Rugby School

Rugby School is an English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18 in Rugby, Warwickshire, England.

Rugby School
Address
Lawrence Sheriff Street

Rugby
,
Warwickshire
,
CV22 5EH

England
Coordinates52.3675°N 1.2611°W / 52.3675; -1.2611
Information
TypePublic school
Independent
day and boarding school
Co-educational school
MottoLatin: Orando Laborando
(by praying, by working)
Religious affiliation(s)Church of England
Established1567 (1567)
FounderLawrence Sheriff
Department for Education URN125777 Tables
Head MasterPeter Green
GenderCo-educational
Age13 to 18
Enrolment810
Houses16
Colour(s)Oxford blue, Cambridge blue, and green
Former pupilsOld Rugbeians
School songFloreat Rugbeia
Websitewww.rugbyschool.co.uk

Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain.[1] Up to 1667, the school remained in comparative obscurity. Its re-establishment by Thomas Arnold during his time as Headmaster, from 1828 to 1841, was seen as the forerunner of the Victorian public school.[2] It is one of the original nine "great public schools" considered by the Clarendon Commission of 1864 and subsequently subject to the Public Schools Act 1868.

The school's alumni – or "Old Rugbeians" – include a UK Prime Minister, and prominent poets, scientists, writers and soldiers.

Rugby School is birthplace of Rugby football,[3]

History
Lawrence Sheriff, founder of Rugby School

Rugby School was founded in 1567 as a provision in the will of Lawrence Sheriff, who had made his fortune supplying groceries to Queen Elizabeth I of England.[4] Since Lawrence Sheriff lived in Rugby and the neighbouring Brownsover, the school was intended to be a free grammar school for the boys of those towns. Up to 1667, the school remained in comparative obscurity. Its history during that trying period is characterised mainly by a series of lawsuits between the Howkins family (descendants of the founder's sister), who tried to defeat the intentions of the testator, and the masters and trustees, who tried to carry them out. A final decision was handed down in 1667, confirming the findings of a commission in favour of the trust, and henceforth the school maintained a steady growth.[5] "Floreat Rugbeia" is the traditional school song.

In 1845, a committee of Rugby schoolboys, William Delafield Arnold, W. W. Shirley and Frederick Hutchins,[6] wrote the "Laws of Football as Played At Rugby School", the first published set of laws for any code of football.[7][8]

It was no longer desirable to have only local boys attending and the nature of the school shifted, and so a new school – Lawrence Sheriff Grammar School – was founded in 1878 to continue Lawrence Sheriff's original intentions; that school receives a substantial proportion of the endowment income from Lawrence Sheriff's estate every year.

Rugby was one of three provincial schools among the nine studied by the Clarendon Commission of 1861–64 (the schools considered being Eton, Charterhouse, Harrow, Shrewsbury, Westminster, and Winchester, and two day schools: St Paul's and Merchant Taylors). Rugby went on to be included in the Public School's Act 1868, which ultimately related only to the boarding schools.

The core of the school (which contains School House, featured in Tom Brown's Schooldays) was completed in 1815 and is built around the Old Quad (quadrangle), with its Georgian architecture. Especially notable rooms are the Upper Bench (an intimate space with a book-lined gallery), the Old Hall of School House, and the Old Big School (which makes up one side of the quadrangle and was once the location for teaching all junior pupils). Thomas Hughes (like his fictional hero, Tom Brown) once carved his name on the hands of the school clock, situated on a tower above the Old Quad. The polychromatic school chapel, new quadrangle, Temple Reading Room, Macready Theatre and Gymnasium were designed by well-known Victorian Gothic revival architect William Butterfield in 1875, and the smaller Memorial Chapel was dedicated in 1922.

The Temple Speech Room, named after former headmaster and Archbishop of Canterbury Frederick Temple (1858–69) is now used for whole-School assemblies, speech days, concerts, musicals – and BBC Mastermind. Between the wars, the Memorial Chapel, the Music Schools and a new Sanatorium appeared.

