SHERBORNE SCHOOL

'Sherborne School' is an English public school for boys in the town of Sherborne in north-west Dorset, England.

Contents

History

Famous alumni

Military

Victoria Cross holders

Houses at Sherborne

School song ("Carmen Saeculare")

Southern Railway School's Class

References

External links

History

The school's origins date back to the eighth century, when a tradition of education in Sherborne was begun by St Aldhelm. According to legend, Alfred the Great was one of the school's early pupils. The school was then linked with the Benedictine Abbey in the town. The earliest Master we know about was Thomas Copeland in 1437. After the Dissolution of the monasteries, Edward VI refounded the School in 1550 as 'King Edward's school', a free grammar school for local boys. The present School, which has gone through various changes of fortune since the Protestant Reformation ( and no doubt before), stands on land which once belonged to the Monastery. The Library, Chapel and Headmaster's rooms, which adjoin the Abbey Church, are modifications of its original monastic buildings.

Famous alumni

★ James Adams, cricketer

★ Hugh Bonneville, actor

★ Tom Bradby, TV journalist and author

★ Rt Hon Sir Christopher Chataway, athlete and politician

★ Charles Collingwood, actor

★ David Cornwell, (a.k.a. John le Carré) writer

★ Charlie Cox, actor

★ Cecil Day-Lewis, poet

★ Nigel Dempster, journalist

★ Jimmy Edwards, comedian

★ Sir Richard Eyre, film and theatre director, artistic director of the National Theatre 1988-97

★ Sir Michael Hopkins, architect

★ Jeremy Irons, actor

★ Stanley Johnson, politician

★ Robert Kitson, Rugby Union Correspondent, ''The Guardian''

★ Anthony Lane, film critic

★ John Le Mesurier, actor

★ Colin Lucas, Master of Balliol and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University until 2001.

★ Chris Martin, member of rock band Coldplay

★ Ian Messiter, creator of Just a Minute

★ King Mswati III, king of Swaziland

★ Keith Muspratt, World War One Flying Ace

★ George Miller, lawyer

★ Julius Neave, insurance executive

★ Alfred North Whitehead, mathematician

★ Peter Oborne, journalist, author and political commentator

★ Charles Palmer, engineer and survivor of the siege of Lucknow

★ Lance Percival, actor

★ Jon Pertwee, actor

★ Sir Alastair Pilkington, director of the Bank of England

★ James Purefoy, actor

★ Rt Rev Lord Sheppard of Liverpool, former England cricketer and Bishop of Liverpool

★ Sir David Spedding, head of the SIS

★ Alan Turing, mathematician

★ Alec Waugh, novelist

★ John Weston, diplomat

Military

Victoria Cross holders

Five Old Shirburnians have been awarded the Victoria Cross, to whom a memorial plaque was commissioned, the unveiling of which took place in the School Chapel on 19th September 2004.^[1]

★ Rear Admiral Henry James Raby VC; (VC won in the Crimean War and at the time he was a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy (Naval Brigade))

★ Brigadier Charles Edward Hudson VC, CB, DSO & Bar, Military Cross; (VC won in the First World War and at the time he was a Temporary Lieutenant Colonel in the Sherwood Foresters)

★ Major Edward Bamford VC DSO; (VC won in the First World War and at the time he was a Captain in the Royal Marine Light Infantry)

★ Colonel Sir Arthur George Hammond VC, KCB, DSO; (VC won in the Second Afghan War and at the time he was a Captain in the Bengal Staff Corps, Indian Army)

★ Captain John Hollington Grayburn VC; (VC won in the Second World War and at the time he was a Lieutenant in the Parachute Regiment)

Houses at Sherborne

Sherborne School is composed of 8 houses, where the pupils (invariably referred to as 'boys') live and work when not in lessons. The names of the houses, their distinctive letter, used in certain circumstances as an abbreviation, and current housemasters are:

★ School House (a) Peter Watts

★ Abbey House (b) Mark Pryor

★ The Green (c) Giles Reynolds

★ Harper House (d) Simon Tremewan

★ Wallace House (e) (formerly Elmdene) Giles Robinson

★ Abbeylands (f) Richard Bool

★ Lyon House (g) Patrick Francis

★ The Digby (m) (formerly the Digby Hotel) Martin Brooke
Until 1999 there was another house, Westcott (h).
These houses also compete against each other in various sporting, educational and musical competitions.

School song ("Carmen Saeculare")

Olim fuit monachorum

Schola nostra sedes;

Puer regius illorum

Fecit nos heredes;

Hoc in posteros amoris

Grande dedit signum;

Sonet ergo Fundatoris

Nomen laude dignum;

Vivat Rex Eduardus Sextus!

Vivat!
Ergo dum verenda mole

Cana perstat aedes,

Dum recenti gaudet prole

Monachorum sedes,

Stimulet certamen ludi,

Suadeat laboris,

In sigillo sculptum rudi

Nomen Fundatoris.

Vivat Rex Eduardus Sextus!

Vivat!
The song was of five verses, but these are the two printed each term in the School's 'Blue Book' diary and are nowadays sung at the end of whole school assemblies at the end of term where prize-winners will receive prizes and various announcements will be made.

Southern Railway School's Class

The School lent its name to the seventh steam locomotive (Engine 906) in the Southern Railway's Class V of which there were 40. This Class was also known as the Schools Class because all 40 of the class were named after prominent English public schools. 'Sherborne', as it was called, was built in 1930, along with the rest of the initial ten locomotives in the class. The locomotive bearing the School's name was withdrawn in the early 1960s.

References

1. Old Shirburnian Editorial Team, (2004), ''The OS Record'', pages 20-21 , (Shelleys The Printers, Sherborne)

External links

★ Sherborne School

★ Old Shirburnian Society website