Twyford School

History

Twyford 'states' that it is the oldest preparatory school in the United Kingdom. It moved to its present site in 1809, but there has been a school for boys in Twyford since the seventeenth century. During the nineteenth century buildings were added, including a large schoolroom built during the 1820s, and a mid-Victorian chapel. Original buildings are still used and form part of today's campus. Up until the end of the twentieth century the school only accepted boys; it is now co-educational.

Current status

A series of developments coincided with the admission of girls to the school, and have continued in recent years. Building works and improvements have been undertaken, although historic fabric has generally been retained. In addition the sports grounds and other outdoor facilities have been upgraded.

Twyford is a private school, and a registered charity. It accepts both day pupils and borders, and has a pre-preparatory school on the same campus for children below the age of five. It has capacity for around 400 pupils between the ages of 3 and 13, with boarders being accepted from the age of 8. It is a Church of England Christian school, where the Victorian chapel is still used for services. As of 2012 the Headmaster is Dr Steve Bailey.

Notable former pupils

Alumni are known as Old Twyfordians.

James Adams, cricketer;

Edwyn Alexander-Sinclair, GCB MVO JP DL;

William Andrewes, KBE CB DSO;

Terence Edward Armstrong, MA PhD;

Anthony Arnold CIE CBE MC;

Christopher Audland KCMG DL;

Ralph George Scott Bankes, barrister and Diocesan Chancellor;

Thomas Baring, 1st Earl of Northbrook;

Robert Biddulph, GCB GCMG;

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, poet;

Charles Cavendish Boyle, KCMG;

Courtenay Edmund Boyle, KCB;

Arthur Gilbert Bradley, author and biographer;

Walter Pipon Braithwaite, GCB. Chief of General Staff, Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, 1915;

Sir John Brickwood 1st Baronet, FZS FRGS;

Timothy Bridge, DL;

Marcus James Henry Bruce, CBE MIMechE;

Clarence Bruce, 3rd Baron Aberdare;

John Hamilton Bruce, CBE;

Victor Austin Bruce, first Briton to win the Monte Carlo Rally, 1926;

John Bruce-Gardyne, politician and journalist;

Richard Burne, FRS MA;

Robin Buss, film critic and translator;

Stephen Seymour Butler, CB CMG DSO;

George Tinline Button, Mayor of Oxford, 1929–30;

Arthur Christian, Admiral, CB MVO;

Edward Christian, businessman, Old Etonians association footballer (1879 FA Cup Final);

Walter Norris Congreve, VC KCB MVO DL;

Richard Crossman, OBE;

James William Archibald Cubitt, MBE FRIBA, architect and sculptor;

Reginald Salmond Curtis, KCMG CB DSO,

Edwin Heron Dodgson, clergyman and missionary, youngest brother of Lewis Carroll;

Freeman Dyson, physicist and mathematician;

Raleigh Gilbert Egerton, KCB KCIE CB, Brigade Commander, 1914–19;

John Vickers Eyre, JP DL, Major;

Anthony Eyton, RA;

George Rudolf Hanbury Fielding, DSO, Head of an SOE Unit in Southern Austria, 1944;

Alastair Cameron Forbes, book reviewer;

John Randle Minshull Ford, CB DSO MC, Lieut-Governor and GOC, Guernsey and Alderney District, 1940;

John Francis, cricketer;

Simon Francis, cricketer;

David Alfred William Gardiner, DL;

Thomas Garnier, Dean of Lincoln 1860-63. Member of the winning Oxford team in the first University Boat Race in 1829;

George Gater, GCMG KCB Kt DSO(Bar) DipEd, brigadier and administrator;

Hampden Charles Gordon, Under Secretary for Finance, Ministry of Supply, 1943-47. Author of “Old English Furniture”, 1948;

Eric Gore-Browne, Kt DSO OBE TD, merchant banker, Chairman of Trustees of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission;

Basil Gray, CB CBE MA FBA;

James G Gubbins, CB, Lieut-General King’s Own Dragoon Guards;

Roderick Haig-Brown, author;

Henry Hallam Parr, KCB CMG, Aide-de-Camp to Queen Victoria;

Guy Philip Harben, OBE;

James Richardson Drummond Hay, Colonel, JP;

Hugh Heywood, (Very Rev.) MA;

Arthur Fanshaw Hoare, CB VD MA, Lt-Colonel;

Thomas Hughes, lawyer, social reformer, and author of Tom Brown's School Days;

Douglas Hurd, former Member of Parliament and Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs;

Ernest Fraser Jacob, FBA FSA FRHistS MA Dphil, professor and author;

Arnold Kemball, CB DSO, Colonel, died leading attack on Vimy Ridge, World War I 1917;

George Kemball, Maj. Gen. KCMG CB DSO;

Charles Eamer Kempe, "Pre-Raphaelite” stained glass designer;

Colonel Charles Dickson King, Colonel, CBE;

Denis Seward Laskey, Ambassador, KCMG CVO;

Patrick David de Laszlo, Designer and Engineer;

John Latham, artist;

Charles Lock, MA DPhil, professor and author;

William James Maitland Longmore, CBE, banker;

William Loring, Admiral;

George Arthur Loveday, TD, Chairman of The Stock Exchange;

Dominic John Grehan Mahony, MBE, Pentathlete;

Charles Blachford Mansfield, MA, Chemist and traveller, supporter of The Working Men's College;

Cecil Winton Maudslay, CB MA, civil servant;

Lynch Maydon, naval officer, M.P.;

Mosley Mayne, GCB CBE DSO FRSA, General, ADC General to King George VI, 1944–47;

