wellbeing’.

Oliver is a governor, leading on teaching and learning at Ormiston Endeavour Academy, and acted as Alumni Representative on the Norfolk Teacher Training Centre (NTTC) steering committee from 2018 to 2019. He completed an 18-month National Professional Qualification for Senior Leadership (NPQSL) in 2023 and is currently studying for a BSA Certificate in Boarding Practice.

Prior to teaching, Oliver completed a Master’s degree in Modern European History from the University of East Anglia. He spent much of his time at university and during his first few years of teaching rowing competitively for Norwich Rowing Club and at the BUCS Championships, holding the positions of Men’s Captain, Water Safety Officer, and Head Rowing Coach. Nowadays, his interests have moved towards five-a-side football, running, and the golf course.