Wellington College Motto Virtutis Fortuna Comes (Fortune favours the brave) Heroum Filii (Sons of heroes) Established 1853 (opened 1859) Type Public school The Master Dr Anthony Seldon Second Master Robin Dyer Chairman of the Board of Governors Sir Anthony Goodenough KCMG Founder Queen Victoria Location Dukes Ride Crowthorne Berkshire RG45 7PU England Staff 100 (approx.) Students 900 (approx.) Gender Co-educational Ages 13 to 18 Houses 17 Colours Black, gold,           Former pupils Old Wellingtonians Campus 400-acre (1.6 km2) rural campus Website www.wellingtoncollege.org.uk Coordinates: 51°21′51″N 0°48′24″W / 51.3643°N 0.8067°W / 51.3643; -0.8067

View of the main College buildings from the south front.

Wellington College, the national monument to the Duke of Wellington, is an English co-educational public school located in the Berkshire village of Crowthorne. The school was granted its royal charter in 1853 as the Royal and Religious Foundation of The Wellington College, and was opened in 1859. Its first Master (Headmaster) was Edward White Benson, later Archbishop of Canterbury. The college's Visitor is Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.^{citation needed} Wellington has approximately 900 pupils aged between 13 and 18.^{citation needed} The School is a member of the G20 Schools group. The Good Schools Guide called the school "a serious player in the field of education."¹ Wellington has sponsored the founding of an independent state school in Wiltshire, The Wellington Academy ², which opens in 2009.

Architecture

The college was designed by John Shaw Jr, who had also previously worked as an architect for Eton College.^{citation needed} It is located in Crowthorne, a large village in the Royal County of Berkshire in south-east England. For its time, the design of the college was unusual compared to the popular form, but Prince Albert who helped choose the architect was more interested in Shaw's classical approach, having already seen the architect's design for the old Royal Naval School in New Cross, London.³

Location

Wellington College is located in a 400 acre (1.6 km²) estate in South East England, in the Royal County of Berkshire, approximately 30 miles (50 km) from Heathrow Airport and close to the town of Reading, Berkshire. The grounds of the college are notable in that they contain many unusual ant species, and were frequented by the entomologist Horace Donisthorpe, who collected extensively there.^{citation needed} The main buildings were designed by John Shaw Jr in a style loosely termed "French Grand Rococo",⁴ and the chapel was designed by George Gilbert Scott.^{citation needed}

Former pupils

The school has a diverse and extensive range of distinguished former pupils, including architect Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, impressionist Rory Bremner, Adolphus Cambridge, 1st Marquess of Cambridge, author Sebastian Faulks, political journalist Robin Oakley, actor Christopher Lee, writer George Orwell, poet Gavin Ewart, composer John Gardner, world champion motor racing driver James Hunt, Opposition Leader of the House of Lords Lord Strathclyde, journalist and television presenter Peter Snow, the UK Pop Idol winner Will Young, and BRIT Award-nominated singer Nerina Pallot, and the rugby union players James Haskell^{citation needed}, the brothers Max and Thom Evans⁵.

Sport

Wellington College was one of the 21 founding members of the Rugby Football Union, and historically, pupils at the school have excelled at rugby union.^{citation needed} The school has one of only around 20 racquets courts in the UK,⁶ and until recently three Eton Fives courts.^{citation needed} In 2008, the College became the first school to win the Daily Mail Cup at both U15 and U18 level in the same year, beating Millfield School and St Benedict's School, Ealing in their respective finals at Twickenham on 2 April 2008.⁷⁸

Combined Cadet Force

The Wellington College Combined Cadet Force, or CCF, has existed in its various forms since 1880.^{citation needed} Commissioned members of the teaching staff who serve as CCF officers are attached to The Duke of Wellington's Regiment.^{citation needed} The Commanding Officer of the Wellington College CCF is Lieutenant Colonel Eddy Heddon (REME). The College also traditionally has two teams of Field Gun runners, and two runs are made annually at the College Speech Day.⁹

Press

Like many of the major public schools, Wellington College is no stranger to press attention. The school has in the past been the subject of reports on bullying,¹⁰ although media attention has become mostly positive since the arrival of Anthony Seldon as Master.^{citation needed} In April 2006, the college attracted widespread publicity when it became the first school in the UK to introduce 'happiness lessons' to the curriculum,¹¹ in conjunction with a team at Cambridge University lead by Nick Baylis. The move continued a long tradition of pastoral care at Wellington, including religious education and PSHE programmes.^{citation needed} The school also achieved recent fame in winning the Daily Mail Schools Cup at both under-15 and under-18 level in 2008.⁷

In 2005 the school was one of fifty of the country's leading private schools which were found guilty of running an illegal price-fixing cartel, exposed by The Times, which had allowed them to drive up fees for thousands of parents.¹² Each school was required to pay a nominal penalty of £10,000 and all agreed 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 was shared.¹³

Houses

There are 17 houses at Wellington. Most contain boarders and a small number of day pupils, although there are those two which only accept day pupils, Wellesley and White Cairn, both introduced in September 2007.¹⁴ Each house is either an 'in-house' or an 'out-house'. In-houses are located within the main school buildings and quads, whilst out-houses are located elsewhere on the grounds. Each house has aspects which distinguish it from other houses, such as its own colours and emblem, as well as different locations around College.

The Orange was previously a boys' house, but was changed to a girls' house in 2005, with the boys in the Orange mostly relocating to the newly-rebuilt Beresford out-house. The Combermere has also been turned from a boys' house into a girls' house, with the boys moving out of the Combermere and joining the Hardinge. The Hopetoun is currently in a transition phase, with its first intake of girls in September 2007. Anglesey is also set to undertake the same change in September 2009.¹⁵

The Old Wellingtonian Society

The Old Wellingtonian Society is the alumni society for the college and was founded in 1890. The Old Wellingtonian Society was set up to further the interests of the College and its past and present members, and to keep former pupils in touch with each other and with the school.¹⁶

The Old Wellingtonian Society maintains a register of names of all who have passed through the College since the school's opening in 1859 and the addresses of all living alumni.

References

See also

• List of notable Old Wellingtonians
• List of Victoria Crosses by School

External links

• Wellington College website
• Website for Old Wellingtonians
• Website of Old Wellingtonian Lodge #3404
• Profile at the Good Schools Guide
• The Wellington Academy website