By the twentieth century Rugby expanded and new buildings were built inspired by this Edwardian Era. The Temple Speech Room, named after former headmaster and Archbishop of Canterbury Frederick Temple (1858–69) and now used for whole-School assemblies, speech days, concerts, musicals – and BBC Mastermind. Oak-panelled walls boast the portraits of illustrious alumni, including Neville Chamberlain holding his piece of paper. Between the wars, the Memorial Chapel, the Music Schools and a new Sanatorium appeared.[9]

In 1975 two girls were admitted into the sixth form, and the first girls’ house opened 3 years later, followed by three more. In 1992, the first 13-year-old girls arrived, and in 1995 Rugby had its first-ever Head Girl, Louise Woolcock, who appeared on the front page of The Times. In September 2003 a last girls’ house was added. Today, total enrolment of day pupils, from forms 4 to 12, numbers around 800.[10]

Rugby football
William Webb Ellis plaque
Webb Ellis at Rugby, 1823

The game of Rugby football owes its name to the school.

The legend of William Webb Ellis and the origin of the game is commemorated by a plaque. The story that Webb Ellis was the first to pick up a football and run with it, and thus invented a new sport, has been known to be a myth since it was investigated by the Old Rugbeian Society in 1895.

There were no standard rules for football in Webb Ellis's time at Rugby (1816–1825) and most varieties involved carrying the ball. The games played at Rugby were organised by the pupils and not the masters, the rules being a matter of custom and not written down. They were frequently changed and modified with each new intake of students.

The sole source of the story is Matthew Bloxam, a former pupil but not a contemporary of Webb Ellis. In October 1876, four years after the death of Webb Ellis, in a letter to the school newspaper The Meteor he quotes an unknown friend relating the story to him. He elaborated on the story four years later in another letter to The Meteor, but shed no further light on its source. Richard Lindon, a boot and shoemaker who had premises across the street from the School's main entrance in Lawrence Sheriff Street, is credited with the invention of the "oval" rugby ball, the rubber inflatable bladder and the brass hand pump.[11]

Rugby Fives
Rugby Fives

Rugby Fives is a handball game, similar to squash, played in an enclosed court. It has similarities with Winchester Fives (a form of Wessex Fives) and Eton Fives.

It is most commonly believed to be derived from Wessex Fives, a game played by Thomas Arnold, Headmaster of Rugby, who had played Wessex Fives when a boy at Lord Weymouth's Grammar, now Warminster School. The open court of Wessex Fives, built in 1787, is still in existence at Warminster School although it has fallen out of regular use.

Rugby Fives is played between two players (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles), the aim being to hit the ball above a 'bar' across the front wall in such a way that the opposition cannot return it before a second bounce. The ball is slightly larger than a golf ball, leather-coated and hard. Players wear leather padded gloves on both hands, with which they hit the ball.

Rugby Fives continues to have a good following with tournaments being run nationwide, presided over by the Rugby Fives Association.[12]

Houses

Rugby School has both day and boarding-pupils, the latter in the majority. Originally it was for boys only, but girls have been admitted to the sixth form since 1975. It went fully co-educational in 1992. The school community is divided into houses.

House Founded † Girls/Boys
Cotton1836[13]Boys
Kilbracken1841[14]Boys
Michell1882[15]Boys
School Field1852[16]Boys
School House1750[17]Boys
Sheriff1930[18]Boys
Town House1567[19]Boys
Whitelaw1936[20]Boys
Bradley1830 (1992)[21]Girls
Dean1832 (1978)[22]Girls
Griffin2003[23]Girls
Rupert Brooke1860 (1988)[24]Girls
Southfield1993[25]Girls
Stanley1828 (1992)[26]Girls
Tudor1893 (2002)[27]Girls
  • † Numbers in brackets indicate date of conversion to a Girls' house where applicable

Academic life

Pupils beginning Rugby in the F Block (first year) study various subjects. In a pupil's second year (E block), they do nine subjects which are for their GCSEs, this is the same for the D Block (GCSE year). The school then provides standard A-levels in 29 subjects. Students at this stage have the choice of taking three or four subjects and are also offered the opportunity to take an extended project. Oxbridge acceptance percentage in 2007 was10.4% [28]

Scholarships

The Governing Body provides financial benefits with school fees to families unable to afford them. Parents of pupils who are given a Scholarship are capable of obtaining a 10% fee deduction, although more than one scholarship can be awarded to one student.

