Farfield

Farfield is one of the seven boarding houses at Gresham's, an English public school at Holt, Norfolk. It was opened in 1911, as part of a surge of renewal and expansion at Gresham's led by George Howson, and the first housemaster (Major JC Miller) and boys were transferred there from a smaller house called Bengal Lodge. Farfield is currently home to approximately fifty boys. Many former residents have achieved success or notoriety in a number of different fields.

For other uses, see Far field (disambiguation).

Farfield House, Holt

History and traditions

An Entertainment is held every March featuring music, sketches and dramatic excerpts.
The ritual of House Prayers is maintained in Farfield on three evenings per week. This is a short evening service, organised by the prefects (senior pupils), which consists of a hymn, a reading and a prayer, and concludes with the familiar mantra "Goodnight Boys".

The young Benjamin Britten recorded his life at Farfield in the 1920s and 1930s in his diaries. In 1929, he mentions that the house then had two "sickrooms" of its own.[1] He commented that the Honours System was a positive failure, as "It is no good trying the Honours System on boys who have no honour."[2]

The symbol of Farfield is an owl.

The symbol of Farfield is an owl

Housemasters

Major J. C. Miller^1	1904–1920
E. A. Robertson	1920–1928[3]
G. R. Thompson	1929–1936
A. B. Douglas^2	1936–1957
B. W. Sankey	1957–1965
W. O. Thomas	1965–1980
R. W. Coleman	1980–1988
G. B. Worrall	1988–1998
A. A. Edwards	1998–2003
J. R. P. Thomson	2003–2013
D.J. Atkinson	2013–

_{1 in Bengal Lodge until 1911
2 The school was evacuated to Newquay during the years 1940–1945}

Residential House Tutors

David Beaney	1984–1998
Spencer Coates	1998–2000
John Seaman	2000–2002
Adam Stanworth	2002–2008
Andrew 'Freddie' Grounds	2008–2011
David Saker	2011–

Notable old boys

Names are in chronological order. The years at Farfield (or its predecessor Bengal Lodge) are given in round brackets.

• Dr Hildebrand Hervey FRS (1902–1906) – marine biologist
• Lord Reith (1904–1906) – first Director General of the BBC, later politician
• Donald Cunnell (1909–1910) – World War I flying ace who shot down and injured the Red Baron
• Tom Wintringham (1912–1915) General Strike planner, commander of the British contingent of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War, founder of The Daily Worker (subsequently The Morning Star)
• W. H. Auden (1920–1925) – poet[4]
• Benjamin Britten (1928–1930) – composer and conductor[5]
• Norman Cohn (1929–1933) – historian and Fellow of the British Academy
• Bill Mason (1929–1934) – film director and father of Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason
• David Hand (1932–1937) – Archbishop of Papua New Guinea
• Major General A. E. Younger (1933–1937) – soldier[6]
• John Bradburne (1934–1939) – soldier, missionary and potential Saint
• Sir Philip Dowson (1938–1942) – architect and President of the Royal Academy[7]
• Robert Aagaard (1944–1949), furniture maker and founder of the youth movement Cathedral Camps[8]
• Martin Burgess (1944–1949) – master clockmaker[9]
• Dr Anthony Yates (1946–1948) – rheumatologist[10]
• Dr Colin Leakey (1947–1952) – botanist[10]
• Sir John Tusa (1949–1954) – TV presenter and managing director of the BBC World Service[11]
• Stephen Frears (1954–1959) – Oscar-nominated film director[12]
• Robert Eagle (1961–1965) – writer and director[13]
• Roger Carpenter (1958–1963) – neurophysiologist[14]
• Nigel Dick (1966–1971) – music video director[15]
• Jeremy Bamber (1974–1979) – convicted for five murders
• Matt Arnold (1975–1980) – television presenter[16]
• Nick Youngs (1976–1978) – England rugby union footballer[17]
• Paddy O'Connell (1979–1983) – BBC radio and television presenter[18]
• Ralph Firman (1988–1993) – Formula One racing driver[19]

Roll of honour

The Following Old Boys of Bengal Lodge and Farfield gave their lives during the Great War of 1914–1918:

Armitage SW, Aveling LN, Barratt GR, Beeton RH, Biden LTGV, Brownsword DA, Cole AH, Crosse ECM, Crosse MEB, Cunnell DC, Davies LFStJ, Ellis JC, Frost GK, Johnson GB, Kirch C, Robinson HHK, Rumsby RW, Shepherd CA, Simpson JH, Thorn H, Wilson Ian Maclean & Wright JMS

References

• The History and Register of Gresham's School, 1555–1954 (Ipswich, 1955);
• I Will Plant Me a Tree: an Illustrated History of Gresham's School (James & James, London, 2002)
• John Rayner, ed., Old Greshamian Club Address Book 1999 (Cromer: Cheverton & Son, 1999)
• The Gresham Magazine Vol. III & IV
• Gresham's School online

1. John Evans, Journeying Boy: The Diaries of the Young Benjamin Britten 1928-1938, (Faber & Faber, 2010), p. 15
2. Geoff Andrews, The Shadow Man: At the Heart of the Cambridge Spy Circle (I.B. Tauris, 2015), p. 24
3. died 1928: see obituary Mr. E. A. Robertson in The Times, Thursday, 31 January 1929; pg. 14; Issue 45115; col E
4. Wystan Hugh Auden, The Complete Works of W. H. Auden: Prose 1949–1955, Volume 3 (Princeton University Press, 2008), p. 771
5. John Evans, ed., Journeying Boy: The Diaries of the Young Benjamin Britten (2010), p. 14
6. Rayner, p. 10
7. Rayner, p. 14
8. Rayner, p. 17
9. Rayner, p. 19
10. Rayner, p. 26
11. Rayner, p. 30
12. Rayner, p. 37
13. Rayner, p. 42
14. Rayner, p. 43
15. Rayner, p. 56
16. Rayner, p. 79
17. Rayner, p. 84
18. Rayner, p. 91
19. Rayner, p. 117

External links

• Gresham's photo from the Britten-Pears library
• Newsletter of the Auden Society at audensociety.org