Dragon School
The Dragon School is a British coeducational, preparatory school in the city of Oxford, founded in 1877 as the Oxford Preparatory School, or OPS. It is primarily known as a boarding school, although it also takes day pupils. Although established primarily as a boys' school, there have always been girls as day pupils at the school, and girls were first admitted as boarders in 1994.
The school accepts pupils from the age of 8 ("E Block") through to 13 ("A Block"), although an associated "pre-prep", Lynams, accepts children from age 4 to the age of 8. As of September 2001, the school had 840 pupils, of both sexes.
History
The Dragon School was founded in 1877, and was originally named the Preparatory School and sometimes called Lynam's Preparatory School. The school was started by a committee of Oxford dons. The school's original remit was to provide a high standard of academic grounding and pastoral care to the children of professors of the University of Oxford. Indeed, many early teachers were or had been 'dons' themselves. Among the most active of the dons was a Mr George, so the first pupils decided to call themselves "Dragons" after Saint George and the Dragon. The 'Dragon' name, which has been attributed to an off-hand quip by a teacher at rival school Summer Fields, gained popularity, and in time, the school was officially renamed to the Dragon School.
Teaching started in September 1877 at rooms in Balliol Hall, located in St Giles', central Oxford, under A. E. Clarke.[1] The school expanded and moved within two years to 17 Crick Road, which became known as "School House".[2] Charles Cotterill Lynam (known as the "Skipper") took over as headmaster in 1886. In 1894, C. C. Lynam took out a lease on land at the current site at Bardwell Road. Β£4,000 was quickly raised through subscriptions from local parents for the erection of new school buildings.[3] and the move was completed within a year. The school was known as Oxford Preparatory School and also Lynam's, but gradually its current name was adopted.
The present site in Bardwell Road in central North Oxford is just to the west of the River Cherwell. It became the second school to take part in the Harrow History Prize in 1895, and many of its pupils have won this over the years, an early winner being Miss Kit Lynam. The school was run for many years by the Lynam family.[4]
Traditions
Like many other prep schools, the Dragon has a number of long-standing traditions, among the more notable being the use of nicknames for teachers (to their faces β 'Inky', 'Guv', 'Smudge', 'Putty', 'Moocow', 'Lofty', 'Jumbo', 'Splash','PABS', etc.) and calling female teachers 'Ma' (e.g., "Ma Jones"). Previously, some male teachers had been called 'Pa' (e.g., Mr Wyeth-Webb, who was known affectionately as 'Pa Wa-Wa'). This nickname was feminised when male staff members' wives became important figures in their own right (e.g., 'Ma Wa-Wa'). Ultimately, the masculine form fell out of common use, but the female form has remained popular. Temporary teaching assistants (usually in their late teens or early twenties, often natives of former British colonies) are known as 'stooges'. As is the case at most boarding institutions, the Dragon has developed its own unique lexicon besides, incorporating a slang particular to the school ('pill' meaning ball, 'with you' meaning pass, and so on).
Headmasters
The following have been headmasters of the school, several from the Lynam family:[4]
- Rev A.E. Clarke 1877β1886
- C.C. Lynam ('Skipper') 1886β1920
- A.E. Lynam ('Hum') 1920β1942
- J.H.R. Lynam ('Joc') 1942β1965
- R.K. Ingram ('Inky') 1965β1989
- M.W.A. Gover ('Guv') 1972β1989 (head of day pupils, co-headmaster with 'Inky')
- N.P.V. Richardson 1989β1992
- H.E.P. Woodcock 1992β1993
- R.S. Trafford 1993β2002
- J.R. Baugh 2002β
Lynams
Lynams is the Dragon School pre-prep named after the first headmasters of the Dragon School. This is where children may start at the age of 4 and leave at the age of 8 (Year 3). From here they can move on to the main school or they may choose to move on to a different school. The current Headmistress is Mrs West.
Notable alumni and alumnae
Former pupils of the Dragon School are referred to as Old Dragons. The following people were students at one time:[5]
- Robert Acland (born 1941), pioneer microsurgeon and anatomist
- Robert Armstrong, Baron Armstrong of Ilminster (born 1927), civil servant
- Sir Gawain Bell (1909β1995) colonial administrator, Governor of Northern Nigeria
- Henry Barratt (born 1983), rugby union player
- Michael Beloff QC (born 1942), barrister, President of Trinity College, Oxford
- Sir John Betjeman (1906β1984), poet, Poet Laureate from 1972
- Sir Lennox Berkeley (1903β1989), composer
- Alain de Botton (born 1969), writer and television producer
- Humphry Bowen (1929β2002), chemist and botanist
- Jonathan Bowen (born 1956), computer scientist
- Julian Brazier (born 1953), politician
- Henry Brett, polo player, captain England polo team 2003β06
- Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, Baron Bruce-Lockhart (1942β2008) politician
- William Buchan, 3rd Baron Tweedsmuir (1916β2008), novelist, poet and statesman
- Sir Giles Bullard (1926β1992), diplomat
- Sir Julian Bullard (1928β2006), diplomat
- Humphrey Carpenter (1946β2005), journalist, author, and musician
- Tristram Cary (1925β2008), composer.
