Sedbergh School

History

Roger Lupton was born at Cautley in the parish of Sedbergh, then situated in Yorkshire, in 1456 and he provided for a Chantry School in Sedbergh in 1525 while he was Provost of Eton. By 1528, land had been bought, a school built, probably on the site of the present school library, and the foundation deed had been signed. Lupton's subsequent generous gift to the school's Sedbergh scholars of numerous scholarships and fellowships to St John's College, Cambridge succeeded in binding the school to St John's and gave the Cambridge college power over the appointment of Sedbergh's Headmasters. Lupton's statutes state that if any of the last four of the St John's College scholarships are left vacant for a year, unless for a reason approved by the provost and fellows of King's College Cambridge, the lands are to revert to Lupton's next of kin. Lupton added that he was certain that St John's would not be found negligent in so pious a work. It was this link to St John's that probably saved Sedbergh in 1546-48 when most chantries were dissolved and their assets seized by Henry VIII's Commission.

Sedbergh was re-established and re-endowed as a Grammar School in 1551 and the fortunes of the school in the coming centuries seem to have depended very much on the character and abilities of the Headmasters with pupil numbers fluctuating and reaching as low a total as 8 day boys in the early 19th century.

One particularly successful period was during the Headship of John Harrison Evans (1838–1861) who restored the prestige and achievements of the school and also funded the building of the Market Hall and Reading Room in the town. By 1857, the fellowships and scholarships which, since Lupton's time, had formed this link between the Sedbergh scholars and St John's College, ceased to be specially connected with Sedbergh. By 1860, the Lupton scholarships were combined and re-arranged under the name of the Lupton and Hebblethwaite Exhibitions.

A more independent Governing Body was established in 1874 in a successful bid to maintain Sedbergh's independence (amalgamation with Giggleswick had been suggested) and the first meeting took place in The Bull Inn in Sedbergh in December.

In the 1870s there was a tremendous amount of development and building work at Sedbergh, under the careful eye of the Headmaster, Frederick Heppenstall. This included the Headmaster's House (now School House), classrooms, a chapel and four other boarding Houses.

Henry George Hart took over as headmaster in 1880 and his tenure saw a new chapel built in 1897, the founding of the Old Sedberghian Club in 1897/98, the creation of the prefectorial system, the inaugural Wilson Run and the confirmation of the School motto "Dura Virum Nutrix" (Stern Nurse of Men).

In 1989 the number of boys in the school exceeded 500 for the first time, during the headship of Dr R G Baxter. Two years later a new coat of arms was granted to the school and it was visited by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and HRH the Duke of Edinburgh.

In 2005 the school was one of fifty of the country's leading private schools which were found guilty of running an illegal price-fixing cartel which had allowed them to drive up fees for thousands of parents. 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.

The governing body decided to open the school to girls in 1999 and the first girls were admitted in 2001. While the pupils are still predominantly boys, the number of girls attending has increased dramatically since the move into coeducation. The previous headmaster, Christopher Hirst, brought in the change to co-educational schooling from single-sex."

In January 2009 the Junior School moved from Bentham to join the senior school in Sedbergh. The Junior School has accommodation for both day and boarding boys and girls aged 3–13. On 26 February 2013, it was announced that the School would merge with Casterton School.

Despite its long history, The Good Schools Guide notes how “Sedbergh has faced up to the demands of the 21st Century but managed to retain traditional values and ethos. Its increasing numbers indicate parents very much approve. It rightly retains its formidable reputation on the sports field but away from it, provides a happy and caring environment for all its pupils regardless of ability or sports prowess.”

Junior School

The junior school was opened in 2002. It was previously located on the site of the former Bentham Grammar School after it was closed and Sedbergh took over its premises. In 2009 it moved to a site next to the main school. The school relocated again in September 2013 to the site of the former Casterton School for girls and is now known as Casterton, Sedbergh Preparatory School. Casterton was absorbed into Sedbergh, with senior girls transferring to the main school and junior pupils remaining at the Casterton campus. Boarding is offered to Junior School pupils aged 8 and above.

House System

Like most traditional public schools, the house system is incorporated with the boarding programme and most pupils are boarders. Most pupils at Sedbergh live in a boarding house, of which there are nine (six for boys, three for girls) chosen when applying to the school. It is here that he or she both sleeps and takes their daily meals. Day pupils are fully integrated into the programme and participate in activities. Houses compete amongst one another in school competitions such as debating, academic challenge (a University Challenge style quiz) and 'House Unison' (a traditional singing competition), and in particular in sporting competitions, for example the seriously contested Senior Seniors (Inter-House rugby) and the Wilson Run. Each house has an official name, most, illustrious Old Sedberghians or Headmasters.

