The March speaker was The Reverend Michael Wilcockson, formerly a teacher at Eton College, who spoke on the history of the school. He explained that it was founded under a charter of Henry VI in 1440 as a religious centre for pilgrims coming to worship at the Church of St Mary, which had relics of the Blessed Virgin and was hoping to attract more visitors and the income which they would bring. The foundation included a school for boys but also a house for 25 poor men and was modelled on Winchester College, founded by William of Wykeham. Henry also copied Wykeham, who had established New College at Oxford, in setting up King’s College in Cambridge as the next step in the education of boys at Eton.
At the head of the foundation was a Provost, who was to live at the College and have no other post and a vice-Provost along with ten fellows to care for the pilgrims, ten chaplains, ten clerks, ten choristers and a Master and Usher to teach the 70 poor or indigent scholars who paid no fees. The bishop of Lincoln was to act as the Visitor to ensure the statutes were observed, Eton at that time being in the diocese of Lincoln. There were also oppidans, who could attend lessons but lived in houses in the town and ate there. William Waynflete was the first Provost.
Building began in 1442 mostly using bricks from a nearby brickyard. A vast chapel was planned but only the choir was built as Henry VI died and the money ran out. The scholars had their lessons in Latin and were tonsured and wore academic gowns. Edward IV wanted to take over the endowments in land which Henry VI had given the College for his foundation at St George’s Windsor, but an unlikely saviour emerged in Jane Shore his mistress whose pleadings saved the College. Edward did, however, take the relics and so the College ceased to be a centre of pilgrimage and became solely a school.
In the succeeding centuries fewer clergy were employed and praeposters, the forerunners of prefects, helped in the teaching. The choir remained an important feature as the Eton Choir Book testifies. The 70 scholars remained, but the oppidans increased in number and became increasingly representative of the aristocracy. As there were more boys the classes were divided into divisions, as the classes at Eton are still known. As some boys were accompanied by their own tutors who lived in a house with them and other boys, the house master system evolved, with other houses run by dames. By 1765 there were 522 boys and new subjects such as French and Greek were introduced with extras like drawing, fencing and dancing. About this time the Wall Game developed with its arcane rules. The buildings were expanded to provide more teaching space and eventually allowed for smaller classes, as opposed to the classes of 70-80 which had been common.
The nineteenth century was notable for the headmaster Keate (1809-1834), known as Flogger Keate who put down the rebellion of 1819 and once flogged the entire school, and for reforms after the Public School Act of 1868. Cricket flourished with the highlight being the match against Harrow. Rowing developed with the Fourth of June Procession of Boats to mark the birthday of George III who was a great patron of the school. The Field Game, a kind of football and peculiar to Eton, also featured, along with the debating society known as Pop, which honed public speaking skills. Boys entered at 13, studied a wider range of subjects and, by the twentieth century, all had their own rooms. The number of after-school societies proliferated, covering any topic in which boys might be interested and often attracting eminent speakers, in addition to the provision of many prizes for which boys compete outside the general curriculum. Eton currently has 1230 oppidans and 70 scholars.
Mary Dicken