Stonyhurst College

Template:Short description Template:Coord Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates {{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Main other{{#if:|Template:Main other }}{{#if:|Template:Main other }}{{#if:|Template:Main other }}{{#invoke:check for unknown parameters|check |unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox university with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y | academic_affiliation | academic_affiliations | academic_staff | accreditation | address | administrative_staff | affiliation | affiliations | athletics_affiliations | athletics_nickname | athletics_nicknames | budget | campus | campus_type | campus_size | canton | caption | chair | chairman | chairperson | chancellor | city | closed | colors | colours | coor | coordinates | country | dean | director | doctoral | embedded | endowment | enrollment | established | faculty | footnotes | former_name | former_names | founder | founders | free | free1 | free2 | free_label | free_label1 | free_label2 | head | head_label | image | image_alt | image_name | image_size | image_upright | language | latin_name | location | logo | logo_alt | logo_size | logo_upright | map_size | mascot | mascots | module | motto | mottoeng | motto_lang | mottoeng | name | native_name | native_name_lang | nickname | nrhp | officer_in_charge | other | other_name | other_names | other_students | parent | postalcode | postcode | postgrad | prefecture | president | principal | province | provost | pushpin_label_position | pushpin_map | pushpin_map_caption | rector | region | religious_affiliation | sporting_affiliations | sports_free | sports_free1 | sports_free2 | sports_free3 | sports_free_label | sports_free_label1 | sports_free_label2 | sports_free_label3 | sports_nickname | sports_nicknames | state | students | superintendent | top_free | top_free1 | top_free2 | top_free_label | top_free_label1 | top_free_label2 | total_staff | type | undergrad | vice_chancellor | vice-president | vice_president | visitor | website | zipcode }}{{#invoke:Check for clobbered parameters|check | template = Infobox university | cat = Template:Main other | image; image_name | other_names; other_name | former_names; former_name | founders; founder | academic_affiliations; academic_affiliation | academic_staff; faculty | campus_type; campus | other_students; other | location; address | location; city | location; address | location; canton | location; prefecture | location; province | location; region | location; state | location; country | location; postalcode | location; postcode | location; zipcode | postalcode; postcode; zipcode | coordinates; coor | colors; colours | free_label; free_label1 | free; free1 | athletics_nicknames; sports_nicknames; athletics_nickname; sports_nickname; nickname | athletics_affiliations; sporting_affiliations | affiliation; affiliations | mascots; mascot | nrhp; embedded; module }} Template:Stonyhurst College Stonyhurst College or Stonyhurst is a co-educational Catholic public school providing education for boarding and day pupils, adhering to the Jesuit tradition.<ref name="ISBI" /><ref name="Jesuit_org" /> It is based on the Stonyhurst Estate, next to the village of Hurst Green, in Lancashire, in the United Kingdom. It occupies a Grade I listed building. The school has been fully co-educational since 1999. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

A precursor institution of the college was founded in 1593 by Father Robert Persons SJ at St Omer,<ref name="Brit">Stonyhurst College in Encyclopædia Britannica 2008. Retrieved 9 July 2008</ref><ref name="cathrob" /> at a time when penal laws prohibited Catholic education in England. It relocated to Stonyhurst Hall in 1794, having moved already to Bruges in 1762 and Liège in 1773, after an old boy, Thomas Weld (of Lulworth), granted it the Stonyhurst estate.<ref name="Brit" /><ref name="cathrob" /> It provides boarding and day education to approximately 500 boys and girls aged 11–18.<ref name="IndSch_1" /> On an adjacent site, its preparatory school, St Mary's Hall, provides education for boys and girls aged 3–11.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Its alumni/ae include three Saints, twelve Beati, twenty-two martyrs, seven archbishops, seven Victoria Cross winners, a Peruvian president and prime minister, a New Zealand Prime Minister, a signatory of the American Declaration of Independence and a number of writers, sportsmen, politicians, and European royals.<ref name=TEM188>T.E. Muir, Stonyhurst, (St Omers Press, Gloucestershire. Second edition, 2006) ISBN 0-9553592-0-1 pp.188-192</ref>

History

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Stonyhurst Hall

Template:See also The earliest deed concerning the Stanihurst is held in the college's Arundell Library; it dates from approximately 1200. In 1372, a licence was granted to John de Bayley for an oratory on the site. His descendants, the Shireburn family, completed the oldest portion of the extant buildings. Richard Shireburn began building the hall, which was enlarged by his grandson Nicholas who also constructed the ponds, avenue and gardens. Following his death, the estate passed to his wife and then to sole heir, their daughter, Mary, the Duchess of Norfolk.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The college

