Shrewsbury School

Shrewsbury School was founded by charter in 1552 under King Edward VI, following a petition in 1542 to Henry VIII from the townspeople of Shrewsbury for a free grammar school.

The school began operation in three rented wooden buildings, which included Riggs Hall, built in 1450, and now the only remaining part of the original foundation.

The early curriculum was based on Continental Calvinism, under its first headmaster, Thomas Ashton (appointed 1561) and boys were taught the catechism of Calvin. The school attracted large numbers of pupils from Protestant families in Shrewsbury, Shropshire and North Wales, with 266 boys on its roll at the end of 1562.[5] Early pupils lodged with local families; Sir Philip Sidney (who had a well known correspondence with his father about his schooling by letter[6][7][8]) did so with George Leigh, Member of Parliament for Shrewsbury. Sidney attended along with his lifelong friend Fulke Greville (later Lord Brooke).[9]

Having achieved a reputation for excellence under Ashton, in 1571 the school was augmented by Queen Elizabeth I. By 1581, the school had 360 pupils and was described by William Camden in 1582 as "the best filled [school] in all England".[10]

Although Ashton had resigned from his headmastership in 1568, he returned to Shrewsbury in 1578 to help draw up the ordinances governing the school, which were in force until 1798; under them, the borough bailiffs (mayors after 1638) had power to appoint masters, with Ashton's old St John's College, Cambridge having an academic veto.[11] Shrewsbury has retained links with the college, with the continued appointment of Johnian academics to the Governing Body, and the historic awarding of 'closed' Shrewsbury Exhibitions.[12]

The school's original building now serves as Shrewsbury's town library

The stone buildings on Castle Gates, including a chapel, dormitories, library and classrooms were completed by 1630, with the Ashton's successor, John Meighen, founding a chained library in 1606,[13] though the library had begun making acquisitions by 1596, with a terrestrial globe by the first English globe maker Emery Molineux being its first acquisition.[14]

Early graffiti in the former school building

A house was also built for the school in 1617 in the nearby village of Grinshill as a retreat in times of plague.[15][16]

The school's original Castle Gates premises had little in way of provision for games. Under Dr Butler, there were two bat fives courts and playgrounds in front of and behind the buildings, but after the arrival of Dr Kennedy football was permitted, for which the school acquired a ground in Coton Hill (north of Castle Gates).[17]

The school continued in these buildings, until it was relocated in 1882. At this time, the original premises were converted to a public Free Library and Museum by the Shrewsbury Borough Council, opening in their new role in 1885;[18] over the course of the 20th century the library purpose gradually took over the whole building, to which major restoration was done in 1983.[19][17]

In 1798, a specific Act of Parliament, The Shrewsbury School Act, was passed for the better government of the school.[20][21][22] The Court of Chanclery in 1853 later amended this scheme.[23]

The school had just three headmasters during the 19th century.

To mark the turn of the Millennium, Shrewsbury unveiled a monument [24] of Charles Darwin.

Samuel Butler was appointed headmaster in 1798. Writing at this time he observed: "This school was once the Eton or the Westminster of Wales and all Shropshire",[25] and under his leadership the school's reputation, which had receded from the Civil War, again grew.[26]

Butler was succeeded by his pupil Benjamin Hall Kennedy (of Latin Primer fame) in 1836,[26] who in turn gave way to Henry Whitehead Moss in 1866.

Under Butler and Kennedy, Shrewsbury was one of three provincial schools among the nine studied by the Clarendon Commission of 1861–64 (the schools considered being Eton, Charterhouse, Harrow, Rugby, Westminster, and Winchester, and two day schools: St Paul's and Merchant Taylors).[27] Shrewsbury went on to be included in the Public School's Act 1868, which ultimately related only to the boarding schools. In this period (1818–1825) Charles Darwin attends the school.[28]

In 1882, Moss moved the school from its original town centre location to a new site of 150 acres (61 ha) in Kingsland (an area of land which at one time belonged to the Crown and granted to the Corporation at “a rather remote period, the exact date of which appears not to be known”, but apparently before 1180[29]), on the south bank of the River Severn overlooking the town. A legacy of this move can be seen in the school premises being referred to as "The Site".

