St Piran's is a prep school located on Gringer Hill in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England. The school was known as Cordwalles School until 1919 and has been co-educational since the 1990s.
History
The origin of St Piran's was in 1805 at a small school, the Revd John Potticary's school in Blackheath, at 2–3 Eliot Place. After moving to its present location in 1872, it operated as a boys' boarding school under the name of Cordwalles School until 1919. Up to this time, it was among a group of preparatory schools – which included Stubbington House School and Eastman's Royal Naval Academy – that maintained strong connections with the Royal Navy. In that year, 1919, the school was bought by Major Vernon Seymour Bryant who renamed it St Piran's. It reopened in 1920 with 23 boys, increasing to 65 the following year.
After becoming an educational trust in 1972, the school became co-educational in 1993, and boarding ended the same year. In 2005, St. Piran's celebrated its 200th anniversary with a bicentennial pageant. In 2008 a new geography room and lower school hall were completed.
Headmasters
, the headmasters of the school have been:
John Potticary 1805–1820
George Brown Francis Potticary 1820–1850
Richard Cowley Powles 1850–1865
Thomas Jackson Nunns 1865–1890
Charles William Hunt 1890–1902
Cyril Robert Carter 1902–1910
Theodore William Keeling 1910–1912
Mervyn Frank Voules 1912–1919
Vernon Seymour Bryant 1919–1926
Arthur Grendon Tippet DSO 1926–1943
Lowther Grendon Tippet 1943–1972
Guy Gross and Andrew Perry 1972–1980
Andrew Perry 1980–1982
Andrew Blumer 1982–2001
Jonathan Carroll 2001–2019
Seb Sales 2019–present
Former pupils
Admiral Sir Claud Barry, KBE CB DSO
Benjamin Disraeli
Cecil Malone
Victor Mollo
Vice Admiral Sir Peveril William-Powlett, KCB KCMG CBE DSO
Thomas Field Gibson and his cousin Charles Ronalds
Anthony West (author) Patrick Leigh Fermor (expelled)