File:Robert Persons.gif

Fr Robert Persons SJ

The story of the school may be traced back to establishments in St Omer in what was then the Spanish Netherlands in 1593, where a college, under the Royal Patronage of Philip II of Spain, was founded by Fr Robert Persons SJ for English boys unable to receive a Catholic education in Elizabethan England.<ref name="cathrob" /> As such it was one of several expatriate English schools operating on the European mainland.<ref name="cathrob" /> In 1762, the Jesuits were forced to flee and re-established their school at Bruges.<ref name="Hewitson" />Template:Pn The school was moved in 1773 to Liège, where it operated for two decades before moving to Stonyhurst on 29 August 1794.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The number of students increased during the 19th century: the Society of Jesus was re-established in Britain at Stonyhurst in 1803, and over the century, student numbers rose from the original twelve migrants from Liège.<ref name=":0" /> By the turn of the following century, it had become England's largest Catholic college.<ref name="New_Advent_1" /> Stonyhurst Hall underwent extensive alterations and additions to accommodate these numbers; the Old South Front was constructed in 1810, only to be demolished and replaced with larger buildings in the 1880s.<ref name="TEM" />Template:Rp A seminary was constructed on the estate, and an observatory and meteorological station erected in the gardens.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The 20th century saw the gradual hiring of a mostly lay staff, as the number of Jesuits declined.<ref name="TEM" />Template:Rp The seminary at St Mary's Hall was closed, and the school discontinued its education of university-aged philosophers.

Since the Second World War, the buildings have been refurbished or developed. Additions include new science buildings in the 1950s and 1960s, a new boarding wing in the 1960s, a new swimming pool in the 1980s and Weld House in 2010. The school became fully co-educational in 1999.<ref name="TEM" />Template:Rp

Hodder Place, St Mary's Hall and Hodder House

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} The original preparatory school to Stonyhurst, Hodder Place, came into the hands of the Jesuits as part of the estate donated by alumnus Thomas Weld. Originally used as a novitiate, it became a preparatory school to the college in 1807.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

St Mary's Hall, on an adjoining site to Stonyhurst, was built as a Jesuit seminary in 1828 (extended in the 1850s) and functioned until 1926, when the seminarians moved to Heythrop Hall.<ref name="Hewitson" />Template:Pn The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, and John Tolkien, son of J. R. R. Tolkien, trained as priests there.<ref name="BBC_Tolkien" /><ref name="TEM" />Template:Rp During World War II, the English College left Benito Mussolini's Italy and occupied the hall. After their return to Rome, St Mary's Hall opened as a middle school in 1946.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> At the same time, Hodder Place continued to educate those aged eight to eleven, until its closure and conversion into flats in 1970. Hodder Place pupils moved up to St Mary's Hall to form Hodder Playroom.<ref name="TEM" />Template:Rp As successor to Hodder Place, St Mary's Hall claims to being one of the oldest surviving preparatory school in Britain.<ref name="Saint_Marys_Hall" />

In 2004, the old gymnasium at St Mary's Hall was converted into new nursery and infant facilities named Hodder House, for those aged three to seven.<ref name="TEM" />Template:Rp

Religious life

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File:Lady Statue Stonyhurst.jpg

The Lady Statue at the top of the Avenue, erected in 1882

The college is Catholic and has had a significant place in English Catholic history for many centuries (including events such as the Popish Plot and Gunpowder Plot conspiracies). It was founded initially to educate English Catholics on the continent in the hope that, through them, Catholicism might be restored in England.<ref name="TEM" />Template:Rp

After the school settled in England in 1794 and the Society of Jesus was officially re-established in Britain in 1803. Stonyhurst remained the headquarters of their English Province until the middle of the century; by 1851, a third of the province's Jesuits were based there.<ref name="TEM" />Template:Rp Until the 1920s, Jesuit priests were trained on site in what is today the preparatory school. There was a drop in vocations after World War I and the seminary was closed. The number of Jesuits teaching at Stonyhurst fell to a third of the staff within a decade.<ref name="TEM" />Template:Rp Since then, the Jesuit presence has been in decline, but the school continues to place Catholicism and Jesuit philosophy at its core under the guidance of a Jesuit-led chaplaincy team and the involvement of the Jesuits in its governance.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

