Wrekin College

The school was founded in 1880 as Wellington College by Sir John Bayley.

In 1915 less than 100 acres (0.40 km²) of the Lilleshall Hall estate were purchased from the Duke of Sutherland, who retained the Hall and 50 acres (200,000 m²). During the First World War the college refused to give up the rugby posts, to be scrapped as raw materials for the war effort however they did donate the railings on the walls down Sutherland Road.

In 1920, it was sold to the Revd Percy Warrington, a Church of England clergyman and renamed Wrekin College. The influential Anglican Clergyman E. J. H. Nash was chaplain from 1929–1932.[1] The Rev. Canon Guy Pentreath was a notable headmaster from 1943 to 1952. Girls were introduced to the sixth form by headmaster Geoffrey Hadden in 1975. It became fully co-educational in 1983. There are currently 420 pupils of which 10% are boarders and 50% are girls. The school now admits pupils from the age of eleven.

In 2006, the trust was merged with that of the Old Hall Preparatory School (founded 1845), which moved from its original site in the Old Hall on Limekiln Lane to the site of Wrekin College.

In 1907, The Old Wrekinian Association, (OWA), was created by just a small group of 14 past pupils and has today almost 4000 members who have subscribed to the mailing list. The sole purpose of the OWA is to help past students keep in touch with not only one another but also the school. The OWA Record magazine is published twice a year and it contains news of the OWA members and the school. There are eight officials of the OWA, and they are as follows:

President: Barrie Roberts (N.51-55) Chairman: Andrew Huxley (W.81-86) Vice-Chairman: Chris Jones (W.82-87) Treasurer: David Ellison (T.54–58) Auditor: David Stevens (N.58–62) Secretary: Mervyn Joyner (Staff 62–94) Social Secretary: Serena Kyle (C.75–77) Secretary 200 Club: Mervyn Joyner (Staff 62-94) Ex 1st 15 Rugby Captain: Thomas Saunders (2010-2011)

They meet at least twice a year along with the current Wrekin College headmaster, OW School Governors and OW Branch representatives.

The OWA website can be accessed here: http://www.wrekincollege.com/old-wrekinians/2303.html

• Harry Andrews (1911–1989), British stage and film actor
• William R. P. George (1912–2006), Welsh poet
• Sir Peter Gadsden (1929–2006), former Lord Mayor of London (1979), businessman
• Brian Epstein (1934–1967), music entrepreneur and manager of The Beatles
• Sir John Roch (1934– ), former Lord Justice of Appeal
• Field Marshal Rt Hon the Lord Inge KG, GCB, PC, DL (1935 – ), former Chief of Defence Staff
• Malcolm Bruce (1944- ), LibDem MP
• Sir Ian Blair (1953 – ), Metropolitan Police Commissioner (2005–2008)
• Peter Chelsom (1956- ), film director
• Bob Warman (1948 – ), television presenter
• James Faulkner (1948 – ), Voice/television actor
• Rupert Croft-Cooke MBE (1904–79), novelist and obsessive autobiographer
• Jean-Paul Duminy (1984– ), South African International cricketer
• Rory Kleinveldt (1983– ), South African International cricketer
• His Honour Judge John Charles Price, Circuit Judge

• External links
• Official website
• Bayley's Children: A History of Wrekin College 1880–2005
• The Allied Schools
• UK Boarding Schools Guide ProfileThe Good Schools Guide
• The Good Schools Guide