| Harrow School | |
|---|---|
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 The Old Schools photographed in 2013 | |
| Location | |
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5 High Street,Harrow on the Hill , Middlesex ,HA1 3HP England | |
| Coordinates | 51°34′21″N00°20′06″W / 51.57250°N 0.33500°W /51.57250; -0.33500 |
| Information | |
| Type | Public school Privateboarding school |
| Mottoes | Latin:Stet Fortuna Domus (Let the Fortune of the House Stand) Latin:Donorum Dei Dispensatio Fidelis (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) |
| Religious affiliation | Church of England |
| Established | 1572; 454 years ago (1572) (Royal Charter) |
| Founder | John Lyon of Preston |
| Department for Education URN | 102245Tables |
| Chairman of the Governors | J P Batting |
| Head Master | Alastair Land |
| Staff | ~200 (full-time) |
| Gender | Male |
| Age | 13 to 18 |
| Enrollment | ~830 pupils |
| Houses | 12 |
| Colours | Blue and white |
| Song | "Forty Years On" |
| Publication | The Harrovian |
| School fees | £46,710 |
| Alumni | Old Harrovians |
| Badges | The Harrow Lion The Silver Arrow |
| Website | www |
Harrow School (/ˈhæroʊ/)[1] is apublic school (Englishboarding school for boys) inHarrow on the Hill, Greater London, England.[2] The school was founded in 1572 byJohn Lyon, a local landowner and farmer, under aroyal charter of QueenElizabeth I.
The school has an enrollment of about 820 boys, all of whomboard full-time, in twelve boarding houses.[3] It was one of the seven public schools selected for reform in thePublic Schools Act 1868. Harrow's uniform includesmorning suits,straw boater hats, andtop hats andcanes for School Monitors.
Its list of distinguished alumni includes seven formerBritish prime ministers:Aberdeen,Perceval,Goderich,Peel,Palmerston,Baldwin andChurchill, as well as the former Indian Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru; numerous former and current members of both Houses of theUK Parliament, several members of variousroyal families, threeNobel Prize winners, twentyVictoria Cross holders, and many prominent figures in the arts andsciences.
The school was founded in February 1572 under a royal charter granted by QueenElizabeth I toJohn Lyon, a wealthy local farmer.[4] The school's formal name is still 'The Free Grammar School of John Lyon within the town of Harrow-on-the-Hill'.[5] The charter described this as a re-endowment, and there is some evidence of a grammar school at Harrow in the mid-16th century, but its location and connection with Lyon's foundation are unclear.[6] Evidence for earlier schools, possibly connected with thechantry of St Mary (established in 1324), is weak.[6]: 13–17 In the original charter six governors were named, including two members of the Gerard family of Flambards, and two members of the Page family of Wembley and Sudbury Court.[7]
The founder John Lyon died in 1592, bequeathing his estate to two beneficiaries: the school and the maintenance of two roads, the Harrow Road and the Edgware Road, both going to London, 10 miles (16 km) away. The Road Trust received by far the greater share, the school's share providing just for the salary of The School Master and some minor provisions. This situation, reasonable at the time because of the need to transport merchandise to market, continued until 1991 when the considerable assets of the Road Trust were reassigned to John Lyon's Charity, a charity to provide educational benefits for the inhabitants of the boroughs through which the roads pass. It was only after the death of Lyon's wife in 1608 that the construction of the first school building began. Known as the Old Schools, it was completed in 1615.
John Lyon's school was founded to provide free education for 30 (later extended to 40) poor boys of the parish. However, the School Master was permitted to accept "foreigners" (boys from outside the parish) from whom he received fees. It was the need for foreigners to find accommodation that led to the concept of boarding. As in all schools of the time, education was based on the languages and culture of the ancient civilisations of Rome and Greece.
