Blundell's School

Blundell's School
Blundell's School
Address
	Blundells Road; Tiverton, Devon, EX16 4DN; England
Coordinates	50°54′23″N 3°27′58″W / 50.906499°N 3.466174°W
Information
Type	Public school; Private day and boarding school
Motto	Pro Patria Populoque; (For the country and the people)
Established	1604; 420 years ago
Founder	Peter Blundell
Department for Education URN	113575 Tables
Chairman of the Governors	Nigel Hall
Head	Bart Wielenga
Staff	360
Gender	Co-educational
Age	3 to 18
Enrolment	c. 615 in senior school; c. 251 in preparatory school
Houses	Francis House (Boys) ; Gorton House (Girls) ; North Close (Girls) ; Old House (Boys) ; Petergate (Boys) ; School House (Years 7 and 8) ; Westlake (Sixth Form)
Colour(s)	Red & White
Former pupils	Old Blundellians
Website	http://www.blundells.org

Blundell's School is an independent co-educational boarding and day school in the English public school tradition, located in Tiverton, Devon. It was founded in 1604 under the will of Peter Blundell, one of the richest men in England at the time, and moved to its present site on the outskirts of the town in 1882.

While the full boarding fees are £45,750 per year,^[1] the school offers several scholarships and bursaries, and provides flexi-boarding. The school has 360 boys and 225 girls, including 117 boys and 85 girls in the Sixth Form, and is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.

History

Peter Blundell, one of the wealthiest merchants of Elizabethan England, died in 1601, having made his fortune principally in the cloth industry. His will set aside considerable money and land to establish a school in his home town "to maintain sound learning and true religion". Blundell asked his friend John Popham, Lord Chief Justice of England, to carry out his wishes, and appointed a number of local merchants and gentry as his first trustees (known as feoffees). The position of feoffee is no longer hereditary, but a number of notable local families have held the position for a considerable period: the first ancestor of the current chairman of the governors to hold that position was elected more than 250 years ago, and the Heathcoat-Amory family have a long tradition of service on the Governing Body, since Sir John Heathcoat-Amory was appointed in 1865.

The Old Blundell's School was built to be much larger and grander than any other in the West Country, with room for 150 scholars and accommodation for a master and an usher.^[2] The Grade 1 listed building is now in the care of the National Trust and the forecourt is usually open to visitors. One ex-Blundell's boy was the writer R. D. Blackmore, who in the novel Lorna Doone set the stage for a fight between John Ridd and Robin Snell on the Blundell's triangular lawn.^[3]

Peter Blundell's executors established links with Balliol College, Oxford, and with Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and large sums were settled to provide for scholarships for pupils of the school to attend those colleges.^[4]

The prep school St Aubyn's was moved to the Blundell's campus in 2000,^[5] taking over the day-boy house Milestones and the Sanatorium, and was renamed Blundell's Prep School. It has about 250 pupils aged from three years to eleven. The headmaster is Andy Southgate.

2024 attempted murder

In 2024, a pupil at the school was found guilty of attempted murder of two other students and one of the staff using a hammer; he had been 16 at the time of the assaults in 2023.^[6]^[7] The Guardian said that "a troubling picture emerged of aspects of life at the 400-year-old school", with bullying, children having weapons and unrestricted access to their mobile telephones.^[6]

The boy was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 12 years. In November 2024, Mrs Justice Cutts lifted the anonymity orders and named him as Thomas Wei Huang from Malaysia.^[8]

Sport

Rugby

Rugby is the main sport played at Blundell's in the Autumn and Spring terms. The earliest mention of "football" in the Blundellian was in 1861 and the first recorded "rugger" match played by boys at Blundell's was in 1868 against Tiverton Rugby Club, making the school one of the oldest anywhere formally to play the game. The Blundell's crest still hangs in the main room at Twickenham in recognition of this.^[9]

OBs Dave Lewis Gloucester Rugby, Matt Kvesic and Will Carrick-Smith Exeter Chiefs all currently play in the Aviva Premiership.^[10]

Sam Maunder, brother of Jack Maunder, plays for England U18 squad.^[11]

The Russell

One annual tradition is the school's cross-country run known as the Russell, named after Old Boy Jack Russell, a vicar and dog-breeder. It was first run in 1887,^[12] and 2009 saw the 129th run.^[13]

Southern Railway Schools Class

The School lent its name to the thirty-third steam locomotive (Engine 932) in the Southern Railway's Class V of which there were 40. This class was also known as the Schools Class because all 40 of the class were named after prominent English public schools. Blundell's, as it was called, was built in 1934. The locomotive bearing the school's name was withdrawn from service in January 1961. In 2009 Hornby produced a model of this particular Schools class locomotive. As the product photograph shows, while the name of this locomotive has been variously quoted as Blundells or Blundell's, the apostrophe does actually appear on the nameplate.^[14]

Old Blundellians

The first known society of former pupils, known as Old Blundellians (OBs), was established as early as 1725.^[15]

