Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood
Encyclopedia
Merchant Taylors' School (MTS) is a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 independent day school
Day school
A day school—as opposed to a boarding school—is an institution where children are given educational instruction during the day and after which children/teens return to their homes...

 for boys, originally located in the City of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...

. Since 1933 it has been located at Sandy Lodge in the Three Rivers
Three Rivers (district)
Three Rivers is a local government district in Hertfordshire in the East of England. Its council is based in Rickmansworth.It was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of Rickmansworth Urban District and Chorleywood Urban District with part of Watford Rural District...

 district of Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

 (but within the Northwood post town).

Founded in 1561 by Sir Thomas White
Thomas White (merchant)
Sir Thomas White was an English cloth merchant, civic benefactor and founder of St John's College, Oxford.He was born in Reading, Berkshire, the son of William White, a clothier of Reading, and his wife, Mary, daughter of Henry Kibblewhite of South Fawley, also in Berkshire. He was brought up in...

 and Sir Richard Hilles, the School is one of the original nine English Public Schools as defined by the Public Schools Act 1868
Public Schools Act 1868
The Public Schools Act 1868 was enacted by the British Parliament to reform and regulate nine of the leading English boys' schools. They were described as "public schools" as admission was open to boys from anywhere and was not limited to those living in a particular locality...

. Today the School caters for approximately 860 students between the ages of 11 and 18.

Founding and early years

The school was founded in 1561 by members of the Merchant Taylors' Company. It was originally located in a manor house called the Manor of the Rose, in the parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

 of St. Lawrence Pountney in the City of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...

, where it remained until 1875.

Merchant Taylors' was not the first school to be founded by members of the Merchant Taylors' Company, for the Tudor period
Tudor period
The Tudor period usually refers to the period between 1485 and 1603, specifically in relation to the history of England. This coincides with the rule of the Tudor dynasty in England whose first monarch was Henry VII...

 in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 was a period of expansion for education. Sir John Percival (Master of the Company in 1485, Lord Mayor of London
Lord Mayor of London
The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London is the legal title for the Mayor of the City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor of London is to be distinguished from the Mayor of London; the former is an officer only of the City of London, while the Mayor of London is the Mayor of Greater London and...

 in 1498) established a grammar school
Grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...

 at Macclesfield
Macclesfield
Macclesfield is a market town within the unitary authority of Cheshire East, the county palatine of Chester, also known as the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The population of the Macclesfield urban sub-area at the time of the 2001 census was 50,688...

 in 1502, while in 1508 his widow founded one at St. Mary's Wike in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

 (which moved to Launceston shortly thereafter). Also in 1508, Sir Steven Jenyns (Master in 1490, Lord Mayor in 1508) founded Wolverhampton Grammar School
Wolverhampton Grammar School
Wolverhampton Grammar School is a co-educational independent school located in the city of Wolverhampton.Initially Wolverhampton Boys Grammar School, it was founded in 1512 by Sir Stephen Jenyns, a master of the ancient guild of Merchant Taylors, who was also Lord Mayor of London in the year of...

, which still maintains strong links with the Company.

Many of the earlier Tudor schools were attached to monasteries
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...

 and were dissolved after 1535 by Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

 and his son Edward VI
Edward VI of England
Edward VI was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant...

. They re-emerged after 1550, some of them bearing Edward's name as founder. MTS missed these turbulent times, as it was founded instead at the opening of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...

 and in a period of cultural richness and advancement.

The first Head Master, Richard Mulcaster
Richard Mulcaster
Richard Mulcaster , is known best for his headmasterships and pedagogic writings. He is often regarded as the founder of English language lexicography.-Educational achievements:...

, took up his post in 1561. His educational philosophy is embodied in two books, The Positions (1581) and The Elementarie (1582), the latter an instalment of a larger work and one of the first dictionaries in English. One of his first pupils was Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English...

. His goal was that English as a language might claim its place side by side with Latin:

Mulcaster's views were ahead of his time: he advocated the importance to children of relaxation and games, and a knowledge of the countryside and world of nature. He "wished that schools were planted in the suburbs of towns near to the fields." He was also, "tooth and nail for womankind" in matters of education. As a man of his time, he believed that education should fit women for their appropriate station.

The successive outbreaks of plague
Bubonic plague
Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...

 in 1592, 1603, 1626, 1630, 1637 and 1666, had a damaging effect on the School and its pupils. The School was obliged to break up during these periods, losing pupils and sometimes unable to take on new ones. In 1626 the headmaster Nicholas Gray complained of the loss of pupils and was given £20 to keep the school going; in 1630 he was given £40. Many parents kept their sons away from school, and boarders were summoned home.

The School was closed for at least a year in 1636 and 1637, with no new boys admitted until the contagion abated. The outbreak of 1666 was curtailed by the Great Fire of London
Great Fire of London
The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of the English city of London, from Sunday, 2 September to Wednesday, 5 September 1666. The fire gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman City Wall...

, which started on 2 September close to Suffolk Lane and completely destroyed the school buildings. It was rebuilt by 1675, after classes had met in temporary quarters for years.

1606 - 1633

In 1606 Robert Dow, a member of the Company, instigated the process of "probation" or inspection, whereby the Court would visit the school three times each year and observe the school at work. Dow was concerned that the school was not meeting the challenge of being one of the great schools of the time and needed regular inspection to maintain and raise its standards. The Court appointed a committee to investigate and concluded:
The probation was imposed without consultation with the schoolmasters. During the probation, the headmaster was required to open his copy of Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...

at random and read out a passage to the Sixth form. The boys had to copy the passage from dictation and then translate it, first into English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, then into Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 and then into Latin verse. After this, they had to write a passage of Latin and some verses on some topic chosen for the day. This was for the morning; in the afternoon the process was repeated in Greek, based on the Greek Testament, Aesop's Fables
Aesop's Fables
Aesop's Fables or the Aesopica are a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and story-teller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BCE. The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today...

, "or some other very easie Greeke author". The standard in Greek was not as high as in Latin, but Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

 was also taught.

This form of inspection was the model for teaching every day, as neither mathematics nor science were included in the curriculum. The pattern of teaching seen in the Probations at MTS was described in a popular work published in 1660, A New Discovery of the Art of Teaching Schoole by Charles Hoole. Hoole described the nature of education at the time:
  • 6.00 a.m. was considered the time for children to start their studies but 7.00 a.m. was more common;
  • Pupils of upper forms were appointed to give lessons to younger ones;
  • Pupils were required to examine each other in pairs; and
  • Children frequently went to 'Writing-schooles' at the end of the school day, the purpose of which was to 'learn a good hand'. Good handwriting was supposed to be a condition of entry to a school like MTS but Hayne for one tended to ignore it and was eventually dismissed for, among other things, low standards of hand writing. In Germany
    Germany
    Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

     at this time there were Writing Schools too and many citizens attended only these in order to learn sufficient skills for commerce and trade; English businessmen founded schools which encouraged an academic curriculum based on the classics.


The Head Master William Hayne (1599–1624) presided over the new methods of examination, but his success did not save him from dismissal for purported financial misdemeanours. He was said to have sold text books to pupils for profit, and received gifts of money at the end of term and on Shrove Tuesday
Shrove Tuesday
Shrove Tuesday is a term used in English-speaking countries, especially in Ireland, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Germany, and parts of the United States for the day preceding Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of fasting and prayer called Lent.The...

, when the 'Victory Penny' might be presented by pupils.

1634 - 1685

William Staple (Head Master 1634-1644) fell victim to contemporary politics. In October 1643 Parliament ordered "That the Committee for plundered Ministers
Committee for Plundered Ministers
The Committee for Plundered Ministers was appointed by the Long Parliament, then under the influence of the Presbyterians, after the start of the English Civil War in August 1643 for the purpose of replacing and effectively silencing those clergy who were loyal to the King Charles...

 shall have power to enquire after malignant School-masters." In March 1644 Staple was ordered to appear before this committee, but as a royalist
Royalist
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of government, but not necessarily a particular monarch...

