St Edward's School, Oxford - History

History

The school was founded in 1863 by the Rev. Thomas Chamberlain, student of Christ Church, Vicar of St Thomas the Martyr. The original school building was Mackworth Hall, which then stood on New Inn Hall Street in central Oxford.

In 1873, after a storm had damaged the school buildings and in anticipation of growing numbers, the Rev. A. B. Simeon, first Warden, moved the school to Summertown. At the time, the site was on the boundary of Oxford and surrounded by farmland, and Rev. Simeon bought a large plot for the school. The school remains on the 100-acre (0.40 km2) site today, with the Quadrangle and playing fields on opposite sides of Woodstock Road.

Rev. Simeon created a public school with monastic-style buildings around a quadrangle. St. Edward's is the second largest quadrangle in Oxford, second only to Tom Quad at Christ Church. The original buildings were designed by William Wilkinson. The north range was built in 1873 and 1886, the gatehouse in 1879, and the east range including Big School and the library in 1881. Wilkinson's most significant building at St.Edward's is the chapel, built in 1876.

In the First World War more St. Edward's pupils, pro rata, went to serve their country than from any other independent school in the UK. In Chapel the names of those former pupils who had lost their lives on the front line were announced. The walls of the chapel are lined with plaques remembering those former pupils who died in the Boer War, First World War, Second World War and subsequent wars.

The school flourished under the guidance of Warden Kendall from 1925 to 1954. In the 1930s, a subway was built underneath the Woodstock Road following the death of a pupil who was run over by a car. The subway was the first to be built in Oxford and is still used today. Its walls are painted in the school colours.

In the Second World War air raid shelters were dug into the grass of the Quad. The School was presented with a stained glass window by the R.A.F. at the end of the War in recognition of “the superb contribution to the war effort made by former pupils of the School”. These included, among many others, Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC DSO DFC of 617 Squadron, who led 'The Dambusters' and flying ace Group Captain Sir Douglas Bader DSO DFC. Pacifist inclinations during the 1970s and 1980s caused the window to be relocated, but it can now be found back on display in the Old Library.

In 1982, the school admitted its first girl, who joined in the Lower Sixth. The 11th Warden, David Christie, brought about an enormous change to the school when he fully developed the idea of allowing girls to join for the last two years of school (known as the Sixth Form). Following the success of a co-educational Sixth Form, the whole school became fully co-educational in 1997. In 1999 Dr Holly Branson, daughter of Sir Richard Branson, became the school's first ever female Head Prefect and Head of School.

There is currently a large mural in the school dining hall that depicts life at St. Edward's. Included in the painting are a number of the characters from The Wind in the Willows, written by former pupil Kenneth Grahame.