Richard Hale School
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Richard Hale School is an all-boys school located in Hertford, Hertfordshire in the south east of England. In the 2004-2005 academic year the school had a pupil count of 868 including students attending the optional sixth form.
The school was founded on 16 April 1617 by the affluent merchant Richard Hale, who wished to "erect a grammar school for the instruction of children in the Latin tongue and other literature in the town of Hertford". The original school building was in use for 313 years from 1617 to 1930, and still stands near to All Saints Church. Hale gave his name to one of the five houses of the school. The remaining four were named after the school benefactors Francis Thomas de Grey Cowper, 7th Earl Cowper KG, and Richard Benyon Croft; and former pupils Lieutenant-Colonel Frank Page, DSO and bar, and the evolutionary biologist Alfred Russel Wallace. House competition is an integral part of school life at Richard Hale, with competitions taking part not only on the sports fields but on the stage in both Music and Drama.
The school has a long tradition of rugby football and recently received planning permission for a new sports hall to further its sporting activities. The school's current headteacher is Stephen M Neate who was appointed headteacher in 2005 on a temporary basis following the retirement of the previous incumbent, Michael James.
[edit] Famous pupils
Alfred Wallace is Richard Hale's most famous former pupil, but the school has produced other notable alumni:
- Michael Dobbs, author and screenwriter
- Captain W. E. Johns, author of the Biggles series
- Brian Wilde, actor
- Rupert Grint, actor
- Billy Lunn, musician
- Michael Fibbins, Olympic swimmer
- William Domville, a former Lord Mayor of London
- Sir John Shore, a former Governor-General of India
- Air Vice Marshall Alan Merriman
- Air Commodore Terry Carlton
- John Tydeman, former BBC Head of Radio Drama
- Geoff Hamilton, television presenter
- John Gladwin, Bishop of Chelmsford
- David Smith, Bishop of Bradford
- John Flack (Bishop), bishop and Anglican representative to the Holy See
- Bishop Richard Chartres, Bishop of London
- John Fincham, former emeritus professor at Cambridge University
- Richard Eden, emeritus professor of energy at Cambridge University
- Mark Williams, Member of Parliament for Ceredigion (Wales)
- Des de Moor, singer, songwriter and performer
- Rob Playford, drum and bass DJ, and record producer
