What is Clifton College?

Clifton College
Motto	Spiritus Intus Alit (Latin: The spirit nourishes within)
Established	1862
Type	Independent
Headteacher	Mark J Moore
Location	College Road Bristol England
Students	c.650
Ages	3 to 18
Website	Clifton College website
Coordinates:

Clifton College (grid reference ST569737) is a coeducational public school in Clifton, Bristol, England. It was founded in 1862. The school's motto is Spiritus Intus Alit (meaning: The spirit nourishes within).

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

There are currently around 650 children in the Upper School of which about a third are girls, and in 2004 there were plans to increase the size of the school. At the start of the 2004 - 2005 school year, a new boarding and day house for girls were opened.

School Fees From September 2006:

• Full Boarder £8,025.00 per term
• Day Boarder (4 nights) £7,215.00 per term
• Day Boarder (3 nights) £6,995.00 per term
• Day Pupil £5,415.00 per term
• Occasional Boarding £43.00 per night

Houses

The Upper School boys' houses are:

• School House (boarding)
• Wiseman's House (boarding)
• Watson's House (boarding)
• Moberly's House (boarding)
• East Town (day)
• South Town (formally, 'The South Town') (day)
• North Town (day)

(Polack's House, which took Jewish boys only, has recently closed)

The girls' houses are:

• Worcester House (boarding)
• Oakeley's House (boarding)
• West Town (day)
• Hallward's House (predominantly day with some boarders)

Before 1987, Clifton was a boys-only school, and was predominantly boarding.

Buildings & grounds

The first school buildings

The original College buildings were designed by the architect Charles Hansom (the brother of Joseph Hansom); his first design was for Big School and a proposed dining hall. Only the former was actually built and a small extra short wing was added in 1866 – this is what now contains the Marshal’s office and the new staircase into Big School. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade II listed building.^[1]

Hansom was called back in the 1870’s and asked to design what is now the Percival Library and the open-cloister classrooms. This project was built undertaken in two stages and largely completed by 1875 – although the Wilson Tower was not built until 1890.(grade II listed.^[2]) Other buildings were added as follows:

• By 1875 Brown’s, Dakyns’ and Oakley’s had been opened along with what is now 32 College Road – originally this functioned as accommodation for bachelor masters.
• Three fives courts (1864),
• The original san’ (1865),
• Gymnasium (1867),
• Two swimming pools (1869),
• An open rackets court (1872)
• The present workshop (1873).
• The Chapel (1867); this was built to Charles Hansom’s original design, but was moved from the intended site (which is now the gym’). As built, the Chapel was a narrow aisle-less building, and just the width of its present west end. It was the gift of Mrs Guthrie, the widow of Canon Guthriel. Hansom was given permission “to quarry sufficient stone from the College grounds for the purposes of the Chapel building”. Unfortunately, Mrs Guthrie died before the building work was completed.

The Chapel building was licensed by the then Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol on Saturday, 15th June, 1867. It is now grade II* listed.^[3]

The school’s present buildings have evolved in four main phases:

• The early Percival years, when the nucleus of the school buildings was laid down.
• The 1880s. In 1880, the school’s East Wing was completed as far as the staircase – this had yet to be linked to the library by the Wilson Tower) and added a science lecture-room (which is the reason for the curious 'stepped' windows that are found there), a laboratory and several classrooms.

In 1886, a porters' lodge and what is now the staff common room were also added; this was effected by enlarging what had been the original science school. On the ground floor was found the school tuck-shop and above this (in what is now the Upper Common Room) was a drawing-school. The day boys were provided for in Town Rooms for both North and South Town. The East Wing was then completed by carrying it beyond the staircase and then creating an additional classroom at each ed. The ground-floor classroom (then Room 12) is now known as the "Newbolt Room" and has been furnished by the Old Cliftonian Society, who still use it for reunions. Between 1890 and the start of the first world war there were added the new Music School (1897) and the re-building of the Chapel (1910).

• The 1920s. Dr John King whose headmastership spanned the war years, had little scope for building after 1914, but he did oversee did see the development of the playing fields at Beggar's Bush, the building of the Memorial Arch, the neo-classical cricket pavilion, and the opening of the new San’ in Worcester Roadl.

