Ken Mansfield

The History of Thurrock Academy's roots go back to 1973, when Thurrock Drum and Trumpet Corp was formed in Thurrock , Essex . Ken Mansfield was a young lad at the time and started playing the trumpet in the corp. The Corp soon became one of the countries most successful competing bands and won national championships for over 15 years. The Corp, which changed its name to Thurrock Marching Brass in the 80's, consistently competed with over 100 young members, Ken being one of these. 

In the Mid 80's, when Ken was too old to march, he became an instructor within the band and started writing and teaching the shows for this now extremely successful drum corp. However in 1988, due to falling membership numbers, the staff of the band decided to close the doors and stop competing.

Ken Mansfield, now hooked on writing and teaching shows for young people, was not happy to just give up. Ken and Colourguard writer John Sharman decided to keep the Colourguard element of the band going, and to compete independently in the Winterguard activity. Winterguard was an increasingly popular activity now, with many guards switching to compete in doors without the band members. They set up what became Thurrock Academy Colourguard in 1989 and together created one of the most successful Colourguards in this country.

By now Ken was married with very young children, and was still dedicating his weekends to rehearse with the young members of Thurrock Academy . Bringing his children with him to rehearsals, traveling around the country with them in tow, looking after all the members of the group as well as his children and his wife, he must have had so many pairs of hands! In 1990 he decided to take the Colourguard to the world championships in Buffalo , USA . This was the turning point for the Colourguard activity in the UK, as both Ken and John Sharman brought back and created new and innovative idea's which this country had never seen before.

It was not long before Ken Mansfield took on the role of Director of the group and taking on all the responsibilities of keeping such a successful youth organization alive. Ken was also working a full time job to support his family, in the Tilbury Docks, often working shift works and coming straight to rehearsals for 8+ hours. Most of the members, myself a young member at the time, were not even aware he was working such long hours and teaching us for such long hours with no sleep in between. He certainly never showed the strain.

A few years on, after much more success, Ken decided to expand the organization and start younger groups to feed into the senior guard as they developed. It was a huge success, within 2 years all 3 of our groups were winning British Championships in their respective classes. Thurrock Academy is now one of the most highly respected groups within the activity, and Ken Mansfield, his wisdom and experience, is one of the most highly respected figures within the activity.

Ken has dedicated the past 15 years of his life to developing Thurrock Academy and all its members, every year helping young people to achieve their dreams. I have marched with Thurrock Academy , being taught by Ken Mansfield, for 12 years, I have achieved many dreams within that time. Whilst a young child you often don't always realize, or appreciate the amount of time, effort and sheer dedication it takes to run an organization like that, to get you through all those seasons and to have that gold medal placed around your neck on finals night. Ken Mansfield is an inspiration to me and to hundreds and hundreds of children and young adults that he has taught and educated over the years.

He has taken this organization ac ross the globe, competing in many countries, touring America and competing in the World Championships. The time it takes to keep this organization running is equivalent to a full time job, but this part is rarely seen. Its Ken s nature and his wisdom and ability to educate children's minds into fulfilling their dreams and maximizing their talents, that make the kids naturally admire him. In a hall full of screaming 10-13 year old kids all trying to learn difficult things, if he speaks, they all become quite and attentive. I myself have learned so much about myself and about life through being taught by Ken Mansfield for so many years.

Ken Mansfield was promoted at work to become a senior manager within the Tilbury based shipping company. Due to his commitments at work this year he had to step down as director and I stepped into his shoes. I have to say the biggest thing that scared me was not taking on such a huge responsibility but stepping into a role which Ken has so gracefully filled for so long. He is the ‘DADDY' of Thurrock Academy .

I know his wife would be honored for him to receive a leadership award, as I know she has been left for a many a weekend whilst he has been rehearsing for endless hours with the organizations young members!

Even now he is still heavily involved in writing and teaching the 3 groups shows, as well as also teaching other young guards in the south of England . Our staff at Thurrock Academy, under a new initiative created by Ken Mansfield, travel around the South of England during our spare days to teach younger Colourguard groups who do not have the experienced staff that we are fortunate enough to have. This has been very successful and many of these groups have been promoted into higher classes after our training.

I personally, and on behalf of every member that has ever been taught by Ken Mansfield, would like to nominate him for his tireless and endless dedication to youth activity and young people's dreams to perform in national and world championships.