All at Port Regis are greatly saddened to learn of the death of our legendary former Headmaster David Prichard at the age of 89. David had a distinguished career at Port Regis from 1969 to 1993 and made Port Regis one of the best-known and most pre-eminent prep schools in the country.

David was utterly child-centred and also inspired tremendous respect and loyalty from his staff. Former pupils will no doubt recall his charisma, positivity, energy and enthusiasm as well as his unstinting encouragement and belief in them. David was an innovator and a visionary and the slogan he introduced at Port Regis - “tomorrow’s school for today’s child” - reflected the forward-thinking and dynamic school he ran.

Generations of former pupils from David’s many years as Head had a blissfully happy childhood at Port Regis, and countless will have fond memories of DCMP and their time at prep school. There will be a Service of Thanksgiving for David’s life at Sherborne Abbey on 12th July at 2pm, to which all are welcome, followed by a reception at Sherborne School.

We would love to have a compilation of memories of David, and we would invite any old Port Regians who wish to provide messages/memories of their time at Port Regis during David Prichard’s period as Head to please visit the OPR Connect website (opr.portregis.com) and create an account, if you don't have one already. We intend to compile a record of such contributions for David’s widow Elizabeth and for the school’s archives.

We are all eternally grateful to David for the distinctive contribution he made to our school, and it is appropriate that there is a lasting tribute to him at Port Regis with the senior boys’ boarding house, Prichard, which is named after him.

Written by Phil Lawrence, who joined Port Regis as a Gap student in 1985. Under David's dynamic leadership, Phil went on to teach at Port Regis for a further 37 years until 2022 and credits him for inspiring a lifelong love of teaching.