William Hogarth engraved the letterhead for the invitation to a dinner for former pupils of the School in 1725 and the ticket for Tiverton School Feast in 1740.^[16]

Notable former pupils include:

Robert Arundell, Governor of the Windward Islands and Barbados
Vernon Bartlett, journalist and politician
Edward Bellew, drainage inspector and winner of the Victoria Cross
Dominic Bess, England cricketer
R. D. Blackmore, author of Lorna Doone
Richard Bowring, Master of Selwyn College, Cambridge
William Buckland, geologist
William Edward Buckley, professor of Anglo-Saxon^[17]
George Bull, theologian and bishop
Giles Bullard, High Commissioner to the West Indies
Charles Campion, food critic
Bampfylde Moore Carew, rogue and imposter
Aelred Carlyle, missionary and monk
Frederick William Cuming, 1900 Olympic gold medal winner as part of the UK cricket team
Charles Cornwallis Chesney, soldier and military writer
George Tomkyns Chesney, soldier and novelist
Ben Collins, Formula 3 racing driver and the infamous Stig
John Conybeare, Bishop of Bristol and notable 18th-century theologian
Natalie Dew, actress
John Davis, Welsh cricketer
Edward Dayman, hymn writer
John Ebdon, writer
John Eliot, English statesman
Tristan Evans, Drummer & backing vocals for UK based band The Vamps
Charles Rossiter Forwood, lawyer and Attorney General of Fiji
Francis Fulford, Anglo-Catholic bishop of Montreal
John Gay, philosopher
Anthony Gifford, cricketer and educator
Michael Gilbert, writer of mysteries and thrillers
Douglas Gracey, Commander in Chief Pakistan Army 1948-51
Charles Harper, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of St. Helena 1925–1932
C. Brian Haselgrove mathematician best known for disproving the Pólya conjecture in 1958
Thomas Hayter, bishop of Norwich 1749–61, bishop of London 1761–62
Abraham Hayward, man of letters
Archibald Hill, Nobel Prize winner
David Gordon Hines, developer of co-operatives in Tanganyika and Uganda
Walter Hook, Tractarian vicar of Leeds
Ella Hunt, actress, dickinson, anna and the apocalypse, intruders
James Jeremie, academic and churchman
John Jeremie, governor of Sierra Leone
C. E. M. Joad, intellectual, broadcasting personality and fare dodger
Philip Keun, Special Operations Executive Captain and co-leader of the Jade-Amicol French resistance network.
Geoffrey Lampe, theologian and winner of the Military Cross
Wilfrid Le Gros Clark, surgeon, primatologist and paleoanthropologist who disproved Piltdown Man
Robin Lloyd-Jones, Author
Jeremy Lloyds, Test Cricket umpire
George Malcolm, army officer
Thomas Manton, Puritan clergyman
John Margetson, former British Ambassador to Vietnam, the United Nations, and the Netherlands.
Vic Marks, Somerset and England cricketer
Professor John Marrack, DSO, MC, Emeritus Professor of Chemical Pathology in the University of London
Claire Marshall, journalist
Michael Mates, former MP (constituency of East Hampshire)
Hugh Morris, England cricketer and current Managing Director of the England and Wales Cricket Board
Gordon Newton, Editor of the Financial Times
Christopher Ondaatje, author and donor to the Labour Party
William Pillar, Fourth Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Supplies
John de la Pole, 6th Baronet
Ben Rice, novelist
Jack Russell, Victorian hunting parson, dog breeder
Peter Schidlof, Austrian-British violist and co-founder of the Amadeus Quartet
Edward Seymour, 16th Duke of Somerset
Evelyn Seymour, 17th Duke of Somerset
Percy Seymour, 18th Duke of Somerset
Richard Sharp, England rugby captain
Richard Shore, cricketer
Frederick Spring, senior army officer
Trevor Spring, army officer
J. C. Squire, poet, writer, historian, and influential literary editor
Donald Stokes, industrialist and peer
Jon Swain, award-winning writer, whose memoirs were portrayed in the film The Killing Fields
Frederick Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury
Clem Thomas, Wales Rugby Captain
Georgia "Toff" Toffolo, television and media personality
Charles Trevelyan, 1st Baronet, English civil servant, governor of Madras
Henry Hawkins Tremayne, creator of the Lost Gardens of Heligan
John Van der Kiste, author
Walter Walker, controversial soldier and writer
Arthur Graeme West, war poet
John Whiteley, Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff 1949–53
Cyril Wilkinson, Great Britain hockey player and Olympic Gold Medallist
Geoffrey Willans, humorist and co-author of Nigel Molesworth series
Matthew Wood, 1st Baronet, Lord Mayor of London, MP for the City of London and close friend of Queen Caroline
John Wyndham, author whose work included The Day of the Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos

