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People & Organisations
Houses

Rigaud's

  • GB-2014-WSA-01870
  • Corporate body
  • 18th century -

The earliest years of Rigaud’s are unclear, but we know it began as an independent boarding house in the late 18th century, changing its name several times until it became Rigaud’s, after the Reverend Stephen Rigaud, a master at Westminster from 1846-1850, who later became Bishop of Antigua.

In 1821, when the house was named ‘Mother Best’s’, a boarder died from over-eating after a ‘broshier’, or an attempt to exhaust the supply of food in protest at its quality.

Liddell's

  • GB-2014-WSA-01874
  • Corporate body
  • 1956-

The house was named after Henry Liddell, Head Master from 1846 to 1855, who rescued the school from its early nineteenth-century decline, when prospective parents preferred boarding schools in the country to the unwholesome airs of London and pupil numbers dipped beneath 80. Liddell later became Dean of Christ Church and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford. His daughter, Alice Liddell, was the inspiration for 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Alice through the Looking Glass'.

Purcell's

  • GB-2014-WSA-01876
  • Corporate body
  • 1981-

Founded in 1981 as a girl’s boarding house, Purcell’s settled on its current name in 1995 to celebrate the composer’s tercentenary.
Henry Purcell was the organist at Westminster Abbey and may have studied at Westminster.

Hakluyt's

  • GB-2014-WSA-01877
  • Corporate body
  • 1987-

The house was named after Old Westminster Richard Hakluyt (1553-1616), an Elizabethan geographer.

Ashburnham

  • GB-2014-WSA-01871
  • Corporate body
  • 1882-

Ashburnham was originally located in Ashburnham House. The building had housed the library of the antiquarian Sir Robert Cotton, containing some of the most important Old English manuscripts in existence, many of which were destroyed or damaged in the fire of 1731, including the manuscript of Beowulf. Those that survived formed the foundation collection of the British Library.
Originally owned by the Abbey, the Public Schools Act of 1868 recommended that the building be bought by the School on the death of the occupant, the sub-dean, much to the Abbey’s consternation. The Dean and Chapter used their control over the Governing Body to attempt to prevent the school from buying the building from the Abbey, but this manoeuvre was overturned by Parliament. The sub-dean living in the house survived until 1881.
The house was finally founded the year after the sub-dean died.

Busby's

  • GB-2014-WSA-01872
  • Corporate body
  • 1925-

Busby’s was named after the Head Master Richard Busby (1606-1695). The house colours of blue and maroon were taken from the first housemaster’s dining room carpet. Busby’s is one of the two houses that still regularly produces a house magazine, the annual College Street Clarion.

Wren's

  • GB-2014-WSA-01873
  • Corporate body
  • 1948-

Wren's was founded in 1948. It is named after Sir Christopher Wren’s (1632-1723), who attended Westminster School under the Head Master Richard Busby.

Dryden's

  • GB-2014-WSA-01875
  • Corporate body
  • 1976-

Dryden's was established in 1976. It is named after John Dryden (1631-1700), a King's Scholar and the first Poet Laureate. An official magazine, Private Parts: Dryden’s Organ, ran briefly in 1981.

College

  • GB-2014-WSA-01868
  • Corporate body
  • 1560-

College, the home of the Queen’s Scholars and the oldest house at Westminster, was effectively founded in 1560 when the school’s charter stipulated that there should be 40 Queen’s Scholars. Special weight in their selection was to be given to ability, good character and poverty. To become Scholars, boys had to pass an oral examination known as ‘The Challenge’, which shifted to paper in 1856.
Scholars had special privileges not accorded to other boys, such as the right to enter the Palace of Westminster.
The Scholars include John Dryden, the first Poet Laureate (1631-1700); John Locke (1632-1704), the empiricist philosopher; A. A. Milne (1882-1956), creator of Winnie-the-Pooh; and Kim Philby (1912-1988), of the Cambridge spy ring. The first female scholars were admitted to College in 2017.

Boult, Sir, Adrian Cedric, 1889-1983

  • GB-2014-WSA-00023
  • Person
  • 1889-1983

Boult, Sir Adrian Cedric, only son of Cedric Randal Bault, of Blundellsands, near Liverpool, by Katherine Florence, daughter of Harry Dawson Barman, of Blackheath, Kent; b. April 8, 1889; adm. April 26, 1901 (G); left July 1908; Ch. Ch. Oxon., matric. Michaelmas 1908; B.A. and Mus. Bae. 1912; M.A. 1915; studied in Leipzig; on the musical staff, Royal Opera, 1914; served during Great War I in the War Office, and on Commission Internationale de Ravitaillement; conducted for the Royal Philharmonic and the Liverpool Philharmonic Societies, the London Symphony, Queen's Hall, and Albert Hall orchestras; joined the teaching staff of the Royal College of Music 1919; conductor of Patron's Fund 1919-24; Musical Director of the Birmingham City Orchestra 1924-30 and 1959-60; Director of Music of the B. B.C. 1930-42; Conductor of the B. B.C. Orchestra 1930-51, and of the London Philharmonic Orchestra 1951-7; Mus.D. Oxon. 1921; Hon. LL.D. Birmingham 1930; F.R.C.M.; Hon. Mus.D. Edinburgh 1933; knighted 1937; Hon. Student of Ch. Ch. Oxon. 1939; Hon. LL.D. Liverpool 1947; Hon. Mus. Doc. Cambridge 1953; a Busby Trustee 1946; author of A Handbook on the Technique of Conducting; m. July 1, 1933, Ann, daughter of Capt. F.A. Bowles, R.N., of Sittingbourne, Kent; d. 22 Feb. 1983.

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