A grandson of Winston Churchill has revealed he was abused as a child while boarding at a prep school and said he was “completely unembarrassed about it”.
Rupert Soames, the chair of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), spoke about his childhood on the Crisis What Crisis? podcast.
The businessman, who attended Eton College when he was older, said “nothing bad ever happened at Eton” and that the abuse occurred when he was at prep school between the ages of seven and 12.
He told the podcast that he had a “very privileged upbringing” and a “generally fabulous education”.
“I was sent to boarding school at seven … and it had some of the sins of boarding schools, including some masters who had an entirely unhealthy appetite for young boys,” he said.
“So it wasn’t completely plain sailing from that point of view, and the only reason why I mentioned it (is) because I was subject to some very poor behaviour.”
He confirmed that he was abused, adding: “There’s nothing to be sorry about it. It happened, but the only reason I bring it up is because I’m completely unembarrassed about it.
“Many, many worse things have happened to many people but I think that it was maybe part of helping me learn behaviours and coping mechanisms which proved to be useful in later life.
“The idea that hiding things and not talking about them is a really bad idea, letting things become a sort of sepsis in your brain.
“And when I watch some of these inquiries into historical allegations of sex abuse at schools or whatever, my heart goes out to the people who in their 40s and 50s are still harbouring truths that go back late into their lives and have probably never talked about it.
“And I can only imagine the pain that you get from that if you’ve never talked about it, if it has been allowed to grow as an incubus inside your brain, and then suddenly age 40 or 50 it comes out. I mean, it must be horrific.
Soames confirmed the abuse was “confronted”, with one of the school masters going to prison. He also said his parents were aware but that he “never felt remotely abandoned or unloved, or anything like that”.
He credited being able to speak about the experiences as helping him gain resilience. “I don’t want to make a big thing about it,” he continued. “It’s not been a huge thing in my daily life.”
Soames, a long-time business executive who has led major companies, was elected CBI chair last year. After starting his career at General Electric, he became known in the business world for running security company Serco for nine years and Aggreko, a power company.