As the reputation of the school grew through the 19th century, the number of foreigners increased, but the local families became increasingly reluctant to impose on their children a classical education and the number of free scholars declined. In 1825 there were 17 free scholars and 219 foreigners. In 1876 the Lower School of John Lyon was founded under the authority of the Governors of Harrow School to provide a modern education for local boys. It is now known asThe John Lyon School and is a prominent independent school; it remains part of the Harrow School Foundation.[4]
The Old Schools remains largely the building of 1615, although it was extended and re-designed byCharles Robert Cockerell in 1818. It is aGrade I listed building.[8] The majority of the school's boarding houses were constructed in Victorian times, when the number of boys increased dramatically.[6] The Speech Room byWilliam Burges (1877),[9] the chapel (1855) and Vaughan Library (1863), both byGeorge Gilbert Scott,[10][11] and the War Memorial building (1926), designed byHerbert Baker to mark the loss of former pupils in theFirst World War, are allGrade II* listed buildings.[12] A total of 27 school buildings are Grade II listed, including the Headmaster's House (1843) byDecimus Burton;[13] the Museum Schools [Butler Museum] (1886) byBasil Champneys;[14] and the Music Schools (1890) by Edward Prior.[15]
The school owns Harrow Park, the remnant of amedieval estate, Flambards, which in the 17th century was the largest house in Harrow. In the 18th century bothCapability Brown andHenry Holland worked on landscaping the park. In 1831, a part of the estate was bought by the Reverend W. W. Phelps, a master at the school, and it has subsequently been developed to provide accommodation and sporting facilities, including the school's private golf course. The park is listed at Grade II on theRegister of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.[16]
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The school colour ofnavy blue, usually calledHarrovian Blue, is used for uniforms and sports kits. The colourOxford Blue is said to have been inspired byHarrovian Blue. This goes back to thefirst university boat race in 1829, when the Oxford colours were chosen by two crewmembers,Charles Wordsworth andThomas Garnier, both of whom previously attended Harrow School.[17]
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Everyday dress for boys at Harrow consists of a dark blue jacket known as a "bluer" with light grey trousers known as "greyers". With these are worn a white shirt, black tie, black shoes and an optional blue jumper. Boys also wear a Harrow hat, a straw hat with a dark blue band similar to aboater, but shallower in crown and broader in brim. The School blue-and-white woollen scarf and dark blue woollen overcoat may be worn in cold weather. Variations include boys who are monitors (prefects) who are allowed to wear a jumper of their choice of colour, and members of certain societies who may earn the right to replace the standard school tie with one of a variety of scarves,cravats,neck andbow ties of their society.[18]
Sunday dress, which is worn every Sunday up to lunch and on special occasions such as Speech Day and songs, consists of a blacktailcoat, a black single-breasted waistcoat and striped trousers, worn with a white shirt and black tie. Boys with sports colours may wear a grey double-breasted waistcoat; members of the Guild (a society for boys who have achieved distinction in art, music or drama) may wear maroon double-breasted waistcoats with maroon bow ties; members of the Philathletic Club (a society for boys with achievements in sport) may wear black bow ties alongside grey double-breasted waistcoats. School monitors (prefects) may wear black double-breasted waistcoats and a top hat, and carry canes.
| House name and Colours[3] | |
|---|---|
| Bradbys – Purple and White (DJE) | |
| Druries – Red and Black (BTM) | |
| Elmfield – Purple and Black (AJC) | |
| Gayton – (over-spill house) (NSK) | |
| The Grove – Red and Blue (AGC) | |
| The Headmaster's – Pink and White (MJT) | |
| The Knoll – Gold and Black (CO) | |
| Lyon's – Green and Black (NJM) | |
| Moretons – White and Blue (SMS)[19] | |
| Newlands – Yellow and White (HKJ) | |
| The Park – Red and White (BJDS) | |
| Rendalls – Magenta and Silver (ADJT) | |
| West Acre – Red, White and Blue (HAH) | |
Harrow School divides its pupils, who are allboarders, into twelveHouses, each of about seventy boys, with a thirteenth house, Gayton, used as an overflow. Each House has its own facilities, customs and traditions, and each competes in sporting events against the others. Until the 1950s there existed what was known as 'small houses' where only 5–10 boys stayed at one time while they waited for a space in alarge house to become available (hence the use of the term large house in this article). A twelfth large house, Lyon's, was built in 2010.[3] House Masters, Assistant House Masters and their families live in the boarding Houses and are assisted by House Tutors appointed from the teaching staff. The House Master oversees the welfare of every boy in his care; for parents, he is the main point of contact with the School.[3] Each House has a resident matron and sick room. The matrons are supported by the School's Medical Centre where trained nursing staff offer round-the-clock care. The medical centre is under the direct supervision of the school doctor who is available on the Hill every day for consultation.[3] There are no dormitories: a boy shares his room for the first three to six terms and thereafter has a room to himself.[3]
The school has a book of songs, of which the best known isForty Years On. In the 19th century, most schools had a school song, usually in Latin, which they sang at the beginning and end of term. Harrow had a master,Edward Bowen, who was a poet and a music teacher, andJohn Farmer, who was a composer. Between 1870 and 1885, these two wrote a number of songs about school life. The inspiring, wistful, amusing and thought-provoking words and the attractive tunes, made the songs very popular.[citation needed] Successors to Bowen and Farmer have added to the collection. The songs are sung in House and School concerts several times a term.Winston Churchill was a great lover of Harrow songs, and when he returned for a concert as prime minister in 1940, it was the first of many annual visits. Churchill Songs is still celebrated in Speech Room each year, and every five years at theRoyal Albert Hall.