It is a long-standing practice, as with many Jesuit schools around the world, that pupils write A.M.D.G. in the top left hand corner of any piece of work they do. It stands for the Latin phrase Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam which means For the Greater Glory of God. At the end of a piece of work they write L.D.S. in the centre of the page. It stands for Laus Deo Semper which means Praise to God Always. These are both traditional Jesuit mottoes.<ref>AMDG Information on the Jesuit motto AMDG; retrieved 18 July 2008</ref>

Chapels

The school has one main church, St Peter's, and five chapels: the Boys' Chapel, the Chapel of the Angels, the Sodality Chapel, the St Francis Chapel and the St Ignatius Chapel.<ref name="Hewitson" />Template:Pn The last two are both within the towers of St Peter's Church. The Sodality Chapel is the home of the relics of the 3rd-century Roman convert St Gordianus. The Jesuits brought his remains from the College of St Omer and held them beneath the altar since 1859. His bones were temporarily removed in 2006 while the chapel underwent restoration, but they have since been returned.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The chapel is again used by the re-established Sodality. Adjacent to the Old Infirmary is the Rosary Garden, a place for spiritual contemplation, at the centre of which is a stone statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> St Peter's Church underwent repair and refurbishment in 2010–11.<ref>Refurbishment of St Peter's Template:Webarchive; retrieved 30 November 2011</ref>

Charitable status

File:Stonyhurst tea house.jpg

Public gardens and Typographia Collegii

As a registered charity,<ref name="legacies" /> Stonyhurst is obliged to provide benefits to the wider community under the terms of the Charities Act 2006. As such, the college is home to the local Catholic parish church, which receives worshippers from Hurst Green every day.<ref>Salford Diocese Information on St Peter's Church 2008. Retrieved 18 July 2008 Template:Webarchive</ref> Its sports facilities, including the swimming pool and all-weather pitch are available for public use; the latter was used for competitors training for the London 2012 Olympic Games.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>London 2012 Stonyhurst: article on London 2012, 2008. Retrieved 18 July 2008 Template:Webarchive</ref> Much of the estate has public access.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Many of its facilities such as its swimming pool, leisure complex, golf course, grounds and museum are open to the public.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The school has relationships with several state schools, arranging shared activities with their pupils, in particular those serving special needs children.<ref>Faith Primary School Stonyhurst: article on Faith Primary School 2007. Retrieved 18 July 2008 Template:Webarchive</ref> In addition, the school makes available some places to pupils offered on scholarship, bursaries or free of charge;<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> almost a third of current pupils receive financial support for their places.

Motto

The French motto Template:Langx refers to all-round development of the individual. It is inherited from the Shireburn family who once owned the original mansion on the site; the family emblem is emblazoned, in stone, with the motto, above the fireplace in the Top Refectory.<ref name="Hewitson" />Template:Pn

Academic

In 2024, 88% of GCSE students attained 9-4 grades; there is a 99% pass rate at A-Level; and 89% pass rate for the IB Diploma. 100% of A-Level leavers take up places at universities (10% to Oxbridge) or on gap year schemes.<ref name="ISBI" /> The school's most recent inspection rated much of the education and pastoral provision as 'outstanding'.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

Education during the college's early history was based on St Ignatius' Ratio Studiorum, with emphasis upon theology, classics and science, all of which still feature prominently in the curriculum.<ref name="TEM" />Template:Rp The educational practice, observed at the College of St Omer, of dividing a class into Romans and Carthaginians continued long after the migration to Stonyhurst but is not employed today; each pupil would be pitched against an opponent with the task of picking up on the other's mistakes in an attempt to score points.<ref name="TEM" />Template:Rp

Until Catholics were admitted to Oxbridge in 1854, Stonyhurst was also home to "philosopher gentlemen" studying BA courses under the London Matriculation Examination system. Their numbers began to fall after 1894 and the department was closed in 1916.<ref>T.E. Muir, Stonyhurst, (St Omers Press, Gloucestershire. Second edition, 2006) Template:ISBN p. 151</ref>

Libraries and collections

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File:More Library 1965-2003.jpg

The More Library in 2003, prior to refurbishment.