- Christopher Cazenove (1945β2010), actor
- Leonard Cheshire VC (1917β1992), World War II RAF pilot and activist for the disabled
- Colin Clark (1905β1989), economist
- Hugh Dancy (born 1975), actor
- Jack Davenport (born 1973), actor
- Quentin Davies, politician
- Ralph Henry Carless Davis (1918β1991), historian
- Cressida Dick (born 1960), senior police officer
- Oliver Dimsdale (born 1972), actor
- Lady Antonia Fraser (born 1932, nΓ©e Pakenham), historical author
- Tim Fry, (1934β2004) designer of the Hillman Imp
- Cyril Gadney, rugby player and president of the RFU
- The Rt. Hon. Hugh Gaitskell (1906β1963), politician, leader of the Labour Party from 1955β1963
- Jonathan Gili (1943β2004), documentary film maker
- J.B.S. Haldane (1892β1964), geneticist and evolutionary biologist
- Tim Henman (born 1974), tennis player
- Tom Hiddleston (born 1981), actor
- Brent Hoberman, co-founder of lastminute.com
- Tom Hollander (born 1967), actor
- Peter Hopkirk (born 1930), journalist, author
- Air Marshal Sir Peter Horsley (1921β2001) Royal Air Force commander
- Frances Houghton (born 1980), rower and Olympic silver medallist
- Lord Hunt (born 1942), leading authority on turbulence modelling
- Sir Tim Hunt, biochemist and Nobel laureate
- Brian Inglis (1916β1993), journalist and historian
- Pico Iyer (born 1957), journalist and author
- Peter Jay (born 1937), television journalist, and former BBC economics editor
- Patrick Jenkin PC (Lord Jenkin of Roding, born 1926), politician
- David Jessel, journalist
- Stephen Jessel, journalist
- Dom Joly (born 1968), comedian
- Sir John Kendrew (1917β1997), molecular biologist and Nobel Laureate
- Andrew Lack (born 1953), biologist and botanist
- Hugh Laurie OBE (born 1959), British comedian and actor
- David Lewis (born 1947) Lord Mayor of the City of London 2007β08
- Leo Lewis, journalist
- Hugh Miles (born 1977), journalist and author
- Naomi Mitchison (nΓ©e Haldane, 1897β1999), British novelist and poet
- Philip Moore, Baron Moore of Wolvercote (1921β2009),Civil servant and personal private secretary to the Queen
- Robert Moore, ITN correspondent[6]
- John Paul Morrison (born 1937) inventor of Flow-based programming
- Sir John Mortimer (1923β2009), playwright (his time at the school in the 1930s is fictionalised as "Cliffhanger School" in his play "A Voyage Round My Father"), barrister and novelist
- Sir Peter Newsam (born 1928) educator (also Staff)
- Sir Roger Norrington (born 1934), musician and conductor
- Ed O'Brien (born 1968), musician (member of Radiohead)
- Rageh Omaar (born 1967), journalist and writer
- Julian Opie (born 1958), artist
- Stephen Oppenheimer (born 1947), genetic researcher and author
- Ronnie Poulton-Palmer (born c.1890) killed in World War I, rugby player
- Jonathan Pugh (born 1962) cartoonist
- Sir Timothy Raison (born 1929), politician, journalist and author
- Jack Randle VC (1917β1944), distinguished serviceman, T/Captain, 2nd Bn. The Royal Norfolk Regiment
- Adrian Rawlins (born 1958), film and television actor
- Andrew Robinson (born 1957), author and editor
- William Leefe Robinson VC (1895β1918), distinguished serviceman, lieutenant, 39 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps
- Aubrey de SΓ©lincourt (1894β1962) writer
- Nicholas Shakespeare (born 1957), journalist and novelist
- Nevil Shute (1899β1960), novelist
- Frank Sidgwick (1879β1939) founder of publishers Sidgwick and Jackson
- Sir John Slessor, Marshal of the Royal Air Force
- Sir John Smyth VC, distinguished serviceman, lieutenant, 15th Ludhiana Sikhs, Indian Army
- Richard Sorabji (born 1934) academic and historian of classical philosophy
- Timothy Sprigge (1932β2007) philosopher
- Jon Stallworthy (born 1935) academic and poet
- Rory Stewart OBE (born 1973), politician, author and diplomat
- Christopher Tolkien, son of J. R. R. Tolkien
- Peter Tranchell (1922β1993), musician, composer, and teacher
- Sir Reginald Tyrwhitt, Royal Navy admiral
- Sam Waley-Cohen (born 1982), jockey and businessman
- Tom Ward (born 1971), actor (Silent Witness)
- Paul Watkins (born 1963), Booker Prize-nominated author
- Emma Watson (born 1990), actress
- Admiral Sir Hugo White (born 1939), Royal Navy admiral, Commander-in-Chief Fleet 1992β95
- Jack Whitehall (born 1988), comedian
- Conrad Wolfram (born 1970), technologist
- Stephen Wolfram (born 1959), physicist, computer programmer
- Shaun Wylie (1913β2009), mathematician and World War II codebreaker
- Baroness Young (1926β2002), politician
- Max Irons (Born 1985), Actor
Staff
Notes
The dragon-like creature shown on the crest is technically a wyvern.
References
External links
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