Eton College

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Coordinates: 0°36′34″W / 51.49167°N 0.60944°W / 51.49167; -0.60944

Eton College

Motto Floreat Etona
(May Eton Flourish)
Established 1440
Type Independent school
Religion Anglican
Head Master Anthony Little MA
Provost William Waldegrave
Founder Henry VI
Location Eton
Windsor
Berkshire
United Kingdom
Staff 135 (approx.)
Students c. 1,300
Ages 13 to 18
Houses 25
Colours Eton blue     
Publication The Chronicle, The Spectrum, The Arts Review
Former pupils Old Etonians
Website www.etoncollege.com

Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. All the pupils board. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor".[1]

It is located in Eton, near Windsor in England, north of Windsor Castle, and is one of the original nine English public schools as defined by the Public Schools Act 1868.

It has a very long list of distinguished former pupils, including eighteen former prime ministers. Traditionally, Eton has been referred to as "the chief nurse of England's statesmen",[2] and has been described as the most famous public school in the world.[3] Early in the 20th century, a historian of Eton wrote, "No other school can claim to have sent forth such a cohort of distinguished figures to make their mark on the world".[4]

Overview

The school is headed by a Provost and Fellows (Board of Governors), who appoint the Head Master. It contains 25 boys' houses, each headed by a housemaster, selected from the more senior members among the teaching staff, who number some 160.

Almost all the school's pupils go on to universities, about a third of them to Oxford or Cambridge.[5]

The present Head Master, Anthony Little MA, is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the school is a member of the Eton Group of independent schools in the United Kingdom.

Eton today is a much bigger school than in much of its history. In 1678 there were 207 boys. In the late 18th century there were about 300 boys.[6]

History

Eton College was founded by Henry VI as a charity school to provide free education to seventy poor boys who would then go on to King's College, Cambridge, which he also founded in 1441.

When Henry VI founded the school, he granted it a large number of endowments, including much valuable land, a plan for formidable buildings (Henry intended the nave of the College Chapel to be the longest in Europe) and several religious relics, supposedly including a part of the True Cross and the Crown of Thorns. He persuaded the then Pope, Eugene IV, to grant him a privilege unparalleled anywhere in England: the right to grant Indulgences to penitents on the Feast of the Assumption.

However, when Henry was deposed by Edward IV in 1461, the new king annulled all grants to the school and removed most of its assets and treasures to St George's Chapel, Windsor, on the other side of the River Thames. Legend has it that Edward's mistress, Jane Shore, intervened on the school's behalf. She was able to save much of the school,[7] although the royal bequest and the number of staff were much reduced.

Construction of the chapel, originally intended to be slightly over twice as long,[8] with eighteen - or possibly seventeen - bays (there are eight today) was stopped when Henry VI was deposed. Only the Quire of the intended building was completed. Eton's first Provost, William Waynflete, previously Head Master of Winchester College,[9] built the ante-chapel that finishes the Chapel today.

As the school suffered reduced income at a stage when much of it was still under construction, the completion and further development of the school has since depended on wealthy benefactors. Many of these are honoured with school buildings in their name. They include Bishop William Waynflete and Roger Lupton, whose name is borne by the central tower, perhaps the most famous image of the school.

In the 19th century, the architect John Shaw Jr (1803–1870) became surveyor to Eton. He designed new parts of the college which helped provide better pupil accommodation.

The Duke of Wellington is often quoted as saying that "The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton".[10] Wellington was at Eton from 1781 to 1784 and was to send his sons there. According to Nevill (citing the historian Sir Edward Creasy), what Wellington said, while passing an Eton cricket match many decades later, was, "There grows the stuff that won Waterloo",[11] a remark Nevill construes as a reference to "the manly character induced by games and sport" amongst English youth generally, not a comment about Eton specifically.