On 3rd December, 1918, the former headmaster John Percival died and was buried in the vault of the school Chapel . In 1921 a special memorial chapel was created and consecrated about his tomb. Norman Whatley, was the headmaster between 1923 and 1938; his tenure saw the building of the Science School (on the site of the previous Junior School) and the opening of the Preparatory School. Also at this time the school acquired Hugh Easton's new east windows which can still startle one today. The windows also contain the hint of a joke: beneath the representation of the heavenly Jerusalem, is depicted a game of cricket on the Close - with one of Whatley's sons taking part!

In 1965-67 the new theatre was built by the architects Whicheloe and MacFarlane.^[4]

• The 1980s. In 1982, there was the construction, on the site of the old swimming pools, the new Sports Hall, remedial gym’ and a new covered swimming pool – something that would have been appreciated by the generations of boys forced to use the old outdoor Victorian pool and its outdoor covered changing cubicles.

The 1980s also saw the building of the Coulson Centre which links together two previously separate classroom blocks, at Muir and Birdwood houses. As a result of the improvements in modern medicine, the Sanitorium in Worcester Road was unnecessarily large for the school's needs, and so the old pre-1921 Sanatorium on the Close has been refitted to serve this purpose, whilst the Worcester Road san’ has been refitted as the new Headmaster’s house.

The memorial arch

At the side of College Road, opposite what was Dakyns' boarding house (now East Town and North Town), is the college's memorial arch designed by Charles Holden, which commemorates teachers and pupils who died in the two world wars. It is now grade II listed.^[5] The college's buildings, mainly School House, were used as the main HQ where the D-Day landings were devised and planned. The college played a major part in both World Wars; Field Marshal Douglas Haig was an Old Cliftonian who went on to command the British armed forces in the First World War. Through the memorial arch and in front of School House is a life-size statue of Haig.^[6] At the edge of the quad is a memorial to those killed in the South African Wars.^[7]

Cricket pitches

On one of the college's cricket pitches, now known as Collins' Piece, the highest-ever cricket score was reached in June 1899, in the School House match between Clark's House v 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. He was not the first Clifton schoolboy to hold this record: in 1868 Edward Tylecote, who went on to help England reclaim the Ashes in 1882/3 was a previous holder, with 404 not out in a game between Classicals and Moderns.

The Close

The college ground, known as the Close, played an important role in the history of cricket, and witnessed 13 of W G Grace's first-class hundreds for Gloucestershire in the County Championship. Grace's children attended the college.

The Close featured in the famous poem by O.C. Sir Henry Newbolt - Vitaї Lampada:-

There's a breathless hush on the Close to-night

Ten to make and the match to win

A bumping pitch and a blinding light,

An hour to play, and the last man in.

And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat.

Or the selfish hope of a season's fame,

But his captain's hand on his shoulder smote

"Play up! Play up! And play the game!"

The sand of the desert is sodden red-

Red with the wreck of the square that broke

The gatling's jammed and the colonel dead,

And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.

The river of death has brimmed its banks,

And England's far, and Honour a name,

But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks-

"Play up! Play up! And play the game!"

This is the word that year by year,

While in her place the school is set,

Every one of her sons must hear,

And none that hears it dare forget.

This they all with a joyful mind

Bear through life like a torch in flame,

And falling fling to the host behind -

"Play up! Play up! And play the game!"

Clifton has a commemoration arch, known by pupils as 'mem arch', with the names of all of pupils and teachers who died in the first and second world wars. Current pupils, as a sign of respect, refrain from talking and remove their hands from their pockets when passing through the memorial. During the second world war the school was evacuated to a hotel in Cornwall and the Americans used the impressive buildings for the planning of their role in the war. The Omaha D-day beach landings were planned in School House, and as a thank you the school was given an American flag, which is now flown on July 4 every year from the Wilson Tower.

The Marshal

Unusually, the college employs a master called "The Marshal", whose only job is to enforce discipline, attendance at classes and other school rules (such as dress code, drinking and hair length). Mr French, a well known Marshal from the 1970s, once upbraided a boy called Bascombe, with the classic "'ere Bascombe-lad, what's your name?". Many public houses near the school had photos of the Marshal, who was permanently banned so as to not discourage the attendance of pupils who were regular customers. The current Marshal is, perhaps fittingly, called Mr Cross.

By tradition of the college, a Marshal's name is not added to the plaque listing the names of the school's Marshals until after his death.

