The bodies of Epsom College headmistress Emma Pattison, her husband and seven-year-old daughter have been found after emergency services were called to the school in the early hours of Sunday.
Metropolitan Police say they are confident the deaths are an isolated incident and do not involve a third party.
Who was Emma Pattison?
Ms Pattison, 45, became the first female head at the prestigious private school in Surrey in September last year.
She had previously been the head teacher at Croydon High School for six years.
Ms Pattison lived at Epsom College’s head’s house, on college grounds, along with her husband George, a chartered accountant, and seven-year-old daughter Lettie.
At the time of her appointment Ms Pattison said Epsom College was a school she had “long admired, with an enviable reputation, and George and I can’t wait to meet the pupils, parents and staff and to become part of this wonderful community”.
Chairman of the board of governors, Dr Alastair Wells, said Ms Pattison’s vision for the school “excited the Governors” and had also impressed students.
Her teaching career began in 2002 at Lutterworth College, where she taught French and Spanish.
In 2013 she was appointed deputy head at St John’s School and three years later, was appointed her first Headship at Croydon High School.
In a previous interview with Connaught Education, Ms Pattison said she went to a girls’ school growing up and was “a keen musician”.
“Whenever I was with younger musicians and helping them learn, I got a real buzz out of getting them excited about performing and from then, I knew teaching was for me. I also taught English as a foreign language and really enjoyed that,” she said.
On Epsom College winning Independent School of the Year in 2022, Ms Pattison tweeted: “It gets better every time I read it!”
In a separate post, she said the title was “an honour” and the school was “thrilled”.
Ms Pattison’s husband Geroge was a chartered accountant who was director of a management consultancy firm called Tanglewood 2016, according to Companies House.
In a student-led podcast, called Epsom Insight, Ms Pattison told pupils that her family had faced a whirlwind of change in recent months.
“‘In terms of transition it’s been a really big change for my family. We’ve moved house - we’ve bought a dog,” she told the podcast hosts, according to Daily Mail.
“I’ve got a new job, my husband has got a new job, that wasn’t meant to happen but it did and my daughter has started a new school so there’s been a lot of change for us as a family.”
Epsom College
Epsom College is a co-educational independent school on Epsom Downs in Surrey, for pupils aged 11 to 18.
The school, which has more than 850 students, charges fees up to £42,303 for full boarding students.
It was founded in 1853 as a boys’ school to provide support to help widowed medical families.
The school said the Department for Education placed Epsom College in the top 1 percent nationally in its last set of league tables.
In a statement late on Sunday evening, the school asked for privacy as the school community grappled with the loss of its head.
The school added: “The college is working with the police in what remains an ongoing investigation. We must now focus on the welfare and wellbeing of our pupils and staff, and work to ensure that they receive all the comfort, warmth and support required from the Epsom College community.”
