THE ENGLISH PUBLIC SCHOOL: WHAT IS IT AND WHY IS IT CALLED THAT?

In the United Kingdom and those countries where the English influence was perhaps the greatest, the term “Public School” is well understood and commonly used, albeit extremely poorly defined. Outside of those countries, the term’s use as a moniker for what are, in fact, elite private schools is a cause of great confusion – especially where schools under the management and care of the state or local authorities may be called public schools, as is the case in the United States. Moreover, even in those Commonwealth countries wherein the term is used, it is often misapplied and used as a synonym for a private school (particularly in India and Australia). However, not all private schools are Public Schools.

The Great British tradition of the “Public School” has occupied a unique place in the public imagination and has piqued curiosity in minds across the world. The quirks, tales, conventions, sports, and culture of this select cadre of elite schools has come together to become a source of great fascination. The influence of the relatively small number of graduates of such schools has been tremendous and powerful, sometimes controversially so (more on that later). Some of these illustrious schools have legacies stretching back hundreds of years and a glittering list of alumni to accompany them. However, the archetype for the “Public School” model was developed in the Victoria era where the concept of muscular Christianity, a stern disciplinary system, rigorous academics combining modern material with the classics and grammar tradition, organised games and sports and a code of conduct becoming of a young gentleman preparing for life in service were combined into a holistic educational model. The earliest prototype having been, famously, developed at Rugby School under the legendary headmaster, Thomas Arnold and immortalised in ‘Tom Brown’s School Days’, a fictionalised account of Thomas Hughes’ time at Rugby under Arnold. Throughout the years, the Public School has played a significant part in cultural and fictional works, having become something of a national obsession in the Edwardian Era and the early part of the 20^th Century where Public School collectibles (postcards and cigarette cards especially) were extremely popular and many authors (most of whom had been the product of such schools) chronicled their experiences through their characters and settings. So revered where these schools that new towns across the United Kingdom typically had a selection of streets named for these schools and, in the 1930s, the Southern Railway company commissioned a series of locomotive engines named for celebrated Public Schools served by their network. Substantial educational reforms in the late Victorian Era and after the Great Wars, as part of a wider movement towards a more equitable system of universal education, had a profound impact on many of these schools, compounded by the vast numbers of young men who gave their lives in serviced during World War I and World War II, and a great number have entered the state system or closed. Those that remain have seen their fortunes improve significantly in recent decades, particularly where they have been able to establish themselves on the world stage and attract wealthy, fee-paying pupils from international families and have seen many of their graduates occupying the Great Offices of State, dominating the arts, politics, legal and business circles.

Despite that these schools have played such a significant role in the history of Great Britain and, especially, the administration of the British Empire, regardless of how much this select group of schools has shaped British culture and how they have featured in celebrated literary works and productions on screen and on stage, the concept of the “Public School”, what it is and what it is not, remains vague and poorly defined. Indeed, Thomas Hughes himself remarked on the same, in a humorous piece for the Great American Review, in 1879. Hughes attempted to explore what the quintessential English Public School was. He determined that some believed that a royal charter was the defining criteria, that others believed a link to an Oxbridge college was necessary. Yet others suggested that the right to play an annual game at the Lords’ Cricket Ground was the requisite and another had suggested to him that the invitation to shoot at the Public Schools Meeting at the NRA when it took place on Wimbledon Common was the best test. None of these tests would satisfactorily produce the answers sought and none would accurately identify all of the so-called Public Schools. Considered in the round, however, these tests give a sense and idea as to what schools have a claim to being Public Schools and which embody the essential ethos that has come to define the English Public School.

The term is an old term that, strictly speaking, referred to those schools that were outside of the control of a religious body, military organisation, government, or local authority and that could, in effect, accept admissions from the greater public, regardless of faith, home address, parental circumstances and so on (or at least in theory). This select group of schools were established by way of a charitable foundation, endowed by a single benefactor (unlike those later schools that were established by corporation or under the proprietary ownership of its management but that still behaved as quintessential Public Schools). In practice, this meant that only boarding schools that operated independently of the church and/or state could thus properly be considered to be Public Schools.