, he had no intention of so doing. He was dismissed and the Company had to seek a new headmaster.

The next Head Master William Dugard
William Dugard
William Dugard, or Du Gard, was a respected schoolmaster and printer. During the English Interregnum, he printed many important documents and propaganda, first in support of Charles I and later of Oliver Cromwell...

 (1644–1661), previously headmaster of Stamford School
Stamford School
Stamford School is an English independent school situated in the market town of Stamford, Lincolnshire, England. It has been a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference since 1920.-History:...

, also ran into trouble. In 1649 he acquired a printing press and published a pamphlet by Claudius Salmasius
Claudius Salmasius
Claudius Salmasius is the Latin name of Claude Saumaise , a French classical scholar.-Life:Salmasius was born at Semur-en-Auxois in Burgundy. His father, a counsellor of the parlement of Dijon, sent him, at the age of sixteen, to Paris, where he became intimate with Isaac Casaubon...

, a continental sympathiser with Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

, entitled Defensio Regia pro Carolo Primo. Dugard was arrested and imprisoned, but as the pamphlet had not been distributed, his cousin Sir James Harrington was able to exert sufficient influence to have him released.

In 1647 Dugard had been appointed a member of the Stationers' Company; he did not declare his interests to the Court, and they were most annoyed at this extracurricular activity. In 1652, a puritanical and intolerant time, Dugard published Catechesis Ecclesiarum Poloniae et Lithuaniae (Ecclesiastical Catechism of Poland and Lithuania). The work was seized and publicly burned, yet Dugard survived as headmaster and was simply required to give up his printing enterprise.

At this time the school fees were set at 2s2 or 5s (£0.11 or £0.25) per quarter or nothing, but Dugard charged a variety of amounts; the number of pupils was down from the 250 expected by the Company. When he left in 1661, he set up a new school in Coleman Street and took a number of MTS pupils with him.

The next headmaster, John Goad
John Goad
John Goad was head-master of Merchant Taylors' School in London.-Life:Goad was the son of John Goad of Bishopsgate Street, London, and was born in St. Helen's parish there on 15 February 1615-16. After a preliminary training in Merchant Taylors' School he was admitted to St John's College, Oxford,...

 (1661–1681), guided the school through rebuilding after the plague in 1666 and the destruction of the Great Fire of London
Great Fire of London
The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of the English city of London, from Sunday, 2 September to Wednesday, 5 September 1666. The fire gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman City Wall...

. His eventual dismissal may have been influenced by the accusations of Titus Oates
Titus Oates
Titus Oates was an English perjurer who fabricated the "Popish Plot", a supposed Catholic conspiracy to kill King Charles II.-Early life:...

, who was a pupil at MTS for a few months in 1665-66, although Goad survived for years afterward. Oates had brief stays at other schools, being dismissed from each in turn. In 1678 Oates "discovered" the "Popish Plot
Popish Plot
The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy concocted by Titus Oates that gripped England, Wales and Scotland in Anti-Catholic hysteria between 1678 and 1681. Oates alleged that there existed an extensive Catholic conspiracy to assassinate Charles II, accusations that led to the execution of at...

", which was supposed to include a threat to kill Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

, but it was later found to be a hoax by him. William Smith, a master at MTS and later headmaster at the Brewers' School in Islington, wrote of his first encounter with Oates:
In 1676 Oates caught up with Smith and accused him of involvement in another imaginary plot, so the latter was obliged to commit perjury to escape punishment. In the MTS Probation Book, Oates was initially listed as "The saviour of the nation, first discoverer of ye damnable Popish Plot in 1678"; in 1685 a postscript was added: "Perjurd upon Record and a Scoundrell Fellow". In this suspicious climate, a whiff of Romanism was enough to condemn a man like Goad. After his dismissal in 1681, Goad became a member of the Roman Catholic Church.

1686 - 1759

When the headmastership fell vacant again in 1686, King James II
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...

 tried to force his nominee James Lee on the Company. The election was postponed and the Master, Sir William Dodson, persuaded Lee to withdraw his nomination. Lee, formerly second usher at MTS and then headmaster at St Saviour's Free School, Southwark
Southwark
Southwark is a district of south London, England, and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Southwark. Situated east of Charing Cross, it forms one of the oldest parts of London and fronts the River Thames to the north...

, stood against Ambrose Bonwicke but lost. Bonwicke, OMT, was a former pupil of Goad and had an acute mind, but he was dismissed for his political sentiments.

James abdicated in 1688, William and Mary
William and Mary
The phrase William and Mary usually refers to the coregency over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, of King William III & II and Queen Mary II...

 acceded, and men were obliged once again to proclaim their loyalties. The majority avoided controversy by swearing allegiance to "the king". Bonwicke delayed for a year before the Court was forced by Act of Parliament
Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. In 1066, William of Normandy introduced a feudal system, by which he sought the advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws...

 to hear his oath of allegiance. Bonwicke said he supported James and was duly dismissed.

Under Matthew Shortyng, Head Master 1691-1707, the top boys of the Sixth began to be called "The Table" and "The Bench", with nine at the Table, the captain and eight monitors; and nine at the Bench, called prompters because they prompted the monitors on election day.

In 1710 Ambrose Bonwicke, son of the former Head Master, was captain of the school and refused to read prayers for King William
William
-British:*William I of England , aka William the Conqueror, William the Bastard*William II of England , aka William Rufus*William I of Scotland -British:*William I of England (1027-1087), aka William the Conqueror, William the Bastard*William II of England (1056-1100), aka William Rufus*William I...

on St Barnabas Day. Despite his intellectual prowess, his family's continuing support for James cost Bonwicke his election to St. John's College, Oxford and he went to St. John's College, Cambridge instead. At this time, there was a shortage of places at the school, as its reputation for scholarship and consequent chance of a university education attracted parents from all over the country. In 1750 a regulation was passed that boys should not be eligible for election to St. John's Oxford unless they had been at MTS for at least three years.

One pupil who would not have qualified for election under this rule was Robert Clive. He was at MTS from 1738–1739 and completed his education at Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury School
Shrewsbury School is a co-educational independent school for pupils aged 13 to 18, founded by Royal Charter in 1552. The present campus to which the school moved in 1882 is located on the banks of the River Severn in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England...

 in his native Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...

. The Head Master was then John Criche, OMT, a man who had occupied every position in the school and was not predisposed to change it. Criche was also a Jacobite
Jacobitism
Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...

. The school suffered during his tenure because parents were unwilling to send their sons to a school where anti-dynastic sentiments might prevail. Criche died in office at the age of 80, by when the school enrollment numbers had fallen from 244 to 116.

1760 - 1813

The next Head Master, Rev. James Townley
James Townley
Rev. James Townley was an English dramatist and anonymous playwright, the second son of Charles Townley, a merchant.-Early and Personal life:...

, OMT, was in office from 1760 to 1768. Criche's financial situation before him had become desperate which explained his continuance in office into his 80th year and the Company duly raised the Head Master's salary from £10 to £100. Salaries were at this time boosted by 'capitation grants' so Criche suffered badly while a more successful Head Master could do rather better. Townley had worked at Christ's Hospital
Christ's Hospital
Christ's Hospital is an English coeducational independent day and boarding school with Royal Charter located in the Sussex countryside just south of Horsham in Horsham District, West Sussex, England...

