Marlborough College
- For the Vermont college, see Marlboro College
Marlborough College is a British boarding school in the county of Wiltshire, founded in 1843 for the education of the sons of Church of England clergy, although it now accepts both boys and girls of all beliefs. There are now just over 800 pupils, approximately one third of whom are girls (Marlborough was, in 1968, the first major English public school to allow girls into the sixth form, setting a trend that many other schools would follow). The College become fully co-educational in 1989. New pupils are admitted at the ages of 13+ ("Shell entry") and 16 (Lower Sixth). The College has also been pioneering in other fields, making a major contribution the School Mathematics Project (from 1961) and initiating the teaching of Business Studies at A level (from 1968); fagging was abolished in the 1920's.
School Buildings
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/57/Marlborough_College_Court.jpg/220px-Marlborough_College_Court.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/Marlborough_College_Labs.jpg/220px-Marlborough_College_Labs.jpg)
The college is built beside the Mound. This was used as the motte of a castle. No remains of the castle can be seen today. There are speculations that the Mound is actually of much more ancient construction and possibly a similar feature to Silbury Hill. Legend has it that the Mound is the burial site of Merlin and that the name of the town, Marlborough comes from Merlin's Barrow. More plausibly, the name probably derives from the medieval term for chalky ground "marl" - thus "town on chalk".
The main focus of the college is the Court. This is surrounded by buildings in a number of different styles. At the south end is the back of an early 18th century mansion, later converted to a coaching inn which was bought as the first building for the school. Next to it are the old stables, now converted into boarding houses. The west side consists of the 1960s red brick dining hall, which boasts the largest unsupported roof in the country, and a Victorian boarding house now converted to other purposes. The north west corner is dominated by its Victorian Gothic style chapel which has an interesting collection of pre-Raphaelite style paintings by J R Spencer Stanhope and stained glass by William Morris. The rest of the Court is surrounded by Victorian buildings in styles ranging from mock Tudor to Victorian prison.
On the other side of the Mound is the Science laboratory, built in 1933 and designed to look like an ocean liner. It is an early example of shuttered concrete construction and was listed as a building of architectural significance in 1970.
Houses
Pupils are assigned to various Houses on entering the school. These are where they live and make their home while at school. The Houses compete against one another in sports, but they are not exclusive and most people have friends from other Houses.
The Houses are divided into In-College Houses which are mostly gathered around the central Court and Out-College Houses which are located around the western side of the town. Unusually, the older In-College Houses were not historically given names but referred to by an alphanumeric title. A reorganisation a few years ago combined some houses and eliminated some of the older numbered Houses. More recently created Houses have been given names reflecting either their location or to commemorate a figure from the school's past.
Names of the Houses
Boys In-College | Girls In-College | Mixed Out-College |
B1 | Elmhurst | Turner (In-College) |
C1 | Mill Mead | Cotton |
C2 | Morris | Littlefield |
C3 | New Court | Preshute |
Barton Hill | - | Summerfield |
Until 1967, when Turner House and Summerfield became the first all-age houses, all boys entering the school first joined a junior house for three or four terms. There were five out-college junior houses - Priory and Upcot which were both closed in 1967, Barton Hill which became an all-age in-college house in 1974, Hermitage which had closed in 1911 but reopened 1974-77, and Elmhurst which was closed in 1988 and reopened as a girls' house the following year. There were two in-college junior houses (A1 and A2) which shared A house; these were closed in 1989 and reopened as a girls' house renamed Morris House.
At the same time the other senior houses began to take in boys directly from prep schools - Preshute (1970), Cotton (1976), Littlefield (1977) and the in-college houses in 1989. B2 (which had shared B house with B1) and B3 ceased taking in new boys in 1989 and were both closed in 1992.
When the College became fully co-educational in 1989, three girls' houses were opened - Morris, Elmhurst and Mill Mead; New Court was opened in 1991. Morris was moved in 1995 from A house to Field House, which had previously been occupied by B3 and C2. New houses were built to accommodate C3, which had previously shared C house with C1 (in 1989) and C2 (in 1992).
Notable Past pupils
Past pupils are known as Old Marlburians.
