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Foreword
T
he second half of the 19th century saw the creation of
a number of great schools in England, many founded in
the Christian fervour of the Oxford Movement and all of
them building on the growth of confidence that characterised
the Victorian era. One such school was St Edward’s.
Founded by the Revd Thomas Chamberlain, vicar of St Thomas
the Martyr in Oxford and Senior Student at Christ Church, the
School would be an institution where the religious principles
of Tractarianism would form a strong underpinning for the
academic education offered. The Revd Algernon Simeon
became the fledgling School’s second Headmaster and it was
his enthusiasm and drive which ultimately ensured the move
from the centre of the city out to North Oxford; he essentially
re-founded the establishment and appointed himself as first
Warden. This move and the acquisition of the School by
Simeon were probably the most important events in the young
School’s life, and it is from Simeon’s dream of a great Oxford
Public School that the St Edward’s of today has grown.
So, from our earliest years in New Inn Hall Street, through
the excitement and vision of the move to the Woodstock Road
and on to the more recent grand developments over the past
50 years, St Edward’s has had an unbroken history of growth
and improvement; its pupils have made a significant impact on
British life and its position in the ranks of the most influential
schools in the country has been increasingly secured.
Thus 150 years of history, of progress and of development
is a great legacy for us in 2013 but this excellent book, most
capably and creatively written by my colleague, Nicola Hunter,
does not chart the history of the School but rather is intended
as a portrait of it in its 150th year. Successive generations
of pupils, members of Common Room and Wardens have
impressed upon the School their own dreams as well as their
views and their devotion; the changing financial fortunes
of both the School and the country have written their tunes
on the staves of the fabric; history itself, and not least the
troubled times of the 20th century, has carved happiness
and loss in equal measure into the stone and wood of the
buildings. What we have now is not the single vision of a
single man but rather a complex organism living within its
100-acre shell in Oxford with influence far wider than that
limited sphere.
Stephen Jones
13th Warden
FOREWORD
TheDiningHall. Clockwise fromtop left: DiningHall 1894; part of thewindow
St Edward and Martyr (gift of H.C. Brook Johnson, 1930); part of the
Wind
in the Willows
mural, 1997, by Tim Plant (B, 1957–61) and his wife Ana Maria;
Lower Sixth dinner, 2013; Dining Hall
c.
1938.