Stonyhurst College has four main libraries: the Arundell, the Bay, the Square and the More (dedicated to Saint Thomas More).<ref>Stadwick, S.J., Hubert (1957). "Stonyhurst College:Unfamiliar Libraries II." The Book Collector 6 No.4 (winter): 343-349.</ref>

The More Library is the main library for students while the 'House Libraries' (the Arundell, the Bay, and the Square) contain many artefacts from the Society of Jesus and English Catholicism. The Arundell Library, presented in 1837 by Everard, 11th Baron Arundell of Wardour, is the most significant; it is not only a country-house library from Wardour Castle but also has a notable collection of 250 incunabula, medieval manuscripts and volumes of Jacobite interest, signal among which is Mary Tudor's Book of Hours, which it is believed was given by Mary, Queen of Scots to her chaplain on the scaffold. The manuscript Le Livre de Seyntz Medicines was written in 1354 by Henry, Duke of Lancaster. To these were added the archives of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, which include 16th-century manuscript verses by St Robert Southwell SJ, the letters of St Edmund Campion SJ (1540–81) and holographs of the 19th-century poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. The Arundell Library has a copy of the Chronicles of Jean Froissart, captured at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, and held the 7th-century Stonyhurst Gospel of St John before it was loaned to the British Library, as well as a First Folio of Shakespeare.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

File:Do Room Stonyhurst.jpg

The Do Room, displaying items from the collections

Among those collections kept away from public view are numerous blood-soaked garments from Jesuits martyred in Japan, the skull of Cardinal Morton, ropes used to quarter St Edmund Campion SJ, hair of St Francis Xavier SJ, an enormous solid silver jewel-encrusted monstrance, the Wintour vestments, a cope made for Henry VII, and a thorn said to be from the crown of thorns placed upon Jesus' head at the crucifixion.<ref name="Hewitson" />Template:Rp

The school owns paintings, including a portrait of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia and another of the Jesuit Henry Garnet. In the Stuart Parlour are portraits of Jacobites including James Francis Edward Stuart, and his sons Charles Edward Stuart and Henry Benedict Stuart. There are also several original engravings by Rembrandt and Dürer, such as the 'Greater Passion' and the 'Car of Maximillian'.<ref name="Hewitson" />Template:Rp

Observatory

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File:Stonyhurst observatory.jpg

The rear of the Observatory

The school has a functioning observatory which was built in 1866.<ref name="Brit" /> An older observatory, built in 1838, is now the Typographia Collegii, but was once one of seven important stations in the country when the Meteorological Office came under the auspices of the Royal Society.<ref>T.E. Muir, Stonyhurst, (St Omers Press, Gloucestershire. Second edition, 2006) Template:ISBN pp. 145–7</ref> The records of temperature taken there start from 1846 and are the oldest continuous daily records in the world.<ref>BBC Two – Earth: The Climate Wars, Fightback, Dr Iain Stewart. Retrieved 20 September 2008</ref> During the nineteenth century, the observatory was maintained by the astronomer priests, Fr Alfred Weld, Fr Perry and Fr Sidgreaves whose research included astronomy, geomagnetrometry and seismology.<ref name="Fr. Walter Sidgreaves 1837-1919">Fr. Walter Sidgreaves (1837–1919). Retrieved 18 July 2008</ref> Astrophysicist Pietro Angelo Secchi, director of the Vatican Observatory, also taught astronomy at the college during the period.<ref name="Brit" /> Sir Edward Sabine chose the observatory as one of his main stations when conducting a magnetic survey of Britain in 1858. Five years later Fr Sidgreaves began the first series of monthly geometric observations, which continued until May 1919.<ref>Fr Walter Sidgreaves (1837–1919). Retrieved 18 July 2008</ref> During the course of the twentieth century, the observatory fell out of use and its telescope, parts of which dated to the 1860s, was sold after the Second World War. When its private owner came to sell it, the college was able to buy it back and restore it to its original home.<ref>Telescope Template:Webarchive Article on Stonyhurst's telescope 2002. Retrieved 18 July 2008</ref> The observatory is today used for astronomical purposes again, whilst also functioning as one of four weather stations used by the Met Office to provide central England temperature data (CET).<ref>Met Office Retrieved 21 October 2009</ref>

Arts

Music, drama and art

There are two choirs: the Chapel Choir, which sings regularly at Mass,<ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and the Schola Cantorum, composed of teachers and pupils, of all ages.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The school has two theatres and has after-school programs, lessons, and sessions in drama and music. In September 2024, a new dance studio was opened.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The college has a traditional theatre, the Academy Room, and a high-tech theatre built at St Mary's Hall as part of the Centenaries Appeal in 1993.<ref>T.E. Muir, Stonyhurst, (St Omers Press, Gloucestershire. Second edition, 2006) Template:ISBN p. 173</ref> The latter plays host to the annual Ribble Valley International Piano Week.<ref>RVIPW Template:Webarchive Ribble Valley International Piano Week 2008. Retrieved 18 July 2008</ref> Several former pupils have gone on to achieve success upon the stage, including OSCAR-winning actor and director Charles Laughton and BAFTA-winning director and producer Peter Glenville.<ref name="TEM" />Template:Rp

