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Eton College ( EE-tən) is an English public school (a fee-charging boarding school) providing education for boys aged 13–18, located in Eton, Berkshire. The school was founded in 1440 by Henry VI as Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore, and is the largest boarding school in England.
Eton is known for its history, wealth, and notable alumni (Old Etonians), having been referred to as "the nurse of England's statesmen". It is also one of three public schools (the others being Harrow and Radley) to have retained a boys-only, boarding-only tradition.
The school is part of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the Eton Group.
Eton College was founded in 1440 by Henry VI as the Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore. It was originally a charity feeder school for King's College, Cambridge, providing a free education for 70 poor boys. Henry used Winchester College as a model, visiting it at least six times and having its statutes transcribed. He then appointed Winchester's headmaster, William Waynflete, as Eton's Provost, and transferred some of Winchester's scholars to start his new school.
Soon after Eton's establishment, Henry granted it a large number of endowments, including much valuable land forfeited from alien priories.
The school also housed several religious relics and artefacts such as a part of the True Cross, Crown of Thorns, and one of England's Apocalypse manuscripts.
However, when Henry was deposed by King Edward IV in 1461, all grants to the school were annulled. A large number of Eton's assets and treasures were transferred to St George's Chapel, Windsor. Legend has it that Edward's mistress, Jane Shore, intervened on the school's behalf and was able to save a good part of the school, although the royal bequest and the number of staff were still very much reduced.
Eton College was designed to be ornate and striking. Under Henry VI's plans, the nave of the college chapel would have been the longest in Europe, featuring 18, or possibly 17 bays. The lower storeys of the cloister, including College Hall, were also built under Henry (1441 and 1460 respectively).
After Henry's deposition, construction of the chapel was halted, leaving only the quire section and 8 bays. The chapel was completed by Eton's first Headmaster, William Waynflete through the building of the ante-chapel. The important wall paintings in the chapel and the brick north range of the present School Yard also date from the 1480s.
The school struggled with funding during this period of construction, leaving the completion and further development of the school dependent to a certain extent on wealthy benefactors. Building resumed when Roger Lupton was Provost, around 1517. His name is borne by the large gatehouse in the west range of the cloisters, fronting School Yard, perhaps the most famous image of the school. This range includes the important interiors of the Parlour, Election Hall, and Election Chamber, where most of the 18th century "leaving portraits" are kept.
After Lupton's time, nothing major was built until around 1670, when Provost Allestree donated a range to close the west side of School Yard between Lower School and Chapel". This was remodelled later and completed in 1694 by Matthew Bankes, Master Carpenter of the Royal Works. The last important addition to the central college buildings was the College Library, in the south range of the cloister, 1725–29, by Thomas Rowland. It has a very important collection of books and manuscripts.
The Duke of Wellington is often incorrectly quoted as saying that "The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton." Wellington studied at Eton from 1781 to 1784, and later sent 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", a remark Nevill construes as a reference to "the manly character induced by games and sport" among English youth generally, not a comment about Eton specifically. In 1889, Sir William Fraser conflated this uncorroborated remark with the one attributed to him by Count Charles de Montalembert's C'est ici qu'a été gagnée la bataille de Waterloo ("It is here that the Battle of Waterloo was won").
The architect John Shaw Jr (1803–1870) became a surveyor to Eton. He designed New Buildings (1844–46), Provost Francis Hodgson's addition to provide better accommodation for collegers, who until then had mostly lived in Long Chamber, a long first-floor room where conditions were inhumane.
Following complaints about the finances, buildings and management of Eton, the Clarendon Commission was set up in 1861 as a royal commission to investigate the state of nine schools in England, including Eton. Questioned by the commission in 1862, Head Master Edward Balston came under attack for his view that in the classroom little time could be spared for subjects other than classical studies.
As with other public schools, a scheme was devised towards the end of the 19th century to familiarise privileged schoolboys with social conditions in deprived areas. The project of establishing an "Eton Mission" in the crowded district of Hackney Wick in east London was started at the beginning of 1880, and it lasted until 1971 when it was decided that a more local project (at Dorney) would be more realistic. However over the years much money was raised for the Eton Mission, a fine church by G. F. Bodley was erected; many Etonians visited and stimulated among other things the Eton Manor Boys' Club, a notable rowing club which has survived the Mission itself, and the 59 Club for motorcyclists.