The sportsquash (originally called 'Squasher') was invented in Harrow out of the gamerackets around 1830.[20][21][22] It spread to other schools, eventually becoming an international sport.
Anannual cricket match has taken place between Harrow andEton College atLord's Cricket Ground since 1805. It is considered to be the longest-running cricket fixture in the world[23] and is the oldest fixture at Lord's.
Harrow has its own unique style of football calledHarrow Football.[24] Currently, the school offers around 30 sports activities for students such as archery, badminton, hockey and judo.[25]
As in most boarding schools, for many years there was a system of 'fagging' whereby younger boys carried out duties for the seniors. At Harrow this was phased out in the 1970s and completely banned by 1990.[6] In his detailed history of the school,Christopher Tyerman recorded that in 1796 fagging was compulsory for boys up to the fourth form, and that 50 out of 139 boys were then fags. In 1928, Harrow Master C. H. P. Mayo said of fagging: "Those who hope to rule must first learn to obey... to learn to obey as a fag is part of the routine that is the essence of the English Public School system... the wonder of other countries".[6]
In 2005, the school was one of fifty of the country's leading independent schools which were found guilty of running anillegal price-fixing cartel, exposed byThe Times, which had allowed them to drive up fees for thousands of parents, although the schools said that they had not realised that the change to the law (which had happened only a few months earlier) about the sharing of information had subsequently made it an offence.[26] Each school was required to pay a nominal penalty of £10,000 and all agreed to make ex-gratia payments totalling £3,000,000 into a trust designed to benefit pupils who attended the schools during the period in respect of which fee information was shared.[27]
Harrow was featured in aSky 1 documentary series entitledHarrow: A Very British School in 2013. In February 2016, the actorLaurence Fox claimed Harrow threatened legal action to prevent him discussing the racism, homophobia and bullying he said he encountered as a pupil at the school.[28]
Harrow alumni are known as Old Harrovians, among sevenBritish prime ministers wereWinston Churchill,Stanley Baldwin andRobert Peel, and the firstPrime Minister of India,Jawaharlal Nehru. Twenty Old Harrovians have been awarded theVictoria Cross and one theGeorge Cross.[29]
Five monarchs have attended the school:King Hussein of Jordan;[30] both Kings of Iraq,Ghazi I and his sonFaisal II; the current Emir ofQatar, SheikhTamim bin Hamad Al Thani; andAli bin Hamud of Zanzibar.[citation needed]
Harrow has educated several Nobel laureates:John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, who received theNobel Prize in Physics in 1904;John Galsworthy, winner of the 1932Nobel Prize in Literature; andWinston Churchill, who also received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953.
Other alumni include writersLord Byron,Anthony Trollope, SirTerence Rattigan,L. P. Hartley,Simon Sebag-Montefiore, andRichard Curtis,Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster and prominent reformistAnthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, military commanders such asHarold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis and SirPeter de la Billiere, and business people (includingDeBeers chairmanNicky Oppenheimer,Pret a Manger founderJulian Metcalfe) and the big game hunter and artistGeneral Douglas Hamilton, as well asIsland Records founderChris Blackwell. In sports, the school produced the first twoWimbledon champions (Spencer Gore andFrank Hadow) as well asFA Cup founderC. W. Alcock and currentEngland rugby international playersBilly Vunipola,Maro Itoje andHenry Arundell. Alumni in the arts and media industry include actorsEdward Fox,Benedict Cumberbatch andCary Elwes, photographerNikolai von Bismarck, singersDavid Dundas andJames Blunt, pianistJames Rhodes, horse racing punditJohn McCririck, andMark Thatcher, son ofMargaret Thatcher.
Fictional characters who have attended Harrow include Brett Sinclair of the TV seriesThe Persuaders!, Withnail and Uncle Monty from the filmWithnail & I,[citation needed] Herbert Pocket fromCharles Dickens's novel,Great Expectations,[31] and Geoffrey Charles Poldark fromPoldark.[32]
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