The school was located in the current Main School Building which dates from 1765 and had at different times housed a foundling hospital and the Shrewsbury workhouse, before translating to this current use. In order to meet this new purpose, it was remodelled by Sir Arthur Blomfield (whose other educational commissions include and Marlborough College and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford).

Bloomfiled also designed School House, to the east of the Main School building which was constructed during the 1880s.[30] The new Riggs Hall (which had existed from Tudor buildings at the old site[31]) was also built at this time,[32] as was Churchill's Hall[33] and Moser's Hall:[34] these buildings are the work of William White.

The school's current chapel, built in 1887

A gothic chapel was built for the school (also by Blomfield) in 1887, though it has been noted that "Christian religion played only a very small part in the life of the Public Schools... [and] at Shrewsbury the Governors refused to allow Butler to address the school at a service" prior to this increased focus in the Victorian period.[35] Its south and east windows in the chapel are by Kempe, employing medieval narrative style for lives of saints, scenes from the history of the school.[36]

Other buildings have since grown up around the edge of the site, with sports pitches in the centre, with diverse buildings being added to the new site over the last 130 years.

The current main school building and a since replaced boat house in 1908

The main school building suffered a major fire in 1905.[37][38] Moss was succeeded in 1908 by Cyril Alington, then Master in College at Eton. Alington, though a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, was a sportsman, evidenced by the 1914 appointment as his secretary of Neville Cardus, the future cricket journalist who had joined the school in 1912 as the school's assistant cricket professional.

At the time of his appointment as Headmaster, Alington was younger than any of the masters on the staff, so to bring in new blood into the teaching staff, he recruited several former Collegers from Eton, most notably The Rev. Ronald Knox. Alington wrote the school song and commissioned its flag (a banner of arms of its coat of arms),[39] and he was an energetic builder; the school Alington Hall (assembly hall) is named after him. In December 1914 he wrote a poem, "To the School at War", which was published in The Times.[40][41] After leaving Shrewsbury, Alington went on to serve as Chaplain to the King to King George V from 1921 until 1933, and then Dean of Durham, from 1933 to 1951. He appeared on the cover of Time magazine on 29 June 1931. "An accomplished classicist, a witty writer especially of light verse, and a priest of orthodox convictions ..."[42]

During the Edwardian period Oldham's Hall was built (1911).[43] The current library building was added in 1916.[44]

Mountaineer Andrew Irvine, who, with George Mallory may have reached the summit of Mount Everest in the 1924 British Everest Expedition attended Shrewsbury during the First World War.[45] During the 1920s the Georgian villa houses at Severn Hill[46] and Ridgemount[47] were acquired by the school and adapted into boarding houses. Severn Hill, the linear decedent of the house of which Irvine was captain, holds his ice axe from the expedition, discovered in 1933 by Wyn Harris.[48]

The First World War saw 321 former members of the school die serving their country.[49] A war memorial was added to the school in 1923 for these fallen.[50] This memorial was added to after the Second World War to include the 135 members of the school who fell in that conflict.[51] The monument contains a statue of Sir Phillip Sidney, the Elizabeth soldier, poet and courtier who himself was a former member of the school and died of wounds sustained at the Battle of Zutphen in 1597, and it faces the Main School building down an avenue of linden trees, known as 'central'.

Between 1944 and 1950 John Wolfenden (later Lord Wolfenden) was headmaster; he left Shrewsbury to become Vice-Chancellor of the University of Reading. He was appointed to various public body chairmanships by the Privy Council, and also went on to be director of the British Museum. His name is closely associated with the government-instituted Wolfenden Report, which he chaired.

High Cross given to the town of Shrewsbury by the school in 1952, replacing the lost medieval cross, to celebrate 400 years of relations between the two

In 1952, the school was 400 years old. It received a royal visit to mark the occasion,[52] and presented the town with a new cross[53] for the historic site of the town's High Cross (which had been removed in 1705) at the termination of the market street which was a starting point for civic and religious processions in the medieval town and a significant location (the place of execution of Earl of Worcester and others after the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, and of Dafydd III, last native Prince of Wales in 1283).[54]