School slang

• Big School- The school canteen
• Big Side- 1st and 2nd XV rugby pitches
• Little Side- all other rugby pitches
• The Close- the grass in front of the school (inc. big and little side pitches)
• Praepostor (praep)- school prefect
• Congers- (short for congregation) school congregational hymn singing
• The Grubber- the school stationers (historically, the school tuck shop)
• The Pens - School cross country races (long pen and short pen)
• Holder of the Big Side Bags- Captain of the School Cross Country Team
• Exeat- permission for boarders to go home at the weekend after lessons and sport
• Rustication- a milder form of suspension that isn't listed on a student's permanent record
• Yearlings- the youngest year in the (upper) school
• The Percy- the (Percival) library
• Terriers- an activity programme for the 3rd form (year 9) where they learn life skills.
• 'Coal Up'- an old expression, meaning 'hurry up'.

Religious community

Like many English public schools, Clifton has regular chapel services and a focus on Christianity, but for the last 125 years there has also been a Jewish boarding house (Polack's); complete with kosher dining facilities and synagogue for boys in the Upper School: this was the last one 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 close due to the low numbers of boys in the house (although many pupils were turned down this year).

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.

Alumni

Clifton's alumni include:

Politics, Law and Business

• (see also Nobel Prize winners below)
• John Wyndham Beynon, entrepreneur of the fossil fuel and metals industry
• Julian Richer (entrepreneur) owner of Richer Sounds
• Walter Owen Bentley, founder of "Bentley cars"
• Hugo Cunliffe-Owen,businessman.
• Right Hon Leslie Hore-Belisha, Minister of War- 1937-40
• John Henry Whitley, politician
• J.H.Whitley, MP, speaker of the House of Commons
• Edwin Samuel Montagu, politician
• Charles Patrick Fleeming Jenkin (Baron Jenkin of Roding), politician.
• Baron Wolfson. British businessman and conservative politician.
• Roger Hollis KBE, CB, journalist, secret-service agent and director general of MI5.
• Hector Sants, Head of the Financial Services Authority.
• Sir John Biggs-Davison, conservative politician.
• James Allen (New Zealand), politician.
• John Henry Whitley, politician.

Art and Poetry

• Roger Fry, artist
• Henry Newbolt, poet
• Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch, poet (pseudonym “q”).

Music, Drama and Entertainment

• Monty Python actor John Cleese (A persistent school legend has it that he was expelled for a humorous defacing of school grounds. In the story, Cleese used painted footsteps to suggest that the statue of General Haig had got down off his stand and gone to the toilet. Though the prank may indeed have happened, Cleese was not expelled for it.)
• Sir Michael Redgrave, actor
• John Inverdale, TV presenter http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/presenters/inverdale_biog.shtml
• Roger Alton, editor of The Observer
• Trevor Howard, actor
• Simon Russell Beale CBE, actor
• Clive Swift, actor (e.g Keeping up Appearances)
• David Swift, actor
• Sir David Willcocks, conductor
• Alan Napier - actor
• John Houseman, actor.
• Boris Ord, conductor
• Peter Tranchell, composer
• Chris Serle, T.V Presenter.
• Martina Topley-Bird, musician.
• Simon Shepherd, actor
• Roger Michell, film & theatre director
• Rowley Leigh, cookery correspondent for the FT Weekend
• Ashley Coates, film-maker and writer.

Literature

• Joyce Carey, Writer
• Geoffrey Household, author
• Tim Mackintosh-Smith, author and television presenter
• L. P. Hartley, author
• Clifford Henry Benn Kitchin, author

Military

• Field Marshal Douglas Haig
• Field Marshal William Riddell Birdwood, 1st Baron Birdwood
• Colonel Sir Francis Edward Younghusband, British Army officer, explorer, and spiritualist
• Sir Hugh Elles KCB KCMG KCVO DSO, British General.
• Sir Charles Bonham-Carter, General of the Territorial Army and Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Malta.
• Lieutenant Colonel Oswald Watt, Australian military aviator during the World War IFirst World War]]

Victoria Cross Holders

Seven Old Cliftonians have won the Victoria Cross, one in the South African War (Boer War), five in the First World War 1914-18 (one of these five actually being won in 1919 serving in the North Russia Relief Force), one in the Second World War, 1939-45.^[8]

