A New History of Sherborne School - Old Yet Ever Young

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never revisit this place without falling under the spell – a charm blended of its mellow physical beauties and the sense of the generations of young life which, passing through court and cloister, have left something of themselves.

C. Day Lewis, Poet Laureate

Headmaster’s Message It is almost seventy years since the first appearance of A.B. Gourlay’s History of Sherborne School. Gourlay’s work continues to be of great value but the time is undoubtedly right for a new scholarly history of the School. We are fortunate that an historian of the calibre of Patrick Francis was willing to undertake the task.

Patrick knows the School well. He recently retired as a teacher of history, having also served for a decade as a housemaster. He is the author of the magisterial Vivat Shirburnia (2014) which chronicles in impressive detail the School’s response to the First World War. Working on a broader canvas, he has now produced an equally compelling history of Sherborne to the year 2010 (and beyond). Combining painstaking scholarship with sensitivity and lightness of touch, the work refreshes Gourlay’s analysis of the nineteenth-century School whilst considering its evolution through the following hundred years. Sympathetic but never sentimental, the book celebrates the vast contribution that Sherborne and Shirburnians have made to the political, academic, military, cultural and sporting life of Britain and the world.

The work charts Sherborne’s history through good times and bad, with periods of growth, success and development being punctuated by episodes of crisis and institutional malaise. From this careful and thoughtful analysis comes the clear impression of an institution of great strength and resilience and one possessed of a remarkable capacity to recover from periodic setbacks.

The work is greatly enhanced by over 350 images integrated into the text. David Ridgway is responsible for the many evocative photographs taken specifically for the book and the painstaking work of setting, sizing and, where necessary, restoring images from the School archives.

At a time when the place of independent schools is the subject of intense and often ill-informed debate, this new history is a timely reminder of the contribution that Sherborne has made to many areas of our national life.

Dr Dominic Luckett

Old Yet Ever Young is a fully-illus After an introductory chapter, which includes reference to the royal charter granted to the School in 1550, the first half of the book covers the century from Dr Harper’s arrival as headmaster in 1850 to the end of Ross Wallace’s tenure in 1950.

‘‘The history of Sherborne is a fascinating one, with plenty of dramas mixed in with the solid business of teaching. It’s overdue for modern re-telling. It’s also the opportunity to show off David Ridgway’s stunning atmospheric portraits of the place and its people.’’

Dermot Turing (Westcott House, 1974-78), author of Prof: Alan Turing Decoded and trustee of Bletchley Park and the Turing Trust.

strated history of Sherborne School.

The second half of the book contains a chapter on each decade in the history of the School between 1950 and 2000, with a final chapter covering developments since the start of the new millennium.

“Sherborne seeps into the soul of those who have crunched the gravel of the Courts. Patrick Francis sensitively captures the School’s grace and grandeur, and occasional grapples with misfortune, through this soulful and evocative book.”

Robert Hands (Abbey House, 1987-92), Former Executive Managing Editor, Times Newspapers Ltd.

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