Cheltenham College

Cheltenham College opened in July 1841, in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham College was the first major public school founded in Queen Victoria's reign (1837-1901). An Anglican foundation, it is known for its strong classical, military and sporting traditions. More than six hundred Old Cheltonians (former pupils) were killed in the service of their country in World War I, and more than 400 in World War II. (These statistics are recorded in the College chapel completed in the 1890s, which to a degree resembles King's College chapel in Cambridge and is one of the finest chapels of any English public school.) Most pupils are boarders, though there are also many day pupils. The school is now co-educational and maintains a formidable academic reputation, with the brightest pupils going on to Oxford and Cambridge universities. There is a also a prep school, Cheltenham College Junior School, most of whose pupils go on to the senior school.

Former pupils (Old Cheltonian Hall of Fame)

Distinguished alumni are many, and include for example:

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• Lindsay Anderson (film director, shot the 1968 film If.... chiefly at Cheltenham College);
• Sir Cecil Maurice Bowra;
• Andrew Cecil Bradley, (Shakespeare critic);
• Chris Bryant, Labour MP for Rhondda 2001–;
• Simon Danielli, Scottish international rugby player;
• Field Marshal Sir John Dill;
• Sir Charles Eliot, British ambassador to Japan, 1919–25;
• Sir John Bagot Glubb, Glubb Pasha, Commander of the Arab Legion, 1939–56;
• Adam Lindsay Gordon, poet
• Major-General Sir Colin Gubbins;
• William Edward Hartpole Lecky (Irish historian);
• John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn;
• Lt. Colonel Philip Neame, VC, DSO, gold medallist for rifle shooting (Olympics, Paris, 1924);
• Rageh Omah (BBC world affairs correspondent);
• Sir Charles Scott, British ambassador to Imperial Russia, 1898–1904;
• Patrick White (Nobel prize-winning novelist);
• Edward Adrian Wilson (polar explorer, died with Robert Falcon Scott in 1912). A painting of Cheltenham by Wilson is in the Town Museum. A photograph of him is there too.