Sedbergh School

History

Roger Lupton was born at Cautley in the parish of Sedbergh, Yorkshire, in 1456 and he provided for a Chantry School in Sedbergh in 1525 while he was Provost of Eton. By 1528, land had been bought, a school built, probably on the site of the present school library, and the foundation deed had been signed. Lupton's subsequent donations to the school's Sedbergh scholars of numerous scholarships and fellowships to St John's College, Cambridge succeeded in binding the school to St John's, and gave the Cambridge college power over the appointment of Sedbergh's Headmasters. Lupton's statutes state that if any of the last four of the St John's College scholarships are left vacant for a year, unless for a reason approved by the provost and fellows of King's College Cambridge, the lands are to revert to Lupton's next of kin. Lupton added that he was certain that St John's would not be found negligent in so pious a work. It was this link to St John's that probably saved Sedbergh in 1546–48 when most chantries were dissolved and their assets seized by Henry VIII's Commission.

Sedbergh was re-established and re-endowed as a grammar school in 1551 and the fortunes of the school in the coming centuries seem to have depended very much on the character and abilities of the headmasters with pupil numbers fluctuating and reaching as low a total as 8 day boys in the early 19th century.

One particularly successful period was during the Headship of John Harrison Evans (1838–61) who restored the prestige and achievements of the school and also funded the building of the Market Hall and Reading Room in the town. By 1857, the fellowships and scholarships which, since Lupton's time, had formed this link between the Sedbergh scholars and St John's College, ceased to be specially connected with Sedbergh. By 1860, the Lupton scholarships were combined and re-arranged under the name of the Lupton and Hebblethwaite Exhibitions.

A more independent Governing Body was established in 1874 in a successful bid to maintain Sedbergh's independence (amalgamation with Giggleswick had been suggested) and the first meeting took place in the Bull Inn in Sedbergh in December.

In the 1870s there was a tremendous amount of development and building work at Sedbergh, under the careful eye of the headmaster, Frederick Heppenstall. This included the Headmaster's House (now School House), classrooms, a chapel and four other boarding houses.

Junior School

The junior school was opened in 2002. It was previously located on the site of the former Bentham Grammar School after it was closed and Sedbergh took over its premises. In 2009 it moved to a site next to the main school. The school relocated again in September 2013 to the site of the former Casterton School for girls and is now known as Casterton, Sedbergh Preparatory School. Casterton was absorbed into Sedbergh, with senior girls transferring to the main school and junior pupils remaining at the Casterton campus. Boarding is offered to Junior School pupils aged 8 and above.

Rong Qiao Sedbergh School

Opened in 2018, Sedbergh's international school, Rong Qiao Sedbergh School is located in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China. It is a partnership between Sedbergh School and the Rong Qiao Group. Offering education for children from the ages of 3 to 18, its ethos draws on both English and Chinese teaching practice. 10% of students are international students, and 90% are Chinese nationals.

House system

Like most traditional public schools, the house system is incorporated with the boarding programme and most pupils are boarders. Most pupils at Sedbergh live in a boarding house, of which there are nine (six for boys, three for girls) chosen when applying to the school. It is here that he or she and takes their daily meals. Day pupils are fully integrated into the programme and participate in activities. Houses compete amongst one another in school competitions such as debating, academic challenge (a University Challenge-style quiz) and 'House Unison' (a traditional singing competition), and in particular in sporting competitions, for example the seriously contested Senior Seniors (Inter-House rugby) and the Wilson Run. Houses are named mostly after illustrious Old Sedberghians or Headmasters.

Sedbergh Junior School, now Casterton, Sedbergh Preparatory School, in Casterton, near Kirkby Lonsdale, also has Cressbrook House for boarding boys and Beale for boarding girls.

Junior houses

Cressbrook House (boys)

Beale House (girls)

Thornfield House (Senior prep school girls)

Extracurricular activities

Clubs and societies

Sedbergh offers outdoor pursuits as well as academic societies, including 'The Headmaster's Society' which is for Academic Scholars in the Sixth Form and chaired by the Headmaster. It is a forum for debate and discussion of major topical issues based upon papers delivered by the pupils and it also hosts talks given by intellectuals and public figures. The junior academic society is known as the 'Phoenix Society'.

Sedbergh's other academic club is the Dinner Debating Society which meets twice termly for black-tie 'dinner debates' hosted by Housemasters.

Sedbergh's has an Outdoor Pursuits Club. Activities organised in the local area by the club include climbing, gill scrambling and pot-holing as well as mountain biking and fell walking.

Sport

Sedbergh has a sporting tradition. Many Old Sedberghians have national caps and international tournament experience or have represented the school at county or national level.

