Harrow School

Harrow School, institution of secondary and higher education, in Harrow on the Hill, now a part of greater London. The late medieval school was re-endowed in 1572 by John Lyon, a prosperous yeoman, under a charter granted by Elizabeth I, queen of England. In 1591 Lyon drew up the statutes of the institution, providing for the free education of 40 boys of the Harrow parish, and left two-thirds of his fortune to the school when he died. In 1615 pupils were admitted to the first completed building, which is still in use. About five years later, when the school was in financial difficulties, a clause in the statutes permitting the enrollment of “foreign” (or nonparish) paying scholars was invoked. Harrow's rise to its present eminent academic position dates from this enlargement of the institution.

The governing body of the school, under the Public Schools Act of 1868, consists of 20 members, selected by the universities of Cambridge and Oxford, the Royal Society, the lord chancellor of Britain, and the assistant masters and existing governors of Harrow. The original course of instruction was exclusively classical, but studies are now offered in agriculture, architecture, art, classics, economics, geography, history, mathematics, modern languages, music, science, and technology.

Statesmen Sir Robert Peel and Sir Winston Churchill graduated from the Harrow School. Other distinguished graduates include philanthropist Anthony Ashley Cooper, painter Victor Pasmore, writer John Mortimer, novelist Anthony Trollope, dramatist Richard Brinsley Sheridan, poet Lord Byron, botanist Sir Joseph Banks, scholar Sir William Jones, archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans, photography pioneer William Henry Fox Talbot, and scientist Lord Rayleigh.

Reviewed by: Harrow School