Winchester College

Current pupils of Winchester College are known as Wykehamists, in memory of the school's founder, William of Wykeham; former pupils are known as Old Wykehamists,[3] or amongst themselves as Old Woks.[4]

• 
  Chapel
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  East window
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  Chapel ceiling
• 
  North side (before restoration)
• 
  North side (after restoration)

Situated on the south side of Chamber Court, the chapel is part of the original college buildings; it retains its original wooden fan-vaulted ceiling, designed by Hugh Herland, carpenter to King Richard II.[19] A striking feature of the chapel is its stained glass. The East window depicts the stem of Jesse. Down the chapel's north and south sides is a collection of saints. Little of the original medieval glass, designed by Thomas Glazier, survives. A firm of glaziers in Shrewsbury, Betton and Evans, was tasked with cleaning the glass in the 1820s. At that time there was no known process for cleaning the badly deteriorated glass and so it was copied, while most of the original glass was scattered or destroyed. Some pieces have been recovered. The art historian and Old Wykehamist, Kenneth Clark, bought back the Tree of Jesse section of the east window, now housed in Thurburn's Chantry. Further figures have been returned; they form the east window of Fromond's Chantry.[19] The Chapel Choir sings regular services in the chapel, as well as other venues. This consists of sixteen Quiristers (who attend The Pilgrims' School) and a similar number of senior boys and a few dons (masters).[19]

Winchester College War Cloister

Situated to the west of Meads, this cloister serves as a memorial to the Wykehamist dead of the two World Wars. It was designed by Herbert Baker and dedicated in 1924. It is a listed building.[20] A bronze bust of Old Boy Air Chief Marshal Lord Dowding sits on the west side of the cloister.[20]

The College's South Africa Gate on Kingsgate Street commemorates the Wykehamist dead of the 1899–1902 Boer War. It leads to the War Cloister.[21] Another older war memorial in the school is the entry chamber to Chapel, known as "Crimea" after the Crimean War of 1853–56, and bearing the names of Wykehamists who died at the siege of Sebastopol.[22]

A notion is a manner or tradition peculiar to Winchester College. The word notion is also used for words and phrases used only in the school. An example is "toytime", meaning prep or homework, from the "toys" or individual cubicles that formerly served as pupils' workspace in the communal chamber or "mugging hall", from "mug" meaning to work.[23]

Winchester College has its own game, Winchester College football (also known as "Win: Co: Fo:" or "Winkies"), played only at Winchester.[24] It is played in the spring term with a competition between the school's houses; it is largely managed by the boys.[25]

A distinctive Winchester version of Fives resembles Rugby Fives but with a buttress on the court. The buttress enables a skilful player to cause the ball to ricochet in an unexpected direction.[26]

The school has an active rowing club called the Winchester College Boat Club which is based on the River Itchen. The club is affiliated to British Rowing (boat code WIN)[27] and was twice winner of the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup in 1949 and 1954, at the Henley Royal Regatta.[28]

Pupils of the school in their second year are currently required to serve in the college's Combined Cadet Force.[29]

The organisation was founded in 1860 as "The Winchester College Rifle Volunteer Corps" by various boys in their top year as a result of the perceived threat of Napoleon III after the Orsini plot, and remained entirely autonomous until it was taken over by the Second Master in 1868. It was enrolled as a Cadet Corps in the 1st Hants Volunteer Battalion. In 1908, the Officer Training Corps was established, and by 1914, through the request of the War Office that Senior Cadets be given appropriate training for the war effort, almost every student became involved in the Corps, though it was never explicitly compulsory. In the Second World War, it was renamed as "The Junior Training Corps", though its function was still to prepare boys for Officer responsibilities. Montgomery remarked on inspecting the Corps in 1946 that there was "latent leadership in all ranks". In 1948, the "Junior Training Corps" became known as the "Combined Cadet Force" (CCF) which incorporated RAF and RN sections. In 1963, "Alternative Service Activities" were introduced for boys who did not want to join the CCF. Pupils were made eligible to opt out of the CCF at the end of their second year after starting at the beginning of the year: this is still the school's policy.[30] In 2010, Winchester's Combined Cadet Force received the Queen's Colours, a regimental decoration.[31]

The school song is "Domum, Domum, Dulce Domum", sung at the break-up of the school for the summer holidays. Its origin is unknown; it was described as "an old tradition" in the 1773 History and Antiquities of Winchester.[32] The traditional tune was composed by John Reading.[33][34] A new tune, by Malcolm Archer, was officially adopted by the school in about 2007.[35]

According to legend, the text was written in the 17th century by a pupil who was confined for misconduct during the Whitsun holidays.[36] (In one account, he was tied to a pillar.) It is said that he carved the words on the bark of a tree, which was thereafter called "Domum Tree", and cast himself into Logie (the river running through the school grounds).[32][37] There is still a "Domum Cottage" in that area. The author of the text apparently wrongly treated domum as a neuter noun.[38]