The future Deputy Prime Minister of the UK Michael Heseltine attended the school immediately after the Second World War on a scholarship.[55] A number of the founders and writers of the satirical magazine Private Eye attended the school in the 1950s.[56] Willy Rushton was also at the school at this time.[55] The comedian, actor, writer and television presenter Micheal Pailin of Monty Python's Flying Circus attended the school shortly afterwards and a scholarship is now available named for him.[57]

Between 1963 and Donald Wright served as headmaster. The Times has called Wright a "great reforming headmaster". While there, working with the Anglican Diocese of Liverpool, Wright took a leading role in the building of a new Shrewsbury House, the school's mission in Liverpool, which was opened in 1974 by Princess Anne. He secured many leading churchmen to come to preach in the school chapel, including Donald Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury. After retiring as a headmaster in 1975, Wright became the Archbishop of Canterbury's Patronage Secretary, chaired the William Temple Foundation, and served as Secretary to the Crown Appointments Commission.

In the 1960s, Kingsland House, another C19th gentleman's residence was acquired by the school and adapted for use for central catering for all pupils (previously food had been arranged in houses).[58] A new science building was also added in the 1960s.[59]

Sir Eric Anderson served as headmaster between 1975 and 1980. He went on to be Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford, chairman of the Heritage Lottery Fund and Provost of Eton, among other roles.

In 1988, another Georgian villa house, the Grove, was bought and adapted for use as boarding house.[60] In 1996 a new IT building, the Craig Building, was added.[59]

The two newest boarding houses, for girls, are named for Mary Sidney and Emma Darwin, whose brother and husband, respectively, were both prominent Old Salopians.

Since the turn of the millennium, the school's site has seen investment, beginning with the addition of a statue of alumnus Charles Darwin being added to the site to mark the millennial, which was unveiled by Sir David Attenborough.[61]

A new music school, The Maidment Building, was opened by HRH Prince Charles in 2001.[62]

A new boarding house, named for Mary Sidney, has been completed (2006),[63] as has an indoor cricket centre (2006)[64] and a new swimming pool (2007).[65]

Girls were admitted to the school for the first time into the sixth-form in 2008, and the school became fully coeducational in 2015.[66]

In 2012 the rowing facilities were extended with a new Yale Boat house, which was opened by Olympian Matt Langridge.[67] A new Computing and Design faculty building, "the Chatri Design Centre" was established in 2017, re-purposing and redeveloping a former humanities building.[68] In 2015 a new building, Hodgeson Hall, was built to house the 5 humanities departments.[69]

The addition of a new theatre was announced in 2018.[70][71]

Football, as a formal game, was incubated at the public schools of the nineteenth centuries and Shrewsbury had a key role in the game's development.[73] Salopians were prominent in the early history of the organised game at Cambridge University, according to Adrian Harvey "Salopians formed a club of their own in the late 1830s/early 1840s but that was presumably absorbed by the Cambridge University Football Club that they were so influential in creating in 1846".[74] The school has an 1856 copy of the Cambridge rules of football, predating the 1863 rules of the FA.

In these early years, each of the schools had their own versions of the game, and by the 1830s the version played at Shrewsbury had become known as "dowling", taking this name from the Greek word for slave: the goal had no cross bar, favoured dribbling, and was being formally supported by the school's authorities to the extent it was compulsory. While, at the beginning of the 18th century, however, the school authorities deemed football "only fit for butchers boys", an attitude common at the other public schools,[75][76] by the 1840s, all boarders were required to play Douling three times a week unless they were excused on medical grounds.[77]

From 1853, the national press was publishing reports of football at the school, although at this time matches were predominantly between the various House. The school's first captain of football was appointed in 1854, and a school team was formed in the early 1860s for external mataches.[78] Also by the 1860s football was sufficiently well-established for all Houses to field 1st and 2nd XI sides across all age groups.[77]

The Arthur Dunn Challenge Cup (annual football cup competition played between the Old Boys of public schools started in 1903) was contested by Shrewsbury and Charterhouse in the first ever final, and shared by the two institutions following two draws, with two Morgan-Owen brothers choosing instead to turn out for Shrewsbury, instead of playing internationally in a Wales vs. Ireland game for which they had been selected.[79] Shrewsbury has won the Arthur Dunn Challenge Cup a total of 11 times, including the Centenary Cup Final in 2003,[80] a replay of the first final in 1903.