Fees
  • Annual boarding fee: £32,025 (GBP)[10]
  • Annual day fee: £20,094 (GBP)[10]

Alumni
Main article: List of Old Rugbeians
Rugby School from the side

There have been a number of notable Old Rugbeians including the purported father of the sport of Rugby William Webb Ellis, the inventor of Australian rules football Tom Wills, the war poets Rupert Brooke and John Gillespie Magee, Jr., Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, author and mathematician Lewis Carroll, poet and cultural critic Matthew Arnold, the author and social critic Salman Rushdie (who said of his time there: "Almost the only thing I am proud of about going to Rugby school was that Lewis Carroll went there too."[29]) and the Irish writer and republican Francis Stuart. The Indian concert pianist, music composer and singer Adnan Sami also studied at Rugby School.[30] Matthew Arnold's father Thomas Arnold, was a headmaster of the school. Philip Henry Bahr (later Sir Philip Henry Manson-Bahr), a zoologist and medical doctor, World War I veteran, was President of both Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and Medical Society of London, and Vice-President of the British Ornithologists’ Union.[31][32] Richard Barrett Talbot Kelly joined the army in 1915, straight after leaving the school, earned a Military Cross during the First World War, and later returned to the school as Director of Art.[33]

See also Category:People educated at Rugby School

Rugbeian Society

The Rugbeian Society is for former pupils at the School.[34] An Old Rugbeian is sometimes referred to as an OR.

The purposes of the society are to encourage and help Rugbeians in interacting with each other and to strengthen the ties between ORs and the school.

In 2010 the Rugbeians reached the semi-finals of the Public Schools' Old Boys' Sevens tournament, hosted by the Old Silhillians to celebrate the 450th anniversary of fellow Warwickshire public school, Solihull School.

Head Masters

Thomas Arnold
Main article: Thomas Arnold
Ex libris from Rugby School. From BEIC

Rugby's most famous headmaster was Thomas Arnold, appointed in 1828; he executed many reforms to the school curriculum and administration. Arnold's and the school's reputations were immortalised through Thomas Hughes' book Tom Brown's School Days.

David Newsome writes about the new educational methods employed by Arnold in his book, 'Godliness and Good Learning' (Cassell 1961). He calls the morality practised at Arnold's school muscular Christianity. Arnold had three principles: religious and moral principle, gentlemanly conduct and academic performance. Dr George Mosse, former professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, lectured on Arnold's time at Rugby. According to Mosse, Thomas Arnold created an institution which fused religious and moral principles, gentlemanly conduct, and learning based on self-discipline. These morals were socially enforced through the "Gospel of work." The object of education was to produce "the Christian gentleman," a man with good outward appearance, playful but earnest, industrious, manly, honest, virginal pure, innocent, and responsible.

John Percival
Main article: John Percival (bishop)

In 1888 the appointment of Marie Bethell Beauclerc by Percival was the first appointment of a female teacher in an English boys' public school and the first time shorthand had been taught in any such school. The shorthand course was popular with one hundred boys in the classes.

