Grace Matilda Hadman was born in Leicester on 3rd June 1991 and died tragically in a car accident in Oxfordshire in April 2009, aged 17. She lived in Lower Swell, near Stow-on-the-Wold.Grace moved to Bangalore, India, on her 3rd birthday. From age 4 to 8 , she attended the Aditi School although each year, when visiting her brothers in England for half terms, she would attend the Windmill School, Uppingham. She joined the Dragon School in 1999 where she quickly became popular with staff and pupils alike and excelled in all areas of school life.
With a particular talent for sport, Grace swam for Oxfordshire, gaining her colours and excelling in all strokes. She won a silver medal in the IAPSNationals for the Dragon and was awarded the best swimmer of her year, her name is engraved on the cup for posterity. A strong rower, Grace represented the Dragon, winning two Ergo cups and later went on to row in the Schools Nationals for St Edward’s. She consistently played in the first teams for hockey, netball, roundersand occasionally for tennis. She gained her colours in hockey for Oxfordshire.
Her academic achievements were also very good. From the Dragon, Grace won a Rotherfield Award, an all-rounder award to St Edward’s, Oxford. Whilst at St Edward’s she became the school’s netball captain, prepared the winning entry for her house in a school singing contest and was Head Sacristan at the school chapel. She loved contributing to Sacristan meetings, leading compline evening prayers and reading inChapel. She had a wide interest in different faiths.
One of Grace’s final and proudest achievements took place towards the end of her last term when she was voted by her teams, 'the most improved player of the year' for both hockey and netball. She was presented with an engraved glass mug for hockey and a special t-shirt for netball. After her death her parents collected, on Grace’s behalf, an engraved shining plate at the school sports dinner, for the ‘Most Improved Sportswoman of the Year’.
Grace loved maths and science and had a passion for music. As well as playing the piano and flute, for several years she had been learning the harp. Stephen Dunstone, her Harp teacher both at the Dragon and at St Edward’s said, “Lessons with Grace were, without doubt, some of the ones I looked forward to most. Every single lesson we had was full of pleasure in the music, determination to get it right, and a great sense of achievement at the end. She was a charming, sincere, warm and entertaining pupil.”
During her last couple of years, Grace discovered her love for acting and to her immense surprise and delight she gained a Distinction in her acting exam.
One of the lasting memorials to Grace will be her artwork. A print, featuring a free-spirited butterfly escaping from a collection of insects pinned to a board, is being sold in aid of two charities in which Grace was involved; The African Children's Fund and Building Futures in Malawi. Her family hopes to reproduce further artwork on a range of products such as t shirts, diaries, postcards and wrapping paper.
Her mother, Carol Hadman, said "Her art means she's still around, going forward and contributing.”. Grace is survived by her mother Carol, father Bill and her three older brothers Robert, Jasper and William. For more about Grace see www.gracematilda.org . For details of Grace’s print see www.gracehadman.org /charities or contact Phillipa Minty at St Edward’s on 01865 319438.
 
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