Rugby School - Houses of Rugby School, Alumni of Rugby School, Rugby School slang

School in Rugby, Warwickshire, C England, UK, founded in 1567 as a Free Grammar School for the boys of Rugby and Brownsover. Originally located in the centre of the town it moved to its present site in 1750.

Rugby School, located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, is one of the oldest public schools in England and is perhaps one of the top co-educational boarding schools in the country. It is one of the nine "great" English public schools as defined by the Public Schools Act 1868.

Since Lawrence Sheriff lived in Rugby, the school was intended to be a free grammar school for the boys of that town. Gradually, however, the nature of the school shifted to become fee-paying, and so a new school – Lawrence Sheriff Grammar School – was founded to continue Lawrence Sheriff's original intentions; In addition, Rugby School continues to offer a large number of scholarship places for outstanding students from the local community, who come from state (maintained) primary schools in the immediate vicinity of Rugby.

The core of the school (which contains School House, featured in Tom Brown's Schooldays) was completed in 1815 and is built around the Old Quad (quadrangle), with its fine and graceful Georgian architecture. Especially notable rooms are the Upper Bench (an intimate space with a book-lined gallery), the Old Hall of School House, and the Old Big School (which makes up one side of the quadrangle, and was once the location for teaching all junior pupils).

Houses of Rugby School

The school community is divided into houses:

Boys:

Cotton House Kilbracken Michell House School Field School House Sheriff House Town House Whitelaw House

Girls:

Bradley House Dean House Griffin House Rupert Brooke House Southfield House Stanley House (6th form) Tudor House

Junior School:

Marshall House

Alumni of Rugby School

Notable Old Rugbeians (ORs) include:

Sir Alexander John Arbuthnot, KCSI, writer Matthew Arnold, Victorian poet and critic Robert Barton, Irish lawyer and statesman who worked on the Anglo-Irish Treaty William Bateson, English geneticist Charles Bowen, 1st Baron Bowen, a lawyer and judge Humphry Bowen, British botanist and chemist Rupert Brooke, English poet Lewis Carroll, British writer, famous for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Neville Chamberlain, politician and former Prime Minister Arthur Hugh Clough, English poet William Webb Ellis, the credited inventor of rugby football Harry Paget Flashman, fictional Victorian anti-hero Henry Watson Fowler, English lexicographer, author of Fowler's Modern English Usage The Viscount Goschen, Liberal Unionist statesman and businessman Dan Haigh Bassist in the rock band Fightstar Robert Hardy, English stage and film actor Sir Charles Hawtrey, Victorian era stage actor Anthony Horowitz, English writer Fenton John Anthony Hort, English theologian Alan Howarth, Baron Howarth of Newport, British Politician Marmaduke Hussey, former BBC Chairman Hugh Johnson (wine writer), British wine writer John Arthur Godley, 1st Baron Kilbracken, British civil servant Tom King, Baron King of Bridgwater, British politician Walter Savage Landor, English writer and poet The Right Hon The Lord Lang of Monckton, British politician Wyndham Lewis, British painter and author Crawford Murray MacLehose, Baron MacLehose of Beoch, the 25th Governor of Hong Kong William Charles Macready, English stage actor David Marr, British psychologist Robin Milford, British musician Andrew Mitchell, British Conservative politician and Shadow Secretary of State for International Aid and Development Sydney Nicholson, British musician Hubert Parker, Baron Parker of Waddington, Lord Chief Justice of England 1958-1971 Luke Pebody, British mathematician and child prodigy Arthur Ernest Percival, British general who surrendered Singapore to the Japanese Arthur Ransome, British children's author Andrew Rawnsley, British political journalist Sir Harry Ricardo, a foremost designer of the internal combustion engine and patentee of the two-stroke engine Salman Rushdie, author and essayist, Booker Prize winner for Midnight's Children Adnan Sami, Indian Singer, Actor, and Composer George Mitchell Seabroke, British astronomer Augustus Shears, clergyman who translated part of the Prayer Book into Burmese Henry John Stephen Smith, Irish mathematician J.K. Stanford, English author The Earl of Derby, prominent 19th century statesman Richard Henry Tawney, one of Britain's leading Christian Socialist thinkers and writers, and a prominent British Economic and Social Historian William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury during the Second World War, and an influential radical thinker, a father of the post-war Welfare State Andrew Turner, British politician William Henry Waddington, French statesman (eventually Prime Minister of France) Alex Westaway, Guitarist and singer in the rock band Fightstar Tom Wills, the inventor of Australian rules football Pete Kember, Spacemen 3

Rugby School slang

In common with most English public schools, Rugby has its own argot, a few words of which are listed below. Famous 80's Sun headline after yet another dope bust Hall Junior House prefect Levee or Pig Senior school prefect Old Guard Sports team of teachers Pig Hut run Physical punishment of running to Levee hut Pontines 2nd XV rugby pitch Sixth House prefect Speckle To sack someone from being a House Sixth Stodge School tuck shop Stripe To sack someone from being a Levee (the Levee tie is striped) Tanner Day-boy (from 'Town House') Tosh The old 66 2/3 yard open-air swimming pool, also used as a skating rink in winter, unwisely demolished by the School Governors in 1989 and replaced with a basket-ball court and a smaller indoor swimming pool XXII (the twenty-two) Second school cricket team