On the 15th of this month Don Carlos Berzosa, Rector of the Complutense University of Madrid, awarded Dr. Roger Fry, President of King’s Group and founder of the British Hispanic Foundation, the Medal for International Relations in recognition of his important contributions to education and other charitable work.

Those present at the ceremony included Ambassador Don Felipe de la Morena, President of the British Hispanic Foundation, and Professor Lucila González Pazos, Vice Rector of International Relations of the UCM.  Other Vice Rectors of the UCM, members of the UCM’s teaching staff, and representatives of the Foundation’s Executive Committee, also attended.   The Rector hosted a lunch afterwards in the Rectorate in honour of Dr. Fry.

Dr. Fry founded the first King’s College in Madrid in 1969.  He is now President of King’s Group, which includes the King’s College schools at Soto de Viñuelas, La Moraleja  and Chamartín, other similar centres of education outside Madrid, as well as St. Michael’s College in England and the British School of Beijing. The La Moraleja centre was inaugurated by H.R.H. The Princess Alexandra.

In 1991 the Complutense University of Madrid signed a collaborative agreement with the British Hispanic Foundation.   This led to the creation, in 1993, of the “Queen Victoria Eugenia” British Hispanic Chair of Doctoral Studies, which is sponsored by the Foundation.  This chair is held each year in Madrid by a distinguished academic from the United Kingdom.  It changes each year from one faculty to another.  Sir John Eliott,  Professor Paul Preston, Sir Raymond Carr, Professor Larry Seidentop and Professor Valpy Fitzgerald are some of those who have held this chair in recent years.