Forces of nature

WHEN a Russian oligarch ‘choppered’ into Shrewsbury School to have an introductory lunch with his son’s housemaster, he was alarmed to discover that he was a retired army officer. ‘He politely asked what on earth a soldier was doing as a housemaster,’ remembers Charles Bonas of Bonas MacFarlane, which places children into leading schools and universities. ‘After all, the Russian communists had any remaining gentleman soldiers shot or sent to Siberia long ago and the Red Army was not celebrated for gently nurturing teenagers.

‘Whether soldiers or pupils, the more time you invest in them, the more you get back’

‘We spent the rest of lunch