Sevenoaks duo in NY honours list

Jan 6, 2012

Emma Hope, formally of Sevenoaks, wins an MBESevenoaks School kicked off the New Year in the best of spirits after finding out that two of their former students, Simon Donaldson and Emma Hope, received accolades in the 2012 Queen’s Honours List. Simon received a Knighthood for his service to mathematics while Emma received an MBE for services to the fashion industry.

Sir Simon is currently the Royal Society Research Professor for pure mathematics at Imperial College London. He attended Sevenoaks School between 1970 and 1975 before moving on to Pembroke College, Cambridge. He later became the Wallis Professor of Mathematics at Oxford in 1985 and was awarded the Fields Medal by the International Congress of Mathematics in 1986, generally regarded as the Nobel Prize of Mathematics. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Meanwhile, Emma studied at Cordwainers College and began her career designing ballet pumps for Laura Ashley after leaving Sevenoaks School in 1980. She then worked for Betty Jackson and Jean Muir before opening her first shop in Islington. There are now three Emma Hope shops in London and her shoes and bags are sold in over 150 stores worldwide. Emma designed shoes for the film Pride and Prejudice (2005). She has won five Design Council Awards, the Martini Style Award, and the Harpers & Queen Design Award.