Sedbergh is renowned for producing rugby football players, including the England captains Wavell Wakefield, John Spencer and Will Carling, and the world cup winner Will Greenwood. Sedbergh is represented in the Rugby Union Guinness Premiership at the time of writing by seven players at first or second team level in four different clubs. In November 2010 the school rugby team was named "School Team of the Year" at the Aviva Daily Telegraph School Sport Matters Awards after going the entire previous season undefeated.

The school has hosted Cumberland and Minor Counties cricket matches on several occasions. In 2019, Lancashire County Cricket Club played their County Championship match against Durham at Sedbergh School. They also faced Essex there in 2023.

In 2012 their sailing team competed in the Southport 12 Hour Race, coming 56th out of 57 boats sailing an Enterprise.

The Anti-Assassins Rugby Club (A-As) was founded in 1950 when Sedbergh Old Boys were invited to pick a Northern team to play against the masters and Old Boys (The Assassins) of Sedbergh School. Now this invitational team plays as SpoonAAs (Spoon Anti-Assassins) as it raises funds for the Wooden Spoon charity.

Buildings and features

Chapel

This was built in Perpendicular style in 1895–97, and was designed by the Lancaster architects Austin and Paley.

Chapel organ

The school took delivery of a custom built, four manual organ console in November 2015, which replaced an organ that was acquired from the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Hucknall. This two manual instrument had been built by Nigel Church and moved to the school by David Wells in 1994. The instrument can now be found in a church in Lincolnshire.

War cloisters

The cloisters at Sedbergh are a monument to old boys and masters of the school killed during the Great War and the Second World War. The cloisters were dedicated in 1924 and then re-dedicated after the Second World War. The cloisters were restored and partially rebuilt in 2005 and on Remembrance Day again re-dedicated after an appeal had raised over £130,000 for the necessary work.

The school also has a separate memorial for Old Sedberghians awarded the Victoria Cross, of which there are four. Brigadier Jock Campbell who won the Military Cross in the First World War and the Victoria Cross at the battle of Sidi Rezegh in the Second and was a member of Evans House.

Three of the Old Sedberghian winners of the Victoria Cross were Old Sedgwickians, RJT Digby-Jones at Wagon Hill in 1900 in the Boer War, George Ward Gunn at Sidi Rezegh in 1941 and Kenneth Campbell over Brest Harbour, also in 1941.

Four Battle of Britain pilots attended the school. Pilot Officer Desmond Kay DFC & Bar, Pilot Officer Noel Benson were killed during the war, but Flt Lt Kenneth Stoddart AE, and Flying Officer Alec Worthington survived.

Notable alumni

Military

Gemmell Alexander OBE, British colonial officer and co-operator

Major General Henry Templer Alexander CB CBE DSO, Army Commander

Lt-Colonel John William Balfour Paul, DSO, Scottish Officer of Arms

Randle Barnett Barker, decorated British Army Officer

Percy Bentley, one of four soldiers to be awarded the Military Cross four times

Major General "Jock" Campbell VC DSO and Bar MC, a commander of the 7th Armoured Division and recipient of the Victoria Cross

Flying Officer Kenneth Campbell VC, Royal Air Force pilot and recipient of the Victoria Cross

General Sir Robert Archibald Cassels, GCB GCSI DSO, Indian Army officer

Colonel Freddie Spencer Chapman DSO and Bar ED, naturalist, mountaineer, explorer, war hero

Group Captain Walter Myers Churchill DSO DFC, Royal Air Force, Second World War

Brigadier Harry Kenneth Dimoline, CBE, DSO, TD, CPM, Commander at the Battle of Monte Cassino. Mentioned in despatches.

Lieutenant Robert James Thomas Digby-Jones VC, Royal Engineers Officer and recipient of the Victoria Cross

Lieutenant-General Sir Andrew Richard Gregory KBE CB, British Army officer

Second Lieutenant George Ward Gunn VC MC, Royal Horse Artillery Officer and recipient of the Victoria Cross

Politics and law

Henry Aglionby Aglionby, British barrister and Whig politician

William George Ainslie, ironmaster and MP for North Lonsdale 1885–1892

Glencairn Balfour Paul CMG, British Ambassador to Iraq, Jordan and Tunisia

Thomas Bingham, Baron Bingham of Cornhill, Senior Law Lord, former Master of the Rolls and Lord Chief Justice

Brendan Bracken, 1st Viscount Bracken, Politician, businessman and associate of Winston Churchill

Henry Broadley, British Conservative politician

Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, Baron Bruce-Lockhart, OBE, Chairman of the Local Government Association

Bill Carritt, Communist revolutionary, Carritt family member, college lecturer, humanitarian aid organiser, campaigner for the Scottsboro Boys

Noel Carritt, Communist revolutionary, Carritt family member, International Brigadier, head of biology at Dr Challoner's Grammar School

Michael Carritt, Communist revolutionary, Carritt family member, anti-colonial spy, expert on Indian politics, philosophy lecturer at Oxford University

Sir John Seton Cassels, English civil servant and educationalist

Sir Alan Chambré, English judge

Sir Hugh Cortazzi, Author, diplomat and prominent Japanologist

Sir Maurice Dorman, Governor-General of Sierra Leone and Colonial Governor of Malta

Business

Montague Ainslie, Forester and businessman

Adam Applegarth, Ex-CEO of Northern Rock bank

Philip Hedley Bowcock, CEO of William Hill Plc

Christian Bjelland, Norwegian businessman and chairman of the National Gallery of Norway

Sir Christopher Bland, chairman of B.T. Group, businessman and former chairman of the BBC

John Charlesworth Dodgson-Charlesworth, colliery owner and M.P.