 School, which had the Royal Mathematical School
Royal Mathematical School
Royal Mathematical School is a branch of Christ's Hospital, founded by Charles II. It is currently Christ's Hospital's Maths Department.-History:...

 and included mathematics in its curriculum. He proposed the introduction of mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

 at MTS in 1760, but the Court deferred consideration and subsequently dropped the matter. Townley did succeed, however, in introducing geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...

 to the curriculum. Like Mulcaster and numerous pupils before him, Townley was keen on the stage. In 1762 he proposed the staging of a Latin play at the school, partly to regain some interest in the school, which had waned in the last year's of Criche's headmastership. Townley wrote a successful play, High Life Below Stairs, which was staged at Drury Lane
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster....

 by David Garrick
David Garrick
David Garrick was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century and was a pupil and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson...

 and proved very popular. The identity of the author was kept secret, and most assumed it was written by Garrick rather than a schoolmaster.

Schools in the 18th century were not generally in good shape, with understaffing leading to poor teaching, brutal enforcement of discipline, lack of supervision outside school and self-government by the pupils. The London schools were more successful in retaining numbers but apart from Christ's Hospital
Christ's Hospital
Christ's Hospital is an English coeducational independent day and boarding school with Royal Charter located in the Sussex countryside just south of Horsham in Horsham District, West Sussex, England...

 and Westminster
Westminster School
The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...

, none changed its curriculum. Classics reigned supreme until the mid-19th century. As Gibbon wrote:

The next three headmasters over the period 1778-1819: Green, Bishop and Cherry were all OMTs. One of Bishop's pupils, Charles Mathews
Charles Mathews
Charles Mathews was an English theatre manager and comic actor, well-known during his time for his gift of impersonation and skill at table entertainment...

, went on to become a successful actor and comedian. His memoirs, from the late 18th century, include these observations:
Bishop's wife claimed that the headmaster "avoided all unnecessary severity" and "there was no revolt or riot during the whole time of his continuance at the school." At the beginning of the 19th century, there were a number of rebellions in schools, some of which had to be put down by troops - at Westminster in 1791, 1801 and 1820; at Eton in 1768, 1783, 1810 and 1818; at Harrow
Harrow School
Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...

 in 1805 and 1808; at Winchester in 1770, 1774, 1778, 1793 and 1818; at Rugby
Rugby School
Rugby School is a co-educational day and boarding school located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain.-History:...

 in 1786, 1797, 1822; and at Charterhouse
Charterhouse School
Charterhouse School, originally The Hospital of King James and Thomas Sutton in Charterhouse, or more simply Charterhouse or House, is an English collegiate independent boarding school situated at Godalming in Surrey.Founded by Thomas Sutton in London in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian...

 and Shrewsbury in 1818. This meant only St. Paul's escaped riot, of the so-called "Great Nine" identified by the Clarendon Commission
Clarendon Commission
Following complaints about the finances, buildings and management of Eton College the Clarendon Commission, a Royal Commission, was set up in 1861 to investigate the state of nine leading schools in England at the time. The Clarendon Report was published in 1864 with general recommendations on the...

 of the 1860s.

The students' behaviour may have been influenced by the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

 and the Gordon Riots
Gordon Riots
The Gordon Riots of 1780 were an anti-Catholic protest against the Papists Act 1778.The Popery Act 1698 had imposed a number of penalties and disabilities on Roman Catholics in England; the 1778 act eliminated some of these. An initial peaceful protest led on to widespread rioting and looting and...

 in London in June 1780. (The Gordon Riots were fomented by Lord George Gordon
Lord George Gordon
Lord George Gordon was a British politician best known for lending his name to the Gordon Riots of 1780....

 following the Catholic Relief Act of 1778, which lifted some restrictions on British Catholics and angered fanatical Protestants.) In 1796 two pupils at MTS, John Grose and Richard Hayward, were expelled for hoisting a French tri-colour flag , over the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...

 and for writing anti-dynastic graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....

 on the walls near Suffolk Lane. On 11 April 1811, a pitched battle took place between boys of St. Paul's and Merchant Taylors' in Old Change at the western end of Cheapside
Cheapside
Cheapside is a street in the City of London that links Newgate Street with the junction of Queen Victoria Street and Mansion House Street. To the east is Mansion House, the Bank of England, and the major road junction above Bank tube station. To the west is St. Paul's Cathedral, St...

, as the boys met on their way to school. After the City of London School was built in Honeylane Market, Cheapside, frequent fights took place between the pupils of that school and MTS.

1814 - 1844

In 1814 Cherry made a detailed proposal for the setting up of an arithmetic and writing school and for the teaching of mathematics and accounts. Again the proposal was first deferred and then dropped. It was to be a further 15 years before mathematics was finally admitted into the school curriculum. In 1811 H.B. Wilson was granted permission to write a history of the school but he was overlooked as Head Master in 1819 on the appointment of James Bellamy, OMT, Head Master 1819-45. In 1828 Bellamy advised the Company of the need to modernise to "meet the daily increasing demand for a more general education", by which he meant in particular the founding of University College
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...

 and King's College
King's College London
King's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...

 at the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

. In 1830 education was as topical as it is today with writers like Christopher North
Christopher North
-Biography :Born Christopher North Renquist in Austin, TX on February 6, 1969, Christopher North is a multi-instrumental composer and singer-songwriter based in New York City...

 advocating its spread, though fearful of the consequences, "from the classes to the masses". The Court voted £200 towards the founding of King's College and in 1829 Bellamy once again pleaded that the school be placed on the same level as other places of education. Beginning in 1830, classics was taught in the morning and mathematics in the afternoon, specialist teachers were appointed and by 1845 French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 was being considered for two afternoons per week. The last proposal proved too expensive but the further success of the school began to make it clear that the current premises were too small and new ones should be found.

Still, in the 1870s, Sir D'Arcy Power comments on the curriculum he faced:

Nor was there much teaching of English. Bishop Samuel Thornton wrote: He adds however: It is likely that many parents cared little what was taught as long as their boys did well enough to attain a scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...

 to university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

.

The city environment around it included a brewery
Brewery
A brewery is a dedicated building for the making of beer, though beer can be made at home, and has been for much of beer's history. A company which makes beer is called either a brewery or a brewing company....

 which belched smoke and soot and a printing works whose apprentices fought with M.T.S. boys almost daily. According to the Rev. A. J. Church in 1857:

For more than two centuries the only place where teaching was carried on was the Great Schoolroom; its dimensions were about 85 feet (25.9 m) by 30 feet (9.1 m). It as lighted very imperfectly by windows on either side, large enough, indeed, but obscured by the heavy leading of the diamond panes and by the long-standing accumulations of dirt ... The four classrooms were all more or less recent additions to the school accommodation. Bishop Samuel Thornton remembered the London fogs of his schooldays in the 1840s when "little was done on those dark days, the dreamy and unwonted state of affairs generating an excited condition in the Forms, unfavourable to discipline and work". There was also a constant din from outside the school which interfered greatly with the conduct of lessons. Until the 1860s no provision was made for feeding the boys at lunch time. In 1838 there were 58 boys in the Fourth, being taught in this room and without gas lighting - small wonder that the masters resorted to the stick to keep control.

1845 - 1865

James Hessey, Head Master from 1845 to 1870, improved many aspects of the school, increasing the number of masters, introducing school lunches and appointing a 'superior' teacher of mathematics. The rough practices of among the boys 'pulling' on clothes and 'bumping' against the pillars of the cloisters were banned, something which at first caused open rebellion among the younger boys but in which Hessey had his way by his firm insistence on more civilised behaviour. Hessey was also agitating for a change of location. Two Commissions of this time, the Oxford Commission and the Public Schools Commission
Clarendon Commission
Following complaints about the finances, buildings and management of Eton College the Clarendon Commission, a Royal Commission, was set up in 1861 to investigate the state of nine leading schools in England at the time. The Clarendon Report was published in 1864 with general recommendations on the...