There is a dedicated art studio in addition to a separate design and technology centre. Student artwork is displayed on the walls of the Lower Gallery, including a portrait of the Queen painted by Isobel Bidwell during the Golden Jubilee year; upon receipt of a copy, the Queen's lady-in-waiting said that "The Queen was delighted to see the painting and know that it is on display in the school".<ref>Lancashire TelegraphTemplate:Dead link News article on Queen's portrait 2003. Retrieved 18 July 2008 Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

Literary associations

Stonyhurst has provided inspiration for poets and authors who include former classics teacher Gerard Manley Hopkins, whose poems feature details of the local countryside, and former pupil Sir Arthur Conan Doyle whose "Baskerville Hall" was modelled on Stonyhurst Hall, and who named Sherlock Holmes' nemesis, Moriarty, after a fellow pupil.<ref name=":1" /><ref name="clitheroe">Old Clitheroe Article on Tolkien & Conan Doyle 2001. Retrieved 18 July 2008 Template:Webarchive</ref> J. R. R. Tolkien wrote part of The Lord of the Rings in a classroom on the Upper Gallery during his stay at the college where his son taught Classics; his "Middle-earth" is said to resemble the local area, while there are specific resonances in names such as "Shire Lane", (the name of a road in Hurst Green) and the "River Shirebourn" (the Shireburns built Stonyhurst).<ref name="clitheroe" /> Poet Laureate Alfred Austin, and the poet Oliver St John Gogarty ("Stately plump Buck Mulligan" in James Joyce's Ulysses) were educated at the school, (as were the sons of Oscar Wilde and Evelyn Waugh).<ref name="TEM" />Template:Rp George Archer-Shee, at the centre of Terence Rattigan's play The Winslow Boy, is an alumnus.<ref>This is Lancashire Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore. Retrieved 7 February 2009</ref>

The school runs its own publication company, St Omer's Press, which publishes religious literature, and first began when the college was located at St Omer in Flanders.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Sport

Rugby

Template:Vanchor has played a big part in the life of the school, despite only supplanting football as the school's primary sport in 1921.<ref name="Hewitson" />Template:Pn Sporting rivalry is particularly prominent against fellow Catholic independent schools Ampleforth College, Mount St Mary's College and Sedbergh School in Cumbria. The Stonyhurst Sevens take place annually.<ref>Bolton News News article, 12 March 2003. Retrieved 18 July 2008</ref>

The school has produced sixteen international rugby players (England (5), Ireland (6), Scotland (1) Italy (1), the USA (1) Bermuda (1) and the Bahamas (1)), as well as players for the Barbarians and the British and Irish Lions.<ref name="TEM" />Template:Rp Most recently they include Iain Balshaw and Kyran Bracken, who both played for England when they won the 2003 Rugby World Cup, whilst another member of that team, Will Greenwood, went to Stonyhurst Saint Mary's Hall, where his mother taught maths until 2007.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Current pupils of the school have won places to represent Spain, Mexico (under 19s)<ref>Eduardo Rolon (Grammar Year) http://radiorugbymexico.blogspot.mx/2012/02/los-34-de-la-u-19.html</ref> the Irish Exiles and the Welsh Exiles (under 19s).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Old boys have also played at varsity level and have won blues for Oxford or Cambridge.<ref>OURFC Pierre Lafayeedney O.S. mentioned in OURFC article 11 March 2006. Retrieved 18 July 2008 Template:Webarchive</ref>

File:Stonyhurst Ambulacrum.jpg

The Ambulacrum, used for sport, the CCF, and indoor marquee, one of the first structures of its kind in Britain, built in 1851.

Stonyhurst's coaches have included former England coaches Dick Greenwood and Brian Ashton who coached the first XV.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Stonyhurst Football

Stonyhurst Football, inherited from the College of St Omer (along with Stonyhurst Cricket), was a sport played between the handball walls on the Playground.<ref name="Hewitson" />Template:Pn The game was discontinued with the advent of association football but was re-established in 1988 when a "Grand Match" was played at Great Academies; traditionally a "Grand Match" was played on Shrove Tuesday and was the primary Stonyhurst Football match of the season.<ref name="TEM" />Template:Rp The teams were England vs France (although during the Crimean War England vs Russia was played and more recently England vs Ireland was played in the 1980s).<ref name="TEM" />Template:Rp The last game took place in 1995.

