Birkenhead School

Birkenhead School is an independent school located on the Wirral, in the Northwest of England. Founded in 1860, for boys from aged three to eighteen. In 2000 the sixth-form became co-educational. Entrance is via the Prep School, by open competitive examination at 11, by Common Entrance at 13, or by interview at the Sixth Form level.

Notable Old Birkonians

• Charles Harrison Townsend (1851–1928), architect
• Cecil Reddie (1858–1932), Founder and Headmaster of Abbotsholme School, 1889–1927
• Leslie Brooke (1862–1940), children's writer and illustrator
• Wynfrid Duckworth (1870–1956), anatomist, and Master of Jesus College, Cambridge, 1940–1945
• F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead (1872–1930), barrister, Attorney-General, 1916–1919, Lord Chancellor, 1919–1922, and Secretary of State for India, 1924–1928
• Douglas Laurie (1874–1953), Professor of Zoology, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, 1922–1940, and Founding Honorary General Secretary, Association of University Teachers, 1919–1953
• Lieutenant-General Sir Wilfrid Lindsell (1884–1973), Quartermaster-General, British Expeditionary Force, 1939–1940, Lieutenant-General i/c Administration, Middle East, 1942–1943, and Principal Administration Officer, Fourteenth Army, 1943–1945
• Sir Melvill Jones (1887–1975), Francis Mond Professor of Aeronautical Engineering, University of Cambridge, 1919–1952
• Martin Percival Charlesworth (1895–1950), classicist
• Geoffrey Webb (1898–1970), Slade Professor of Fine Art, University of Cambridge, 1938–1949, and Secretary, Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1948–1962
• Sir Gordon Willmer (1899–1983), Lord Justice of Appeal
• Andrew Irvine (1902–1924), mountaineer who attempted the summit of Mount Everest with George Mallory
• Nevill Willmer (1902–2001), Professor of Histology, University of Cambridge, 1966–1969
• Brigadier Sir Philip Toosey (1904–1975), merchant banker, Territorial Army officer, and senior Allied officer during the building of the bridge on the River Kwai
• Henry Pelling (1920–1997), historian
• Air Chief Marshal Sir John Aiken (1921–2005), Director of Training, Royal Air Force, 1971–1973, and Commander, British Forces in Cyprus, 1973–1976
• Gruffydd Evans, Baron Evans of Claughton (1928–1992), lawyer and politician
• Clifford Embleton (1931–1994), Professor of Geography, King's College London, 1982–1994)
• William Wade, Baron Wade of Chorlton (born 1932), businessman, and Joint Treasurer of the Conservative Party, 1982–1990
• Donald Nicholls, Baron Nicholls of Birkenhead (born 1933), Vice-Chancellor, High Court of Justice, 1991–1994, and Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, 1994–
• Andreas Whittam Smith (born 1937), journalist and co-founder of The Independent
• Timothy Mason (1940–1990), historian
• Alan Rouse (1951–1986), mountaineer, and first Briton to reach the summit of K2