According to his death certificate, James Rainy Brown committed suicide by hanging at his home at 21 Redford Drive, Edinburgh, EH13 0BG on 29 April 2013, with his time of death recorded at 4:05pm.
According to Headmaster Andrew Hunter’s testimony to the SCAI, “I saw Mr James Rainy Brown on 29 April 2013 to tell him that the police wished to see him. He left the school after our meeting and committed suicide 40 minutes after our meeting at his home nearby in Colinton having refused to have any support from the chaplain.”
“After the suicide of a member of staff, James Rainy Brown, I was interviewed by the police for the whole of the next day. I had school lawyers with me and I told them that I wished to speak to the police about all of the challenges that I had faced in safeguarding and child protection. I gave the police everything. They had their correct procedures and they came back and demanded the audit trail. For every single one of the issues, we had an in-depth audit trail of what had been done but our audit trail needed more evidence of seeking external advice and/or the use of the disciplinary process We had this process and I worked on it with my bursar but it was not automatically instinctive for me to place someone immediately on the disciplinary process. I learned that.”—Andrew Hunter, SCAI Witness Statement (17 November 2020)
Media reports suggest that Andrew Hunter had been aware of complaints against James Rainy Brown for the 15 years he had been headmaster of the school: “Andrew Hunter, who became head of Edinburgh’s Merchiston Castle School in 1998, admitted in email exchanges that he had become aware of James Rainy Brown’s actions that year. However, it took until 2013 for the school to suspend Rainy Brown [note: presumably the same day of his death], who took his own life amid an imminent police investigation [on the same day he was informed of the police investigation] into allegations made against him during his 52-year career at the £28,000-a-year boarding school.”—“School let teacher accused of abuse stay for 15 years”, Darren McConachie, Scottish Daily Mail (26 January 2022)
“You could ask why that took so long to learn? With the board of governors, I do not think that safeguarding and child protection assumed a high enough priority for some time. I think that would have been the case in quite a few independent schools especially boarding schools. I think boarding schools used to be unintentionally, quite inward looking places. You spend a lot of your time thinking about your colleagues and the students. It is a different ambience to a day school.”—Andrew Hunter, SCAI Witness Statement (17 November 2020)
“We were hearing that Mr Rainy Brown was putting children into cold showers, naked, or making them sit on public benches, naked, for misbehaving. We also heard that he was showering with the children, completely naked. We were told that he would take kids for walks in the country and if they came across water, he and the children would all get naked and go for a swim. Some of the punishments he was giving children were horrendous. He showed no respect or dignity to the children. None of this was previously known to us. Mr Rainy Brown was retired as a housemaster but still worked at the school. He had access to come in and out of the school and was still involved with taking the children out on trips. It is anybody’s guess what he did with the children on those trips, but privacy and dignity wouldn’t have been part of it. When he was told there was a police investigation and that police would be coming to see him, he went home and killed himself. Some of the allegations about what Mr Rainy Brown had done were quite scary. These went back to the 1980s. They had been recorded by the school but they had not been passed on to anybody else.”–SCAI Hearing Transcript – Day 269 (25 January 2022). Evidence was heard from school inspectors Marion Crawford and the read-in evidence of school inspector Iain Lamb.
A report into the exclusive Merchiston Castle School has concluded that for 60 years, “abusers were protected by tradition”. Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry chairwoman Lady Smith has published her findings on the provision of residential care at the Edinburgh boarding school, concluding that over almost six decades, there was a “more or less continuous line of indecency” from two named perpetrators.
A boys-only private school has been criticised for a culture which involved “dreadful abuse” of children almost continuously for six decades. The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry report into Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh found that from the 1950s to the second decade of the 21st century, there was a “more or less continuous line of indecency” from two named perpetrators.
Abuse at a boarding school for boys in Edinburgh was “normalised for generations”, the chair of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry has said. Lady Smith published her findings on Wednesday relating to the provision of residential care for children at Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh.
The headmaster of a leading boarding school [Jonathan Anderson] has acknowledged that a failure to root out child abuse has had a “profound and damaging” impact on the lives of former pupils. Jonathan Anderson, who took over at £35,00-a-year Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh in 2018, said yesterday that his experience of hearing and giving evidence at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry had taught him that victims remained troubled by their experiences “for ever”.
One of Scotland’s most prestigious boarding schools failed to discipline an abusive housemaster for 15 years, an inquiry heard yesterday. Andrew Hunter, who became head of Edinburgh’s Merchiston Castle School in 1998, admitted in email exchanges that he had become aware of James Rainy Brown’s actions that year.
Former pupils at a Scottish boarding school have told how they were touched inappropriately and received brutal beatings in scenes akin to Lord of the Flies. The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry heard evidence that teachers at Merchiston Castle in Edinburgh, one of the country’s most expensive private schools, mistreated the children.
A teacher at a £29,000 Scottish residential school has agreed to be struck off after having sex with pupils on the premises. But Scotland’s teaching watchdog has been criticised over the case after it agreed to keep the name of the teacher and school secret.
Some of Scotland’s top private schools are being investigated by a national inquiry into child abuse. Gordonstoun–Prince Charles’s former school–and Fettes College, where Tony Blair was a pupil, feature in the statutory probe. Others include Merchiston Castle and Loretto, Scotland’s oldest boarding school. They are among more than 60 residential care establishments identiifed as sites of alleged child abuse or neglect.
Two top public schools attended by Prince Charles and Tony Blair are being investigated by a major national inquiry into child abuse. Gordonstoun, the alma mater of the heir to the throne, and Fettes College – where the former Labour Prime Minister was a pupil – both feature in the statutory probe. Other private schools under investigation include Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh, Loretto School in Musselburgh and Morrison’s Academy in Crieff.
Police are probing claims a former female teacher at a top private school in Edinburgh had inappropriate relationships with pupils. Merchiston Castle, which is already co-operating with an investigation into claims of historical abuse, contacted the single force over alleged behaviour that is said to have occurred more recently. Earlier this year, the Care Inspectorate “identified concerns about the quality of child protection practice” at the elite school.
Two men in their sixties, believed to be ex-staff members, have been charged as a result of a police investigation relating to the exclusive Merchiston Castle school in Edinburgh. Based in Colinton in the south west of the city, Merchiston Castle is Scotland’s only all-boys independent boarding school.
A TEACHER found dead as police investigated claims of “inappropriate conduct” towards pupils left £1 million to the private boys school where he worked. James Rainy Brown, 75, who had taught for 52 years at Edinburgh’s Merchiston Castle School, hanged himself at his home after being told of the inquiry into his alleged actions.
A teacher who was found dead as police investigated claims of his “inappropriate conduct” towards pupils has left almost £1 million to his school in his will. James Rainy Brown, 75, who had worked for 52 years at fee-paying Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh, hanged himself at his home shortly after being told of the investigation.
Bachelor James Rainy Brown, 75, who had worked for 52 years at Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh, hanged himself at his home shortly after being told of the investigation. It is understood the claims involved lewd and inappropriate comments to pupils rather than physical abuse. Mr Brown had been a respected member of staff at the school, which charges fees of up to £26,655 a year.
This document was included as James Rainy Brown’s address seems to exist nowhere else, it is known that he hosted pupils at this address, and may assist with survivor testimony.