 (under Lord Clarendon), threatened the well-being of the school. The Oxford Commission restructured the arrangements for scholarships between the school and St. John's College so there was no longer such an easy path for boys to reach university. There had grown a general feeling that all was not well with Eton and other "public" schools and the Commission was appointed to investigate and put this right. The Schools Commission visited M.T.S. in 1862 and published its report in 1864. It was noted that parents were increasingly reluctant to send their sons to school in London due to the overcrowding, the lack of games facilities and increasing accessibility to country schools. It was proposed that Charterhouse
Charterhouse School
Charterhouse School, originally The Hospital of King James and Thomas Sutton in Charterhouse, or more simply Charterhouse or House, is an English collegiate independent boarding school situated at Godalming in Surrey.Founded by Thomas Sutton in London in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian...

 and Westminster
Westminster School
The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...

, boarding schools, should move out of London and that Merchant Taylors' and St. Paul's, day schools, should increase their premises. It was also recommended that, while the classical character of the curriculum should be continued, science, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

, music and more drawing should be introduced.

1866 - 1907

In 1866, following reasoned argument from Hessey and the report of the Commission, the Company bought 5.5 acres (22,257.7 m²) of estate in Goswell Street for £90,000 from the Governors of the Charterhouse. Building of the new school began in 1873 and was completed in 1875. Plans for the new school included immediate expansion to 350 and thence to 500, the development of a more modern curriculum to meet demand for "Modern Languages, Science and Commerce
Commerce
While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...

", and the raising of fees from 10 to 12 guineas for the lower school and 12 guineas to 15 guineas for the upper. William Baker, OMT, Head Master from 1870–1900, wanted to develop the whole of the new site for games, "to foster a corporate and public spirit among the boys of the School, by drawing them together in common amusements and giving them common interests". On the development of playing fields around the school Baker wrote in 1872: These ideas were in line with the policy of other public schools, which had placed great emphasis on games and outdoor activities (as they still, for the most part, do) since the time of Dr Thomas Arnold at Rugby School. Baker was conservative in his views, considering the classics as the best means of training the mind but he was almost equally keen on mathematics and paid much attention to its development in the school. Also in his time chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

 and physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

 were introduced and a new science building was finished in 1891. Dr. Baker proposed the introduction of biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

 which was introduced as an extra in 1900.

French was still in a precarious position within the school curriculum - from a total of 3900 marks (from 78 scripts worth 50 marks each) in an examination in 1874 only 123 marks were actually scored and 53 boys submitted blank papers. The master in charge of the 'Modern Side' pointed out that boys joined his area not because they showed promise in French but because they had no obvious gift for the classics. On the appointment of John Nairn in 1900 to succeed Dr. Baker the new headmaster asked Professor Ernest Weekly to inspect the modern language teaching. He drew attention to the dominant role of Latin in determining a boy's promotion, to the beginning of Greek at too young an age and to the lack of systematic instruction in English. Meanwhile, Dr. Baker recommended the adoption of the newly established Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examination Board for examination of higher work which for the first time provided a means for comparison between schools. Until this point schools could differ considerably in the ways they assessed pupils and conducted their affairs; today we take for granted the existence of national standards and criteria and the use of public examination results to compare one school, however invidiously, against another.

In the early 1900s the number of boys at the school began to fall, due in part to the rise of good and not too expensive schools in the country around London such as Bedford Grammar, Berkhamsted
Berkhamsted Collegiate School
Berkhamsted School is an independent school in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England. The present school was formed in 1997 by the amalgamation of the original Berkhamsted School, founded in 1541 by John Incent, Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, Berkhamsted School for Girls, established in 1888, and...

, University College School
University College School
University College School, generally known as UCS, is an Independent school charity situated in Hampstead, north west London, England. The school was founded in 1830 by University College London and inherited many of that institution's progressive and secular views...

, King's College School
King's College School
King's College School, commonly referred to as KCS, King's, or KCS Wimbledon, is an independent school for day pupils in Wimbledon in south-west London. The school was founded as the junior department of King's College London and occupied part of its premises in Strand, before relocating to...

, St. Dunstans, St Olave's
St Olave's Grammar School
St Olave's and St Saviour's Grammar School is a super-selective boys' secondary school in Orpington, Greater London, England. The school is consistently one of the top achieving state schools in the UK and it was The Sunday Times State School of the Year in 2008...

 and Latymer Upper School
Latymer Upper School
Latymer Upper School, founded by Edward Latymer in 1624, is a selective independent school in Hammersmith, West London, England, lying between King Street and the Thames. It is a day school for 1,130 pupils – boys and girls aged 11–18; there is also the Latymer Preparatory School for boys and girls...

, amongst others. Science and technical subjects were being developed in institutions funded by public money and there was some pressure on the incomes of the class that sent its sons to schools like Merchant Taylors'. It became increasingly apparent that boys were travelling long distances to school each day, from as far as Hertford
Hertford
Hertford is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. Forming a civil parish, the 2001 census put the population of Hertford at about 24,180. Recent estimates are that it is now around 28,000...

, Guildford
Guildford
Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...

 and Leigh-on-Sea
Leigh-on-Sea
Leigh-on-Sea , sometimes called Leigh, is a civil parish in Essex, England. It is part of Southend-on-Sea for administrative purposes. It became a civil parish in 1996. The council tax was increased to support it. A town council was formed. Leigh is the only parish in Southend...

, the school needed a prep. school
Preparatory school (UK)
In English language usage in the former British Empire, the present-day Commonwealth, a preparatory school is an independent school preparing children up to the age of eleven or thirteen for entry into fee-paying, secondary independent schools, some of which are known as public schools...

 for boys aged 8–11 and a sports ground nearer than Bellingham
Bellingham, London
Bellingham is a neighbourhood and electoral ward in the London Borough of Lewisham, and consists mainly of social/council housing built in the 1920s on what was then farm land. Many houses have been bought by the tenants under the Right to Buy Scheme. However, the majority are still rented out to...

. Nairn began to think that the school might be better placed on the outskirts of London. In 1914 the Oxford and Cambridge School Examination Board inspected the school and, amongst their conclusions, found the hours of the school too short and the homeworks too long, all of which limited their time for fresh air and recreation. The Board also said that the curriculum was too narrow, that the needs of a few potential classical scholars were dominating the needs of the many. Even at this stage the only education in English teaching was gained from the translation of Latin and Greek. In the 1860s the school had been 'one of the nine' but its position was now threatened by the competition of new schools. In 1925 the matter of the school's location was raised again but any suggestion that it should be moved was vetoed by the School Committee.

1908 - 1933

In 1908 Lord Haldane reorganised the School cadet corps, making them into a single body, the Officer Training Corps, which provided an essential source of officers for the First World War. In 1912 the London Rifle Brigade was permitted to billet three companies in the school and when war came the regiment was billeted there. The Old Merchant Taylors held a meeting at the Hall and 200 enlisted forthwith. In 1918 enlistment in the O.T.C. became compulsory and in 1921 a house system was introduced with four houses named Hilles, White, Spenser and Clive.

The next Head Master, Spencer Leeson, served for just nine years but in that time he proposed and supervised what was probably the greatest single event in the history of the school, the movement from the city of London to the green suburbs of Ruislip
Ruislip
Ruislip is a suburban area, centred on an old village in Greater London, and is part of the London Borough of Hillingdon.It was formerly also a parish covering the neighbouring areas of Eastcote, Northwood, Ruislip Manor and South Ruislip in the area. The parish appears in the Domesday Book, and...

, Northwood, and Rickmansworth
Rickmansworth
Rickmansworth is a town in the Three Rivers district of Hertfordshire, England, 4¼ miles west of Watford.The town has a population of around 15,000 people and lies on the Grand Union Canal and the River Colne, at the northern end of the Colne Valley regional park.Rickmansworth is a small town in...

, an area bounded by branches of the Metropolitan Railway
Metropolitan railway
Metropolitan Railway can refer to:* Metropolitan line, part of the London Underground* Metropolitan Railway, the first underground railway to be built in London...

