Dear Headmaster…

On 7 June 2023, I wrote to Headmaster Andrew Hawkins. Not just as a former Southport School student, but as someone who has been carrying the aftershocks of what happened there for decades.

TSS presents itself as an institution grounded in Anglican values. In my experience, when it mattered most, those values were nowhere to be found.

Care, respect and integrity are easy enough to promote. They are far harder to locate when abuse is occurring under your watch, or when a survivor spends years navigating a legal process that seems designed to avoid responsibility rather than confront it.

This is not simply a retelling of personal history. It is a question of accountability.

TSS needs to acknowledge the role it played in allowing abuse to occur within its walls. Not in abstract terms, not buried in careful language, but plainly.

If sharing this does anything, I hope it gives other survivors a reason to speak. And perhaps, eventually, it makes it harder for institutions like TSS to keep looking the other way when harm is done on their watch.

The Business of Reputation

TSS does not just educate boys.

It curates identity. It builds networks. It sustains influence across generations. It is, in every practical sense, a highly successful institution with significant assets, partnerships, and financial backing.

The Diocese itself is no small operation. We are talking about an entity with substantial revenue streams, government funding, property holdings, and, notably, reimbursements tied to abuse settlements.

So let’s ask the uncomfortable question.

What is a reputation like that worth?

And more importantly, what is it worth protecting?

Because from where I stand, the answer seems to be: quite a lot.

The Part That Doesn’t Fit the Brochure

I was sexually abused by a teacher while at TSS.

At the same time, I was being bullied by a large portion of the boarding cohort. Not exactly the “safe and nurturing environment” the brochures promise.

Here is the part that matters.

In 1995, there were multiple complaints made about that teacher’s behaviour.

Multiple.

Students spoke. Parents spoke. Concerns were raised.

He was “spoken to”.

No formal report to authorities.

No decisive action.

No removal from risk.

He remained.

Let that sit for a moment.

The institution knew enough to have conversations, but not enough to act in any meaningful way.

And the abuse continued.

If that sounds familiar, it should. The Royal Commission documented this exact pattern across institutions. Knowledge contained internally. Risk managed quietly. Reputation preserved.

Children? Less so.

Settlement Without Responsibility

My claim was settled on 15 May 2023.

No admission of liability.

Of course not.

That is how the system works. Payments are made. Documents are signed. Language is carefully constructed so that nothing is technically conceded while everything is practically acknowledged.

I declined their apology.

Not out of defiance. Out of clarity.

An apology without accountability is just another form of brand management.

Support, Or the Absence of It

What support exists for survivors of TSS?

None that I was offered.

No counselling.

No outreach.

No structured support pathway.

Not even the symbolic gestures institutions often fall back on when they have nothing substantive to offer.

And this is where the contradiction becomes almost absurd.

An Anglican institution.

No care structure for those harmed under its watch.

No pastoral response.

No attempt to reconcile doctrine with practice.

If faith is meant to be lived, not just preached, where exactly does this fit?

The Headmaster’s Reply: Polite, Measured, and Carefully Limited

The response I received was, on its face, reasonable.

Acknowledgement. A degree of empathy. An offer to meet.

But look a little closer and the language does what institutional language always does.

“The issues of the past are not within my power to change.”

Which is true.

But also incredibly convenient.

Because if the past is untouchable, then so too is responsibility.

What remains is a narrow lane of present-day goodwill, carefully separated from the systemic failures that created the harm in the first place.

Transparency, Or Something That Looks Like It From a Distance

I asked questions about governance. About the Dixon Society. About the financial and charitable structures linked to TSS.

Simple questions, really.

Who are these entities?

What do they do?

How have they operated historically?

And crucially, has any of this ever been directed toward supporting survivors?

The response was… vague.

Strategic fundraising. Future intentions. Possible restructuring.

Very little about the past. Even less about accountability.

And then, almost as a footnote, a request to remove images from my blog.

Which I did.

Because that is the thing about institutions. They are often very responsive when the issue is optics.

Less so when the issue is substance.

The Pattern Is the Point

None of this exists in isolation.

The Royal Commission made that clear. Institutional abuse is rarely about one individual. It is about systems. Cultures. Decision making frameworks that prioritise containment over exposure.

TSS fits that pattern more comfortably than it might like to admit.

An institution that knew enough.

Acted too little.

And now prefers to speak about the future rather than fully account for the past.

Why This Still Matters

Because silence is still doing a lot of heavy lifting.

Because survivors are still navigating the aftermath largely on their own.

Because institutions are still better at managing reputation than reckoning with harm.

And because, despite everything we have learned, the same structural instincts remain in place.

Protect the brand. Limit liability. Control the narrative.

Everything else is secondary.

Final Thought

This is not about tearing down TSS.

It is about asking it to stand next to its own values and explain the gap.

Care. Respect. Integrity.

If those words mean anything at all, they have to survive contact with reality.

Otherwise, they are just marketing.

And we have all seen how well that works.

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