Date/Time
Date(s) - Monday 19 April 2021
8:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Location
Duke Street Church
Categories No Categories
Tony Rampton OBE
Tony Rampton OBE (1915–1993), who was born in Kingston and lived for most of his adult life at Gort House in Petersham, was chairman of Freemans, the mail order catalogue clothing company founded by his grandfather in 1906. In 1965 Freemans became a public company and Rampton received an unexpectedly large sum of money, much of which he and his wife gave to found the Hilden Trust, which aims “to address disadvantages, notably by supporting causes which are less likely to raise funds from public subscriptions” both in the UK and elsewhere. He also worked in the areas of race relations and the adoption of children. Tony and his wife Joan set up the Standing Conference for Societies Registered for Adoption, which eventually became the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF).
In 1979 Tony Rampton was appointed to chair the government’s Committee of Inquiry into the Education of Children from Ethnic Minority Groups, but the 1981 interim report “blamed, among other things, low teacher expectations and the racial prejudices of both white teachers and society at large” This was a politically unpopular finding, and Rampton was dismissed as chair to be replaced by Lord Swann. The committee’s 1984 report “Education for All” came to the same conclusion as the earlier report had done.
In 1974 he established and personally funded the Freemans Trust, now the Tony Rampton Trust, which helps present or former employees of Freemans who are in need and also supports charities for which present or former employees volunteer or fundraise.
Tony was also a very accomplished and largely self-taught amateur artist. Over the course of 30 years he produced 350 paintings, including portraits, landscapes inspired by views of the Thames and of the Isle of Arran where he and his family spent the summer months, and many pictures of buildings. He never exhibited during his lifetime but a retrospective exhibition of his work, opened by Lord Young of Dartington, was held at Orleans House Gallery in 1997.
Judy Weleminsky
Judy Weleminsky, who lives in Kew and is a member of our society, was brought up in Yorkshire and has a master’s degree in organisational psychology from the University of Lancaster. Judy first met Tony Rampton in 1975 when, newly arrived in London, she applied for the job of community relations officer in Lambeth and Tony was on the interview panel that appointed her. In 1993, when she was chief executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, Judy and her family had just moved to the area and were exploring Petersham when they came across Tony and his wife Joan. They were subsequently invited to have afternoon tea with them – and to view Tony’s paintings – at their home. Tony died only a few months later, in December 1993.