. Leeson made his mind up quickly and advised a move and the Company fell quickly behind him. He invited an inspection by the Board of Education in 1928 and concluded from their report that the school must move: "At Charterhouse Square we can never rejoin the number of the great schools of England". He attached a letter from Cyril Norwood which included these words:
The site at Sandy Lodge was bought in late 1929 and plans were drawn up for the new school. Although the cost of the initial proposals was greeted with some dismay, the Court eventually accepted them. The site at Charterhouse Square was sold to St. Bartholomew's Hospital who had been previous owners, having bought the site in 1349 from the Master of the Spital Croft hospital. Both the senior partner of the architects chosen to design the new school and the prime mover of the Charterhouse sale to Bart's were O.M.T.s The move to Sandy Lodge was completed in March 1933 and the School was formally opened on June 12.

Present day

The Merchant Taylors' remains a school for boys only and accepts pupils based upon an entrance examination, which the boys sit when they are either 11, 13 or 16 years old.

The 2007 Good Schools' Guide noted that:

The school celebrated its 450th anniversary in 2011, and retains close links to other Merchant Taylors' schools through the Merchant Taylors' Educational Trust and to the Merchant Taylors' Company itself. The members of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors
Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors
The Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors is one of the 108 Livery Companies of the City of London.The Company, originally known as the Guild and Fraternity of St...

 visit the school at least twice a year, notably on Speech Day and Doctor's Day and form the school's governing body.

The school has a close relationship with its "sister school" St Helen's, Northwood (Drama and CCF) although this is not an exclusive one and the boys also work on occasion with girls from other schools, notably Northwood College (Asian Cultural Society).

The school has three main publications. Parvae Res is sent out each term as a round up of recent events, trips and excursions. The name is a reference to the motto of the school and the Merchant Taylors' Company: Concordia Parvae Res Crescunt. This is taken from Sallust's Bellum Iugurthinum (X.6) and appears on the school's coat of arms. It literally means , "In harmony, small things grow" (and is half of the full motto - Nam concordia parvae res crescunt, discordia maximae dilabuntur, which means "For harmony makes small states great, while discord undermines the mightiest empires"). Concordia - the name again refers to the motto - is the School's magazine for its alumni (the Old Merchant Taylors') and The Taylorian (published annually since 1868) is a record of the highlights of the preceding year and includes the names of all who join the school or leave, the Head Master's speech on St Barnabas' Day (the School's Feast Day), sports reports, cultural reviews, artwork and essays. "The Dependent" is a termly publication with a satirical bent, largely focused on school life.

Houses

There are eight houses
House system
The house system is a traditional feature of British schools, and schools in the Commonwealth. Historically, it was associated with established public schools, where a 'house' refers to a boarding house or dormitory of a boarding school...

 at Merchant Taylors' School . The Manor of the Rose takes its name from the original school buildings in Suffolk Lane in the City of London. It was the boarding house, until that was closed in 2000, but remains as a day house.
House Name House Colour Benefactor
Spenser Yellow Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English...

Clive Red Robert Clive
Hilles Dark Blue Richard Hilles
Walter Light Blue John Walter
Mulcaster Orange Richard Mulcaster
Richard Mulcaster
Richard Mulcaster , is known best for his headmasterships and pedagogic writings. He is often regarded as the founder of English language lexicography.-Educational achievements:...

White White Thomas White
Thomas White (merchant)
Sir Thomas White was an English cloth merchant, civic benefactor and founder of St John's College, Oxford.He was born in Reading, Berkshire, the son of William White, a clothier of Reading, and his wife, Mary, daughter of Henry Kibblewhite of South Fawley, also in Berkshire. He was brought up in...

Andrewes Purple Lancelot Andrewes
Lancelot Andrewes
Lancelot Andrewes was an English bishop and scholar, who held high positions in the Church of England during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. During the latter's reign, Andrewes served successively as Bishop of Chichester, Ely and Winchester and oversaw the translation of the...

Manor of the Rose Green

Headmasters

Old Merchant Taylors (OMTs)

A-M

  • Lancelot Andrewes
    Lancelot Andrewes
    Lancelot Andrewes was an English bishop and scholar, who held high positions in the Church of England during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. During the latter's reign, Andrewes served successively as Bishop of Chichester, Ely and Winchester and oversaw the translation of the...

    , Bishop of Winchester and translator of the King James Bible
  • Riz Ahmed
    Riz Ahmed
    Rizwan Ahmed , also known as Riz Ahmed, the Rizmeister General, or Riz MC, is a British MC, musician and actor. He is noted for his lead performances in The Road to Guantanamo, Shifty, Britz, and Four Lions.-Ethnic background:Ahmed is a British Pakistani...

     - actor, comedian and musician
  • Neil Lawson Baker
    Neil Lawson Baker
    - Early life :Neil attended the Merchant Taylors' School in Northwood, Middlesex as a day boy and then went on to Guy's Hospital in London where he qualified as a dental surgeon. Wishing to further his career he went on to study medicine and qualified as a doctor in 1969 at St George's Hospital at...

     - artist, sculptor and photographer
  • Bryan Balkwill
    Bryan Balkwill
    Bryan Havell Balkwill was an English orchestral conductor.Balkwill was born in London. He started to learn to play the piano at the age of four and was educated at Merchant Taylors' School. From there he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music...

     - conductor
  • William Barber
    William Barber
    William Barber was the fifth Chief Engraver of the United States Mint from 1869 until his death. He succeeded James B. Longacre in the position.-Biography:Mr. Barber was born in London May 2, 1807...

    - scholar who edited the first complete collection of Voltaire's writings; also a schoolmaster
  • John Beames
    John Beames
    John Beames was a civil servant in British India and an author. The eldest son of Rev. Thomas Beames, preacher of St James's Church, Piccadilly and grandson of John Beames Esq., a barrister and later bencher of Lincoln’s Inn, Beames was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and Haileybury College...

     - ICS, Author of "Memoirs of a Bengal Civilian"
  • Professor Martin Biddle
    Martin Biddle
    Martin Biddle is a British archaeologist. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School. His work was important in the development of medieval and post-medieval archaeology in Great Britain.-Excavations:* Nonsuch Palace 1959-1960* Winchester 1961-1971...

     - archaeologist; his work was important in the development of medieval and post-medieval archaeology in Great Britain
  • Peter Broadbent - Bishop of Willesden
  • Nigel Calder
    Nigel Calder
    Nigel Calder is a British science writer.Between 1956 and 1966, Calder wrote for the magazine New Scientist, serving as editor from 1962 until 1966...

     - populariser of science
  • EH Carr, Marxist historian and philosopher of history
  • Lynn Chadwick
    Lynn Chadwick
    Lynn Russell Chadwick CBE was an English artist and sculptor trained as an architectural draughtsman,but began producing metal mobile sculpture during the 1940s. Chadwick was born in London and went to Merchant Taylor's School.Chadwick was commissioned to produce 3 works for the 1951 Festival of...

     - sculptor, his work 'The Beast' adorns the school grounds
  • Bob Chilcott
    Bob Chilcott
    Robert "Bob" Chilcott is a British choral composer, conductor, and singer, based in Oxford, England.Born in Plymouth, Chilcott sang in the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, both as a boy and as a university student. He performed the Pie Jesu of Fauré's Requiem on the 1967 recording. In 1985 he...

     - composer
  • Lord Robert Clive (expelled) (Clive of India)
  • Donald Coggan
    Donald Coggan
    Frederick Donald Coggan, Baron Coggan, PC was the 101st Archbishop of Canterbury from 1974 to 1980, during which time he visited Rome and met the Pontiff, in company with Bishop Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, future Cardinal of England and Wales.-Background:Coggan was born in Highgate, London, England...

