He is an Old Boy of the city's King Edward's School and has an apartment in that triumph of 'statement architecture', the 25-storey Cube building which now towers over Gas Street Basin.

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The independent King's School in Tynemouth wants to become an academy in September 2013, along with neighbouring Priory Primary School.

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He first started rowing while a pupil at King's School in Chester, after a knee injury meant he had to give up running.

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