17th March – Captain Oates Day

At a lecture given by Commander ‘Teddy’ Evans at Sherborne’s Digby Memorial Church Hall on 23 February 1914, Commander Evans suggested that every year on the 17th March the boys of Sherborne School should be given an “Oates Day” holiday in memory of Captain Lawrence Oates who was born on 17 March 1880 and died … Read more

Leap Day, 2024

To celebrate Leap Day, some photograph of boys leaping, jumping and bounding! Posted 29 February 2024 by Sherborne School Archives Visit Sherborne School Archive News for more stories from the archives

New exhibitions with OS connections

Two new exhibitions in Dorchester and Kew have OS connections. A new exhibition at the Dorset Museum & Art Gallery in Dorchester features the work of sculptor Dame Elisabeth Frink (1930-1993) Elisabeth Frink: A View from Within – Dorset Museum Elizabeth Frink’s family had strong links to Sherborne School and in particular to Abbey House … Read more

Follow the crowd to the OS website!

2023 saw a record breaking 70,430 visits to the OS website  – that’s 21,860 more visits than the previous year! The Top Ten OS webpages visited in 2023 were: Christopher Morcom (1911-1930) – 4,387 views Welcome to the OSS website (homepage) – 3.370 views Alan Turing OBE, PhD, FRS (1912-1954) – 3,210 views Peter Lapping … Read more

Sherborne School’s Cecil Beaton connection

Cecil Beaton, the photographer and designer known for his Oscar-winning stage and costume designs for My Fair Lady (1957, 1964) and Gigi (1958), was born on 14 January 1904, the eldest child of Old Shirburnian Ernest Beaton (The Green 1881-1883). Many years after his father’s death, Cecil wrote to Greta Garbo, ‘I have been reading … Read more

A new party game for Christmas

If you are fed up with Cluedo and tired of charades, why not test your knowledge this Christmas with Common Entrance exam papers from 1922? Also available are a selection of Common Entrance exam papers from 1938, 1956 and 1966, and Scholarship exam papers from the 1930s to the 1970s. Visit our Exam Papers page … Read more

Some Christmas Spirit from Sherborne

To get you in the mood for Christmas, why not take a look at some offering from our School Archives: Find out about the history of Sherborne School’s Festival of Lessons and Carols Discover Sherborne School’s connection with the John Mason Neale (1818-1866) who wrote some of our favourite Christmas hymns, including Good King Wenceslas, Good … Read more

Sherborne’s Time Lord – Jon Pertwee, the Third Doctor

The first episode of the BBC TV series Doctor Who was aired on 23 November 1963. To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the first broadcast, we look at Sherborne School’s very own Time Lord – Jon Pertwee (1919-1996) Posted 22 November 2023 by Sherborne School Archives Visit Sherborne School Archive News for more stories from the archives … Read more