Welcome to our Alumni page, for former students of both Shrewsbury College and Shrewsbury Sixth Form College, which officially merged on 1 August, 2016, creating Shrewsbury Colleges Group. The alumni has been established to help you keep in touch with what the College can offer you, even after you have left. It also helps us to inspire the next generation of students by sharing your stories. If you are an ex-student of Shrewsbury Colleges Group and have not yet joined we would be delighted to hear from you. We offer special benefits and discounts to our members!
Benefits of joining include:
- Access to our Careers Support Service
- The facility for you to advertise jobs, Apprenticeships and work-experience opportunities to students - free of charge
- Updates via e-newsletters with news of past pupils, events to attend and exclusive offers
- 10% off at our outstanding Origins Restaurant and our professional hair and beauty salon
- £10 per month gym membership at our London Road Gym (a saving of £16 per month)
For more information on Shrewsbury Colleges Group Alumni and the benefits contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Max Brown Max Brown, Hollywood Actor. 1999 Max was one of five new characters to join the cast of Downton Abbey the Movie and played the role of Richard Ellis, the King’s Valet. He has also appeared in American HBO TV series The Royal’s and ABC’s Agent Carter based on the Marvel comics and Showtime’s The Tudor, which aired on BBC 2. British TV series include Spooks, Mistresses, Heartbeat, The Crossroads, Hollyoaks, Doctors and Casualty. Max attended the College from 1997-1999. Formerly of Meole Brace Secondary School, he studied A Levels in Business, Art and Theatre Studies and got a taste for treading the boards at an early age. Max said the theatre group teachers really believed in him and gave him a great deal of confidence, putting him up to act alongside the older students. "The course and my teachers were instrumental in propelling my love for acting. It was the first time I had really specialised in performance and I loved it,” he said.
Rae Smith Having completed an Art Foundation Course (gaining the Leavers’ Award). Rae studied Theatre Design at Central St Martins School of Art. (BA hons). Today she is an internationally acclaimed set and costume designer. She illustrated Michael Morpurgo’s book ‘Warhorse’ - which was nominated for the Kate Greenaway Award and created the incredible set for the play. She was responsible for the design of Damon Albarns' ‘Wonderland’ and Tori Amos' ‘The Light Princess’ at The National Theatre, Terry Gilliam's ‘Benvenuto Cellini’ at The ENO, 'The Tempest' for David Bintley at The Birmingham Royal Ballet, and Sir David McVicars’ ‘Cav and Pag’ at The Metropolitan Opera House, New York.
Edward Barber Co-founder, BarberOsgerby (1988) Edward Barber completed a Foundation Diploma in Art & Design at Shrewsbury College in 1988. He then studied Interior Design at Leeds Polytechnic and a masters degree in Architecture at London’s Royal College of Art. He now runs the design firm Barber Osgerby with his business partner and beat more than 600 companies from around the world to win the tender for the London 2012 Olympic torch. The torch was announced as the winner of the Design Museum's Design of the Year Award in 2012.
Peter Edwards Portrait Painter Peter Edwards, winner of the BP Portrait Award, the most prestigious international competition for portrait painting, was a student of Shrewsbury College on the Art Foundation course (1974 – 1975). Peter has exhibited in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, is famed for his one-man exhibition and tour ‘Contemporary Poets’ in the National Portrait Gallery and his portraits of Bobby Charlton (National Portrait Gallery) and Ryan Giggs (National Library of Wales).
Carol Decker Lead singer with the band T’Pau (1979) Carol, lead singer with the band T’Pau, studied the Foundation Art Course at the Wakeman School of Art in 1979, just before the course and facilities were moved to the London Road site. China in Your Hand was written in Pengwern Rowing Club and and November 2017 marked the 30th anniversary of the song’s release, which held the No 1 top spot in the British Charts for 5 weeks. The band stopped George Harrison from getting to number one in the singles chart with 'Got My Mind Set On You' and they also kept Paul McCartney off the top spot in the albums chart with 'All The Best' as their album 'Bridge of Spies' was number one in the Album Charts for a week when 'China' was number one in the singles chart. “I remember really enjoying the chance to be creative and spend time with so many like-minded people who essentially encouraged me to continue to be creative, which got me where I am today,” said Carol.
