Malvern College is a fee-charging coeducational boarding and day school in Malvern, Worcestershire, England. It is a public school in the British sense of the term and is a member of the Rugby Group and of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. Since its foundation in 1865, it has remained on the same grounds, which are located near the town centre of Great Malvern. The campus, now covering some 250 acres (101 ha), is near the Malvern Hills.
Among the alumni of the college are at least two Commonwealth prime ministers, two Nobel laureates (five Nobel Prizes including prep school alumni), an Olympic gold medalist and many other notable persons from various fields. The novelist C. S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia, was a pupil of the school.
There are currently about 650 pupils enrolled at the school, aged between 13 and 19. Additionally, they are linked with a prep school, The Downs Malvern, Colwall in Herefordshire which has about 175 pupils. The College also operates five overseas campuses in China, Egypt, Hong Kong and Tokyo which opened in September 2023.
History
Set 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 under the headship of Arthur Faber. Initially, there were only 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. One year later, there were sixty-four boys. By 1875, there were 200 on the roll and five boarding houses ; by the end of the 19th century, the numbers had risen to more than 400 boys and ten houses. American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow visited the school in 1868, Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein and Princess Helena of the United Kingdom on speech-day in 1870, and Francis, Duke of Teck, and Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge visited in 1891 with their daughter, Mary of Teck (later Queen Mary). Lord Randolph Churchill's speech-day comments on education in 1889 were reported in The Times. 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. 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.
During the two Wars, 457 and 258 former pupils, respectively, gave their lives. Seven former pupils took part in the Battle of Britain. In 1925, the War Memorial Library was built to the designs of Sir Aston Webb, with the chimney piece in the upper chamber created by Leonard Shuffrey.
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 1942, its premises were again needed for governmental use, on this occasion by the TRE and, from May 1942 to July 1946, the school was housed with Harrow School. QinetiQ, a private sector successor to the government's original research facility, is still sited on former college land.
Having traditionally been a school for boys aged from 13 to 18 years old, in 1992 it merged with Ellerslie Girls’ School and Hillstone prep school to become a coeducational school for pupils aged 3 to 18 years old. The college also departed from the full boarding tradition of the English public school and allows day pupils, although over two-thirds of pupils board. In September 2008, the College's Prep School merged with The Downs prep school on the latter's nearby site in Colwall, Herefordshire to form The Downs, Malvern College Prep School.
Past developments
The year 2008 also saw the start of a development scheme that included a new sports complex, new athletics and viewing facilities at the pitches and two new boarding houses. The sports complex and new houses were opened in October 2009. Ellerslie House was opened for girls, commemorating the eponymous former girls' school, and the other new house has become the new permanent residence for the boys of No. 7.