Sherborne School is a public school for boys in the affluent town of Sherborne in north-west Dorset, England.

History

The school was founded before the time of Alfred the Great who was educated there. The origins of Sherborne School date back to the eighth century, when a tradition of education at Sherborne was begun by St Aldhelm. The School was linked with the Benedictine Abbey, the earliest Master was Thomas Copeland in 1437. Edward VI refounded the School in 1550 as King Edward's school. The present School stands on land which once belonged to the Monastery. The Library, Chapel and Headmaster's rooms, which adjoin the Abbey Church, are modifications of the original buildings of the Abbey. The school remains one of the top fee-paying schools in Britain.

Famous alumni

• Hugh Bonneville, actor
• Tom Bradby, TV journalist and author
• Rt Hon Sir Christopher Chataway, athlete and politician
• Charles Collingwood, actor
• David Cornwell, (a.k.a. John le Carré) writer
• Cecil Day-Lewis, poet
• Nigel Dempster, journalist
• Jimmy Edwards, comedian
• Sir Richard Eyre, film and theatre director, artistic director of the National Theatre 1988-97
• Sir Michael Hopkins, architect
• Jeremy Irons, actor
• Stanley Johnson, politician
• Anthony Lane, film critic
• John Le Mesurier, actor
• Colin Lucas, Master of Balliol and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University until 2001.
• Chris Martin, musician (Coldplay)
• King Mswati III, king of Swaziland
• Julius Neave, insurance executive
• Alfred North Whitehead, mathematician
• Lance Percival, actor
• Jon Pertwee, actor
• Sir Alastair Pilkington, director of the Bank of England
• James Purefoy, actor
• Rt Rev Lord Sheppard of Liverpool, former England cricketer and Bishop of Liverpool
• Sir David Spedding, head of the SIS

• Alan Turing, mathematician
• Alec Waugh, novelist
• John Weston, diplomat

Houses at Sherborne

Sherborne School is composed of 8 houses, where the pupils (invariably referred to as 'boys') live and work when not in lessons. The names of the houses, and their distinctive letter, used in certain circumstances as an abbreviation, are:

• School House (a)
• Abbey House (b)
• The Green (c)
• Harper House (d)
• Wallace House (e) (formerly Elmdene)
• Abbeylands (f)
• Lyon House (g)
• The Digby (m) (formerly the Digby Hotel)

Until 1999 there was another house, Westcott (h).

External links

• Sherborne School
• Old Shirburnian Society website

Boarding schools | Educational institutions established in the 1550s | 1550 establishments | Public schools in Dorset | Schools with Combined Cadet Forces | Old Shirburnians