If people are asked to name some famous UK Boarding schools then after Eton, Harrow is generally mentioned. It has a little less than Eton with 821 boys all boarding fulltime. It has produced 8 British Prime Ministers, several war leaders and educated members of royalty and the aristocratic class. Which is why you can be sure that the attendance of high class individuals to this school would come with consultation with a Close Protection Service London company or one local to the families. Let’s take a look at how it was founded.
Technically it’s John Lyon a well off farmer who lived locally that is the founder but he did have to get Elizabeth I to give him a royal charter to make the school. It took 30 years to complete the school and Lyon died before that completion. He did bestow endowments to it so it that meant that it provided a free education to local boys but there were soon fee payers for boys outside of the parish attending the school. These were known as “foreigners” though they were not from outside of the UK. As the fee payer’s numbers grew this increased the schools revenue and as the Victorian era came about the numbers increased dramatically allowing for a large expansion of the school. The option for local boys to be educated for free no longer exists. The name Harrow has become a brand and the school now operates abroad in many Far East countries where it is rightly seen as a centre for excellence in education.
Much is made of the uniform. This is focused on the Harrow hat incorrectly referred to as a boater. It is a straw hat that is varnished to protect it from the elements and has the school colours, dark blue, around the head. It is very distinctive but it only forms part of pretty standard uniform of white shirt, tie and grey trousers. A blue jumper is optional. There is formal dress wear but not for every day. This takes the more top hat and tails approach and was famously captured in 1937 with a picture outside Lords Cricket ground of some Harrow boys next to some lower class London boys. The difference was incredible.
We can thank Harrow for the game of Squash and the school was influential in the development of Football. It also holds the record, with Eton, for the longest running competitive Cricket match at Lords. It is a school of tradition and unrivalled heritage with many famous old boys such as Winston Churchill and Benedict Cumberbatch having walked its halls.