Celebrities sit down to support calendar for Shropshire teenager

England and Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart, cricketers Ian Bell and James Taylor, singer Aled Jones and television presenter Carol Smillie have all posed for pictures for Shrewsbury School's 2013 Blue Chair calendar.

It is hoped up to £4,000 can be raised from calendar sales for the Alex Wilson Foundation, a campaign set up in memory of a former Shrewsbury School pupil who died in an accident in St Andrews University in 2009 when he was aged just 19.

The foundation has been set up to offer a sixth-form scholarship at Shrewsbury School to a keen sportsman who would not otherwise be able to afford the fees to attend.

Giles Bell, a housemaster at Shrewsbury School, said he was delighted at the support for the annual Blue Chair calendar, now in its seventh year.

The calendar was originally set up to support a student who was suffering from leukaemia, with the blue chair theme after a colleague sent an e-mail around asking for the safe return of two blue chairs that had disappeared from his classroom.

Since then, the light-hearted calendar has features pictures of the chairs – or at least ones that look like them – from around the world.

In the latest calendar, England cricketers Ian Bell and Shrewsbury School old boy James Taylor are shown posing on the chairs at Trent Bridge Cricket Ground ahead of Nottinghamshire's game against Warwickshire.

Mr Bell said getting a picture of Joe Hart for the calendar had been a stroke of luck as the former Shrewsbury Town goalkeeper paid a visit to the school in spring as one of his soccer schools was taking place.

He signed up Aled Jones to take part as he paid a visit to the school, while Carol Smillie got involved as her daughter is in the Sixth Form at the school.

"Hopefully, we will raise around £3,000 to £4,000," he said.

"The idea is to let someone of Alex's talents, probably a sporty lad, have a scholarship."

Mr Wilson, who attended Shrewsbury School between 2003 and 2008, died in November 2009 after falling from a cliff close to St Andrews University in Fife, where he had been a first year student.

He was a keen sportsman and in his final year at Shrewsbury was captain of football, vice-captain of rugby and a member of the first XI cricket team.

The 2013 calendars are available to buy for £10.

For more information, e-mail Mr Bell on [email protected]