Emily Morgan

Published by Kingham Hill School on Wednesday 31st of May 2023

Emily Morgan – an inspirational speaker and friend of Kingham Hill

It was with great sadness that we learnt this weekend of the death of Emily Morgan, the Health and Science Editor at Independent Television News. Not two months ago, she stood in Top School Hall as the Guest of Honour at this year’s Octagon Dinner. It was a privilege that one of her last public engagements was with us on the Hill.

At the Dinner she shared with us the highs and lows of her career at the top of her profession in broadcast journalism. She told of how the newsroom when she started at ITN was a bastion of masculine bravado, almost a world away from today’s more inclusive working environment. As a young woman in this situation, it is a testament to her tenacity and professionalism that she was able to make her mark as a correspondent for Wales and the West of England and then at Westminster reporting on politics. With an eye to the rather shady world of briefings and counter-briefings and the downright falsehoods of a very turbulent period in our nation’s politics, she encouraged us all to search for objective truth: something which we are led to believe is not fashionable in the light of the postmodern, “post-truth” zeitgeist. Her healthy scepticism of “social” media is something which chimed with parents and staff alike as we all have the challenge of bringing our children up in a world which is very different to the one we knew at their age.

Emily became a household name during the COVID pandemic as she bravely reported from hospital after hospital, night after night on News at Ten. Her reports were powerful during that first lockdown when none of us knew how the future would turn out, when so many of us were called upon to make sacrifices the like of which we never expected to make, and we pray we shall never need to make again. She told us of the immense burden of duty she felt to convey the truth in a situation where fear and suspicion were endemic across the country: she regularly received messages from conspiracy theorist cranks who accused her of filming actors who were pretending to be ill. However, much more numerous were the plaudits and appreciation which came her way for bringing a human side to a frightening situation for so many.

Emily was the perfect guest for our annual Octagon Dinner because she embodied all that is positive in the intellectual curiosity to which we encourage all our pupils to aspire. And what an inspiration she was to our girls in particular: how special it was for her to be our Guest of Honour to coincide with the thirtieth anniversary of girls on Kingham Hill. As is traditional for our guests, Emily was presented with her honorary membership of Octagon along with her scarf and badge. Despite some good-natured ribbing based on the fact she was an alumna of Sibford, we had hoped that she would visit us again in the future – sadly, that is not to be.

Of course, not only can Emily be considered as part of our extended Kingham Hill family through the Octagon connection, we must remember that her sister Sophie works in our Admissions Department and her nephews and niece are pupils here. Therefore we offer them our heartfelt condolences, love and prayers at such a difficult time.

Emily was an excellent journalist as her colleagues at ITN have rightly recognised. Her influence on the Hill was brief but disproportionately positive. We pray that influence will live on in the members of our Octagon Society.