The term “Public School” has been in use in the British Isles for hundreds of years with the earliest references dating back to the 18^th Century. The Encyclopædia Britannica suggests that “The term public school emerged in the 18^th century when the reputation of certain grammar schools spread beyond their immediate environs. They began taking students whose parents could afford residential fees and thus became known as public, in contrast to local, schools.”

To fully understand the term and its etymology, we must explore the history of education in the United Kingdom and how the Public School and its educational ecosystem arose. The earliest schools in the country, some of which remain in operation today (including some that are more than 1,000 years old), go back to the Middle Ages and the dominance of the church in daily life. The vast majority of the public did not have access to any formal education, and nor was such an education required for a largely agrarian economy. The wealthy, aristocratic classes favoured residential domestic tutors and governesses for their offspring, with a focus on languages and classics. The church, however, required educated young men for cathedral and abbey choirs and for entry into the clergy. So it was, that many of the first formal schools were opened within or attached to cathedrals and monasteries. These institutions focussed exclusively on classics with young men learning Greek and Latin and being prepared for ecclesiastical service. For many poorer families, such a vocation represented the best chances of alleviating their circumstances and elevating out of the cycle of poverty. These schools, typically, operated on a residential basis with young men becoming boarders at a young age and being under the care of the church.

Many young men who were the beneficiaries of such an education might then pursue further education at a theological seminary or at one of the colleges of the great universities (the University of Oxford or the University of Cambridge). Others might opt not to pursue their vocation but to seek out clerical or administrative work in the service of the nation or a wealthy nobleman. Others would embark on missionary work overseas. Indeed, the demand for missionaries to engage in overseas efforts on behalf of the Church and the various religious orders within coincided with the age of Empire and the expansion of Britain’s colonial and Imperialist objectives. The need for capable, educated young gentlemen who could be dispatched to administrative offices across the world began to peak. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution and the transformation of the British economy to a merchant economy, so too was demand rising for capable, clerical staff to support the needs of business.

More young men were being enrolled in the existing cathedral schools for the purposes of accessing a formal education with a view to pursuing a career in the service of the Empire or to engage in merchant enterprise or a profession. Identifying a deficiency in the education offering that was emerging, many wealthy benefactors established schools independent of the auspices of the church. Many had found great success as merchants and had the backing of their respective trade guild (the liveried companies). They established schools, ostensibly, as charitable foundations for the purposes of educating young men from poorer backgrounds in order to afford them the means of entering professional and merchant service. Many of these benefactors would, similarly, endow or support a college at one of the great universities thus establishing a relationship between their respective school and college and cementing a pathway for young men to be sent up to university.

These schools mirrored the classical education delivered by the cathedral and monastic schools establishing the grammar school tradition. They were limited by the terms of their foundation which required that the endowment be applied towards the provision of places to boys of limited means. Some such schools were further restricted by their charitable foundation to offering places to qualifying pupils from a defined geographic area (often the county in which the school was established or even the boundaries of a defined township) or to a certain class of orphans, military families, or the children of members of a particular merchant guild. Some schools were so limited that they would only accommodate pupils on a non-residential basis. Other schools offered boarding facilities from the outset or had the capacity to do so through corresponding dame houses (independent boarding houses established for the purposes of accommodating non-local pupils who had been awarded a place at such a school). In order to afford a supplemental salary to the headmaster and additional funds (outside of the endowment stipends) for the administration of the school, many of these foundations allowed for a small number of pupils to be admitted on a fee-paying basis. For middle class families who could not afford to engage a private tutor for their children and who would not otherwise qualify for admission to schools on a scholarship basis, this additional provision would be the opportunity for their offspring to pursue a formal education.

