Clifton College

The school takes boys and girls aged between 13 and 18. It has its own preparatory school, Clifton College Preparatory School (known as the 'Pre'), for children from 8 to 13 which adjoins the school and shares many of the same facilities; there is also a pre-preparatory school for younger children aged 3 to 8 called Butcombe. To distinguish it from the junior schools, Clifton College proper is referred to as the 'Upper School'.

There are around 720 children in the Upper School of whom about a third are girls. At the start of the 2004 – 2005 school year, a new boarding/day house for girls (Hallward's House) was opened.

In 2005, the school was one of fifty of the country's leading independent 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.[6] 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.[7]

Clifton College Upper School seen from the Close. Left – the Dining Hall, centre – the Chapel, right – the science block

During World War II the heavy bombing of Bristol caused the students to be evacuated to Bude. In February 1941 the buildings were used by the Royal Army Service Corps as an Officer Cadet Training Unit. In 1942 they were replaced by the United States Army who established it as the headquarters of V Corps and then the First Army. Staff were involved in preparations for the Normandy landings under General Omar Bradley. After D-Day the college was taken over as headquarters of the Ninth Army under General William Hood Simpson.[8]

To enable rapid travel and communications between the headquarters and dispersed units extensive use was made of light aircraft for travel. Some flights used Filton Airfield and others Whitchurch, however the majority were from the college's playing fields at Beggars Bush Field, between the college and Leigh Woods, which was turned into an airfield.[8]

Pupils at Clifton College in 2009

Before 1987, Clifton was a boys-only school with seven boarding houses (School House, Brown's, Watson's, Dakyns', Oakeley's, Wiseman's, Polack's) and three day-houses (East Town, North Town and The South Town). In each of the current seven boarding Houses (four for boys, three for girls) live the Housemaster or Housemistress and family, an Assistant and the Matron. In addition, each House has up to four non-residential Tutors. Also, pupils wear ties with different coloured stripes according to their house membership; which are also the colours of the jerseys the pupils wear to distinguish between houses in inter-house sporting events.[9]

There are 12 houses currently in the Upper School of Clifton College, which have an order of precedence based on the date of their foundation;[10] it is traditional that day-pupil only houses are known as "Towns" and any house that admits boarders "Houses". There are also houses in Clifton College Preparatory School that are not listed below.

[11]

Holland's house, a girls day house, was made in 2017 with colours white, pink and navy.

Several other houses have existed during the school's history. In WW2, while the school was evacuated to Bude, United House (UH) was created from pupils of houses placed in temporary abeyance. Dakyns' House and Brown's House were closed in 1993, and Polack's House, which took Jewish boys only, was closed in 2005. These are listed below:

In the decades after the school's foundation, with the exception of School House, the Houses were named after the Housemaster at the time, but in the late 19th century this pattern was abandoned, and all Houses reverted to the name of their first Housemaster. This nomenclature convention was not however used for Hallward's House (founded in 2004 and named after a former Headmaster, Bertrand Hallward, nor for Worcester House (the second girl's house, founded in 1989 and named after the road in which it is situated). When Dakyns' House and Brown's House were merged in September 1993, the original suggestion was to name the new establishment "Dakyns-Brown's House", but following a suggestion from a pupil, the name "Moberly's House" was chosen, commemorating the only teacher who had been involved in both of the antecedent establishments (as Housemaster of both Dakyns' and House Tutor of Brown's).[12]

Clifton College was one of the original 8 "Lord's Schools", who were entitled to play fixtures at Lord's against each other. These matches were Clifton v Tonbridge, Rugby v Marlborough, Cheltenham v Haileybury, and Eton v Harrow. The Clifton v Tonbridge fixture at Lord's was first played in 1914, but ceased to be played in the 1960s, along with most other Lord's Schools matches. Today, only Eton v Harrow continues to take place at Lord's. A centenary match took place in June 2014 to commemorate the anniversary of the first playing of this match.[20]

Plaque at Clifton College, fixed in 1962.

On one of the college's cricket pitches, now known as Collins' Piece, what was for 116 years the highest-ever cricket score was reached in June 1899, in the inter-house match between Clark's House and North Town. In this match A. E. J. Collins, killed in the First World War, scored 628 not out, but not under the current rules of the game.[21][22] The record was surpassed in January 2016 by 15-year-old Pranav Dhanawade of Mumbai, India, with a score of 1,009 in a schools' match. Collins was not the first Clifton schoolboy to hold this record: in 1868, Edward Tylecote, who went on to help England reclaim the Ashes in 1882–83, was a previous holder, with 404 not out in a game between Classicals and Moderns. Collins' achievement is commemorated on a small plaque on the side of the ceramics building.

