Rugby School

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Rugby School is a boys' public school founded by Laurence Sheriff, a merchant grocer of London, in 1567. Originally built opposite the parish church, the school became unfit for use in 1748 and was rebuilt on its present site consisting of a school house, quad, chapel, and a magnificent playing field. In 1797 the ‘Great Rebellion’, a mutiny by the pupils, was dealt with by soldiers with fixed bayonets and drovers with horsewhips. The game of rugby takes its name from the school where the sport is said to have originated. The subsequent high reputation of the school stems from the headmastership of Thomas Arnold.

Peter Gordon