UWC Red Cross Nordic would like to express its sadness at the news that Antonin Besse, patron and honorary vice-president of UWC, has passed away and to extend our thanks to his family for his deep commitment to UWC since its founding and, in particular, for his support of students from the Yemen who have studied here at RCN over the past 21 years.

It was Antonin who bought and donated St Donat’s Castle for the founding of Atlantic College back in 1962 and who, later, contributed to the founding of the UWCs in Italy and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Closer to home, a few years ago Alistair, our Deputy Rektor, and I were on the phone to the Yemeni National Committee and were in the process of giving a full report on the Yemeni students on campus at the time – a few minutes into the conversation, something began to dawn on Alistair and he began to mouth to me that ‘Tony from the NC’ was, in fact Antonin Besse II (one of the founding figures of UWC). Highly articulate, erudite and perceptive, Tony was committed to following the progress of Yemeni students on our campus – a phone call from Tony from his flat in Paris was never short and always enjoyable. With support from the British Council, he would carry out selections himself with his motto at the heart of his forging connection between the backgrounds of the students and UWC: ‘From Nowhere to Somewhere’.

He was a great admirer of Tom Gresvig, one of the founding members of Red Cross Nordic, and regretted that he had never found an opportunity to visit our campus.

Our Yemeni students owe him a debt of gratitude and so do all members of our College, past and present, given the rich addition of our Yemeni students to our deliberately diverse community over the years.

Frenchman, Arabist, businessman, educator and friend – we thank you for all that you gave to UWC and educating for peace and a sustainable future.

For more information on Tony’s life, his support of UWC, his father (and his partnership with Kurt Hahn), please click here for an extract from David Sutcliffe’s book ‘Kurt Hahn and the United World Colleges with other founding figures’.

Sogn Jord-og Hagebruksskule and UWC RCN have had a long and fruitful cooperation. We’ve had joint staff meetings, their organic food in the RCN cantina and a student exchange programme. This autumn three of our students spent five days in Aurland during RCN’s Project-based learning week learning about organic farming, animal husbandry, greenhouses and more. But above all, they learned about caring – for the Earth and each other.

As Ka Ming, a student from Hong Kong said:

As a girl who has grown up in a big city with many, many people and shopping malls , spending five days on an organic farm was an incredible experience. The fresh air, the calm vibe, the kind faces … everything was just so impressive! It is the first time that I’ve had the opportunity to get in touch with organic farming, my first time to touch goats, my first time to drink and eat such pure, fresh food. I really liked how their students treated us in such a friendly and sincere way. Once I mentioned to a student that I had failed in planting basil and how disappointed I was – and she gave me a fresh basil plant the next day and told me that I could try it again. Even though it wasn’t a very big gift, the meaning was tremendous. The farm and the people there reminded me of why I wanted to go to UWC, to try to cherish our environment, to try to keep a good heart and to try to think of others first. The spirit they have is very inspiring and they showed me that the ‘reality’ is not always the reality. 

Thank you for the staff of the SJHS, especially Spira Svendsen for hosting our students, and to their kind students who treated RCN students as members of the Aurland family.