Each house also has a set of house colours, which adorns the blazers of boys and girls in fifth form and below as well as on various house sports clothing. Pupils who throughout their school career demonstrate great service to their house are awarded their house colours by their Housemaster/ mistress. Sedberghians take immense pride in being awarded house colours which take the form of a scarf and a tie in the colours of their house.

The boarding houses also each have their own house magazine, named after the emblem of the house (for example, the magazine of Hart House is called The Jay), written and edited by the pupils within the house.

Sedbergh Junior School, now Casterton, Sedbergh Preparatory School, located in Casterton, near Kirkby Lonsdale, also has Cressbrook House for boarding boys and Beale for boarding girls.

Junior Houses

Cressbrook House (boys)

Beale House (girls)

Thornfield House (girls)

Clubs and societies

Sedbergh offers a wide range of outdoor pursuits as well as academic societies, most notably 'The Headmaster's Society' which is for Academic Scholars in the Sixth Form and chaired by the Headmaster. It is a forum for debate and discussion of major topical issues based upon papers delivered by the pupils and it also hosts talks given by intellectuals and public figures. In recent years the society has been addressed by the geneticist and sociologist Sir Tom Shakespeare, David Starkey, Lord Butler of Brockwell, Lord Bingham, Stephen O'Brien MP, David Lloyd (BBC foreign correspondent), Allan Little (BBC Special Correspondent), Tim Hames (Times columnist) and Nicholas Thomas Wright, the Bishop of Durham. The junior academic society is known as the 'Phoenix Society'.

Sedbergh's other academic club is the 'Dinner Debating Society' which meets twice termly for black-tie 'dinner debates' hosted by Housemasters. These are formal and exclusive affairs held over a three-course dinner, usually lit by candlelight. They comprise selected speakers drawn from each house; four debates take place on each occasion, which are then judged by three masters chosen by the chairman. Points are awarded to the winning pair, and there is a grand final at the end of the summer term where guests are invited to the dinner and to listen to the debates; the cup is awarded to the pair holding the most points at the end of the year.

Sedbergh's strongest and largest society is its Outdoor Pursuits Club that all pupils are encouraged to join. Activities organised in the local area by the Club include climbing, gill scrambling and pot-holing as well as mountain biking and fell walking. Pupils of all ages participate, learning new skills which are often useful for future involvements in The Duke of Edinburgh's Award, Combined Cadet Force and the overseas expeditions all organised from the School. The Club has in recent years run expeditions to Everest, Patagonia, Iceland, Norway, Baffin Island and Indonesia, and in 2009, to Nyasaland.

Sport

Sedbergh has a sporting tradition. Many Old Sedberghians have national caps and international tournament experience or have represented the school at county or national level.

Sedbergh is renowned for producing rugby football players, including the England captains Wavell Wakefield, John Spencer and Will Carling, and the world cup winner Will Greenwood. Sedbergh is represented in the Rugby Union Guinness Premiership at the time of writing by seven players at first or second team level in four different clubs. In November 2010 the school rugby team was named "School Team of the Year" at the Aviva Daily Telegraph School Sport Matters Awards after going the entire past season undefeated.

The school has hosted Cumberland and Minor Counties cricket matches on several occasions.

Anti-Assassins Rugby Club

The Anti-Assassins Rugby Club (A-As) was founded in 1950 when Sedbergh Old Boys, Stewart Faulds, Geoff and Arthur Kenyon were invited to pick a Northern team to play against the masters and Old Boys (The Assassins) of Sedbergh School. Now this invitational team plays as SpoonAAs (Spoon Anti-Assassins) as it raises funds for the Wooden Spoon charity.

Traditions

As with many English public schools, Sedbergh has developed its own traditions unique to the school.

