Hawtreys Preparatory School was an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

boys' preparatory school in England, first established in

Slough Slough () is a town and unparished area in the unitary authority of the same name in Berkshire, England, bordering west London. It lies in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the ...

, later moved to Westgate-on-Sea, then to

Oswestry Oswestry ( ; ) is a market town, civil parish and historic railway town in Shropshire, England, close to the Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5, A483 and A495 roads. The town was the administrative headquarters of the Borough ...

, and finally to a

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peop ...

near

Great Bedwyn Great Bedwyn is a village and civil parish in east Wiltshire, England. The village is on the River Dun about southwest of Hungerford, southeast of Swindon and southeast of Marlborough. The Kennet and Avon Canal and the Reading to Taun ...

, Wiltshire. In its early years it was known as St Michael's School. In 1994, the school merged into

Cheam School Cheam School is a mixed preparatory school located in Headley, in the civil parish of Ashford Hill with Headley in Hampshire. Originally a boys school, Cheam was founded in 1645 by George Aldrich. History The school started in Cheam, Surrey ...

, near Newbury, Berkshire.

History

The school was founded in 1869 by the Reverend John Hawtrey. He had been a boy at Eton, from the age of eight. In later life he became a master at Eton and was offered his own house of boys. He decided to remove all of the younger boys from the school. With the permission of Eton College, he took the lowest two forms out to a separate school in

and housed them in what is now

St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School St Bernard's Catholic Grammar School (formerly St Bernard's Convent School) is an academically selective Roman Catholic state grammar school on Langley Road, Slough. It was previously designated as a Humanities College. The student body is divi ...

. This was known as St Michael's School, and was opened on 29 September 1869 ( St Michael's day). John Hawtrey's son,

Edward Edward is an English given name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”. History The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Sax ...

, removed the school to Westgate-on-Sea early in 1883. When Edward Hawtrey died, the name of the school was changed to Hawtreys. The school buildings were requisitioned during the Second World War and the school moved to

in Shropshire, to the home of Sir William Wynn-Williams. In 1946 it moved to Tottenham House, a large Palladian country house near the village of

, Wiltshire, in the heart of the Savernake Forest. Throughout the history of the school, a close connection was maintained with Eton College to which many boys moved at the age of thirteen. In 1994, the school merged with

, near Newbury, Berkshire, which is formally called ''Cheam Hawtreys'', but generally known simply as ''Cheam''. The staff and pupils were listed in the credits of '' A Feast at Midnight'', a 1995 British comedy family film.

Old Hawtreyans

:And see :People educated at Hawtreys Tottenham House front

* Field Marshal Lord Alexander (1891–1969) * Sir Euan Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe, 3rd Baronet (born 1966), property manager *

Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, (3 August 186714 December 1947) was a British Conservative Party politician who dominated the government of the United Kingdom between the world wars, serving as prime minister on three occasions, ...

KG (1867–1947), British prime minister * George Barclay, Battle of Britain pilot *

Johnnie Boden John Peter Boden (born 1 June 1961) is an entrepreneur and founder of Boden, a catalogue clothing company, in 1991. Early life John Peter Boden was born on 1 June 1961. His father was a lieutenant colonel who changed careers to become a far ...

, shirt-manufacturer * David Brudenell-Bruce, Earl of Cardigan (born 1952) * Detmar Blow (1867–1939),

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Henry Cookson Henry John R Cookson, FRGS (born 16 September 1975) is a British polar explorer and adventurer. On 19 January 2007 he, alongside fellow Britons Rory Sweet and Rupert Longsdon, and their Canadian polar guide Paul Landry, became the first team to ...

Guinness Book of Records as member of first team to reach the Antarctic

Pole of inaccessibility A pole of inaccessibility with respect to a geographical criterion of inaccessibility marks a location that is the most challenging to reach according to that criterion. Often it refers to the most distant point from the coastline, implying a ...

in 2007 * Robert St Leger Fowler (1891–1925), cricketer * Zac Goldsmith (born 1975), Conservative politician, environmentalist and editor of '' The Ecologist'' * George Peabody Gooch (1873–1968), historian, social and political activist *

Simon Hart Simon Anthony Hart (born 15 August 1963) is a British politician serving as the Chief Whip of the House of Commons and Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury since October 2022. He previously served as Secretary of State for Wales between 201 ...

(born 1963), Conservative politician and Secretary of State for Wales *

Thomas Lange Thomas Lange (born 27 February 1964) is a German rower who won two gold and one bronze Olympic medals in the single sculls. Lange is one of six rowers (along with Mahé Drysdale, Pertti Karppinen, Peter-Michael Kolbe, Ondřej Synek and V ...

, hotelier, philanthropist, & author * Dai Llewellyn, 4th Baronet (1946-2009), socialite * Sir Roderic Victor Llewellyn, 5th Baronet (born 1947), partner of

Princess Margaret Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, (Margaret Rose; 21 August 1930 – 9 February 2002) was the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and the younger sister and only sibling of Queen Elizabeth ...

and horticulturalist * Oliver Messel (1904–1978), artist and stage designer * Jake Meyer, Mountaineer * Sir Anthony Rupert Milburn, 5th Baronet (born 1947), landownerMILBURN, Sir Anthony (Rupert), 5th Bt cr 1905
in Who's Who online at xreferplus.com (accessed 28 November 2007) * Edward Moss (1911–1944), first-class cricketer and Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve officer * Sir Peter O'Sullevan (1918–2015), BBC racing commentator * John Seymour, 19th Duke of Somerset (born 1952)The Independent, 10 July 1994
''Transfer fees wheeze cuts old school ties''
(accessed 7 May 2010) *

Henry Somerset, 12th Duke of Beaufort Henry John FitzRoy Somerset, 12th Duke of Beaufort (born 22 May 1952), styled Marquess of Worcester between 1984 and 2017, also known as Harry Beaufort or Bunter Beaufort, previously as Bunter Worcester, is an English peer and landowner, with est ...

(born 1952) * Mark Stone, journalist and Sky News Foreign Correspondent

Notes

External links

Cheam School
{{authority control 1994 disestablishments in England 1869 establishments in England Boarding schools in Berkshire Boarding schools in Kent Boarding schools in Wiltshire Boys' schools in Berkshire Boys' schools in Kent Boys' schools in Wiltshire Defunct schools in Berkshire Defunct schools in Kent Defunct schools in Wiltshire Educational institutions disestablished in 1994 Educational institutions established in 1869 Defunct boarding schools in England