Headteachers

2018-present: Bart Wielenga
2013–2018: Nicola Huggett
2012–2013: Randall Thane
2004–2012: Ian Davenport
1992–2004: Jonathan Leigh
1980–1992: A.J.D. Rees
1971–1980: A. Clive S. Gimson
1959–1971: J.M. Stanton
1947–1959: J.S. Carter
1943–1947: R.L. Roberts
1934–1942: Neville Gorton
1930–1933: Alexander Wallace
1917–1930: Arthur Edwin Wynne
1874–1917: A.L. Francis
1847–1874: John Hughes
1834–1847: Henry Sanders
1823–1834: Alldersey Dicken
1797–1823: William Richards
1775–1797: Richard Keats, rector of Bideford and King's Nympton, father of Richard Goodwin Keats (1757–1834),^[18] Martha Keats (1753–1833) and of Lewis William Buck (1784–1858), MP.^[19]
1757–1775: Philip Atherton
1740–1757: William Daddo
1734–1740: Samuel Wesley
1733–1734: John Jones
1730–1733: Samual Smith
1698–1730: William Rayner
1684–1698: John Sanders
1669–1684: George Hume
1651–1669: Henry Batten
1648–1651: Henry Osborne
1604–1647: Samuel Butler

Notable former masters

Former masters of Blundell's have included:

Terry Barwell, cricketer
Manning Clark, historian
Neville Gorton, Bishop of Coventry
Malcolm Moss, politician
Grahame Parker, sportsman
C. Northcote Parkinson, naval historian and author of the bestselling book Parkinson's Law
Gilbert Phelps, writer and broadcaster
Lawrence Sail, poet
Willi Soukop, sculptor
Stephen Spender, poet and essayist
Mervyn Stockwood, missioner to the School and later Bishop of Southwark
Samuel Wesley (the Younger), poet and churchman

References

^ blundells official webpage: fee and admissions
^ GENUKI/Devon: Tiverton 1850
^ Lorna Doone, A Romance of Exmoor – CHAPTER II
^ Balliol Archives – Blundell's School
^ "Eteach – Education Recruitment Vacancies, Supply Teaching Jobs". Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 22 June 2009.
^ ^a ^b Morris, Stephen (21 June 2024). "Boy guilty of attempted murders in Devon private school hammer attack". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 June 2024.
^ Evans, Martin (18 April 2024). "Boarding school pupil broke sleeping roommates' skulls with hammer, court hears". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 18 April 2024. Retrieved 21 June 2024.
^ Grierson, Jamie; Rawlinson, Kevin (1 November 2024). "Boy given life sentence over school hammer attack named as Thomas Wei Huang". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
^ www.blundells.org - Rugby
^ "OB Club - Sport". Blundells.org. 26 November 2011. Retrieved 7 February 2013.^{[non-primary source needed]}
^ "RFU".
^ www.blundells.org - Headmasters
^ OB Club - Sport Archived 25 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine
^ [1] Archived 19 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine
^ Report & Transactions, Volume 23, Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, 1891
^ "Search object details". British Museum. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
^ Frederic Boase, Modern English Biography, vol. 4 (Netherton and Worth, 1906), p. 2,007
^ Gentleman's Magazine, 1834, p.653, obituary of Admiral Keats
^ Vivian, J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, Stucley & Buck pedigree, pp.723

External links

Media related to Blundell's School at Wikimedia Commons

Blundell's School website
2001 UK:Independent Schools Inspectorate Report
Profiles on the Independent Schools Council website: Preparatory School and Senior School
Texts on Wikisource:
- "Blundell's School". New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
- "Blundell's School". Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.

[1] undells official webpage: fee and admissions

[2] GENUKI/Devon: Tiverton 1850

[3] Lorna Doone, A Romance of Exmoor – CHAPTER II

[4] Balliol Archives – Blundell's School

[5] "Eteach – Education Recruitment Vacancies, Supply Teaching Jobs". Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 22 June 2009.

[Guardian-2024-6] Morris, Stephen (21 June 2024). "Boy guilty of attempted murders in Devon private school hammer attack". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 June 2024.

[Tel-2024-7] Evans, Martin (18 April 2024). "Boarding school pupil broke sleeping roommates' skulls with hammer, court hears". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 18 April 2024. Retrieved 21 June 2024.

[8] Grierson, Jamie; Rawlinson, Kevin (1 November 2024). "Boy given life sentence over school hammer attack named as Thomas Wei Huang". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 November 2024.

[9] www.blundells.org - Rugby

[10] "OB Club - Sport". Blundells.org. 26 November 2011. Retrieved 7 February 2013.^{[non-primary source needed]}

[11] "RFU".

[12] www.blundells.org - Headmasters

[13] OB Club - Sport Archived 25 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine

[14] [1] Archived 19 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine

[15] Report & Transactions, Volume 23, Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, 1891

[16] "Search object details". British Museum. Retrieved 26 April 2013.

[boase-17] Frederic Boase, Modern English Biography, vol. 4 (Netherton and Worth, 1906), p. 2,007

[18] Gentleman's Magazine, 1834, p.653, obituary of Admiral Keats

[19] Vivian, J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, Stucley & Buck pedigree, pp.723

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Blundell's School

History

2024 attempted murder

Sport

Rugby

The Russell

Southern Railway Schools Class

Old Blundellians

Headteachers

Notable former masters

References

External links

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