The Philberds
The Philberds was a preparatory school based in a house in Holyport, near Maidenhead, Berkshire, on the site of one which Charles II had given to Nell Gwyn. The name derives from a family which owned land in the area in mediaeval times.
School founder Edward Henry Price
[edit]Edward Henry Price (1822–1898) was educated at Rugby School under Thomas Arnold, arriving in May 1835 aged 13.[1] He matriculated at St John's College, Cambridge in 1841, graduating B.A. in 1845, M.A. in 1863.[2]
Ordained deacon in 1845 and priest in 1846, Price spent the years 1845 to 1853 at Lutterworth as a curate.[2] He founded The Philberds in 1862, having previously founded a school at Tarvin in Cheshire which he moved to become Mostyn House School, in Cheshire, in 1855. In 1862 he sold Mostyn House School to Algernon Sydney Grenfell.[3]
Price was headmaster of The Philberds from 1862 until 1879.[2] The initial school fee was 80 guineas per annum.[4] He succeeded in building the reputation of Philberds as a preparatory school. He then took the living of Kimbolton.[5]
Later history
[edit]Frederick William Stephen Price, one of the sons, took over the school. He later was head of Ovingdean Hall School.[3] In 1885, the partnership he had with his brother Edward Matthew Price as schoolmasters at The Philberds was dissolved.[6] He left the school in the charge of his brother Edward and another brother, Herbert Johnson Price.[3][7]
In 1898 Frank Watkinson took over the school—an Oxford B.A. in 1892, he had been an assistant master at Mostyn House School.[8] In 1904 Charles R. Lupton moved his school from Farnborough, Hampshire to The Philberds.[9]
The school survived until the start of World War I. During the war, the manor building was used as an internment camp for German prisoners of war,[10] and in 1919 was demolished.
Notable individuals associated with the school
[edit]Pupils:
- John Challen, cricketer for Somerset and football international for Wales (played at least two games for the Old Philberdians in 1877)
- Major Alexis Charles Doxat VC
- William Pasteur, discoverer of atelectasis
- Vice-Admiral Cecil Vivian Usborne, Director of Naval Intelligence
Teachers:
- Charles Henry Major, chief justice of British Guiana (schoolmaster and goalkeeper for the Old Philberdians)
- Graham Wallas, political scientist (Latin teacher)
References
[edit]- ^ Rugby school register: with annotations and alphabetical index. Rugby: A. J. Lawrence. 1881. p. 194.
- ^ a b c "Rice, Edward Henry (PRY841EH)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ a b c Leinster-Mackay, Donald (16 December 2021). The Rise of the English Prep School. Routledge. p. 123 note 27. ISBN 978-1-000-35754-7.
- ^ "Preparatory school for the public schools". Athenaeum. 4 July 1863.
- ^ "Death of the Rev. E. H. Price". Exeter and Plymouth Gazette. 26 September 1898. p. 3.
- ^ "No. 25510". The London Gazette. 11 September 1885. p. 4300.
- ^ "Price, Herbert Johnson (PRY877HJ)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ Oxford Historical Society (1909). Brasenose College Register. Vol. I. Clarendon Press for the Oxford Historical Society. p. 688.
- ^ "The Philberds, Maidenhead". Army and Navy Gazette. 3 December 1904. p. 23.
- ^ "Tunnelling for liberty". The Colonialist: 4. 8 April 1915.