The Combermere

Housemistress: Eleanor Prescott
Email: exp@wellingtoncollege.org.uk

Eleanor joined Wellington College in 2010 to teach Economics, Politics and Business Studies. Before completing her PGCE and coming into education she had a 10 year career in Investment Banking, working in Debt Capital Markets for Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Bank of America. She is totally passionate about snowsports and gets to use her experience as a ski instructor to coach the boys' ski raceteam at Wellington. She is also a keen golfer, tennis player and mountain biker. Eleanor runs the Law Society and is also the IB Co-ordinator for the World Politics and International Relations course. She also teaches the elective CISI course for the U6 on Financial Securities and Derivatives. She has been on a number of overseas trips with theWellington team, including the Round Square service project to the Tiger Kloof school in South Africa. She will be joined in the house inSeptember by two 12 week old kittens: Elvis and Dolly.

Assistant Housemistress: Rebecca Jarrett (Third Form Tutor)
Email: rcgj@wellingtoncollege.org.uk

Rebecca joined Wellington in 2009 after five years teaching in Oxfordshre.She grew up in Cheltenham, studied Biological Anthropology at Cambridge University and then did a PGCE at Oxford. She likes painting, running, skiing and has run the London Marathon twice. At school Rebecca coaches netball, athletics and lacrosse and runs junior Round Square. She enjoys travelling, with a particular love of Africa and recently climbed Kilimanjaro. Last October she led a third and fourth form trip to India, which several Combermere girls took part in. Rebecca is a Christian and has been married to Tom for five years. He works in marketing in Henley and is actively involved in Wellington life. They live on the second floor of the Combermere.

Fourth Form Tutor: Jess Atkinson
Email: jka@wellingtoncollege.org.uk

Jess has joined Wellington this year as a Post-Graduate Teacher in the Chemistry Department. She is a farmer’s daughter from Yorkshire and is fresh from studying Natural Sciences at Durham University. She is interested in all sports and enjoys taking part in hockey, tennis, and running and has completed the Great North Run. Due to her love of cooking, she has promised to make choclate tiffin for the Combermere girls. Jess is living on the third floor of the Combermere and is very excited about throwing herself into both house and college life.

Fourth Form Tutor: Emma Bearmore
Email: exjb@wellingtoncollege.org.uk

Emma joins Wellington College this year as a Post Graduate, teaching in the Physics and Chemistry departments. She has just completed a MSci in Natural Sciences at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and looks to undertake her teaching qualifications after this year. In her spare time she loves travelling, particularly in Southeast Asia. She is also a keen Fulham fan!

Fifth Form Tutor: Susie Henwood
Email: sjh@wellingtoncollege.org.uk

Lower Sixth Tutor: Bart Wielenga
Email: bw@wellingtoncollege.org.uk

Bart joined Wellington College in 2003 after having taught at Michaelhouse in South Africa for 5 years. Bart began his time at Wellington as the Assistant Housemaster of the Combermere when it was a boys house and has since been Housemaster of the Anglesey, seeing it through the transition of being a boys house to becoming a girls house. He teaches in the Economics department and coaches rugby and cricket. In his youth he was a keen canoeist and cricketer but now occasionally cycles and runs with a dodgy knee. Bart is married to Lara and his spare time is largely occupied with entertaining his two sons, Dominic and Reuben, and studying towards a Masters degree in Educational Leadership.

Upper Sixth Tutor: Katy Granville-Chapman
Email: kegc@wellingtoncollege.org.uk

Katy Granville-Chapman joined Wellington in 2007. Katy used to be an education officer in the Army and she teaches Geography. She was an Assistant Housemistress in the Combermere for two years and so knows that house inside out. She coaches swimming and triathlon, and is lucky to be able to compete in both. Katy is also involved with the CCF and is in charge of Leadership within the College. She is married to Jeremy, a military surgeon, and also enjoys surfing and skiing. Katy is in charge of running the House Prefect training programme with the Lower Sixth.

This in-college house is named after Sir Stapleton Cotton, a brilliant general who served under the Duke of Wellington at the Battles of Salamanca and Bhurtpore and was created Viscount Combermere for services to his country.

He served as principal cavalry general to the Duke of Wellington, and had a reputation as a very heroic and brave leader. Victorian historians noted his capture of the fortress of Bhurtpore in India as his greatest achievement. He was the second son of Sir Robert Salisbury Cotton, Baronet of Combermere Abbey, Cheshire. His mother was Frances, co-heiress of James Russell Stapleton of Boddryddon, co. Denbigh. The Stapleton and Cotton families had extensive interests in England, Wales and the West Indies, but the Viscount Combermere spent most of his career in military and political circles. He later served as Governor General of Barbados, Commander in Chief of Ireland and India. In 1852 he succeeded the Duke of Wellington as Constable of the Tower of London, and in 1855 was raised to the rank of Field Marshall.