• Victoria Cross
• South African War (Boer War)
• Sergeant Horace Robert Martineau VC (at Clifton 1888-1889) (1874 - 1916). He later achieved the rank of Lieutenant.
• First World War
• Captain Theodore Wright, VC (at Clifton 1897-1900) (1883 - 1914)
• Lieutenant Cyril Gordon Martin, VC, CBE, DSO (at Clifton 1910-1910) (1891 - 1980). He later achieved the rank of Brigadier.
• Lieutenant Edward Donald Bellew, VC (at Clifton 1897-1900) (1882 - 1961). He later achieved the rank of Captain.
• Captain George Henry Tatham Paton, VC, MC (at Clifton 1909-1914) (1895 - 1917)
• Russian Civil War
• Commander Claude Congreve Dobson, VC, DSO (at Clifton 1893-1900) (1885 - 1940)
• Second World War
• Lance-Corporal John Pennington Harman, VC, (at Clifton 1923-1925) (1914 - 1944)

Science & Medicine

• (see also Nobel Prize winners below)
• Sir Richard Threlfall, physicist and chemical engineer
• Conrad Hal Waddington, developmental biologist, paleontologist, geneticist, embryologist and philosopher
• Reginald Punnett, British geneticist.
• Charles Alfred Coulson, chemist.

Sport

• James Kirtley, England cricketer
• Matt Windows, England cricketer
• A. E. J. Collins, World record holder for the highest individual cricket innings
• R. P. Keigwin, academic, England cricketer and hockey player
• Edward Tylecote, England cricketer
• William Brain, English cricketer and football player.

Academe

• Martin Lings, scholar
• Jose, Arthur Wilberforce, historian and journalist
• Godfrey Goodwin, scholar
• Linsdall Richardson, academic
• Herbert Paul Grice, philosopher
• John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart, Philosopher
• Simon Blackburn, philosopher- founder of quasi-realism.
• Norman O. Brown, Author, philosopher
• Sir Charles Harding Firth, historian

Other

• Walter Gibb, World record holder (altitude)
• Richard Stott, Journalist

Nobel Prize winners

• John Kendrew (Chemistry)
• John Hicks (Economics)
• Nevill Mott (Physics)

Headmasters

Listed in order of appointment - with the most recent listed last:

• John Percival (Bishop of Hereford)
• Canon James Maurice Wilson (1879 - 1890)
• Canon Michael George Glazebrooke
• Rt Rev Albert Augustus David (Bishop of Liverpool)
• Dr John David King
• Norman Whatley
• Bertrand Leslie Hallward
• Sir Henry Desmond Pritchard Lee
• Nicholas Geoffrey Lempriere Hammond
• Stephen John McWatters
• Stuart Morrison Andrews
• Andrew Hugh Monro
• Dr Stephen Spurr
• Mark J Moore

Notable former masters

• R. P. Keigwin
• E. V. Rieu

Clifton College Register

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 definitive set of records held for Clifton College in Bristol. The Register is kept and maintained by the Old Cliftonian Society. The Old Cliftonian Society [OCS] is the Society for the alumni of Clifton College - whether pupils or staff. The OCS organises regular reunions at the school and publishes a regular newsletter for alumni.

This important record has been maintained unbroken from the very start of the school in 1862 and lists every pupil, master and headmaster. Each person is allocated a unique and consecutive school number - and for masters and headmasters the number is prefixed with either an M or HM as appropriate. 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 periodically published by the Old Cliftonian Society; at present there are three available volumes:

* 1862 - 1947

* 1948 - 1977

* 1978 - 1994

First entries in the Register:-

Pupils

• P1. Sept 1862 - Francis Charles Anderson (b 14 Nov 1846 - d 1881)

Masters

• M1. Sept 1862 - Rev T. H. Stokoe (educated at Uppingham; Exhibitioner of Lincoln College, Oxford; left 1863; Preacher of Gray's Inn; d 1903)

The early years

• Numbers of pupils in the school

* 1862 - 69

* 1863 - 195 (including the new junior school)

* 1864 - 237

* 1865 - 258

* 1866 - 278

• Heads of School

* 1862 - H. W. Wellesley

* 1863 - A. W. Paul

Southern Railway School's Class

The School lent its name to the twentyeighth steam locomotive (Engine 927) in the Southern Railway's Class V of which there were 40. This Class was also known as the Schools Class because all 40 of the class were named after prominent English public schools. 'Clifton', as it was called, was built in 1934.The locomotive bearing the School's name was withdrawn in the early 1960s.

External links

• Official school website
• Pictures of Ashtead Potters Limited Commemorative wares for the College - source www.ashteadpotters.com

References

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

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