Karen McQuade Managing Director, The UK Foodhall Ltd On finishing her Level 5 NVQ in Leadership and Management, Karen McQuade founded The UK Foodhall Ltd. She had previously worked in the food industry for eight years and wanted to set up a company that supported British farmers and British manufacturers. Four years on, The UK Foodhall is a national, multi-million pound organisation - the largest of its kind in the UK - which sells over 500,000 food items per day. Karen has won a staggering 32 national awards for the quality of the company’s food.
Chris Davies Ex Shrewsbury College student (2011) Chris joined Shrewsbury College to study Level 2 Creative Media, followed by Level 3 Interactive Media. With a degree from Edgehill University in Film and Television Production under his belt, he has gone on to what promises to be a fascinating career in the film industry, already working with the likes of John Hurt and Tim Roth. He is a freelance cameraman working on feature films and TV dramas, but with a dream of one day making it to Hollywood as a director of photography.
Eleanor Webb Thomas Existing Shrewsbury Sixth Form College student (2017) Whilst studying Film Studies, English Literature and Graphic Communications at SSFC, Eleanor won the Into Space & Home category for over 13s at the Into Film Awards, at London's Odeon, Leicester Square. Eleanor was presented with the award by actors Sophie Cookson from Kingsman: The Secret Service, and George Blagden from Versailles and Les Misérables. Sophie said she was shocked to win and hoped the award would help her move forward in the industry and gain recognition.”
Rob Savage Ex Shrewsbury Sixth Form College student (2009) Rob studied A Level Film Studies. He is now is forging a successful career as a film, commercials and television director. He recently spent six months creating a short horror film, which won the Méliès d'Argent Award at the Oscar Qualifying Sitges Film Festival and was chosen to play in competition at the Sundance Film Festival, the biggest film festival in the world, in January 2017. There were almost 10,000 entries to the festival and only 60 films were picked to be shown.
Stuart Bramwell Ex Shrewsbury Sixth Form College student (2014) Stuart studied Music, Geography and Psychology A Levels at SSFC and is currently at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland studying a Bachelor of Music (Honours) Degree. Whilst at university, Stuart was offered a place working as the assistant to Mark Portmann, one of the biggest names in music and film in LA. Mark Portman works with artists such as Christina Aguilera, Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Diana Ross, Ariana Grande, and film stars including Tom Cruise.
James Holt Media Adviser at Kensington Palace Former Shrewsbury Sixth Form Student, James Holt, from Shrewsbury, studied English, Politics and Spanish A Levels at the College in 1998. He then went onto university to study Journalism and started working for the Midlands News Association at the Shrewsbury Chronicle as a reporter in 2004 during which time he was one of only a few British journalists to be able to travel to Basra, Iraq to cover the war efforts. He won a national award for his reporting and then moved to Severn Radio as news anchor. James’s career continued when he moved to London and started working for the Liberal Democrats as a press officer before eventually becoming a Special Adviser in the Cabinet Office and then working in Number 10 during the Coalition. He was also a Director of Pride, one of the biggest Pride Parades in the world, in London 2016 and 2017.This year, James started a new role as a media adviser at Kensington Palace, working with The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the new Duke and Duchess of Sussex. He was instrumental in the coverage of the 2018 royal wedding and was in attendance as a guest at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.
Betty Webb Worked as a secret Nazi Codebreaker at Bletchley Park Between 1941 and 1945 Betty Webb was stationed at the Government Code & Cypher School’s codebreaking operation at Bletchley Park. At 18 years of age, Betty volunteered for the ATS, the Women's Army. Between 1941 and 1945 she became part of the war time codebreaking operation at the Government Code & Cypher School based at Bletchley Park. She then moved on to the Japanese Section in Block F to paraphrase deciphered Japanese messages. In 1945, this work lead Betty to see out the war in the Pacific at The Pentagon. By the end of her stint at Bletchley Park in 1945, Betty Webb had progressed from private to staff sergeant. She has since written a book of her experiences called Secret Postings: Bletchley Park to the Pentagon, under her full name Charlotte Vine-Stevens and is still giving talks today about her experiences at Bletchley. She has done 150 so far and her book is available on Amazon. In her late teens, Betty studied a domestic science course at Radbrook College in Shrewsbury, which was part of Shrewsbury College of Arts & Technology.