Military

File:Stonyhurst war memorial.jpg

The war memorial, by Gilbert Ledward

Officer Training Corps (OTC)

The Stonyhurst Officer Training Corps assembled for the first time on 16 October 1900, in the Ambulacrum, overseen by The First Volunteer Battalion, the East Lancashire Regiment who gave instruction in drill and musketry.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="otc">OTC & CCF Stonyhurst: information on the OTC & CCF 2008. Retrieved 18 July 2008 Template:Webarchive</ref> The Corps was granted the honour of representation at the Coronation of 1910 and sent members to the Royal Review at Windsor in 1911.<ref>T.E. Muir, Stonyhurst, (St Omers Press, Gloucestershire. Second edition, 2006) Template:ISBN p. 123</ref> It also appeared on parade annually for the spectacle of the Corpus Christi celebrations until the practice became obsolete after Vatican II.<ref>T.E. Muir, Stonyhurst, (St Omers Press, Gloucestershire. Second edition, 2006) Template:ISBN p. 139</ref>

Combined Cadet Corps (CCF)

After the Second World War, school OTCs were succeeded by the Combined Cadet Force.<ref>Ministry of Defence MOD article on CCF History 2005. Retrieved 18 July 2008 Template:Webarchive</ref> Stonyhurst's comprises the following platoons named after Stonyhurst's seven Victoria Cross winners:<ref name="otc" />

Junior company

• Costello Platoon (Lieutenant Edmund William COSTELLO V.C., Malakand, India 1897)
• Coury Platoon (Second Lieutenant George Gabriel COURY V.C., Guillemont, Somme 1916)
• Liddell Platoon (Captain John Aiden LIDDELL V.C, Ostend, Belgium 1915)
• Kenna Platoon (Captain Paul Aloysius KENNA V.C., Khartoum, Sudan 1898)

Senior company

• Dease Platoon (Lieutenant Maurice James DEASE V.C., Mons, Belgium 1914)
• Jackman Platoon (Captain James Joseph Bernard JACKMAN V.C., Ed Duda, Tobruk, 1941)
• Andrews Platoon (Captain Harold Marcus ERVINE-ANDREWS V.C., Dunkirk 1940)
• Support Platoon

Military careers

Template:See also Some pupils have gone on to receive places at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.<ref name="times">Sandhurst reference, timesonline.co.uk; 12 April 2008; retrieved 10 July 2008.</ref><ref name="times2">The Sovereign's Parade, RMAS, Times Online, 15 December 2004; retrieved 10 July 2008.</ref><ref name="gordon">Speaker, GordonPoole.com; retrieved 10 July 2008.</ref>Template:Who This follows a long tradition of service from Stonyhurst pupils: many Old Stonyhurst (O.S.) were killed in the two World Wars and are commemorated on the war memorial at the end of the Upper Gallery.<ref>T.E. Muir, Stonyhurst, St Omers Press, Gloucestershire (2nd edition, 2006); Template:ISBN pp. 150–151</ref> The Stonyhurst War Records were published in their honour. A memorial at the top of the main staircase records the names of the six O.S. killed in the Boer War.

School organisation

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Playroom system

File:LGPlayroom.jpg

Lower Grammar Playroom in 2006

Unlike most English public schools, Stonyhurst is organised horizontally by year groups (known as playrooms) rather than vertically by houses,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> although the girls are also split into junior and senior houses.<ref name="playrooms">Playrooms Stonyhurst: information on playrooms 2008. Retrieved 18 July 2008 Template:Webarchive</ref>

Lines

In addition to the horizontal division of the school into playrooms, there is also a vertical grouping which cuts through the year groups, the "lines", and is used mostly for competitive purposes in sport and music.<ref>TT.E. Muir, Stonyhurst, (St Omers Press, Gloucestershire. Second edition, 2006) Template:ISBN p. 156</ref> The lines and colours are as follows:

• Campion (red) (named after St Edmund Campion)
• St Omers (yellow, though brown for sporting attire) (named after St Omer, the town the school was founded in)
• Shireburn (green) (named after the Shireburn family which built Stonyhurst)
• Weld (blue) (named after Thomas Weld who donated Stonyhurst to the Jesuits)