The large and ornate School Hall and School Library (by L. K. Hall) were erected in 1906–08 across the road from Upper School as the school's memorial to the Etonians who had died in the Boer War. Many tablets in the cloisters and chapel commemorate the large number of dead Etonians of the First World War.
In December 1940, during the height of the Blitz, a bomb fell on the College grounds, destroying part of the Upper School and blowing out the stained glass windows of the Chapel. In 1949 the College commissioned modernist replacement windows from Irish stained glass artist Evie Hone. The large Crucifixion window in the east wall was installed according to her design in 1952. However, Hone's death the following year prevented her from completing the Chapel's entire reglazing scheme. In 1959 the commission for the eight windows of the nave passed instead to artist John Piper, whose designs were realised in glass by his regular collaborator, the glassmaker Patrick Reyntiens, over the next five years. Intended to be in dialogue with Hone's east window, the four windows to the north each depict one of the Miracles of Jesus - the Miraculous Draft of Fishes, the Feeding of the Five Thousand, the Stilling of the Waters, and the Raising of Lazarus. To the south four Parables of Jesus are shown - the Light under a Bushel, the House built on Rock, the Lost Sheep, and the Sower.
Among Head Masters of the late 19th and 20th centuries were Cyril Alington, Robert Birley and Anthony Chenevix-Trench. M. R. James was a Provost. Between 1926 and 1939, Eton pupils were included as part of a group of around 20 or 30 selected public school boys who travelled yearly to various British Empire countries as part of the Public School Boys Empire Tour. The first tour travelled to Australia; the last went to Canada. The purpose of the tours was to encourage Empire settlement, with the boys possibly becoming district officers in India or imperial governors of the Dominions.
In 1959, the college constructed a nuclear bunker to house the college's Provost and fellows. The facility is now used for storage. In 1969, Dillibe Onyeama became the first black person to obtain his school-leaving certificate from Eton. Three years later Onyeama was banned from visiting Eton after he published a book which described the racism that he experienced during his time at the school. Simon Henderson, current Head Master of Eton, apologised to Onyeama for the treatment he endured during his time at the school, although Onyeama did not think the apology was necessary.
In 2005, the school was one of fifty of the country's leading independent schools found to have breached the Competition Act 1998 (see Eton College controversies). In 2011, plans to attack Eton College were found on the body of a senior al-Qaeda leader shot dead in Somalia.
The coat of arms of Eton College was granted in 1449 by the founder King Henry VI, as recorded as follows on the original charter, attested by the Great Seal of England and preserved in the College archives:
Thus the blazon is: Sable, three lily-flowers argent on a chief per pale azure and gules in the dexter a fleur-de-lys in the sinister a lion passant guardant or. The three lilies are also evident on the coat-of-arms of Eton provost Roger Lupton. Although the charter specifies that the lily flowers relate to the founder's hope for a flourishing of knowledge, that flower is also a symbol for the Virgin Mary, in whose honour the college was founded, with the number of three having significance to the Blessed Trinity. The motto of the college is Floreat Etona ("may Eton flourish"). The grant of arms to King's College, Cambridge, is worded identically, but with roses instead of lily-flowers.
The school is headed by a Provost, a vice-provost and a board of governors (known as Fellows) who appoint the Head Master. As of 2022 the school governors include:
Statute VII of the College provides that the board shall be populated as follows (in addition to the Provost and Vice-Provost):
The previous Provost, William Waldegrave, Baron Waldegrave of North Hill, stepped down in 2024, to be succeeded by Sir Nicolas Coleridge.
The school contains 25 boys' houses, each headed by a housemaster, selected from the more senior members of the teaching staff, which numbers some 155. Almost all of the school's pupils go on to universities, about a third of them to the University of Oxford or University of Cambridge.
One boarding house, College, is reserved for 70 King's Scholars, who attend Eton on scholarships provided by the original foundation and awarded by excelling in an examination prior to entry. Today, the scholarship is only in name, and no financial incentive is automatically provided. Still, up to a third receive some kind of bursary or scholarship. The name 'King's Scholars' refers to the foundation of the school by King Henry VI in 1440. The original school consisted of the 70 Scholars (together with some Commensals) and the Scholars were educated and boarded at the foundation'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 by a surplice in Chapel. The house is looked after by the Master in College. They include many of the most academically gifted boys in the school.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Eton College”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.