Holt School students reveal mosaic memorial to Forbury Gardens victim

Tamanna Steven, a former student of the Holt School in Wokingham, helped organise a permanent memorial to honour the life and legacy of history teacher James Furlong.

After a year of fundraising, Teams calls and workshops, Tamanna and current Holt students managed to get mosaic artist Gary Drostle on board to create a permanent piece of art to remember Mr Furlong.

It was made to represent Mr Furlong's characteristics, values and legacy containing symbols of his inner self, his guiding principles and views of the world.

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James Furlong

Tamanna told the Chronicle: "His impact was permanent on us so we wanted to create something that was permanent that people can look at and learn from. It's about making something permanent. Whether you knew him or not it doesn't matter you can come and sit in the garden and look at the memorial and see his characteristics and values he stood for - this is what he believed in."

The golden heart at the centre of the mosaic represents his kind-hearted nature and the Tudor rose symbolises James' love for the Tudor history period.

Tamanna next to the mosaic memorial

Mr Furlong radiated positivity around the school community and the mosaic highlights this with the sun rays.

The rainbow detailing also represents Mr Furlong's advocacy for Pride and the LGBTQ+ community.

One particular memory of Mr Furlong that sticks out in Tamanna’s mind is when he told her at parents evening how she 'didn't follow the classroom'.

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She added: "The main thing is following what you believe in. It was after everything that happened last year I felt really strongly about doing something for him. Because it was so sudden you can't say thank you to people."

Tamanna believes Mr Furlong would have been proud of the memorial. She said: "I think he would be proud, not just of this but he did leave behind a legacy. It sounds bad to say but he wasn't an average teacher, he was quite special and a really valued member of our school so there's quite a hole there."

Students Phebe Dowse and Trisha Jadov also spoke to the Chronicle about the unveiling of the memorial.

Left to right: Tvisha Jadav, Gary Drostle, Tamanna Steven, Phebe Dowse and Brayden Foster Clark

Phebe said: "I started crying, we've seen it so many times but when it was unveiled we were in tears. It's so much better than we though it was going to be. Tamanna's first design was brilliant but it's so much better than what we thought it would ever be."

"They're just a personal touch. A set of gargoyles on the window sill of his classroom and that as well as a wooden frog. He used to get our attention by whacking this wooden frog. I really enjoy the mirror as well, our aim was to carry on his legacy so to reflect those characteristics onto the person looking at it is really special. It's a personal token of love from us."

Gary Drostle, the artist behind the mosaic hopes the memorial will bring the community together and send a positive message.

He said: "I'm very honoured to be a part of it. It can be daunting at first to be approached after such a tragic event to make something that is positive and that everyone will feel happy with. It's an example of the best thing that I do. I do all kind of mosaics but community work and the best work I do is bringing communities together to bring about change.

"All the little hearts they made themselves too and I hope it brings a positive impact on them with coming to terms with what happened. It's like a beacon of hope, almost."