File:Top Refectory.jpg

Top Refectory, today used for social functions

Sister schools

Stonyhurst College has one sister school in Penang, Malaysia, called Stonyhurst International School Penang.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Stonyhurst Association

File:Stonyhurst gardens2006.jpg

The South Front viewed from the gardens

After less formal arrangements had been made for many years, the Association was formed in 1879.<ref name="TEM" />Template:Rp In 1985, it was granted charitable status by the Charity Commission. Its primary objective is to foster a strong spirit of union amongst past pupils and friends of Stonyhurst, with a strong charitable emphasis.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Alumni

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Stonyhurst has educated prominent individuals in many areas, from statesmen to sportsmen, and actors to archbishops.<ref name="TEM" />Template:Rp Seven alumni have been awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry; paintings of them adorn the walls of the Top Refectory in the school. The school's alumni include three saints, twelve Beati, seven archbishops, seven Victoria Cross winners, a Peruvian president, a Bolivian president, a New Zealand prime minister, a signatory of the American Declaration of Independence and several writers, sportsmen, and politicians.<ref name="kirby" /><ref name="TEM" />Template:Rp

Notable alumni include:

• Charles Carroll of Carrollton, signatory of the U.S. Declaration of Independence
• Arthur Conan Doyle, author of Sherlock Holmes
• St Thomas Garnet SJ, canonised saint and protomartyr of St Omers, one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales
• John Harbison, first State Pathologist of Ireland<ref name=si-obituary-sunday-independent>Template:Cite news</ref>
• Joseph Mary Plunkett, Irish signatory of the Irish Proclamation of Independence leading activist in the Easter Rising, for which he was executed
• John Francis Moriarty, Attorney General for Ireland
• Richard More O'Ferrall, Governor of Malta and Irish landownder.
• Frederick Weld, New Zealand prime minister
• Eduardo Lopez de Romaña, president of Peru
• Lieutenant Maurice James Dease, was the first posthumous recipient of the Victoria Cross during WWI, fought and died at the Battle of Mons
• Thomas Meagher, Irish poet, leader of the Young Ireland movement, American Civil War Brigadier General, and Acting Governor of the Montana Territory.
• Daniel Carroll, brother of John and cousin of Charles, one of only five men to sign both the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution.
• John Carroll, brother of Daniel and cousin of Charles, served as first bishop and archbishop in the United States, founder of Georgetown University.

Contemporaries

• Joe Ansbro, Scottish rugby international
• Crispian Hollis, Bishop of Portsmouth
• Michael D. Hurley, Cambridge don engaged in literature, philosophy and theology
• Paul Johnson, writer, artist and popular historian
• Gabriel Leung, Dean of the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong
• Mark Thompson, former Director-General of the BBC
• Chris Morris, satirist, BAFTA winner
• Tom Morris, theatre director, producer and writer, and Tony Award winner
• Matt Greenhalgh, screenwriter, BAFTA winner
• Tim Hetherington, photographer, Oscar nominee
• Patrick Rock former government deputy director of policy for Prime Minister David Cameron and convicted sex offender*
• Bill Cash, MP for Stone, Staffordshire and prominent Brexiteer
• Patrick McGrath, novelist

Notable masters

• Brian Ashton, history master and England rugby coach.<ref Name=Rugby/>
• Dick Greenwood, Assistant bursar and England rugby coach.<ref Name=Rugby>Rugby Coaches Stonyhurst: article on rugby coaches 2007. Retrieved 18 July 2008 Template:Webarchive</ref>
• Christopher Hollis, assistant master, history master (1925–1935), author, politician and president of the Oxford Union.<ref>[1] Template:Webarchive Biography on Hollis. Retrieved 7 February 2009</ref>
• Gerard Manley Hopkins, classics master and poet.<ref>Gerard Manley Hopkins.org. Retrieved 7 February 2009 Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref>
• Stephen Joseph Perry, astronomy master.<ref name="Fr. Walter Sidgreaves 1837-1919"/>
• Alfred Weld SJ, director of the Observatory, grandson of founder Thomas Weld (of Lulworth)
• Pietro Angelo Secchi, astronomy master, astrophysicist, and director of the Vatican Observatory.<ref name="Brit"/>
• George Tyrrell, philosophy master and Roman Catholic modernist.<ref Name=Brit/>