Shrewsbury has won the Independent Schools Football Association Boodles ISFA Cup twice: in 2000 and 2010.

Shrewsbury School viewed from The Quarry, with the school's boathouse in the foreground.

Th Royal Shrewsbury School Boat Club (RSSBC) is one of the oldest school rowing clubs, having been founded in 1866.

Since the boat club began rowing at Henley Royal Regatta in 1912, they have won 14 times. Shrewsbury is only seconded in victories at Henley to Eton, having won specifically:

• Elsenham Cup: 1919
• Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup: 1955,[81] 1957, 1960, 1961, 2007
• Ladies’ Challenge Plate Winner: 1932
• Special Race for Schools/Fawley Challenge Cup: 1975,1976, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1985[82]

Royal Shrewsbury School Boat Club Rowing Blade, this cross emblem is commonly used by sports teams, and has been for around 150 years, but for a period was reserved for the first VIII. This arrangement is also used as the flag of the boat club, while other sports use the school's banner of arms

Shrewsbury is one of only two public schools to have bumps races, the other being Eton, between the houses. They are rowed over four evenings at the end of term in July. There are usually three boats entered per house. On the fourth evening there are prizes for the leaders of the chart and the Leadbitter Cup for the boat which has made the most bumps over the four nights. The event is marshalled by senior rowers and rowing prefects, usually masters. The crew training is mainly pupil driven, though in preparation for Henley the school's First VIII rowers often do not take part, and therefore the boats are composed of other rowers and some non-rowers. Previously, races were run every day until there were no more bumps (i.e. until they were nominally in speed order). This historical set-up could lead to weeks of racing and it was therefore abandoned in favour of a four-day version more than 100 years ago. Otherwise, it is only Oxford and Cambridge that continue to have bumps. Shrewsbury and Eton both race bumps in fours whilst Oxford and Cambridge race in eights.

The town's rowing club, Pengwern Boat Club, has close historical links to the School's rowing activities, and for a time thy jointly rented a boat house at the site of the current Pengwern club house.[83]

A former captain of the boat club, John Lander, is the only Olympic gold medallist to have been killed in action in World War 2.[84] GB Olympic silver medalist Rebecca Romero, and Paralympian Becca Chin both recently been appointed to coach within the club.[85]

The school's site is intersected by shaded paths

The Royal Shrewsbury School Hunt (RSSH or "the Hunt") is the oldest cross-country club in the world, with written records (the Hound Books) going back to 1831 and evidence that it was established by 1819.[86] The sport of "the Hunt" or "the Hounds", now known as a Paper Chase, was formalised at the school around 1800. Two runners (the "foxes") made a trail with paper shreds and after a set time they would be pursued by the other runners (the "hounds"). The club officers are the Huntsman and Senior and Junior Whips. The hounds start most races paired into "couples" as in real fox hunting; the winner of a race is said to "kill".[87] Certain of the races are started by the Huntsman, carrying a 200-year-old bugle and a ceremonial whip, dressed in scarlet shirt and a black velvet cap shouting:

All hounds who wish to run, run hard, run well, and may the devil take the hindmost

before lounging the bugle: and this has been done for nearly 200 years.[88]

In his 1903 semi-autobiographical novel The Way of All Flesh, Old Salopian Samuel Butler describes a school based on Shrewsbury where the main protagonist's favourite recreation is running with "the Hounds" so "a run of six or seven miles across country was no more than he was used to".[89] The first definite record of the Annual Steeplechase is in 1834, making it the oldest cross-country race of the modern era.[86]

The main inter-house cross-country races are still called the Junior and Senior Paperchase, although no paper is dropped and urban development means the historical course can no longer be followed. Every October the whole school participates in a 3.5-mile run called "The Tucks", originally intended to prevent pupils attending a local horse race.[90] It is now run at Attingham Park.[91]

The school also lays claim to the oldest track and field meeting still in existence, which originated in the Second Spring Meeting first documented in 1840. This featured a series of mock horse races including the Derby Stakes, the Hurdle Race, the Trial Stakes and a programme of throwing and jumping events, with runners being entered by "owners" and named as though they were horses.[86]