In the later Middle Ages and into the Elizabethan Era, endowed grammar schools began to gain greater recognition and status, especially so if the teachers or respective headmasters had become celebrated and lauded. This began to see a greater number of pupils being admitted from the aristocratic classes who enjoyed the concept of a disciplined, boarding environment that would better shape future leaders for Imperial and military service. Increasingly, the small provision allowed for private admissions outside of the terms of a school’s charitable endowment would be stretched to allow more and more higher-paying pupils from wealthy and landed families to enter the school. In some cases, they even came to be the majority of entrants to a school with the poorer scholars becoming something of a subsidiary student body. This same trend was playing out too at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and was beginning to institute a reputation for privilege and elitism at certain endowed grammar schools. More schools would be established, some operating as “Dame Schools” wherein a single teacher (often female) might offer instruction more akin to a tutor, others attracting charitable endowments from wealthy benefactors.

With the Protestant Reformation, many of these schools would align with the Church of England – religion still playing a particularly large part in the daily life of individuals and the affairs of the State. However, unlike those schools that formed part of the system of cathedral and monastic schools that would also align with the Anglican faith, the endowed grammar schools would be largely independent of any religious orders or administrators. For adherents of other protestant faiths established after the Schism, other schools would be established explicitly as faith-based schools, either under the direct oversight and control of a church or laypersons affiliated with a specific faith. In later years, Catholic schools would be established on a similar basis.

Endowed grammar schools proliferated across the United Kingdom with varying degrees of success. Certain schools (Charterhouse School, Eton College, Harrow School, Rugby School, Shrewsbury School, Westminster School and Winchester College) had become renowned institutions which had become the preferred schools of the upper classes to the detriment of the charitable admissions for which they had been founded. They accepted fee-paying pupils from across the country and, thus, were considered to be open to the public at large. The concept of a “Public School” was emerging with these schools shaping the term’s definition. Some of those schools that we consider to be amongst the great Public Schools of today remained in relative obscurity throughout much of their existence but, similarly, were willing to admit pupils on a public basis to supplement their charitable activities. Others collapsed and closed or merged with their peers.

It was the Victorian Era, however, that saw the Public School flourish and marked a period of great change in the education sector of the United Kingdom and across the Anglosphere and Commonwealth countries that followed the British model. This period in history saw a rising merchant glass, empowered, and emboldened by their wealth, the dominance of trade across the British Empire and the role of the liveried companies that represented their guilds in the economic affairs of the country. They began to demand an education better suited to Britain’s needs. An education that favoured instruction in commercial affairs, sciences, and administration rather than the classical and rhetorical education model that had gone before. New schools were endowed to this end, borrowing heavily from their ancient peers but better aligned with the needs of trade and Empire. Schools such as Cheltenham College, Haileybury College and Marlborough College were at the vanguard of this new wave. Amongst reformist religious groups, particularly in Scotland, scientific academies that married a puritan ethos with academic rigour had become favoured and the success of such a model in the Northeastern United States (Milton Academy, Phillips Academy – Andover, and Phillips Exeter Academy for example) was proving why. To support these schools and to prepare young boys for instruction and boarding life, a host of preparatory schools were also created, many offering an alternative to the existing system of chorister schools and cathedral schools or private tutors that admitted boys from a young age. Indeed, many of the great Public Schools had an attached or preferred junior school as a feeder and preparatory institution. The Oxford Group of preparatory schools represent many of the upper tier junior boarding schools most closely associated with the English Public Schools and which have traditionally been the most prolific feeder schools to the same.

Simultaneously, the booming British economy was increasingly requiring capable, educated workers and was the driving force behind a move towards a universal education system. Ensuring a greater provision of school places, particularly for those from the middle and working classes and for young women was becoming a significant challenge. Whilst many schools had been established with a charitable foundation and purpose, this had long-been abandoned, controversially, in favour of privileged fee-paying pupils from wealthy backgrounds and these charitable schools had, effectively, been repurposed to preserve exclusivity rather than promote inclusivity. Many of the endowed grammar schools were facing accusations of misappropriating their endowments and for acting outside of the terms of their respective foundations.