     - Archbishop of Canterbury, 1974–80
  • Ronald Cove-Smith
    Ronald Cove-Smith
    Dr Ronald Cove-Smith was a distinguished English physician and sportsman. He represented Old Merchant Taylors and King's College Hospital RFC...

     - surgeon and rugby union international, captaining both England and the British Lions
  • Sir David Dain - High Commissioner to Pakistan to 2000
  • Thomas Dove
    Thomas Dove
    Thomas Dove was Bishop of Peterborough from 1601 to 1630.Dove was born in London, England, and educated at Merchant Taylors' School from 1564 to 1571. He was named as one of the first scholars of Jesus College, Oxford in its foundation charter in 1571, but never attended...

     Bishop of Peterborough
    Bishop of Peterborough
    The Bishop of Peterborough is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Peterborough in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers the counties of Northamptonshire, Rutland and the Soke of Peterborough in Cambridgeshire...

     1601–1630
  • Alan Duncan
    Alan Duncan
    Alan James Carter Duncan is a British Conservative Party politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Rutland and Melton, and a Minister of State in the Department for International Development....

    , MP and Minister of State in the Department for International Development
  • Iorwerth Edwards, Egyptologist
  • Sir Vincent Evans
    Vincent Evans
    Sir Vincent Evans, GCMG, MBE, was a British diplomat and international lawyer, who served as Judge of the European Court of Human Rights in respect of the United Kingdom from 1980 to 1991.-Early life:...

    , GCMG, MBE, QC - judge, a decade at the European Court of Human Rights
    European Court of Human Rights
    The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...

  • Colonel John George Nathaniel Gibbes
    John George Nathaniel Gibbes
    Colonel John George Nathaniel Gibbes was a British army officer who emigrated to Australia in 1834, becoming a Crown-appointed member of the New South Wales Legislative Council and the Collector of Customs for the Colony of New South Wales for a record term of 25 years.In his capacity as head of...

    , MLC - military officer, head of the New South Wales Customs Service 1834-1859, Crown appointed Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council
  • The Rt. Hon. John Gilbert, Baron Gilbert
    John Gilbert, Baron Gilbert
    John William Gilbert, Baron Gilbert PC is a British Labour politician.Gilbert was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood, St John's College, Oxford and New York University....

     - life peer
  • Ronald Gurner
    Ronald Gurner
    Stanley Ronald Kershaw Gurner M.C. M.A. was a headmaster and writer who was born in London.-Early years:Educated at Merchant Taylors' School, London, Gurner went to Oxford University, where he was a classics scholar at St. Johns. He gained a First in honour moderations and won a university Latin...

     MC - headmaster and writer
  • The Rt. Hon. The Lord Hailey, OM, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE (William Malcolm Hailey) - Chairman of the Committee on Post-War problems in the Colonies, Governor of the Punjab and later the United Provinces
  • Henry R.H. Hall
    Henry Hall (Egyptologist)
    Dr Henry Reginald Holland Hall MBE, FBA, FSA was an English Egyptologist and historian. In life, he was normally referred to as Harry Reginald Hall.-Early life:...

     - Egyptologist and historian
  • Jack Hargreaves
    Jack Hargreaves
    Jack Hargreaves OBE was an author and television presenter in the UK. His enduring interest was to comment without nostalgia or sentimentality on accelerating distortions in relations between the city and the countryside....

     - Television presenter & executive
  • Gordon Harris
    Gordon Harris (cricketer)
    Gordon Andrew Robert Harris is a former English cricketer. Harris was a right-handed batsman who bowled right-arm fast-medium. He was born in Tottenham, Middlesex and educated at Merchant Taylors' School and Leicester Polytechnic....

     (born 1964) - Cricketer
  • Sir Brian Harrison
    Brian Harrison (historian)
    Professor Sir Brian Howard Harrison was the editor of Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, published by Oxford University Press, from January 2000 to September 2004 and Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford...

     - Professor of Modern History, Oxford University
  • Air Vice Marshall Michael Harwood
    Michael Harwood (RAF officer)
    Air Vice-Marshal Michael John Harwood CBE ADC is a senior serving Royal Air Force officer and is currently Defence Attaché and Head of the British Defence Staff - US in Washington, D.C....

     - Head of British Defence Staff/ Defence Attaché Washington (2008-)
  • Robert Herrick
    Robert Herrick (poet)
    Robert Herrick was a 17th-century English poet.-Early life:Born in Cheapside, London, he was the seventh child and fourth son of Julia Stone and Nicholas Herrick, a prosperous goldsmith....

     (1591–1674) lyric poet, author of "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may..."
  • Sir Arthur Hockaday, KCB, CMG - Ministry of Defence civil servant; Secretary and Director General, Commonwealth War Graves Commission
    Commonwealth War Graves Commission
    The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves, and places of commemoration, of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars...

  • Fred Huskisson, MBE, MC and Bar - England rugby player and Second World War soldier
  • Conn Iggulden
    Conn Iggulden
    Conn Iggulden is a British author who mainly writes historical fiction. He also co-authored The Dangerous Book for Boys.-Background:...

     - author, mainly historical fiction
  • Sir James Jeans
    James Hopwood Jeans
    Sir James Hopwood Jeans OM FRS MA DSc ScD LLD was an English physicist, astronomer and mathematician.-Background:...

    , Astronomer Royal, 'new physicist', 'Quantum theorist', after whom there is a major 13+ Scholarship
  • William Joynson-Hicks, 1st Viscount Brentford
    William Joynson-Hicks, 1st Viscount Brentford
    William Joynson-Hicks, 1st Viscount Brentford PC, PC , DL , known as Sir William Joynson-Hicks, Bt, from 1919 to 1929 and popularly known as Jix, was an English solicitor and Conservative Party politician, best known as a long-serving and controversial Home Secretary from 1924 to 1929, during which...

     - Home Secretary 1924-1929
  • William Juxon
    William Juxon
    William Juxon was an English churchman, Bishop of London from 1633 to 1649 and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1660 until his death.-Life:...

     - Archbishop of Canterbury
    Archbishop of Canterbury
    The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...

    ; he attended Charles I on the scaffold in 1649
  • Boris Karloff
    Boris Karloff
    William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...

    , actor
  • H. R. F. Keating
    H. R. F. Keating
    Henry Reymond Fitzwalter "Harry" Keating was an English crime fiction writer most notable for his series of novels featuring Inspector Ghote of the Bombay CID.-Life:...

     - Literary critic and author of Inspector Ghote
    Inspector Ghote
    Inspector Ganesh V. Ghote is a fictional police officer who is the main character in H. R. F. Keating's detective novels. Ghote is an inspector in the police force of Bombay , India....

     mysteries
  • Matt Kirshen
    Matt Kirshen
    Matt Kirshen is a British comedian. Kirshen has performed around the world, including Singapore, Dubai, Holland, Germany, and France. In 2007, he enjoyed a successful run in NBC's Last Comic Standing...

     - Comedian
  • Thomas Kyd
    Thomas Kyd
    Thomas Kyd was an English dramatist, the author of The Spanish Tragedy, and one of the most important figures in the development of Elizabethan drama....

     - Renaissance dramatist, author of The Spanish Tragedie
  • David Leitch
    David Leitch
    David Leitch was the founder of Leitch's Station, Kentucky, United States.Leitch was born in Glasgow Scotland. At an early age he and his older brother James immigrated to Virginia...

     - reporter, Vietnam and the Cold War
  • Michael Majerus
    Michael Majerus
    Michael Eugene Nicolas Majerus was a geneticist and Professor of Ecology at Clare College, Cambridge, an enthusiast who became a world authority in his field of evolutionary biology. He was widely noted for his work on moths and ladybirds and as an advocate of the science of evolution...

     (1954–2009) geneticist, entomologist, Professor of Evolution at the University of Cambridge
  • Alfred Marshall
    Alfred Marshall
    Alfred Marshall was an Englishman and one of the most influential economists of his time. His book, Principles of Economics , was the dominant economic textbook in England for many years...