Cricketer, commentator and selector James Taylor, played for the school

Cricket was being played at Shrewsbury at least as long ago as the 1860s.[92] A reference was made to an effort to set up a game with Westminster School in 1866 (declined by Westminster) in a House of Commons debate by Jim Prior in 1961.[93] Neville Cardus was the school's cricket professional in the early twentieth century.[94]

Boys' 1st XI season focuses on the Silk Trophy, which competed for by Shrewsbury, Eton, Oundle and an overseas touring side at the end of each summer term.[95]

The school competes in the HMC Twenty 20 having made the finals day each year since 2010, winning the competition in 2011 and 2013.[96] The school won the Lord's Taverners Trophy in 2005.[97]

Old Salopians who have played county cricket include James Taylor, Scott Ellis, Nick Pocock, The Hon. Tim Lamb, Ian Hutchinson.,[98] Ed Barnard, Steve Leach, Ed Pollock, Dion Holden,[99] Dave Lloyd,[100] George Garret,[101] George Panayi.

Eton Fives is major sport within the school and it has 14 Fives courts.[102] At the end of the Lent Term the school competes in the Marsh Insurance National Schools Eton Fives Championships, which are held in rotation at Shrewsbury. Highgate and Eton.[103][104]

Minor sports include: shooting, fencing, basketball, golf, equestrian, badminton, swimming, hockey and squash.[105]

Among past guest speakers hosted at the school include:

• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle[117]
• AC Grayling
• Hilaire Belloc[117]
• Donald Coggan when Archbishop of Canterbury
• Lord Hague,[118]
• Lord Heseltine,[119]
• Lord Hennessy,
• Lord Hutton,
• Lord Hurd,
• 

  Oleg Gordievsky is one of those to have addressed the school as a speaker
  Oleg Gordievsky,
• Sir Colin McColl,[120]
• Aidan Hartley.[121]
• Will Gompertz[122]

There are dozens of organisations known as 'societies', in many of which pupils come together to discuss a particular topic or to

listen to a lecture, presided over by a senior pupil, and often including a guest speaker, they are largely run by the students.

Those in existence at present include:

• Archery
• Art & Photography
• Bastille Society (history)
• Beekeeping[123]
• Canoe and Kayak Club
• Chinese
• Christian Forum
• Coding
• Comedy
• Cooking
• Craft and Textiles Club
• Creative Writing Society
• Darwin Society (Science)
• Debating Society
• Drama
• French
• Heseltine Society
• Junior History Society
• Maths Club
• Mindfulness
• Model Railway Society
• Model United Nations
• Paired Reading Society (students visit a local primary school, where they work with younger children on a one-to-one basis in order to help develop their reading skills).
• Pilates
• Quizzing
• Reading
• Royal Shrewsbury School Shooting Club
• Sidney Society (literature)
• Spanish Society
• STEM
• Technical Theatre

There is also a Combined Cadet Force.

The Music School ("Maidment Building"), a 2001 addition to the school site

The school has the following orchestras ensembles and choirs:[124]

• The Symphony Orchestra;
• The Wind Orchestra;
• Big Ban;
• The Pepys Brass Quintet (one of two brass quintets run for the best senior brass players in the school);
• The Senior Brass Ensemble
• The Senior String Ensemble
• The Chamber Choir
• The Chapel Choir
• The Community Choir (includes local members who are not part of the school)
• Jazz Band
• String quartets
• Junior and Senior string ensembles
• Clarinet and sax groups
• Year-based brass groups
• Flute Ensemble
• Tuba and horn quartets

Every other year (and sometimes more often), Shrewsbury puts on its own homegrown school musical which is taken to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. These have included:[125]

• Rebecca the Drowned Bride
• What You Will
• Bubble
• Jekyll!

Jacques Loussier performed at the school in the early 2000s

High-profile musicians and performers also visit the school with such visitors including:

• Jacques Lussier
• The Swingles[126]
• Cristina Ortiz
• Tenebrae Choir[127]
• Joe Stilgoe[128]
• Jason Rebello[129]
• Jenny Agutter[130]
• Voces8[131]
• Peter Donohoe[132]

• Four Butler Scholarships (up to 30% of fees)
• Six Kennedy and Moss Scholarships (up to 20% of fees)
• Seven Alington Scholarships (at least £2,000 per year)

Art Scholarships are awarded annually, most of which carry a fee remission of 10%, and larger awards are sometimes made.

