Tim Forsyth 1976 to 1983

This project has never been about suggesting everything in the St Mary’s garden was rosy and we all have our different experiences of the school. A credible social history of a school cannot ignore the fact that some former pupils do not look back on it with any great fondness

Tim Forsyth is one such former pupil. Overall, Tim found St Mary's an oppressive, sometimes bullying place which fell below his expectations when he joined in 1976.

Yet that did not prevent him from winning a place to Hertford College, Oxford in 1983 to study Geography, during which time he organised research trips to Nepal and Indonesia.

After working for three years at British Petroleum as a graduate trainee in London, Singapore and Amsterdam he completed a PhD at the University of London on development and environment issues in Thailand while also training to be a journalist.

After working as a journalist in Hong Kong and Bangkok for around 18 months, he taught at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Then Tim was a research fellow firstly on climate change at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, then at the Institute of Development Studies in Sussex and then at Harvard University. He returned to the LSE for a permanent job.

He has done a lot of work in Asia, and especially Southeast Asia, on issues of environmental policy in poorer zones. He was also a parliamentary adviser on climate change and aid and has also spent a good deal of time in America.

 He currently lives with his wife and young son in Islington, North London.