Arts
- Anthony Blunt, art historian and traitor
- William Morris, artist and writer
- Charles Saumarez Smith, Director of the National Gallery
Literature
- John Betjeman, poet
- Humphrey Carpenter, biographer and broadcaster
- Bruce Chatwin, novelist and travel writer
- J. Meade Falkner, author of Moonfleet
- Anthony Hope, writer
- Louis MacNeice, poet
- John Beverley Nichols, writer
- David Nobbs, comedy writer (Reginald Perrin)
- Redmond O'Hanlon, travel writer
- Ben Pimlott, biographer
- Siegfried Sassoon, poet
- Charles Sorley, poet
- Bernard Spencer, poet
Music
- Chris de Burgh, musician
- Nick Drake, British folk musician
- Anthony Powers, composer
- Crispin Steele-Perkins, trumpeter
Theatre & Cinema
- Robert Addie, actor
- Wilfrid Hyde-White, actor
- James Robertson Justice, actor
- James Mason, actor
- Michael Pennington, actor and director
- Clive Robertson, actor
- Ernest Thesiger, actor
- Nicholas Woodeson, actor
Politics
- Tim Boswell, MP for Daventry
- Rab Butler, politician
- Henry Brooke, Baron Brooke of Cumnor, politician
- Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville, Cabinet minister
- Christopher Chope, MP for Christchurch
- Otis Ferry, hunt supporter and political activist, son of rock star Bryan
- Alastair Goodlad, MP for Eddisbury
- Daniel Hannan, MEP
- William Jowitt, Lord Chancellor
- John Maples, MP for Stratford upon Avon
- John Parker, MP for Romford
- Malcolm Ian Sinclair, 20th Earl of Caithness, politician
- Hallam Tennyson, Lord Tennyson, British statesman
- Dennis Forwood Vosper, MP for Runcorn
Sciences & Engineering
- C.V. Boys, experimental physicist
- Sir Charles Galton Darwin, British physicist
- Sir Nigel Gresley, steam locomotive designer
- Donald Lynden-Bell, astronomer
- Sir Peter Medawar, Nobel prize-winning biologist
- John Zachary Young, physiologist
Endeavour & Sport
- Toby and Ian Balding, racehorse trainers
- Francis Chichester, round the world yachtsman
- John Hunt, leader of the first successful ascent of Mount Everest
- Iain Macdonald-Smith, Olympic yachtsman
- Jake Meyer, mountaineer
- Mark Phillips, Olympic horseman and former husband of Anne, Princess Royal
- Reggie Spooner, cricketer
- Martin Winbolt-Lewis, Olympic athlete
- Allan Steel, cricketer
- Mark Tomlinson, polo player
The Church
- Cyril Alington, headmaster, and Dean of Durham
- Frederick Copleston, priest
- Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury
- James Newcome, Bishop of Penrith
- Edward Patey, Dean of Liverpool
Journalism
- Frank Gardner, BBC Security Correspondent
- Richard Jebb, journalist
- Norris and Ross McWhirter, journalists, authors, and political activists
- Christopher Martin-Jenkins, BBC cricket correspondent
- Julian Pettifer, BBC journalist
- Sir Mark Tully, BBC India Correspondent and author
The Forces
- Edward Bradford, soldier and Metropolitan Police Commissioner
- John Brigstocke, Admiral
- John Kiszely, Lieutenant General & Director of the Defence Academy
- Ian Macfadyen, RAF officer and Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man from 2000 - 2005
- Nevil Macready, General and Metropolitan Police Commissioner
- Henry Hughes Wilson, Field Marshal
- Evelyn Wood, Field Marshal
Miscellaneous
- Nigel Bridge, Law Lord
- Rayner Goddard, Lord Chief Justice
- Nicholas Goodison, stockbroker and patron of the arts
- Anthony Greener, industrialist (Dunhill, Guinness, LVMH, Reed Elsevier)
- Nicholas Hinton, charity worker
- Christopher Hogg, industrialist (Courtaulds, Reuters, Bank of England, SmithKline Beecham)
- Robin Janvrin, courtier
- Alan Lascelles, courtier
- Mark Malloch Brown, United Nations administrator
- Ian and Kevin Maxwell, bankrupts
- Kate Middleton, girlfriend of Prince William
- William Moore, Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland
- Simon Woodroffe, founder of the Yo Sushi chain of restaurants