The Royal Commission on the Public Schools (better known as the “Clarendon Commission” and sometimes referred to as the “Nine Schools Commission”) was incepted in 1861 with the purpose of exploring how many of these schools were managed, financed, and governed. It was to be the first step in an educational reform agenda that would see the State seeking to amend the charitable foundations of many endowed grammar schools and redistributing or redirecting how their endowment funds would be applied. Many of these schools were deeply concerned about how this would impact their future and the effort to impose parliamentary sovereignty over their management. The Commission was, however, established in response to the concerns about how the schools were administering and applying their endowments and several scandals in relation to the same.

The Commission was to look, particularly, into the so-called “Public Schools”, i.e. those independent schools that offered an education to the children of members of the public as opposed to those from defined socio-demographic groups or communities (such as seminaries or military academies). The term “Public School” was well-established in the English vernacular but was poorly defined and so the Commission sought to clarify further what a Public School was as a part of its wider review and, ultimately, to provide the basis for an exemption for such schools from the looming educational reforms.

The Commission took a very narrow view as to what schools should be considered to be “Public Schools”, selecting only those that were: unencumbered by oversight from religious bodies; did not have an obligation stipulated under charter or endowment requiring places be offered to pupils from local communities only and; clearly were open to admissions from ably-funded pupils from across the country or further afield (and therefore such schools would have to admit boarders). A number of schools were looked at and dismissed from the definition, including a number of, predominantly, day schools and those considered to be proprietary schools (such as Cheltenham College). The Commission determined that schools established by corporation or that were under the direction of a single master could not be considered on the same basis as those schools operating under a charitable foundation established by some large endowment (with nearly eight hundred such schools in existence at that time).

The Commission willingly overlooked the fact that many of the older schools had been established with the expressed aim of offering places on charitable terms to bright children from poor socio-economic backgrounds where those schools had long-since admitted a majority from affluent means and had garnered a reputation as primarily serving the sons of gentlemen. Similarly, the Commission did not consider guild schools to be encumbered to the same extent as those created by a corporation or a religious body. Controversially, the Commission further narrowed their inquiry into nine ancient schools after alleged lobbying and perceived bias from commission members (many of whom were alumni) and others close to them. Those schools included: Charterhouse School; Eton College; Harrow School; Merchant Taylors’ School; Rugby School; St Paul’s School; Shrewsbury School; Westminster School; and Winchester College. Collectively, these schools would come to be known as the “Clarendon Schools” or the “Great Nine“.

These schools formed the subjects of the Commission’s inquiries into what constituted a “Public School”. The Commission’s findings (the ‘Inquiry into the Revenues and Management of Certain Colleges and Schools and the Studies Pursued and Instruction Given Therein’) would steer the direction of the Public Schools Act 1868 which would force a change, by law, in the governance structure of those schools listed as Public Schools, but would also allow those schools to become unencumbered by the charitable requirements of their initial foundations thus freeing them to admit fee-paying boarders from wherever they should reside and not to offer places to scholarship pupils of limited means which had been their founding purpose. Merchant Taylors’ and St Paul’s, both celebrated ancient schools but that predominantly admitted day pupils, successfully argued that their respective constitutions in fact meant that they were private schools and could not be amended by public legislation or Parliamentary measures. Thus, for the Public Schools Act, only those members of the Great Nine that were boarding schools were defined as Public Schools. The 1868 Act had conferred, in law, a special status on seven elite schools. In 1887, City of London School was determined to be a Public School by the Divisional Court and Court of Appeal, despite that the school has always been a day school (albeit the school did accommodate a small number of boarders in its earlier years).

At the time of the Clarendon Commission, there were many other schools that were enjoying a greater standing and reputation than some of those that were now formally defined as Public Schools. This piece of legislation and its limited definition was poorly received amongst peer schools, many of which were aggrieved that the act would allow the seven stated Public Schools to freely pursue wealthy applicants and create a tiered hierarchy within the school system (which would inevitably be at the expense of those schools which were not included in this legislative carve-out). Arguably, this would harm their brand when competing for pupils against those identified by the Commission and could see them struggling to attract the fee-paying boarding pupils that had long since propped up the school and supplemented its income which, in turn, was financing the school’s efforts to offer an excellent education to scholarship pupils from poorer backgrounds. Moreover, they were extremely concerned about the impact of further reforms on their foundations that had not yet been announced and which would not be applied to the protected Public Schools.

