Dear Fellow ORs,

With all that has happened in the world, it feels like a lifetime ago that so many of us gathered in the Chapel and then the 400 Hall to celebrate the life of Rusell Muir. It was a fantastic occasion and a fitting tribute to the Housemaster who served us all so well and so uniquely. Kiki and the family were thrilled to see so many people there and I know that many more wanted to attend who couldnt make it.

I am writing now about a timely opportunity to create a permanent memorial to JRM at Repton. The school have recently launched an appeal to refurbish their Fives Courts and as part of this, significant donors can have a Fives Court named after them. I have approached the Chief Development & Commercial Officer, Andrew Cook, with the suggestion that we could raise enough to have a court named after Russell.

As we all know, Fives was one of Russells great passions and it was a game that I think in many ways summed him up: elegant, eccentric, sociable and unique. Many of us spent Sunday afternoons as B-Blockers on the Fives Courts being urged to Steady the Buffs by Russ.

Andrew Cook has said that we need to raise £18k to have a court named after Russell. I am delighted that the Muir family have made a generous donation to start us off, and I am very hopeful that we would be able to raise the rest of this amount. Excitingly, if we could raise more than this amount there is the possibility of naming the refurbished Fives Pavilion after Russell, which would be even better.

Please give what you can, and maybe persuade your parents, who also benefitted from his House mastering, to donate in his honour. Andrew will share this appeal with the wider OR body in the weeks ahead, but I very much wanted to start with the New House boys. We are attaching details with this letter of how we can donate, including a Just Giving link which is here.

Many thanks in advance for any support that you feel able to give to this appeal in Russell's honour and memory.

Colin MacIntosh