Fettes College

History

To perpetuate the memory of his only son William, who had predeceased him in 1815, Sir William Fettes (1750–1836), a former Lord Provost of Edinburgh and a wealthy city merchant, bequeathed the then very large sum of £166,000 to be set aside for the education of poor children and orphans.

After his death the bequest was invested, and the accumulated sum was then used to acquire the 350 acres of land, to build the main building and to found the school in 1870. Fettes College opened with 53 pupils (40 were Foundation Scholars with 11 others boarding and 2 day pupils).

An all-boys school until 1970, when female pupils were first admitted for the final year, Fettes has been fully co-educational since 1983. Some journalists have described Fettes as "the Eton of the North". In 1988 the college sold 13 acres of its grounds for £3 million.

In 1998 Fettes was placed 4th in the Daily Telegraph league table of schools. In 1999 Fettes was placed 5th in the Sunday Times list of top mixed independent schools in the UK. In 2001 Fettes was declared "Scottish School of the year" by the Sunday Times.

Fettes pupils wear chocolate and magenta coloured blazers. It is said that Fettes "used to have a hearty, rugger-bugger, Caledonian image".

In 2009 Fettes won the Scottish Schools U18 Rugby Cup, at Murrayfield Stadium, for the first time.

In April 2009 Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) published a report on Fettes that evaluated the school as "excellent" in four out of five Quality Indicators and "very good" in the other.

Curriculum

Fettes College follows the English rather than Scottish education system. Pupils take GCSEs rather than Scottish Standard Grades and students now have the choice between A Levels and the new International Baccalaureate Diploma, but cannot take Scottish exams. Life at Fettes revolves around sports like rugby, hockey, cricket, golf, inter house tennis, fives and squash in the afternoons and the various clubs and societies like sub-aqua, shooting, judo, fencing, CCF (Combined Cadet Force), debating society, drama, chess, war gaming, model railway, music society, classic dancing club, house prep etc. in the evenings.

Fettes is an IB World School, one of only three schools in Scotland to have this status.

Boarding houses

There are currently nine houses: four for boys, four for girls and one for boys and girls. The houses are named after the estates of the first Trustees. The male houses are large period buildings which stretch from East Fettes Avenue to Carrington Road; two of the female houses are in the upper floors of the main College Building, the third is in a modern building in the eastern part of the grounds, and the new fourth girls' house is in the western part of the grounds and was finished in September 2012. The new house was built to reduce the pressure on the three girls' houses, which were accommodating more pupils than the four boys' houses. The Upper Sixth Boarding House, for both boys and girls in their last year at Fettes, opened in September 2007.

Boys

Girls

Boys and girls

History

Architecture

The college's main building by David Bryce (built 1863-9) blends the design of a Loire château with elements of the 19th century Scottish Baronial.

According to the school's website, the combination of styles and the site of the building led a modern architectural expert to praise it as "undeniably one of Scotland's greatest buildings".

The war memorial, a bronze figure of a fallen officer telling his men to "carry on" is by William Birnie Rhind, 1919.

Coat of arms

The school crest is a bee because it appears at the top of Sir William’s Coat of Arms and his Seal (for letters etc.) was also a Bee. When the College Arms were granted, they were Sir William’s with the colours reversed. Nowadays a more modern image is used but it is still the same Coat of Arms.

The bee is the origin of the school's motto 'Industria'. Its motif features prominently around the school. Beehives appear over the now-unused East and West doors of the College. A Bee in stone watches over the front of Malcolm House (1880) and the Prep School. A large bee fronts Kimmerghame (1928) and there is an original lead bee in the porch of the Headmaster’s Lodge.

Fettes tartan

A school tartan was designed in 1996 at the prompting of the Headmaster, Malcolm Thyne. It is a balance between the traditional kilt colours of green, blue and black and the Fettes colours of chocolate and magenta, with white stripes to add brightness.

The Fettes tartan is worn as a kilt by boys and as a kilt skirt by girls who do not have a family tartan. The first showing of the kilt was on the hockey/lacrosse tour of Australia and Japan in 1998.

Body Politic

In his first crime novel Body Politic, published in 1997, featuring detective Qunitilian Dalrymple and set in Edinburgh in 2020, Paul Johnston features Fettes College as a ruin, "blown to pieces in 2009" after it became a base for drug traders.

James Bond

While expanding on James Bond's back story, Ian Fleming wrote in You Only Live Twice that the agent had attended Fettes College, his father Andrew Bond's old school, after having been removed from Eton.

"Here the atmosphere was somewhat Calvinistic, and both academic and athletic standards were rigorous. Nevertheless, though inclined to be solitary by nature, he established some firm friendships among the traditionally famous athletic circles, at the school. By the time he left, at the early age of seventeen, he had twice fought for the school as a light-weight and had, in addition, founded the first serious judo class at a British public school."

Fleming based his character on Sir Alexander Glen, who died in 2004 and who was Winston Churchill's envoy to Belgrade during the Second World War.

While Fleming never claimed there was any source for the name of Bond other than James Bond, an American ornithologist, there was a real life James Bond who did attend Fettes. He was a frogman with the Special Boat Service, much as the fictional character Bond has a naval background. The school had his Who's Who entry copied and framed over the Second Master's office door in one of its main corridors. This has since been removed.

Captain Britain

Later to become Marvel Comics' Captain Britain, the British equivalent of Captain America, Brian Braddock was born to aristocratic parents in the town of Maldon, Essex. After falling upon hard times, Brian's family had lost their place in society, leaving Brian a lonely yet gifted child who immerses himself in the study of Physics.

A prodigious talent, Brian is selected to attend Fettes College where he excels in his studies. Following the death of his parents (Sir James and Lady Elizabeth) in what seemed to be a laboratory accident, Brian accepts a fellowship at Darkmoor nuclear research centre. When the facility is attacked by the Reaver, Brian tries to find help by escaping on his motorcycle. Although he crashes his bike in a nearly fatal accident, Merlyn and his daughter the Omniversal Guardian Roma appear to the badly injured Brian. They give him the chance to be the superhero Captain Britain. He is offered a choice: the Amulet of Right or the Sword of Might. Considering himself to be no warrior and unsuited for the challenge, he rejects the Sword and chooses the Amulet. This choice transforms Brian Braddock into Captain Britain, the champion of the British Isles.

Headmasters

There have only been nine headmasters of the school since it was founded:

Other notable staff

Notable Old Fettesians

Fettes College has produced many judges, lawyers, diplomats, military officers and politicians. In sport, its most notable alumni are on the rugby pitch. Four Old Fettesians have won the Victoria Cross and one the George Cross. The school has an old boys (and now girls) association known as the Old Fettesian Association (OFA).