A "Domum Dinner" is held at the end of the summer term for leavers. It was formerly restricted to those former scholars of Winchester who were also scholars of New College, and distinguished guests. Until the reforms of the 19th century, there were three successive Election Dinners held during Election Week, culminating in a Domum Ball. Originally these festivities occurred around Whitsun, as suggested by references in the song to early summer such as "See the year, the meadow, smiling" and "Now the swallow seeks her dwelling".[33]

The Trusty Servant: 19th-century print

A 1579 wall-painting of The Trusty Servant by the poet John Hoskins hangs outside the college kitchen. It depicts a mythical creature with the body of a man, the head of a pig, its snout closed with a padlock (to keep secrets), the ears of an ass (to hear his master calling), the feet of a stag (for swiftness), and holding working tools in his left hand.[39] It is accompanied by allegorical verses on the virtues that pupils of the college were supposed to have. The college arms are shown in the background.[40][41]

"The Trusty Servant" is also the name of a magazine published for Old Wykehamists.[42]

Manners makyth man
– William of Wykeham Motto of Winchester College and New College, Oxford

Broad of Church and broad of mind,
Broad before and broad behind,
A keen ecclesiologist,
A rather dirty Wykehamist.
– John Betjeman "The Wykehamist"

Leader in London's preservation lists
And least Wykehamical of Wykehamists{:}
Clan chief of Paddington's distinguished set,
Pray go on living to a hundred yet!
– John Betjeman "For Patrick" (about Patrick Balfour, 3rd Baron Kinross)

You can always tell a Wykehamist, but you can never tell him much
– Anon.

These Wykehamists have the kind of mind that likes to relax by composing Alcaics on the moving parts of their toy trains.
– Evelyn Waugh

Would you doubt the word of a Wykehamist?
– Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon

O, Eternal God, the Life and the Resurrection of all them that believe in Thee, always to be praised as well for the Dead as for those that be Alive, we give Thee most hearty Thanks for our Founder, William of Wykeham; and all other our Benefactors, by whose Benefits we are here brought up to Godliness and the studies of good Learning; beseeching Thee that we, well using all these Thy Blessings to the Praise and Honour of Thy Holy Name, may at length be brought to the Immortal Glory of the Resurrection, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
– "Thanksgiving for the Founder" as at present used on commemoration days

The college knew in 1982 of allegations of sadomasochistic abuse of boys and young men attending summer camps run by the Iwerne Trust in the 1970s, "to ensure that future members of the establishment were committed Christians" These were known as “Bash camps” after the nickname of their founder, E. J. H. Nash. Neither the college nor the Trust reported these bare-buttocks beatings to the police.[44] The perpetrator, John Smyth QC, now deceased was warned off and moved to Zimbabwe and then South Africa where abuse continued. Hampshire police are investigating and the college is cooperating.[45]

In 2005, Winchester College was one of fifty of the country's leading independent schools which were found guilty of running an unlawful price-fixing cartel by the Office of Fair Trading ("OFT").[46] All of the schools involved agreed to make penalty payments totalling three million pounds into a trust designed to benefit pupils who attended the schools during the period in which fee information was shared.[47] The OFT offered both Winchester College and Eton a fifty percent reduction in their penalties in return for their full cooperation with the investigation.[48] However, Jean Scott, the head of the Independent Schools Council, said that independent schools had always been exempt from anti-cartel rules applied to business, were following a long-established procedure in sharing the information with each other, and that they were unaware of the change to the law (on which they had not been consulted). She wrote to John Vickers, the OFT director-general, saying, "They are not a group of businessmen meeting behind closed doors to fix the price of their products to the disadvantage of the consumer. They are schools that have quite openly continued to follow a long-established practice because they were unaware that the law had changed."[49]

In 2017 Winchester College suspended a member of the staff for providing students with information about questions on an upcoming public exam.[50] The headmaster of Winchester confirmed that the school had treated the matter "very seriously" and that no boy was responsible for the "exam irregularity". The information was widely distributed resulting in their papers being disallowed.[51][52]

• Adams H. C., Wykehamica: A History of Winchester College: Oxford, London and Winchester 1878
• Cook, A. K., About Winchester College: London 1917
• Custance, R., (ed.), Winchester College: Sixth Centenary Essays: Oxford, 1982 ISBN 0-19-920103-X
• Dilke, Christopher, Dr Moberly's Mint-Mark: A Study of Winchester College: London 1965
• Fearon, W. A., The Passing of Old Winchester: Winchester 1924, repr. 1936
• Firth, J. D'E., Winchester College: Winchester 1961
• Kirby, T. F., Annals of Winchester College: London 1892
• Leach, Arthur F., A History of Winchester College: London 1899 (Review)
• Mansfield, Robert, School Life at Winchester College: 1866
• Rich, Recollections of the Two St. Mary Winton Colleges: 1883
• Sabben-Clare, James, Winchester College: Paul Cave Publications, 1981, ISBN 0-86146-023-5
• Stevens, Charles, Winchester Notions: The English Dialect of Winchester College: London, 1998
• Tuckwell, The Ancient Ways: Winchester Fifty Years Ago: 1893
• Walcott, Mackenzie E. C., William of Wykeham and his Colleges: 1852
• Charles Wordsworth, The College of St Mary Winton near Winchester: Oxford and London, 1848