Eddie vigorously supported CEF's innovative approach of bringing together different groups into broad national coalitions in each country, so that education would become a top political priority and matter of open public debate. In the 16 CEF countries, non-governmental organisations, teachers’ unions, parents’ groups, faith-based organisations and business leaders united to call for greater investment in education. These coalitions shared innovative approaches that would help get all children into school, influencing government policy and improving transparency.

Whilst still Governor, Eddie hosted a series of breakfasts, lunches and dinners at the Bank of England to promote the CEF with prominent business leaders. Using his own personal story as a starting point, Eddie would invariably convince his guests that nothing was more important than achieving the agreed international development goal of getting every child into school by 2015. This, he would argue, would be a historic landmark for humanity - and one that is eminently achievable if people come together. When he returned from a visit to India in 2005, where he met CEF partners, he was more energised than ever, telling a reception afterwards at 11 Downing Street that education was the key to development and the best investment any government could make.

One example of CEF work was assisting School Management Committees to engage with local authorities to find ways to improve schools in disadvantaged communities, so that more children would be able to enrol and stay in school. One schoolgirl in Ghana said: “I used to walk seven kilometres through the bush every morning to school in a nearby community because there were no teachers in my community school. I always felt tired when I got to school.” Children like this are at risk of missing lessons or dropping out altogether, but thanks to efforts of CEF partners this girl and others re-enrolled in their community school, which was revitalised by being supplied with two new teachers. In support of the work of the international community, the CEF has helped to reduce the number of children who were out of school from 100 million in 2002 to 75 million in 2006. Clearly more needs to be done in the coming years. There can be no more fitting legacy to Eddie than for people to work together in pursuit of this historic goal.

Eddie called primary school the gateway to the rest of his life, saying, “I know from my own experience – encouraged by my parents to take proper advantage of universal primary education in this country, which led on to scholarships to secondary school and university, which my parents couldn’t possibly otherwise have afforded – that education is the absolute foundation of individual economic and social progress – and of the contribution which individuals can make to the economic and social progress of the community as a whole.”

Everyone involved with CEF (from the UK, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, The Gambia Uganda, and Zambia) will remember Eddie's passionate conviction and leadership. He will be greatly missed.