Following hot on the heels of the Clarendon Commission was the Schools Enquiry Commission (better known as the Taunton Commission), which was tasked with investigating the administration of the other endowed schools that had not been explored by the Earl of Clarendon. Between 1864 and 1868, Lord Taunton chaired the inquiry which reviewed the 782 endowed schools which were excluded from the Clarendon Commission. This inquiry would precede the Endowed Schools Act 1868 which would create the Endowed Schools Commission and grant the Commissioners with far reaching powers. The commissioners made specific reference to what were considered, at that time, to be the leading schools in the country: Cheltenham College, Harrow School, Marlborough College, Rugby School, Wellington College, and Winchester College. Whilst the Commission determined that boarding schools were more effective in instruction, they celebrated those day schools they deemed to be of first grade capability being: City of London School, Liverpool College and King Edward’s School, Birmingham.

During the Taunton Commission’s proceedings, they visited and heard from numerous schools across the United Kingdom and would explore, in detail the foundations of many of the better-known ones. They investigated the endowed schools’ educational programmes, ethos, and admissions policies with a view to ascertaining whether these schools were effectively meeting the educational needs of the country. There was substantial concern at the time that these schools weren’t providing a substantial education to the less affluent and that there were so few places for girls. The Commission made special mention of a number of well-regarded schools in their findings. They noted that Marlborough College, Cheltenham College and Clifton College were great new schools that were delivering a modern education, differing from the classics tradition. The City of London School was identified for its arithmetic capabilities and the English Literature programme at Uppingham School was recognised as being of the highest quality. Separately, the Commission made mention of those modern schools offering a degree of commercial and science study (albeit subordinate to classics) as being: Marlborough College, Wellington College, Clifton College, and Rossall School, further noting that Cheltenham surpasses them in terms of its modern department in civic and military instruction.

They also noted that some schools have endowments worthy of exploration in isolation: Bedford School, Dulwich College, the Monmouth Schools , Christ’s Hospital, St. Olave’s Grammar School, King Edward’s School, Birmingham, The Manchester Grammar School and Tonbridge School owing to unique nuances in their drafting and administration. The Commission further noted that Aldenham School has a great endowment but did not wish to explore this in isolation as would prove important later when the Endowed Schools Commission would redirect parts of proceeds from sales of land that would otherwise have been rightfully due to have been applied exclusively to the school’s benefit. The Commission’s report also further identifies a number of other great schools with substantial endowments: Ashby Grammar School, Berkhampstead School, Clergy Oprhan School, Felsted School, The King’s School in Macclesfield, Leeds Grammar School, Lucton School, Mercers’ School, Oakham School, Repton School, Rishworth School, St Bees School, and Uppingham School. The Commissioners further noted that Colston’s School and Queen Elizabeth’s Hospital Bristol were endowed schools that offer some space for the poor but that they could not be considered to offer instruction to the poor in the round.

The Endowed Schools Commission that was instituted following the recommendations of the Taunton Commission would have a profound impact on the endowed grammar schools that were not recognised as Public Schools for the purposes of the Public Schools Act. Many would see their endowments repurposed at the direction of the Commissioners, in order to provide sums of money for the creation of other schools to accommodate pupils of lesser means and, in particular, for the establishment of schools for girls. A famous example being the sale of land that was part of the endowment supporting Aldenham School. The land was required for the development of St Pancras station but, on completion of sale, the Endowed Schools Commissioners intervened and directed that more than half of the proceeds should be confiscated from the school and applied to support the development of other schools, with North London Collegiate School, The Camden School for Girls, Watford Grammar School for Boys and the Watford Grammar School for Girls, Russell Lane School, Medburn School and Delrow School being the beneficiaries. Whilst many of the endowed grammar schools did not oppose the development of a fairer education system and recognised the need to provide an education to young women, they nonetheless were very concerned about the creation of the Endowed Schools Commission which could, overnight, completely change the structure and viability of their schools. The Endowed Schools Act would, however, remove the requirement that grammar schools must be licensed by the Church of England.

