Jonathan Crown

In Memoriam of Jonathan Crown, M 1978-82.

Jonathan Crown, M 1978-82, died from a heart attack on 19^th September 2020. He was 56. Jonathan was a north London property manager, he was also a philanthropist, and a founder of two charities, The Jennifer Vyvyan Foundation and Project Harar.

A charity working with people in Ethiopia, Project Harar, has helped more than 8,500 children born with facial disfigurements.

Jonathan contributed to The Salopian, issue no. 165 – Winter 2019-20, an update on Project Harar:

‘Over nearly 20 years, 8,500 individuals have been operated on in Addis Ababa. Every February a team of 35 volunteer NHS medics, consisting of top surgeons, doctors and nurses travel to Ethiopia for two weeks to perform 50 operations on the most complex cases encountered. These include tumours, burns, animal attacks and noma (a facial gangrene). At £3,000 per operation we need to raise £150,000 for every mission. Please visit www.projectharar.org for more information.’

Jonathan was also a big supporter of The Shewsy, donating generously to their ‘The Big Give’ appeal last year, having also given them advice about how they could fundraise through such events.

The Daily Telegraph refers to Jonathan as ‘A man of great energy who did much of the fundraising himself’. In support of Project Harar, Jonathan would visit schools across England, provide talks, organise fund raising events, and secured an appeal through BBC Radio 4.

Jonathan Courtenay Langdon Maurice Crown was born in London on 16^th September 1964, the son of Leon Crown and his wife Jennifer (nee Vyvyan), who hailed from a long line of Cornish baronets.

Jonathan studied at Shrewsbury from 1978 until 1982 and was in Moser’s Hall. Peter Cox, Moser’s Housemaster (1976-1991) remembers Jonathan as being an independent pupil, who was not afraid to be unconventional and outside of the norm, but someone who was also a sensitive thinker, due to the loss of his mother at an early age, which had affected him deeply. He was a gregarious student with lots of interests across all aspects of school life and he greatly enjoyed playing sports.

Jonathan progressed from Shrewsbury School to the Polytechnic of Central London, now the University of Westminster, where he completed a degree in business studies. He also qualified as a chartered accountant at Casson Beckman.

Jonathan is survived by his wife, Josephine King, and by his daughter Tia and son Theo.