Malvern College
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Malvern College

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Malvern College

Malvern College is a coeducational English public school (fee-charging school for boarders and day pupils) in Malvern, Worcestershire, England, and is a member of the Rugby Group and of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. Founded in 1865, the college has remained on the same campus since its establishment, near the town centre of Great Malvern covering some 250 acres (101 ha) on the lower slopes of the Malvern Hills. Its presence in Malvern has only been interrupted by war; during World War II the campus was requisitioned by the government for military research and the college was relocated, firstly to Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire in 1939, and then in 1942 to Harrow School. At the 24 July 2025 inspection 640 pupils aged between 13 and 19 were enrolled at the school. It has a history of innovation in education practice; it became fully coeducational in 1992, expanded the pupil age range from 13–18 to 3–18, and adopted a mixed model of accommodating both boarders and day pupils. The college operates overseas campuses in China, Egypt, Hong Kong and Tokyo which opened in September 2023. The college celebrates its 160th anniversary in 2025.

Among the alumni of the college are the Nobel laureates Francis William Aston, Frederick Sanger and James Meade; the novelist C. S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia; two prime ministers of the British Commonwealth, Godfrey Huggins, 1st Viscount Malvern and Najib Razak; two holders of the Victoria Cross, Kenneth Muir and David Younger; the Olympic gold medalist Arnold Jackson, and other notable persons from various fields including military figures, businessmen, journalists, a Speaker of the House of Commons and a Chief Medical Officer for England.

Situated in the Malvern Hills, the school's location owes much to Malvern's emergence in the nineteenth century as a fashionable spa resort, appreciated for its unpolluted air and the healing qualities of its famous spring water. The school opened its doors for the first time on 25 January 1865 with twenty-four boys, of whom eleven were day boys, six masters and two houses, named Mr McDowall's (No.1) and Mr Drew's (No.2). The new school expanded quickly: a year later, there were sixty-four boys; by 1875, there were 200 on the roll and five boarding houses; and by the end of the 19th century, the numbers had risen to more than 400 boys and ten houses. The school was one of the twenty-four public schools listed in the Public Schools Yearbook of 1889 and was incorporated by royal charter in 1928.

The school song, "Carmen Malvernense", was written and composed by two masters, M. A. Bayfield and R. E. Lyon. It was first sung on speech day in 1888. The same song became the school song of Eastbourne College when Bayfield became headmaster there in 1895, though presumably with a change of title. In 1909, Henry Morgan began the construction of his first motor car in the engineering workshop at the college, which led to the establishment of the Morgan Motor Company.

Further expansion of pupil numbers and buildings continued between the end of the First World War in 1918 and the start of the Second World War in 1939. A total of 715 former pupils were killed in both World Wars. Two of seven former pupils who flew in the Battle of Britain were killed in action. The dead are commemorated in two memorials at the college: a statue and a library.

During World War II, the college premises were requisitioned by the Admiralty between October 1939 and July 1940, and the school temporarily relocated to Blenheim Palace in Woodstock 8.5 miles (13.7 km) north of Oxford. In 1942, its premises were again needed for governmental use. On this occasion, for greater safety from German strategic bombing, the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE), was moved from the English Channel coast at Worth Matravers for the development of H2S airborne radar. "Within six weeks a huge steel-girdered workshop with 14” brick walls have been roofed and equipped, and a large canteen capable of feeding 1,500 people at least at one sitting has been completed, the whole of the grass space between the Science Schools and No.3 was bristling with huts, and in many parts of the grounds strange buildings of a special design rose up." Thousands of local people were engaged in the logistics and the supply of electricity to the town was upgraded from Gloucester and Worcester. The arrival of TRE saw the college's second relocation and from May 1942 to July 1946 the school was housed with Harrow School near London. The TRE installations in the college were visited on 19 July 1944 by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. A nine-minute film of their tour of the premises is part of a collection at the Imperial War Museum.

Since the occupation of the college by the Ministry of Defence in 1942, research and development into defence physics and electronics have been the major sources of employment in Malvern. Malvern Hills Science Park was built in 1999 and is now home to over 30 science and technological businesses. Privatised by the government in 2001, QinetiQ, the successor to the government's original research facility, continues defence research and technology on former college land and continues to be the town's largest single employer and a key company in Worcestershire.

In 1965, the college celebrated the centenary of its foundation with a visit by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and Harold Macmillan, the recently retired prime minister. The college's 160th anniversary will be commemorated in 2025.

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