     - economist, one of the founders of neoclassical economics, creator of the Cambridge Economics Tripos
  • Morris Martin
    Morris Martin
    -Coaching career:Martin was the was the 11 head football coach for the Dickinson State Blue Hawks located in Dickinson, North Dakota and he held that position for three seasons, from 1968 until 1970. His coaching record at Dickinson State was 10 wins, 11 losses, and 3 ties...

     - Classical scholar who devoted much of his life to the Moral Re-armament movement
  • Reginald Maudling
    Reginald Maudling
    Reginald Maudling was a British politician who held several Cabinet posts, including Chancellor of the Exchequer. He had been spoken of as a prospective Conservative leader since 1955, and was twice seriously considered for the post; he was Edward Heath's chief rival in 1965...

     - politician
  • Michael McIntyre
    Michael McIntyre
    Michael Hazen James McIntyre is an English stand-up comedian. He is well known for appearing at many British stand-up comedy events and for several roles on television stand-up programmes such as Live at the Apollo and his own show, Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow...

     - comedian
  • Rev. Michael Anthony Moxon
    Michael Anthony Moxon
    An Honorary Chaplain to the Queen, the Very Reverend Michael Anthony Moxon was Dean of Truro from 1998 until his resignation in 2004. He was born on 23 January 1942 and educated at Merchant Taylors, Durham University and Heythrop College, London...

     - Chaplain to the Queen (1986–1998)
  • Gilbert Murray
    Gilbert Murray
    George Gilbert Aimé Murray, OM was an Australian born British classical scholar and public intellectual, with connections in many spheres. He was an outstanding scholar of the language and culture of Ancient Greece, perhaps the leading authority in the first half of the twentieth century...

     - classicist, after whom there is a major 13+ Scholarship

N-Z

  • Sir Thomas Nott
    Thomas Nott
    Sir Thomas Nott , eldest son of Roger Nott of London. He was a royalist army officer and an original fellow of the Royal Society. In 1640 he acquired the remainder of the crown lease of Twickenham Park, Middlesex which he sold in 1659....

     - Royalist army officer
  • Titus Oates
    Titus Oates
    Titus Oates was an English perjurer who fabricated the "Popish Plot", a supposed Catholic conspiracy to kill King Charles II.-Early life:...

     - (1665–1666, expelled)
  • Bernard Pagel
    Bernard Pagel
    Bernard Ephraim Julius Pagel FRS was a British astrophysicist best known for his work on the measurement and interpretation of elemental abundances in stars and galaxies....

    , FRS - astronomer
  • Samuel Palmer
    Samuel Palmer
    Samuel Palmer was a British landscape painter, etcher and printmaker. He was also a prolific writer. Palmer was a key figure in Romanticism in Britain and produced visionary pastoral paintings.-Early life:...

     - landscape painter
  • John Perrin
    John Perrin (translator)
    John Perrin was an English churchman and academic, Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford and one of the translators of the Authorised King James Version of the Bible.-Life:...

    , churchman and academic, one of the translators of the Authorised King James Version of the Bible
  • Michael Peschardt
    Michael Peschardt
    -Early life:Educated at Merchant Taylors' School in Northwood, London and the University of Sussex he joined the BBC as a network reporter from 1983.-BBC career:...

     - BBC foreign correspondent
  • Walter Alison Phillips
    Walter Alison Phillips
    Walter Alison Phillips was an English historian, a specialist in the history of Europe in the 19th century. From 1914 to 1939 he was the first holder of the Lecky chair of History in Trinity College, Dublin. Most of his writing is in the name of W...

     - historian
  • John Raphael
    John Raphael (sportsman)
    John Edward Raphael was a Belgian born English sportsman who was capped nine times for England at rugby union and played first-class cricket with Surrey.-Biography:...

    , rugby union player and cricketer, captained the 1910 British Lions tour to Argentina
    1910 British Lions tour to Argentina
    The 1910 British Lions tour to Argentina is a retrospective term applied to the tour of Argentina made by a side made up of 16 English players and 3 Scots. The organisers of the tour named the team the "English Rugby Union team", but the host country advertised the touring team as the Combined...

  • John Randall, Conservative MP, Government Deputy Chief Whip and Treasurer of Her Majesty's Household
  • Joe Ray, one half of Dubstep and Drum 'n' Bass duo Nero (band)
    Nero (band)
    Nero are an electronic music act from London, England consisting of Daniel Stephens and Joe Ray. Alana Watson provides vocals on many of the duo's songs, though she is not officially a band member. On 6 December 2010, Nero were announced as nominees for the BBC's Sound of 2011 poll.-History:Nero...

  • Sir Martin Reid (Harold Martin Smith Reid), KBE, CMG - diplomat
  • Sir David Richmond
    David Richmond
    David Richmond Major from Rhode Island in the American Revolutionary War.-Early years:Richmond was born in Taunton, Massachusetts the son of Seth Richmond a Mayflower Descendant...

    , KBE CMG - Director General, Defence and Intelligence, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
  • Rev'd Dr Cormac Rigby - BBC Radio 3 broadcaster and Roman Catholic priest
  • Andrew Robathan
    Andrew Robathan
    Andrew Robert George Robathan is a British Conservative politician, and Member of Parliament for South Leicestershire in Leicestershire...

     - Conservative MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State and Minister for Veterans, ex Coldstream Guards Officer, SAS
  • Martin Rowson
    Martin Rowson
    Martin George Edmund Rowson is a British cartoonist and novelist. His genre is political satire and his style is scathing and graphic. His work frequently appears in The Guardian and The Independent...

     - political cartoonist
  • Pat Sharp
    Pat Sharp
    Pat Sharp is a British radio and television presenter and disc jockey. In the UK, he is known mainly for his work on the children's television programme Fun House, his former mullet and his radio shows as well as his support of Arsenal...

     - radio & TV broadcaster
  • Rt. Rev'd Peter Selby
    Peter Selby
    Peter Stephen Maurice Selby was the Church of England Bishop of Worcester. He retired at the end of September 2007.He was educated at St John's College, Oxford, and at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, taking the Oxford degree of MA and the Cambridge, Mass., degree of BD...

     - Bishop of Worcester
  • James Shirley
    James Shirley
    James Shirley was an English dramatist.He belonged to the great period of English dramatic literature, but, in Lamb's words, he "claims a place among the worthies of this period, not so much for any transcendent genius in himself, as that he was the last of a great race, all of whom spoke nearly...

    , poet and playwright
  • Sir Robert Smith, 3rd Baronet
    Sir Robert Smith, 3rd Baronet
    Sir Robert Hill Smith, 3rd Baronet is a Scottish Liberal Democrat politician who has been the Member of Parliament for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine since 1997.-Early life:...

     - MP for West Aberdeenshire (Liberal Democrat)
  • Edmund Spenser
    Edmund Spenser
    Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English...

     - Renaissance poet, author of The Faerie Queene
    The Faerie Queene
    The Faerie Queene is an incomplete English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. The first half was published in 1590, and a second installment was published in 1596. The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: it was the first work written in Spenserian stanza and is one of the longest poems in the English...

  • Sir Jock Stirrup
    Jock Stirrup
    Air Chief Marshal Graham Eric "Jock" Stirrup, Baron Stirrup, GCB, AFC, FRAeS, FCMI, RAF, is a former senior Royal Air Force commander, who was the Chief of the Defence Staff from 2006 until his retirement in late 2010. He is also a Crossbench member of the House of Lords.As a junior RAF officer,...

    , Chief of the Defence Staff
    Chief of the Defence Staff (United Kingdom)
    The Chief of the Defence Staff is the professional head of the British Armed Forces, a senior official within the Ministry of Defence, and the most senior uniformed military adviser to the Secretary of State for Defence and the Prime Minister...