In response, many of those endowed grammar schools that considered themselves to be amongst the best in the country and on a par with the “Public Schools” identified by the Clarendon Commission came together to form an association of their own – the Headmasters’ Conference (HMC) in 1869. In his initial explorations to determine the appetite of his peers in establishing such an organisation, the headmaster of Uppingham School, Mr Edward Thring, wrote to the headmasters of 37 schools that he considered to be peers of his own. For the inaugural conference, he invited some 70 heads of peer schools to attend, with 14 accepting but only 12 actually attending. These schools are considered to be the founding members, and include: Bromsgrove School, Dulwich College, Felsted School, Highgate School, King Edward VI School, The King’s School, Canterbury, Lancing College, Liverpool College, Norwich School, Oakham School, Repton School, Richmond School, Sherborne School, Tonbridge School and Uppingham School.

The following year, 34 heads would attend the HMC’s second annual conference, including a number of the Great Nine schools. In subsequent years, all of the Great Nine schools would become members of the HMC and so it came to be that the membership of a school’s Head is now recognised as the de facto qualification as to whether a school constitutes a “Public School”. Indeed, candidates seeking to join the Public Schools Club, one of the oldest of London’s famed gentleman’s clubs (since absorbed into The East India Club) may apply if their Headmaster is an HMC member and endorses their application.

At the outset, the Headmasters’ Conference was exclusive to peer-approved schools that offered instruction to young men, independent of the state system of education. These schools increasingly identified as “independent schools” as opposed to private or “Public Schools”, but the idea remained in the public mindset. The preferred term “independent school” helped avoid the debate about whether they rightly are considered a public school peer or not and ignored, to some degree, the nature of a member school’s foundation (thus schools founded by a an act of incorporation or under the proprietary direction of an individual or organisation could be considered for membership, albeit as long as not operating on a for-profit basis or under the direction of a religious order. Other organisations came to be established by the heads of other schools, particularly those that might not qualify for membership of the HMC. These include The Society of Headmasters and Headmistresses of Independent Schools (1961) and the Girls’ Schools Association (1974). New members would be admitted to the HMC each year and soon the organisation would grow to include a number of independent schools, many of which might not otherwise have been regarded as a traditional school in the sense of what constituted a “Public School”. Eventually, the HMC would welcome headmistresses and girls’ schools into its fold, further eroding the traditional idea of a Public School.

The first edition of the Public Schools Yearbook in 1889 attempted to define a list as to those schools which were “Public Schools”. It listed 30 institutions including 25 boarding schools: Bedford School, Bradfield College, Brighton College, Charterhouse School, Cheltenham College, Clifton College, Dover College, Dulwich College, Eton College, Haileybury College, Harrow School, Lancing College, Malvern College, Marlborough College, Radley College, Repton School, Rossall School, Rugby School, Sherborne School, Shrewsbury School, Tonbridge School, Uppingham School, Westminster School, Wellington College and Winchester College, and a number of day schools: Highgate School, Merchant Taylor’s School, St Paul’s School. The 1895 edition listed 64 schools, also including Blackheath Proprietary School, Blundell’s School, Bradford Grammar School, City of London School, Eastbourne College, Felsted School, Fettes College, Glenalmond College, King’s College School and Loretto School. In later editions, a number of well-known regional endowed grammar schools were included before the editors determined only to list those whose Heads were members of HMC (from the 1902 edition onwards). Evidently, even educational editors were finding it hard to determine the criteria for recognition of a Public School and the shifting definitions. It is worth noting that HMC membership may not be an adequate test in its own right as the membership is linked to the Head and not to the school, thus some Heads have not applied for membership and some schools are listed and unlisted accordingly.