The Wilson Run

One of the unique school traditions is the Wilson Run, also known as the "Ten Mile" or "The Ten"; it is named after Bernard Wilson (the first housemaster of Sedgwick House). The race distance is just over 10 miles (10 miles 385 yards), about 7 miles of which crosses the surrounding fells with the rest going along roads. Pupils must qualify to take part in the race over an 11-mile training route which covers most of the race route. The race is one of the longest, hardest and most gruelling school runs in the country and has been a tradition for well over 100 years. The run has been cancelled only three times, owing to epidemic (1936), snow (1947) and the foot and mouth epidemic. The record time by Charles Ernest Pumphrey for the race stood unbroken at 1 hour, 10 mins and 16 seconds for almost a hundred years until it was dramatically broken by Charles "Chuck" Sykes in 1993 with a time of 1 hour, 8 minutes and 4.1 seconds. The record was again dramatically broken in 2016 when John "Dabmaster" Campbell shaved a mere two seconds off the record, coming home in 1 hour, 8 minutes and 2 seconds.

School song

Winder is the school song for Sedbergh School, named after the fell that dominates the northern skyline of the school. The hill is a gateway to the Howgill Fells and school tradition dictates that pupils must climb it at least once during their time at Sedbergh.

The song is sung at all major school events such as the Wilson Run.

Chapel

This was built in Perpendicular style in 1895–97, and was designed by the Lancaster architects Austin and Paley.

Chapel organ

The school took delivery of a custom built, four manual organ console in November 2015, which replaced an organ that was acquired from the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Hucknall. This two manual instrument had been built by Nigel Church and moved to the school by David Wells in 1994. The instrument can now be found in a church in Lincolnshire.

War Cloisters

The Cloisters at Sedbergh are a monument to old boys and masters of the school killed during the Great War and the Second War. The Cloisters were dedicated in 1924 and then re-dedicated after the Second World War. The Cloisters were restored and partially rebuilt in 2005 and on Remembrance Day again re-dedicated after an appeal had raised over £130,000 for the necessary work.

The School also has a separate memorial for Old Sedberghians awarded the Victoria Cross, of which there are four. Brigadier Jock Campbell who won the Military Cross in the First World War and the Victoria Cross at the battle of Sidi Rezegh in the Second and was a member of Evans House. Three of the Old Sedberghian winners of the Victoria Cross were Old Sedgwickians, RJT Digby-Jones at Wagon Hill in 1900 in the Boer War, George Ward Gunn at Sidi Rezegh in 1941 and Kenneth Campbell over Brest Harbour, also in 1941.

Four Battle of Britain pilots attended the school. Plt Off Desmond Kay DFC & Bar, Plt Off Noel Benson were killed during the war, but Flt Lt Kenneth Stoddart AE, and Fg Off Alec Worthington survived.

Military

Major General Henry Templer Alexander DSO CBE, Army Commander

Lt-Colonel John William Balfour Paul, DSO, Scottish Officer of Arms

Major General "Jock" Campbell VC, a commander of the 7th Armoured Division and recipient of the Victoria Cross

Flying Officer Kenneth Campbell VC, Royal Air Force pilot and recipient of the Victoria Cross

General Sir Robert Archibald Cassels, GCB GCSI DSO, Indian Army officer

Colonel Freddie Spencer Chapman DSO, naturalist, mountaineer, explorer, war hero

Group Captain Walter Myers Churchill DSO DFC, Royal Air Force World War II

Air Commodore Duncan le Geyt Pitcher CMG, CBE, DSO, RAF, Army and Royal Air Force

Lieutenant Robert James Thomas Digby-Jones, Royal Engineers Officer and recipient of the Victoria Cross

Lieutenant-General Sir Andrew Richard Gregory CB, British Army officer

Second Lieutenant George Ward Gunn VC, Royal Horse Artillery Officer and recipient of the Victoria Cross

Major-General Jonathan David Shaw CBE, British Army officer and Assistant Chief of Defence Staff

Admiral Sir Jock Slater GCB LVO DL, First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff

General Sir John Stuart Mackenzie Shea, British Army officer

Wing Commander Kenneth Stoddart KCVO KStJ AE JP LLD, Battle of Britain Pilot

Major General Michael Walsh CB DSO, British Army Officer and Chief Scout

Politics and law

Sir Richard Aikens, Judge, Lord Justice of Appeal

William George Ainslie, ironmaster and MP for North Lonsdale 1885–1892

Glencairn Balfour Paul CMG, British Ambassador to Iraq, Jordan and Tunisia

Thomas Bingham, Baron Bingham of Cornhill, Senior Law Lord, former Master of the Rolls and Lord Chief Justice

Brendan Bracken, 1st Viscount Bracken, Politician, businessman and associate of Winston Churchill.

Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, Baron Bruce-Lockhart, OBE, Chairman of The Local Government Association

Sir Alan Chambré, English judge

Sir Hugh Cortazzi, Author, diplomat and prominent Japanologist

Sir John Robertson Dunn Crichton, High Court of Justice, London

Sir Maurice Dorman, Governor-General of Sierra Leone and Colonial Governor of Malta

Professor Sir David Alexander Ogilvy Edward, Scottish lawyer and academic, and former Judge of the Court of Justice of the European Communities

Edward John Eyre, Explorer and Governor of Jamaica.

Sir Russell Fairgrieve, politician

Sir Michael Bowen Hanley KCB, Head of MI5

Baron Haskel of Higher Broughton, Labour Party politician

Laurence Helsby, Baron Helsby, Head of British Civil Service

H. Montgomery Hyde, author and politician

Sir Alexander Lawrence, eminent City of London lawyer

John Lowther, 1st Viscount Lonsdale, First Lord of the Treasury and Lord Privy Seal

James Lupton, Baron Lupton, donated £2.5 million to the Conservative Party and received a peerage

James MacColl, politician

Sir Richard McCombe, Lord Justice of Appeal

Brian McConnell, Baron McConnell, Northern Ireland politician and member of the House of Lords

Stephen O'Brien, Conservative Party Member of Parliament

Sir John Otway, Lawyer and Royalist

Charles Peat, Politician and Principal Private Secretary to Winston Churchill

Sir Francis Powell, 1st Baronet, Conservative Party Member of Parliament

Sir Robert Rhodes James, politician and author

Sir Hilary Scott, President of the Law Society, London

Sir Michael Alexander Geddes Sachs, First English solicitor appointed as a High Court judge

Sir Giles Shaw, Politician. wrote his memoir, 'In The Long Run' published by The Memoir Club

Michael Shaw, Baron Shaw of Northstead, Politician

David Waddington, Baron Waddington, British Home Secretary, Lord Privy Seal, Leader of the House of Lords, Governor of Bermuda.

Robert Warnock, Circuit judge

Sir John Alexander Willison, Kt, OBE, QPM, Chief Constable, Worcestershire & West Mercia

David Wood, Circuit judge

Business

Montague Ainslie, Forester and businessman

Adam Applegarth, Ex-CEO of Northern Rock bank

Christian Bjelland, Norwegian businessman and chairman of the National Gallery of Norway

Sir Christopher Bland, Chairman of B.T. Group, businessman and former Chairman of the BBC

John Charlesworth Dodgson-Charlesworth, Colliery owner and M.P.

Sir Roger Gifford, Banker, Alderman and Lord Mayor of London

James Lupton, Lord Lupton of Lovington, Banker, Trustee of the British Museum

Sir Robert Minshull Shone, Economist and Public Servant

Sir (John) Hubert Worthington, English architect

The arts, literature and humanities

Alan Macfarlane, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Kings College, Cambridge.

Hordley Acres, Pioneering Irish broadcaster

John Arden, dramatist

Sir John Christopher Malcolm Baynes, 7th Bt., Author

Stephen Beard, Television actor

Simon Beaufoy, Screenwriter and 2009 Oscar winner for Slumdog Millionaire. Wrote The Full Monty.

Leonard Boden, Scottish portrait painter

Timothy Birdsall, Cartoonist

Colin Blakely, British character actor

J. B. Blanc, British film actor

James Walker né Chalton, member of The Royal Shakespeare Company and screen actor

William George Clark, English classical and Shakespearean scholar

Henry Wilkinson Cookson, five times Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge

Ernest Crawley, English schoolmaster, sexologist, anthropologist, sports journalist and exponent of ball games

Hugh I'Anson Fausset, Literary critic, biographer, poet and religious writer

Arthur Foxton Ferguson, English baritone, lecturer and German translator

Assheton Gorton, Production designer and Academy Award nominee

Mark Herman, Movie Director and Screenwriter

Tim Kevan, English writer and Barrister

Francis Llewellyn Griffith, British Egyptologist

Rab Bruce Lockhart, Scottish educationist and rugby union player

Phillip Mason, author of The Men Who Ruled India

Colin Matthew, historian and the first editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Jim Muir, BBC Middle East correspondent

Geoffrey Newland, actor

Nigel D. Oram, public servant, military officer and anthropologist

Barry Pain, journalist, poet and writer

Adam Rickitt, actor, singer, model and one time Conservative parliamentary candidate

F. A. Ridley, historian and Marxist

Simon Slater, musician and TV and film actor

Richard Smyth, English school headmaster and cricketer.