  • Sir John Sulston
    John E. Sulston
    Sir John Edward Sulston FRS is a British biologist. He is a joint winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.He is currently Chair of the Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation at the University of Manchester....

    , Nobel Laureate (2002)
  • Paul Sussman
    Paul Sussman
    Paul Sussman is a best-selling English author, archaeologist and journalist. His novels have been described as "the intelligent reader's answer to the Da Vinci Code" by The Independent.-Biography:...

     - author, archaeologist and journalist
  • John Tahourdin - Ambassador to Bolivia
  • Major W.I. Thomas (Ian), DSO, TD - Royal Fusilier and preacher
  • Rt Rev. Samuel Thorton, DD
    Samuel Thornton (bishop)
    The Rt Rev Samuel Thornton, DD, was an eminent Anglican bishop in the late quarter of the 19th century and the start of the 20th. He was born in London on 16 April 1835 and educated at Merchant Taylors' School and Queen’s College, Oxford. He was ordained in 1859 and after a spell at the London...

     - Anglican
    Anglicanism
    Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...

     bishop of Ballarat
    Anglican Diocese of Ballarat
    The Anglican Diocese of Ballarat extends across the south-west region of Victoria, Australia. It is one of the five Anglican Church of Australia dioceses in the Ecclesiastical province of Victoria. The bishop's seat is located at the Cathedral of Christ the King, Ballarat.-List of...

    , Australia
  • John Timpson
    John Timpson
    John Harry Robert Timpson OBE, , born in Kenton, Harrow, Middlesex, was a British journalist, best known as a radio presenter. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, a boys' independent school in Northwood, London....

    ,OBE - radio presenter, former presenter of the "Today" programme and "Any Questions"
  • James Townley
    James Townley
    Rev. James Townley was an English dramatist and anonymous playwright, the second son of Charles Townley, a merchant.-Early and Personal life:...

     - dramatist and anonymous playwright (1714–1778)
  • James Twining
    James Twining
    James Twining is a British thriller writer.- Life :Although born in London, Twining spent most of his childhood in France after his family moved to Paris when he was four...

     - author
  • William Wadd
    William Wadd
    William Wadd was a 19th century British surgeon and medical author.Wadd, the eldest son of Solomon Wadd , a surgeon, who lived and practised for more than half a century in Basinghall Street, London, was born on 1776, and was entered at Merchant Taylor’s school late in 1784...

    , early 19th century surgeon and medical author
  • John Walter, founder of The Times
    The Times
    The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

     newspaper
  • Augustine Warner
    Augustine Warner, Jr.
    Augustine Warner, Jr. was a Virginia politician and landowner. He served in the House of Burgesses 1666–77 and was its Speaker in two separate sessions in 1676 and 1677, before and after Bacon's Rebellion...

     - Virginia landowner, common ancestor
    Common descent
    In evolutionary biology, a group of organisms share common descent if they have a common ancestor. There is strong quantitative support for the theory that all living organisms on Earth are descended from a common ancestor....

     of George Washington
    George Washington
    George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...

     and Elizabeth II
  • John Webster
    John Webster
    John Webster was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, which are often regarded as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. He was a contemporary of William Shakespeare.- Biography :Webster's life is obscure, and the dates...

    , Renaissance dramatist, author of The Duchess of Malfi
    The Duchess of Malfi
    The Duchess of Malfi is a macabre, tragic play written by the English dramatist John Webster in 1612–13. It was first performed privately at the Blackfriars Theatre, then before a more general audience at The Globe, in 1613-14...

     and The White Devil
    The White Devil
    The White Devil is a revenge tragedy from 1612 by English playwright John Webster . A notorious failure when it premiered, Webster complained the play was acted in the dead of winter before an unreceptive audience. The play's complexity, sophistication and satire made it a poor fit with the...

  • Oliver White
    Oliver White
    Oliver Claude White was an English cricketer. White was a right-handed batsman who bowled right-arm slow. He was born in Iver, Buckinghamshire and educated at Merchant Taylors' School, where he played for the school cricket team.White made his debut for Buckinghamshire in the 1906 Minor Counties...

     - Buckinghamshire
    Buckinghamshire County Cricket Club
    Buckinghamshire County Cricket Club is one of the county clubs which make up the Minor Counties in the English domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Buckinghamshire and playing in the Minor Counties Championship and the MCCA Knockout Trophy. The Minor Counties play...

     and Northamptonshire
    Northamptonshire County Cricket Club
    Northamptonshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Northamptonshire. Its limited overs team is called the Northants Steelbacks. The traditional club colour is Maroon. During the...

     cricketer
  • Sir Bulstrode Whitelocke
    Bulstrode Whitelocke
    Sir Bulstrode Whitelocke was an English lawyer, writer, parliamentarian and Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England.- Biography :...

     - Civil War politician who enshrined the principle that only parliament could dissolve parliament
  • John J. Wild
    John J. Wild
    John Julian Cuttance Wild was an English-born American physician who was part of the first group to use ultrasound for body imaging, most notably for diagnosing cancer. Modern ultrasonic diagnostic medical scans are descendants of the equipment Wild and his colleagues developed in the 1950s...

     - part of the first group to use ultrasound for body imaging, most notably for diagnosing cancer

Sport

The school has produced a number of eminent sportsmen in a number fields, notably cricket and rugby. For a listing of rugby internationals please see Old Merchant Taylors' FC
Old Merchant Taylors' FC
This article concerns the rugby club. For a list of eminent Old Merchant Taylors' please see Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood#Old Merchant Taylors ...

.

Notable Members of the Company, Governors and Masters

  • Richard Mulcaster
    Richard Mulcaster
    Richard Mulcaster , is known best for his headmasterships and pedagogic writings. He is often regarded as the founder of English language lexicography.-Educational achievements:...

     - the school’s first Head Master, a visionary educationalist, thought by many to be the model for Shakespeare's Holofernes
  • Baroness Butler-Sloss - first female Lord Justice of Appeal and, until 2004, was the highest-ranking female judge in the United Kingdom
  • The Rt. Rev'd Spencer Leeson
    Spencer Leeson
    The Rt Rev Spencer Leeson, born Spencer Stottesbury Gwatkin Leeson, was an eminentHeadmaster and Anglican Bishop in the mid 20th century. He was born on 9 October 1892 and educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford. After World War I service with the Middlesex Regiment he was Assistant...

     - Head Master, instigated move of the School from Charterhouse Square to the current Sandy Lodge site
  • Alexander Macmillan
    Alexander Macmillan, 2nd Earl of Stockton
    Alexander Daniel Alan Macmillan, 2nd Earl of Stockton is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He is the first son of the late Conservative politician Maurice Macmillan and the first grandson of former prime minister Harold Macmillan.-Life:Lord Stockton was educated at Eton...

    , 2nd Earl of Stockton - First Upper Warden of the Merchant Taylors' Company
  • Sir Geoffrey Holland
    Geoffrey Holland
    Sir Geoffrey Holland KCB is a career civil servant who became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Exeter from 1994 to 2002, when he was succeeded by Professor Steve Smith...

    , KCB, OMT - career civil servant who became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Exeter from 1994 to 2002; Chairman of the Governors until 2011
  • Michael Skinner - Chairman, Dege and Skinner
  • Professor Douglas MacDowell - distinguished classical scholar
  • The Rt. Rev'd Peter Walker - Bishop of Ely, familiar figure at Oxford and Cambridge; Master at Merchant Taylors'

See also

  • List of Victoria Crosses by School
  • St John's College, Oxford
    St John's College, Oxford
    __FORCETOC__St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, one of the larger Oxford colleges with approximately 390 undergraduates, 200 postgraduates and over 100 academic staff. It was founded by Sir Thomas White, a merchant, in 1555, whose heart is buried in the chapel of...

  • Merchant Taylors' Company

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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