Music Scholarships are awarded each year, worth up to 30% of the and the scholars receive free music tuition on two instruments.

A small number of Sir Michael Palin All-Rounder Scholarships are awarded each year.

Scholarship awards are also made for Drama, Sport, and Design and Technology, and sixth form scholarships are also available.[139] Bursary support grants are also available.[140]

1930s

• Sir William Adams KCMG (born 1932), ambassador to Tunisia 1984–87 and Egypt 1987–92
• Peter Brown FBA (born 1935), historian of Late Antiquity and Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford
• Christopher Booker (born 1937), journalist, founder of Private Eye
• Michael Heseltine, Baron Heseltine CH PC (born 1933), politician and Deputy Prime Minister
• Brian Hutton, Baron Hutton PC QC (born 1931), Law Lord, Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland and Chairman of Hutton Inquiry
• Christopher Gill RD (born 1936), politician
• Richard Ingrams (born 1937), journalist, founder of Private Eye
• Sir Colin Hugh Verel McColl KCMG (born 1932), head of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6)
• Air Marshall Sir Michael Simmons KCB AFC (born 1937), Royal Air Force Officer, Assistant Chief of the Air Staff

1940s

• Richard Barber FRSL FSA FRHistS (born 1941), historian
• Richard Best, Baron Best OBE DL FAcSS (born 1945), politician
• Piers Brendon (born 1940), writer
• Major General Sir Robert John Swan Corbett KCVO CB (born 1940), Commandant of the British Sector in Berlin 1987-90
• Sir Peter Davis (born 1941), businessman and chairman of Sainsbury's
• Edward Foljambe, 5th Earl of Liverpool (born 1944), Conservative politician and peer
• Martin Ferguson Smith OBE FSA (born 1941), scholar, writer and Classics and Ancient History professor at Durham
• Robin Hodgson, Baron Hodgson of Astley Abbotts CBE (born 1942), politician and life peer
• Stephen Jessel (born 1942), BBC correspondent
• David Lovell Burbidge CBE DL (born 1943), High sheriff of the West Midlands County 1990–91
• David Lamb, 3rd Baron Rochester (born 1944), noble
• Christopher MacLehose (born 1940), publisher
• Terry Milewski (born 1949), journalist
• Nick Owen (born 1947), TV presenter
• Sir Mark Moody-Stuart KCMG (born 1940), ex-chairman of Royal Dutch Shell and Chairman of the UN Global Compact committee
• Sir Michael Palin CBE FRGS (born 1943), actor and TV presenter
• Richard Passingham FRS (born 1943), neurologist
• Sir Nicholas Penny FBA FSA (born 1949), art historian, Director of the National Gallery
• Martin Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow OM FRS FREng FMedSci FRAS (born 1942), Astronomer Royal, erstwhile Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, ex-President of Royal Society
• Sir Francis John Badcock Sykes, 10th Baronet (born 1942), businessman
• Thomas Townley Macan (born 1946), Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the British Virgin Islands
• Sir Roderic Victor Llewellyn, 5th Baronet (born 1947), author and partner of Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon
• Selby Whittingham (born 1941), art expert
• Sir James William Vernon, 5th Baronet (born 1949), landowner and accountant
• Sir Christopher Wallace KBE DL (born 1943), Lieutenant General and Royal Green Jackets
• Sir Stephen Wright KCMG (born 1946), diplomat, Under-Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Ambassador to Spain

1950s

• Bruce Clark (born 1958), author and International Security Editor of The Times
• Stephen Glover (born 1952), journalist & columnist
• Timothy Edward Lamb (born 1959), cricketer and sports administrator
• Sir John Auld Mactaggart, 4th Baronet (born 1951), entrepreneur and philanthropist
• Jonathan Peter Marland, Baron Marland (born 1956), Treasurer of the Conservative Party
• Sir Andrew McFarlane (born 1954), Lord Justice of Appeal in England and Wales
• Sir Philip Montgomery Campbell FRAS FInstP (born 1951), astrophysicist and editor-in-chief of Nature
• Michael Proctor FRS FIMA FRAS (born 1950), academic and Provost of King's College, Cambridge
• Nicholas Rankin (born 1950), writer and broadcaster
• Johnathan Ryle (born 1952), writer, anthropologist and professor at Bard College
• Desmond Shawe-Taylor LVO (born 1955), art historian, Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures
• Jonathon Shawe-Taylor (born 1953), Director of the Centre for Computational Statistics and Machine Learning at University College, London
• Sir John Stuttard JP FCA (born 1945), Alderman and Lord Mayor of the City of London 2006–07