Headmasters

Since the college's foundation in Flanders in 1593, there have been 78 headmasters, (variably known as presidents, rectors, superiors and directors).<ref>T. E. Muir, Stonyhurst, (St Omers Press, Gloucestershire. Second edition, 2006) Template:ISBN p. 193</ref> Until the appointment of Giles Mercer in 1985, the headmaster had always been a member of the Society of Jesus.<ref name="rectors">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

St Omer, Bruges, Liège (1593–1794)

See: Heads of St Omer, Bruges, Liège

Stonyhurst (1794–present)

Presidents

Marmaduke Stone SJ (1794–1808)

Nicholas Sewall SJ (1808–1813)

John Weld SJ (1813–1816)

Nicholas Sewall SJ (1816–1817)

Rector and Headmaster

Charles Plowden SJ (1817–1819)

Joseph Tristram SJ (1819–1827)

Richard Norris SJ (1827–1832)

Richard Parker SJ (1832–1836)

John Brownbill SJ (1836–1839)

Francis Daniel SJ (1839–1841)

Andrew Barrow SJ (1841–1845)

Richard Norris SJ (1845–1846)

Henry Walmesley SJ (1846–1847)

Richard Sumner SJ (1847–1848)

Francis Clough SJ (1848–1861)

Joseph Johnson SJ (1861–1868)

Charles Henry SJ (1868–1869)

Edward Purbick SJ (1869–1879)

William Eyre SJ (1879–1885)

Reginald Colley SJ (1885–1891)

Herman Walmesley SJ (1891–1898)<ref name="TEM" />Template:Rp

Joseph Browne SJ (1898–1906)

Pedro Gordon SJ (1906–1907)

William Bodkin SJ (1907–1916)

Edward O'Connor SJ (1916–1924)

Walter Weld SJ (1924–1929)

Richard Worsley SJ (1929–1932)

Edward O'Connor SJ (1932–1938)

Leo Belton SJ (1938–1945)

Bernard Swindells SJ (1945–1952)

Francis Vavasour SJ (1952–1958)

Desmond Boyle SJ (1958–1961)

Headmasters

Frederick J. Turner SJ (1961–1963)

George Earle SJ (1963–1971)

Michael Bossy SJ (1971–1985)

Giles Mercer (1985–1996)

Adrian Aylward (1996–2006)

Andrew Johnson (2006-2016)

John Browne (2016-present)

Headmasters of Hodder Place & St Mary's Hall (1807–present)

See: Headmasters of Stonyhurst Saint Mary's Hall

Controversy

James Chaning-Pearce, a priest who taught at the school, was jailed for sexually assaulting pupils between 1987 and 1995. The youngest victim was a boy of 12.<ref>BBC News; retrieved 20 December 2011.</ref> In 1999, the Lancashire Constabulary conducted "Operation Whiting", which looked into allegations of abuse at the school dating back to the 1970s. This resulted in two convictions, one of which was quashed on appeal. On 14 May 2002, in evidence to the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, journalist David Rose described the operation as "a scandal in itself" and an "expensive... fiasco".<ref>Parliamentary Select Committee Minutes; retrieved 20 December 2011.</ref>

Another priest, Father Paul Symonds, at Stonyhurst between 1972 and 1979, was arrested in November 2009 for having allegedly abused a 13-year-old boy for three years.<ref>Priest arrested over abuse claim from BBC News retrieved 26 March 2014</ref> The case was dropped by the CPS Lancashire, a year later and was revealed in March 2014.

In 2014, Stonyhurst was fined £100,000 and ordered to pay £31,547.78 in legal costs for the prosecution after pleading guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 for health and safety failings after a stonemason working for the college developed silicosis, a potentially fatal lung disease. The college made the stonemason, who had worked for the college for almost 12 years, redundant, four months after his diagnosis.<ref>Stonyhurst College prosecuted after stonemason develops lung disease</ref>

See also

• List of Jesuit sites in the United Kingdom
• List of Jesuit schools
• St Gordianus, interred in the school
• Listed buildings in Aighton, Bailey and Chaigley

Further reading

• Chadwick, Hubert, S.J. (1962), St Omers to Stonyhurst, (Burns & Oats), No ISBN
• Walsh, R.R. (1989), Stonyhurst War Record 1935–45 (T.H.C.L. Blackburn), Template:ISBN
• The Authorities of Stonyhurst College, A Stonyhurst Handbook for Visitors and Others, (Stonyhurst, Lancashire. Third edition 1963)

External links

• Template:Official
• Stonyhurst's entry in the 1912 New Advent Catholic Encyclopaedia
• Template:Cite CE1913
• Stonyhurst Weather Station Met Office entry