Furthermore, within the HMC a number of schools have established their own peer groups. Eton College has the Eton Group which includes a select group of boarding and day schools that have traditionally been viewed as the upper tier of independent schools in the United Kingdom. A corresponding group established by Rugby School is a boarding only group of similar schools. Collectively, the Eton Group and Rugby Group are viewed by many schools admissions consultants as being the true “Public Schools” but even then this doesn’t necessarily satisfy other criteria laid down in the past and may omit other schools that are worthy of consideration too. Other school groups have been established attempting to foster regional cooperation by schools who view one another as peers. These include the Canford Group of Schools, the Haileybury and St Albans Group and the Monmouth Group. To a lesser extent, one could argue that the Sevenoaks Group might also be included here, albeit that this was a more informal fee-survey group.

The Endowed Schools Act’s intended transformation of the provision of education in the United Kingdom did not quite have the impact envisioned. Indeed, whilst the Act allowed for a profound amendment of ancient endowments (schools whose endowments and foundations were dated less than fifty years prior to the Act were exempted), the intended creation of oversight and regulatory bodies had not happened. Nor either had the central registration of teachers and the overall elevation of standards of secondary education to that now required of Public Schools under the Public Schools Act. Furthermore, where the Endowed Schools Act included clauses that would allow for local authorities to establish a school where no such existing school was situated nor could endowments of an existing school be redirected accordingly, few new schools had been created in this manner. The select few endowed grammar schools that represented the best in the country, and which largely comprised the early membership of the HMC, still heavily dominated admissions to the country’s universities and very little social mobility had been presented by the reforms. Rather, the privileges of the middle class in accessing education had been further cemented.

Separately, the Endowed Schools Act had caused great uproar and discontent amongst those schools which found themselves most heavily subjected to the powers of the Commissioners. Indeed, in many cases, the Commissioners had afforded different rights and privileges to certain Endowed Schools which were not afforded to, ostensibly, similar schools. A lack of uniformity in approach coupled with the exemptions given to the Public Schools carved out of these measures under the Public Schools Act and the additional exempted schools set out in the Endowed Schools Act was presenting an unfair playing field.

Even within the Public Schools Act, Eton and Winchester were wholly exempted from the jurisdiction of the Charitable Trusts Act and the Endowed Schools Act, whilst Charterhouse, Harrow, Rugby, Shrewsbury and Westminster were exempted only from the Endowed Schools Act. Other schools exempted from the Endowed Schools Act included: endowed elementary schools with income from their endowment not exceeding £100 per annum; endowed schools not in receipt of any endowment income but rather sustained by way of voluntary contribution; schools that were not grammar schools and which were in receipt of grant funding from the State; schools maintained by an endowment that was not legally attached to them; Chorister schools; and any school whose endowment by the date of enactment (1869) was less than fifty years old, unless they should choose to opt in.

The Royal Commission on Secondary Education was tasked, under 1^st Viscount Bryce, to look into the state of education in the United Kingdom and the progress of these reforms as had been incepted through statute. The Report of the Royal Commission on Secondary Education (1895) (The Bryce Report) determined that further reform was required and that a common approach would be preferred. They determined that there was no sound basis for placing the endowments of the Great Nine Public Schools on a different footing to that of, say, Oakham or Uppingham. The Bryce Report also noted the progress towards a corresponding education for girls specifically suggesting that such schools are the “public schools for girls”.

The definition of what constitutes a Public School was further blurred. The proliferation of new schools in the 1800s that were successfully competing with, if not bettering, the ancient, endowed grammar schools were attracting many of the pupils that would otherwise have attended their more famous peers. The more technical and modern education programmes that they offered were bolstered by the rigorous, character-based ethos that was increasingly commonplace at the better schools in the country, as refined and championed by Thomas Arnold, of Rugby School. The muscular Christianity approach, supported by organised games, a system of prefects/præpostors, and intramural House competition was becoming the ubiquitous hallmark of a Public School education. Greater competition between peer schools on the sports fields would see the boys of the great schools mixing more often than had been the case previously and the result was a subculture unique to their community, with its own customs, norms, games, codes and slang-based language. Moreover, this culture was dynamic, some of it being brought with boys being sent up to Oxford and Cambridge, and some of it being sent down from the great universities. Old Boys of these schools would establish sporting clubs limited to alumni of one or a select few schools and which would be play pivotal early roles in the establishment of many sporting codes.