1960s

• Andrew Berry (born 1963), biologist and lecturer of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard
• Simon Baynes (born 1960), politician
• Tim Booth (born 1960), musician
• Nick Hancock (born 1962), actor and TV presenter
• Clive Carruthers Johnstone CB CBE (born 1961), Royal Navy officer and Commander of the Allied Maritime Command
• John Humphrey Arnott Pakington, 7th Baron Hampton (born 1964), landowner and photographer
• Nicholas Jarrold (born 1959), Ambassador to Croatia 2000–2004 and to Latvia 1996–1999
• Jonathan Legard (born 1961), journalist and broadcaster
• Jonathan Lord (born 1962), politician
• Twm Morys (born 1961), poet and musician.
• Mark Oakley (born 1968), Canon Chancellor of St. Paul's Cathedral and Dean of St John’s College, Cambridge
• Angus Pollock (born 1962), cricketer for Cambridge University Cricket Club
• Simon Shackleton (born 1968), DJ, musician
• Martin Wainwright MBE (born 1960), journalist and author

1970s

• Charles Robertson-Adams (born 1976), athlete
• Jonty Heaversedge (born 1971), TV doctor
• Christopher Hope FRSL (born 1972), journalist, political editor of The Daily Telegraph
• Alastair Humphreys (born 1976), adventurer and author

1980s

• Omar ‘Ali Bolkiah (born 1986), Crown Prince of the Sultanate of Brunei
• Anthony Magnall (born 1989), MP for Totnes
• Alexander Orlando Bridgeman, Viscount Newport (born 1980), businessman and landowner
• Freddie Fisher (born 1985), actor
• Richard Goulding (born 1980) actor
• Ian Massey (born 1985), cricketer, Cambridge MCCU and Herefordshire
• Joshua Sasse (born 1987), actor
• Will Tudor (born 1987), actor

1990s

• James Taylor (born 1990), Nottinghamshire and England cricketer
• Claas Mertens (born 1992), German rower

Harold Ackroyd and Thomas Tannatt Pryce, two former members of the school awarded the Victoria Cross.

Two Old Salopians received the Victoria Cross, both in the First World War, 1914–18.

• Thomas Tannatt Pryce VC MC
• Harold Ackroyd VC MC

The "Old Salopian Club", now known as the Salopian Club, was founded in 1886.[154] A number of reunions, clubs and activities are arranged by the club. The post nominals OS are used to denote Old Saloplians. .[155]

Former members of the school have various sporting clubs:

• Rowing is arranged by the "Sabrina Club",[156] which fields crews, including for Henley Royal Regatta[157] as well as supporting the school crews at various events
• Cricket is arranged by the "Saracens"[158]
• Old Salopian golf, yachting, fives cross country, tennis, football, squash and basketball are also provided for.[159]

Arrangements for cultural engagement of former members if the school, for instance concerts and plays and art exhibitions are also put on, and there is a programme around careers.[160][161]

A mission in Everton, Liverpool, called "Shrewsbury House" was established in 1903.[162] It is less formally known as "the Shrewsy" and is a youth and community center associated with St Peter's Church Everton.[163] Lord Heseltine was first introduced to social issues in Liverpool which the took up in the 1980s at this mission.[164]

The charity Medic Malawi, which includes a hospital, two orphanages and The Shrewsbury School Eye Clinic has an ongoing relationships and support from the school community.[165]

During the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 the school donated over 1,600 items of personal protective equipment to the NHS, including face shields it had 3D printed in its technology labs.[166] It also opened up rooms in its boarding houses for use for NHS staff.[167]

• Carr, A. M., and T. Fullman (1983). Shrewsbury Library: Its History and Restoration. Shropshire Libraries.
• Stewart, Alan (2000). Philip Sidney: A Double Life. Chatto and Windus. ISBN 0-7011-6859-5.