The Maureen Greenwood

On Saturday 15 October an excited party of St Mary’s School, Cambridge supporters headed down to the River Cam, at the City of Cambridge Rowing Club, to wet the bow of the school’s new rowing boat – a coxed four.

The new boat has been named in memory of alumna, Maureen Greenwood, who died last year and left a generous legacy gift for the school’s extra-curricular projects. Mrs Greenwood, nee Styles, attended St Mary’s School, Cambridge between 1946 and 1952 on a scholarship and was able to experience what she herself described as “a wonderful start in life” thanks to the generosity of others. In Maureen’s will she wrote that the legacy was to be spent for the benefit of others.  

Headmistress, Ms Charlotte Avery, reflected on her own time at school as a rower, and in front of two members of Mrs Greenwood’s family, Mrs Jo McVerry (Maureen’s daughter) and Mrs Jeanette Holland (Maureen’s sister), thanked Mrs Greenwood for her gift.

Ms Avery continued: “We have been able to purchase this new boat due to the generous legacy from Mrs Maureen Greenwood. We decided that buying a boat, which will enable our current rowing programme, which is offered exclusively to Sixth Form students, to be rolled out to students from Year 8 upwards, would be the perfect way of remembering Maureen, as she was a huge fan of sport and a talented sportswoman herself.  It gives me enormous pleasure to name this boat, Maureen Greenwood.”

Our Sixth Form rowers then did a row past for the crowd, in what was a beautifully warm and bright October morning on the river.