In 1959 the college constructed a nuclear bunker to house the College's Provost and Fellows. The facility is now used for storage.[12]

In 2005 the school was one of fifty of the country's leading independent schools found guilty of running an illegal price-fixing cartel, which had allowed them to drive up fees for thousands of parents. The schools made clear 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.[13] 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 when fee information was shared.[14]

School terms

There are three academic terms[15] (known as halves[16]) in the year,

• The Michaelmas Half, from early September to mid December. New boys are now admitted only at the start of the Michaelmas Half, unless in exceptional circumstances.
• The Lent Half, from mid-January to late March.
• The Summer Half, from late April to late June or early July.

They are called halves because the school year was once split into two halves, between which the boys went home.

Boys' houses

King's Scholars

One boarding house, College, is reserved for seventy King's Scholars, who attend Eton on scholarships provided by the original foundation and awarded by examination each year; they pay up to 90% of full fees, depending on their means. Of the other pupils, up to a third receive some kind of bursary or scholarship. The name "King's Scholars" derives from the fact that the school was founded by King Henry VI in 1440 and was, therefore, granted royal favour. The original school consisted of only seventy scholars, half of whom had previously been educated at Winchester College, and all of these boys were educated at the King's expense.

King's Scholars are entitled to use the letters "KS" after their name and they can be identified by a black gown worn over the top of their tailcoats, giving them the nickname tugs (Latin: togati, wearers of gowns); and occasionally by a surplice in Chapel. The house is looked after by the Master in College.

Oppidans

As the school grew, more students were allowed to attend provided that they paid their own fees and lived in the town, outside the college's original buildings. These students became known as Oppidans, from the Latin word oppidum, meaning town.[17] The Houses developed over time as a means of providing residence for the Oppidans in a more congenial manner, and typically contain about fifty boys. Although classes are organised on a school basis, most boys spend a large proportion of their time in their House. Each House has a formal name, mainly used for post and people outside the Eton community. It is generally known by the boys by the initials or surname of the House Master, the teacher who lives in the house and manages the pupils in it.

Not all boys who pass the College election examination choose to become King's Scholars. If they choose instead to belong to one of the 24 Oppidan Houses, they are known as Oppidan Scholars.[18] Oppidan scholarships may also be awarded for consistently performing with distinction in school and external examinations. To gain an Oppidan Scholarship, a boy must have either three distinctions in a row or four throughout his career. An Oppidan Scholar is entitled to use the letters OS after his name.

The Oppidan Houses are named South Lawn, Waynflete, Evans', Keate House, The Hopgarden, Warre House, Villiers House, Godolphin House, Common Lane House, Penn House, Walpole House, Hawtrey House, Cotton Hall House, Wotton House, Holland House, Mustians, Jourdelay's, Angelo's, Manor House, Durnford House, Farrer House, Baldwin's Bec, The Timbralls, and Westbury. As noted above, they are much more commonly referred to by the initials of their occupying housemaster, such as ASR.

House structure

In addition to the housemaster, each house has a House Captain and a Games Captain. Some Houses choose to elect more than one. House prefects were once elected from the oldest year, but this no longer happens. The old term, Library, survives in the name of the room set aside for the oldest year's use, where boys have their own kitchen. The situation is similar with the boys in their penultimate year, who have a similar room known as Debate.

There are entire house gatherings every evening, usually around 8:10-8:30 p.m. These are known as Prayers, due to their original nature. The housemaster and boys have an opportunity to make announcements, and sometimes the boys provide light entertainment. Many inter-house competitions occur, mostly in the field of sport.

For much of Eton's history, junior boys had to act as fags, or servants, to older boys. Their duties included cleaning, cooking, and running errands. A Library member was entitled to yell at any time and without notice, "Boy, Up!" or "Boy, Queue!", and all first-year boys had to come running. The last boy to arrive was given the task. These practices, known as fagging, were phased out of most houses in the 1970s and completely abolished in the 1980s. Captains of House and Games still give some tasks to first-year boys.