Controversy

In September 2005, the school was one of fifty independent schools operating independent school fee-fixing, in breach of the Competition Act, 1998. All of the schools involved were ordered to abandon this practice, pay a nominal penalty of £10,000 each and to make ex-gratia payments totalling three million pounds into a trust designed to benefit pupils who attended the schools during the period in respect of which fee information had been shared.[39][40]

gollark: If you send me a video I can complain about your thing remotely.
gollark: The big ones, obviously.
gollark: 13x13 has the advantage of being exactly the size of compact machines, you know.
gollark: If you think your base is messy, though, you should see my basement, although you should not see it because it is classified.
gollark: When playing modded, you either build a horrible messy base which works nicely, and intend to build a nice new base "later" but never do properly, or you burn out trying to make your regular base really nice.

See also

References
  1. "Gabbitas". Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  2. "The truth about Flashman: an old Rugbeian writes". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
  3. "Six ways the town of Rugby helped change the world". BBC. Retrieved 29 January 2015
  4. Rugby by Henry Christopher Bradby
  5. Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Rugby School" . New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
  6. Curry, Graham (2001). Football: A Study in Diffusion (PDF). Leicester: University of Leicester. p. 28.
  7. Curry, Graham (2001). Football: A Study in Diffusion (PDF). Leicester: University of Leicester. p. 28.
  8. Laws of Football as played at Rugby School (1845)  – via Wikisource.
  9. rugbyschool.net/history
  10. University of Oxford student. "Rugby School". Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  11. "richardlindon.com". Archived from the original on 11 March 2007. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  12. "Ruby Fives Association".
  13. "Rugby School – Cotton". Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  14. "Rugby School – Kilbracken". Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  15. "Walter Gorden Michell Biography". Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  16. "Rugby – School Field". Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  17. "Rugby School – School House". Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  18. "Rugby School – Sheriff". Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  19. "Rugby School – Town House". Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  20. "Whitelaw". Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  21. "Rugby School – Bradley". Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  22. "The History of Dean House". Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  23. "The History of Griffin House". Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  24. "Rugby School – Rupert Brooke". Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  25. "Rugby School – Southfield (Day)". Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  26. "Rugby School – Stanley". Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  27. "Rugby School – Tudor". Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  28. http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Education/documents/2007/09/20/100topoxbridge.pdf
  29. Salman Rushdie: The Arab spring is a demand for desires and rights that are common to all human beings, The Daily Telegraph
  30. "Adnan Sami". India.com.
  31. "Sir Philip Henry Manson-Bahr". Lives of the fellows : Munk's Roll : Volume VI. Royal College of Physicians of London. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  32. "Obituary Notices: Sir Philip Manson-Bahr, C.M.G., D.S.O., M.A., M.D., F.R.C.P., D.T.M.&H". British Medical Journal. 2 (5525): 1332–1334. 1966. PMC 1944321. PMID 5332525.
  33. "Lieutenant Richard Talbot Kelly". National Army Museum, London. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  34. "Rugby School – (Development Office)". Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  35. John Barclay Hope Simpson, Rugby Since Arnold: A History of Rugby School from 1842, Published by Macmillan, 1967
  36. "Rugby School – Home". rugbyschool.co.uk.
  37. "New Post for Head Master". Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  38. "New Head Master Announced". Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  39. Halpin, Halpin. "Independent schools face huge fines over cartel to fix fees". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  40. "Office of Fair Trading Press Release". National Ara chive. 21 December 2006. Retrieved 29 February 2020.

Further reading
  • Carter, George David. "The extent to which the novel" Tom Brown's Schooldays",(1857), by Thomas Hughes, accurately reflects the ideas, purposes and policies of Dr. Thomas Arnold in Rugby School, 1828–1842." (MA thesis, Kansas State U, 1967). online
  • Hope-Simpson, John Barclay. Rugby Since Arnold: A History of Rugby School from 1842. (1967).
  • Mack, Edward Clarence. Public schools and British opinion, 1780 to 1860: An examination of the relationship between contemporary ideas and the evolution of an English institution (1938),comparison with other elite schools
  • Neddam*, Fabrice. "Constructing masculinities under Thomas Arnold of Rugby (1828–1842): gender, educational policy and school life in an early‐Victorian public school." Gender and Education 16.3 (2004): 303–326.
  • Rouse, W.H.D. A history of Rugby School (1898) online.
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