John Moncaster Ley Mitcheson, CMG OBE, Consul-General and Deputy High Commissioner;

Robert Campbell Moberly, DD, Chaplain-in-Ordinary to the Edward VII, 1901;

Alexander Moody-Stuart, Kt OBE MC;

Robert Moore, Great Britain and England Hockey player;

Leonard Frederick Morshead, CSI, Inspector General of Police - Bengal and Patna;

Robert Neville, KCMG CBE, Maj. Gen. Royal Marines, ADC to King George VI 1946-48, Governor and C-in-C, Bahamas 1950-53;

Desmond Norman, CBE CEng FRAeS, aircraft designer, co-founder of Britten Norman aircraft makers;

Laurence Oliphant, Rear Admiral;

Christopher Orlebar, Concorde pilot, author, and TV consultant;

John Philip Carrington Palmer, MC, Master of the Mercers’ Company;

Ralph Palmer, 12th Baron Lucas, Lord in Waiting (Government Whip), Owner of the Good Schools Guide;

Edmund Parker, Kt CBE, accountant, President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants;

Frederic James Parker, CB, Colonel;

Jonathan Frederic Parker, Kt PC, judge of the High Court of Justice, Chancery Division 1991-2000, Lord Justice of Appeal 2000-07;

Hubert Parry, Bt CVO JP MA MusD DCL LLD, composer most noted for the work "Jerusalem";

Hugh Pelham, PhD FRS FmedSci, Professor, Director of the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology;

Beauchamp Tyndall Pell, DSO, Lt. Col., Commanding Officer, 1st Battalion Queen’s (Royal West Surrey) Regiment;

Tom Pellereau, winner of The Apprentice series seven;

Michael Willcox Perrin, Kt CBE FRSC, creator of the first practical polythene;

Roland Erasmus Philipps, MC, writer and a leader of the Scout movement;

John Gore Phillimore, CMG, Managing Director of Baring Brothers, High Sheriff and Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Kent;

Alexander Pope, who attended the school from the age of eight, and was expelled when he ridiculed one of the masters in a satirical poem;

John Dickson-Poynder, PC GCMG GBE KCMG DSO JP MP, 1st Baron Islington, Governor of New Zealand, Chairman, Imperial Institute;

Peter Prentice, Vice President of the World Elephant Polo Association, Captain of Scotland Elephant Polo Team;

John Frederick Peel Rawlinson, JP PC KC LLD MP, barrister and Association Football goalkeeper, Privy Counsellor;

George Henry Mildmay Ricketts, CB for bravery during the Indian Mutiny of 1857;

Alister Robinson, British Singles and Doubles Rackets Champion 2002-2006, World Doubles Rackets Champion 2005-2007;

Walter Francis Roch, Member of Parliament for Pembrokeshire 1908-18;

Andrew Hamilton Russell, KCB KCMG DSO, New Zealand General, commanded evacuation of Anzac Forces at Gallipoli;

Richard Newton Rycroft, 7th Rycroft baronet, awarded Knight’s Cross of Royal Order of Phoenix with Swords (Greece);

Thomas David Salmon, solicitor, sssistant to Speaker’s Counsel, House of Commons;

James Gerald Sanger, MA MBA FCA, corporate businessman;

Claude Sclater, DSO(bar) FRGS, World War II Commander, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Fellow King's College Cambridge;

Philip Lutley Sclater, MA DSc PhD FRS, lawyer and zoologist;

George Limbrey Sclater-Booth, CB DL JP CC, 2nd Lord Basing, Lieutenant-Colonel 1st Dragoons;

Roscow George Shedden, DD, Anglican Colonial Bishop;

Evelyn Philip Shirley, LDD MP, Antiquary and genealogist, High Sheriff for Warwickshire;

Cosby Smallpeice, DSc, engineer and inventor of Smallpeice lathe;

Francis Jefferies Spranger, OBE, Lieutenant-Colonel;

Nigel Strutt, Kt TD DL, President Country Landowners’ Association, Deputy Lord Lieutenant Essex, High Sheriff Essex;

John William Brownlow Stuart, MBE MC, Lt.-Colonel;

Edward Fairfax Studd, baronet, Master of the Merchant Taylor’s Company;

Raymond Wilson Sturge, Chairman of Lloyd’s, President Insurance Institute of London;

Humphrey Sumner, MA FBA FR HistS, author, Warden of All Souls Oxford, Professor of History University of Edinburgh;

John Grenville St George Syms, OBE QC, Recorder of the Crown Court, Chairman, Agricultural Land Tribunal;

Christopher Trevor Caton Tatham, Chairman The Institute of Masters of Wine;

Humphrey Vincent Taylor, MA, Bishop;

Richard Chenevix Trench, DD DCL PC, Archbishop;

Ernest Charles Thomas Troubridge, KCMG CB MVO, Admiral;

Ernest Brian Trubshaw, CBE MVO FRAeS, Concorde test pilot;

Frederick James Tucker, PC Kt, Baron Tucker, Lord Justice of Appeal, presided over the trial of William Joyce (Lord Haw Haw);

Mark Tully, KBE, journalist and broadcaster;

John Eamer Turner, CMG DSO, Colonel;

Francis Randle Twemlow, DSO, Colonel, barrister;

Robin Udal, CBE, civil servant;

Gerald Richard Vernon, DD, bishop and dean;

Herbert Augustus Warren, MVO, Admiral;

Arthur Woollgar Verrall, LittD, classical scholar, professor, lawyer;

Christopher Wordsworth, MA, Chancellor of Salisbury Cathedral;

(George) Hugh Wyndham, KCMG CB JP, Ambassador.