Fundraiser for the family of former Cambridge professor Jason Arday tops £115,000 as flag flies half-mast outside Jesus College

More than £75,000 has been raised for the family of former Cambridge professor Jason Arday, who was found dead at his home last week.

The fund, started by Windrush campaigner Sir Patrick Vernon, will go towards the cost of his funeral, and has received more than 2,500 donations.

Writing on GoFundMe, Sir Patrick paid tribute to the ‘pioneering academic’, and said he had set up the page to help Mr Arday’s family through ‘an unimaginably difficult time’.

It came as a flag flew at half-mast outside Jesus College, where Mr Arday worked, and flowers were laid in tribute.

In 2023, he became Cambridge’s youngest black professor, aged just 37, but he resigned earlier this month following accusations of plagiarism.

He was found dead on Friday at his home in Battersea, south-west London, hours after he told a colleague, Sir Simon Baron-Cohen, that he ‘could not go on’.

Sir Simon, a fellow professor and director of the Autism Research Centre, told the BBC: ‘He was being subjected to relentless scrutiny, including ridicule, discrediting absolutely every detail of his life, and he wasn’t coping.’

Mr Arday had denied the claims against him, and cited ‘unrelenting public scrutiny’ as his reason for stepping down on August 5.

Professor Jason Arday was found dead at his home in Battersea, south-west London

In his resignation letter, he added that the ‘personal cost’ of the row had become ‘too great’, and was taking a toll on those close to him.

Cambridge University launched an investigation into Mr Arday’s academic qualifications, saying that ‘new information’ emerged, as did Jesus College.

In recent days, criticism had extended to his memoir, in which Mr Arday wrote that he was non-verbal until he was 11 - a claim challenged by some of his former classmates. 

A vigil, held by the campaign group Stand Up To Racism, is set to take place on Monday evening in Trafalgar Square, central London.

It comes after Prime Minister Andy Burnham described Mr Arday’s death as a ‘tragedy on so many levels’.

He told reporters during a visit to Cornwall: ‘It’s not a moment for rushing to judgment. 

'It’s a moment for reflecting on how things came to this.’

In a statement issued by Mr Arday’s publisher Simon & Schuster UK on Friday, his family said they were ‘in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle, and son’. 

They added: ‘Jason was subjected to a campaign of sustained abuse for the more than three years since he accepted the role of professor at Cambridge University by those who would leave no stone unturned in their quest to undermine him.

‘The campaign of misinformation was too much for Jason, who was a gentle man and who always wanted to see the best in everyone.’

Meanwhile, Shadow communities secretary Sir James Cleverly said: 'The death of Jason Arday is tragic, and makes me so angry.

'Even the most casual observer could see he was a vulnerable fantasist.

'A number of people at a number of academic institutions have serious questions to answer. They put him into positions he was clearly not qualified for so they could have a black wunderkind to show off, they pushed him into the spotlight for their own benefit.