Sir Roger Gifford, banker, Alderman and Lord Mayor of London

Sir Mark Hudson, former chairman of the Council of the Duchy of Lancaster

James Lupton, Lord Lupton of Lovington, banker, trustee of the British Museum

Sir (John) Hubert Worthington, English architect, designed Sedbergh School's memorial cloisters

The arts, literature and humanities

Michael Adams, journalist

John Arden, dramatist

Greig Barr, Fellow and Rector of Exeter College, Oxford

Sir John Christopher Malcolm Baynes, 7th Bt., author

Simon Beaufoy, Screenwriter and 2009 Oscar winner for Slumdog Millionaire. Wrote The Full Monty.

Leonard Boden, Scottish portrait painter

Timothy Birdsall, Cartoonist

Colin Blakely, British character actor

JB Blanc, British film actor

Peter Chippindale, Journalist and author

William George Clark, English classical and Shakespearean scholar

Henry Wilkinson Cookson, Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, and five times Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge

William Craven, Master of St. John's College, Cambridge, and Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge

Ernest Crawley, English schoolmaster, sexologist, anthropologist, sports journalist and exponent of ball games

Hugh I'Anson Fausset, Literary critic, biographer, poet and religious writer

Arthur Foxton Ferguson, English baritone, lecturer and German translator

Science and exploration

Peter Addyman, British archaeologist

Wilfred Eade Agar, Anglo-Australian zoologist

Anthony Askew, Physician and book collector

Peter Barwick, English physician and author

George Birkbeck, doctor, academic, philanthropist and early pioneer in adult education

Miles Bland, fellow of the Royal Society, of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Professor Sir Christopher Booth, Clinician and medical historian

Christopher Chippindale, Stonehenge archaeologist

John Cranke, mathematician and mentor

John Dawson, surgeon and mathematician

G. M. B. Dobson, Fellow of the Royal Society and President of the Royal Meteorological Society

Anthony Fothergill, Physician

John Fothergill, Physician, plant collector, philanthropist

Thomas Garnett, English physician and natural philosopher

Thomas Gaskin, Clergyman and academic, now known for contributions to mathematics

John Hammersley, British mathematician

John Haygarth, physician who discovered the benefits of segregating/quarantining sick patients

Sport

Tom Aspinwall, Lancashire County Cricketer

David Barnes, Chairman of the Professional Rugby Players' Association

Mike Biggar, Scotland rugby union player

Imogen Boddy, world record ultra-marathon runner

James Botham, Wales rugby union player

Harry Brook, England cricketer - won the 2022 T20 World Cup. Captain of the T20 and ODI teams since 2024.

John H Bruce Lockhart, Scottish cricketer, rugby international and headmaster

Kim Bruce-Lockhart, Scotland international squash player

Logie Bruce Lockhart, Scotland rugby union player and headmaster of Gresham's School

Will Carling OBE, England rugby union captain

Jordan Clark, Professional cricketer - fifth ever to score six sixes in an over

Harold Cox, cricketer

Simon Cross rugby union

Arthur Dorward, Scotland rugby union captain

Ewan Dowes rugby league

Phil Dowson England rugby union player

Rob Elloway, German rugby union international

Carl Fearns, rugby union

Religion

Nicholas John Willoughby Barker, British Anglican priest

John Barwick, Royalist churchman and Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral

Francis Blackburne, Archdeacon

Henry Lowther Clarke, first Archbishop of Melbourne

Ingram Cleasby, Dean of Chester

Robert Dawson, Anglican bishop in Ireland in the 17th century

John Duckett, Catholic priest and martyr

Sir George Fleming, Bishop of Carlisle

John Hey, English cleric and the first Norrisian Professor of Theology at Cambridge.

Walker King, Bishop of Rochester

Thomas Kipling, Early churchman and academic

John Knewstub, eminent English clergyman

Christopher Charles Luxmoore, Bishop of Bermuda

William Stuart MacPherson, Dean of Lichfield

George Mason, Bishop of The Isle of Man

Christopher John Mayfield, Bishop of Wolverhampton and Bishop of Manchester

Arnold Mathew, founder and first bishop of the Old Roman Catholic Church in the United Kingdom

Rt. Rev. Thomas Otway, Seventeenth century Anglican bishop in Ireland