A number of famous cricketers are Clifton alumni. A fuller entry can be found under the List of Old Cliftonians, and includes:

• W. G. Grace junior, son of W. G. Grace, Gloucestershire and MCC cricketer.
• Sir Kingsmill Key, Bt., captain of Surrey, MCC and England cricketer.
• John Daniell, captain of Somerset, England rugby international
• Basil Allen, cricketer, Gloucestershire captain
• Edwin Field, Middlesex cricketer, England rugby international
• James Kirtley, England cricketer
• Matt Windows, Gloucestershire cricketer and England 'A' cap.
• Edward Tylecote, England cricketer
• George Whitehead, England cricketer[23]
• Charlie Townsend, England cricketer
• Dr. Edward Scott, Gloucestershire & MCC cricketer, England rugby international (captain).
• James Bush Gloucestershire cricketer, England rugby international
• Robert Edwin Bush Gloucestershire cricketer
• William Brain, English cricketer and footballer
• Archibald Fargus, English cricketer, scholar, clergyman
• Lothian Bonham-Carter, English cricketer, Justice of the Peace and soldier

The college employs a master called "The Marshal", whose sole job is to enforce discipline, attendance at classes and other school rules (such as dress code, drinking, smoking and hair length) along with the general maintenance of safety of the pupils at the College. Many public houses near the school had photos of the Marshal, who was permanently banned so as not to discourage the attendance of pupils who were regular patrons. The current Marshal is Christopher Hughes who took his position in the term starting September 2010. The previous Marshal was Major Paul Simcox MBE. By tradition, a Marshal's name is not added to the plaque listing the names of the school's Marshals until after his death.

Clifton has chapel services and a focus on Christianity, but for 125 years there was also a Jewish boarding house (Polack's), complete with kosher dining facilities and synagogue for boys in the Upper School. This was the last of its kind in Europe. However, at the end of the 2004–05 school year, the Polack's trust announced that Polack's House would be closed due to the low numbers of boys in the house (although many pupils were turned down subsequently).

The school chapel was the inspiration behind Newbolt's poem Clifton Chapel, which starts:

CLIFTON CHAPEL

This is the Chapel: here, my son,

Your father thought the thoughts of youth,

And heard the words that one by one

The touch of Life has turn'd to truth.

Here in a day that is not far,

You too may speak with noble ghosts

Of manhood and the vows of war

You made before the Lord of Hosts.

The words of this poem were recently used as the lyrics for a new hymn in the college hymn books that was written by James Hills, housemaster of The South Town and former director of music.

Clifton College has its own theatre, originally known as the Clifton College Theatre, but later renamed in honour of old-boy actor Michael Redgrave. The theatre was built in the 1960s and has a seating capacity of 323.[24][25] As well as school productions, the venue hosts visiting small scale productions including many by the nearby Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.[26]

Listed in order of appointment:

• 1862–1879 John Percival (Bishop of Hereford)
• 1879–1890 James Wilson
• 1891–1905 Michael George Glazebrook
• 1905–1910 Albert David (Bishop of Liverpool)
• 1910–1923 John Edward King
• 1923–1938 Norman Whatley
• 1938–1948 Bertrand Hallward
• 1948–1954 Henry Desmond Pritchard Lee
• 1954–1962 Nicholas Hammond
• 1963–1975 Stephen McWatters
• 1975–1990 Stuart Morrison Andrews
• 1990–2000 Andrew Hugh Monro
• 2000–2005 Stephen Spurr
• 2005–2015 Mark Moore
• 2015– Dr Tim Greene

• Alexander Jones (1854–1878), former Wales footballer, killed in a shooting accident on a train while bringing a group of college cadets home from rifle practice.[27]
• J. R. Eccles (1874–1956), an old boy who was a Physics master at Clifton, was later headmaster of Gresham’s[28]
• J. L. Thorn, master at Clifton 1949 to 1961, later head of Repton and Winchester
• T. E. Brown, scholar, poet, and theologian
• R. P. Keigwin, Clifton housemaster, later Warden of Wills Hall
• James Gordon MacGregor, a science master 1877–1879
• Sir William McKie, Australian organist, Conductor, and composer
• Wilfrid Oldaker was Chaplain from 1931 to 1938, later headmaster of Christ Church Cathedral School[29]
• Rt Revd David Stancliffe, later Bishop of Salisbury
• T. H. Stokoe, second master at Clifton, later head of Richmond Grammar School, Reading School, and King's College School.
• Sir Reginald Thatcher (1888–1975), composer and Principal of the Royal Academy of Music[30]

Jonathan Thomson-Glover, a housemaster and former pupil, pleaded guilty to making covert films of children aged twelve to seventeen showering, changing, going to the toilet and conducting private acts, in the college itself and at an address in Cornwall. He was convicted at Taunton Crown Court and sentenced to three years and nine months' imprisonment after admitting to 36 counts of taking, making and possessing indecent images of children.[31][32]

Clifton College subsequently commissioned an independent expert to undertake a thorough review of safeguarding at the school, culminating in a report which it published in full.[33] The report contained a number of recommendations, all of which were then implemented. This, together with a complete change in the school’s leadership in 2016, led to a wholesale transformation in safeguarding culture and practices at the school.[34]

The Old Cliftonian Society [OCS] is the Society for the alumni of Clifton College – whether pupils or staff. The OCS organises reunions at the school and publishes a newsletter for alumni. Alumni are known as Old Cliftonians or OCs.

The Register's motto:

"There be of them, that have left a name behind them, that their praises might be reported..."

The Clifton College Register is the official set of records held for Clifton College in Bristol. The Register is kept and maintained by the Old Cliftonian Society.

These records have been maintained unbroken from the start of the school in 1862 and list every pupil, master and headmaster. Each person is allocated a school number – for masters and headmasters the number is prefixed with either an M or HM. The Register also maintains a record of the school roll in numbers, the Heads of School and summarises the major sporting records for each year.

The Register is published by the Old Cliftonian Society; there are three volumes:

• • 1862 – 1947
  • 1948 – 1977
  • 1978 – 1994

First entries in the Register:-

• List of Victoria Crosses by School
• Old Cliftonian Society

• Clifton College Register 1862 – 1962 – Published by the Old Cliftonian Society

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Clifton College.

• Clifton College website