Edward Kirwan
Had Edward Kirwan not been frightened of blood, he would have followed the rest of his family into the medical profession when he left Ampleforth in 1985. Instead, he studied history at the University of London and then went into the City where he worked with a firm of stockbrokers before training as a chartered accountant. ‘I wasn’t that good at it,’ he recalls. ‘I found auditing very dull, and what I really wanted was to be dealing with people, not figures.’
In due course the opportunity presented itself with a job in the private banking department of HSBC. Later Edward moved to Coutts and today he heads their charity investment team. His clients range from public charities such as schools, art galleries and medical foundations ‘who need us to manage their money for a rainy day,’ to those discreet private charities that make anonymous donations.
It’s not just the contact with the clients that he finds rewarding. It’s the nature of what many of them do. ‘Their values can be very different,’ he says. ‘And as a banker, whose main job is to make people richer, it sometimes makes me think hard.’ He speaks of one client, an order of nuns who run a hospital in West Africa, but also have their headquarters in a valuable city-centre property, which they own. One day he asked one of the nuns where she would prefer to be, and without hesitation she replied ‘Africa, it’s where I do my work and am closer to God.’
‘I find it very inspiring, working with people like that,’ he says. And he believes that without the guidance he received at Ampleforth he might not be doing his present job, working in the charitable sector, aware that sometimes he is able to ‘make a small difference’ to the lives of people in need.
Today Edward is an infrequent visitor to Ampleforth, though he admits that some years ago he sought solace at the retreat centre ‘in a moment of difficulty.’ However, he would not hesitate to go back if the need ever arose again and he feels that the lessons he learned there as a schoolboy are those of a lifetime.
‘The most important thing I was taught was personal responsibility – through thoughtfulness, not the cane. And with that naturally comes a sense of responsibility to others. Community and togetherness are two words that come to mind when I think of Ampleforth.’
On the day of this conversation Edward’s father is undergoing open-heart surgery. ‘It’s a comfort to know there are people at Ampleforth who will support us if we need it,’ he says. ‘And these are people,’ he adds emphatically, ‘who are living according to a set of rules laid down centuries ago, yet who are engaged with all the issues of the modern world.
‘The idea that the monks are out of touch is nonsense. They have such deep wisdom. They know human nature doesn’t change. I think their underlying ethos is as valid today as when it first came into being, and their values are priceless. I may work for a bank but I definitely still carry that compass in my pocket.’