Archibald Strong, Australian scholar and poet

Richard Suart, Opera singer and actor

Mark Umbers, actor - theatre and film

Roger Vignoles, piano accompanist

John Dawson Watson, British painter and illustrator

James Wilby, actor

William John Woodhouse, classical scholar and author

A former teacher at the school was Henry Watson Fowler, the writer of A Dictionary of Modern English Usage

Science and exploration

Peter Addyman, British archaeologist

Wilfred Eade Agar, Anglo-Australian zoologist

Anthony Askew, Physician and book collector

Peter Barwick, English physician and author

George Birkbeck, doctor, academic, philanthropist and early pioneer in adult education

Christopher Chippindale, Stonehenge archaeologist

John Cranke, mathematician and mentor

John Dawson, Surgeon and mathematician

G. M. B. Dobson, Fellow of the Royal Society and President of the Royal Meteorological Society

Anthony Fothergill, Physician

John Fothergill, Physician, plant collector, philanthropist

Thomas Garnett, English physician and natural philosopher

Thomas Gaskin, Clergyman and academic, now known for contributions to mathematics

John Hammersley, British mathematician

John Haygarth, physician who discovered the benefits of segregating/quarantining sick patients

John Hymers, English mathematician, Fellow of The Royal Society and founder of Hymers College

John Walter Guerrier Lund, CBE FRS, English psychologist

Dr Digby McLaren, Geologist and palaeontologist

Edward Max Nicholson, Founder of the World Wildlife Fund

George Peacock, English mathematician

Sir Isaac Pennington, Physician

James Hogarth Pringle, Pioneer in surgical practice

Adam Sedgwick, Founder of modern geology

Edmund Sharpe, Architect and engineer

Robert Swan OBE, Polar explorer: the first man in history to walk to both the North and South Poles

Roger Cuthbert Wakefield, Surveyor

Robert Willan, the father of modern dermatology

Mark Alexander Wynter-Blyth, Lepidopterist and schoolmaster

Professor Ian Young OBE, Engineering innovator in medicine

Mark Ellison, Psychologist

Sport

David Barnes, Chairman of the Professional Rugby Players' Association

John Bruce Lockhart, Scottish cricketer and schoolmaster

Logie Bruce Lockhart, Scotland rugby union player and headmaster of Gresham's School

Will Carling OBE, England rugby union captain

Jordan Clark, Professional cricketer - fifth ever to score six sixes in an over

Simon Cross rugby union

Arthur Dorward, Scotland rugby union captain

Ewan Dowes rugby league

Phil Dowson England rugby union player

Rob Elloway, German rugby union international

Carl Fearns, rugby union

Tomas Francis, Wales Rugby Union international

Will Greenwood MBE, England rugby union player

Jamie Harrison, cricketer

Peter Kininmonth, Scotland rugby union captain

Mike McCarthy Ireland Rugby Union international

Mandy Mitchell-Innes, England cricketer

James Simpson-Daniel England rugby union player

John Spencer, England rugby union captain

David Tait, rugby union

Freddie Tait, golfer

Wavell Wakefield, 1st Baron Wakefield of Kendal England rugby union captain

Religion

John Barwick, Royalist churchman and Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral

Francis Blackburne, Archdeacon

Archbishop Henry Lowther Clarke, first Archbishop of Melbourne

Ingram Cleasby, Dean of Chester

Venerable John Duckett, Catholic priest and martyr

Sir George Fleming, Bishop of Carlisle

Thomas Kipling, Early churchman and academic

The Rt Rev Christopher Charles Luxmoore, Bishop of Bermuda

The Very Reverend William Stuart MacPherson, Dean of Lichfield

Right Reverend Christopher Mayfield, Bishop of Wolverhampton and Bishop of Manchester

Richard Parkinson, Canon of Manchester Cathedral, college principal, theologian and antiquarian

The Very Rev. Michael David Saville Peck, Dean of Lincoln

The Rt Rev Reginald Richard Roseveare, CBE, Anglican bishop

Rev James Maurice Wilson, Theologian and Astronomer

Right Reverend Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham and a leading British New Testament scholar.