This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on King's Scholar is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
A King's Scholar is a foundation scholar (elected on the basis of good academic performance and usually qualifying for reduced fees) of one of certain public schools. These include Eton College, King's Canterbury and formerly Westminster School.
At Eton College, a King's Scholar is one who has passed the College Election examination and is therefore admitted into a house, College, which is the oldest Eton house and comprised solely of King's Scholars. There are, at any one time, around 70 King's Scholars, and they are distinguished by the black gown which they wear. The other pupils at the school, more than 1200 of them, all boys, are known as Oppidans.
This gown is said to be the basis of the nickname "Tugs", from the Latin "gens togata", i.e. "toga'd people", although this particular slice of Eton argot has become less commonly heard in recent years.
As there are 70 King's Scholars, and they are in College for five years, approximately 14 are admitted per year (a "block" in Eton argot), and share every aspect of school life with the Oppidans (or Etonians who have entered Eton via Common Entrance), including lessons and school sport. They also have the privileged position of eating all their meals in College Hall, the old central hub of the school which has seen many distinguished diners in its long history including Elizabeth I. One other difference is that Collegers usually play the wall game in the winter term for the full five years, while Oppidans tend only to play it in their last year.
They also live in the central area of the school off School Yard, the fulcrum around which the school revolves, where both Eton College Chapel and Lupton's Tower are situated. The boarding house in which Collegers live includes New Buildings and Chamber. Chamber, the older section, includes rooms which look out onto School Yard, while New Buildings is on the reverse side and contains the majority of the boys' living spaces.
King's Scholars have the letters KS attached to their surnames in the school lists. Oppidans who have distinguished themselves academically are called Oppidan Scholars — they receive no financial benefit, but have OS attached to their surnames in the school lists.
Contents |
King's Scholars at King's College Cambridge
The term King's Scholar is also used for those who obtain firsts at King's College Cambridge, who receive a small prize. This is a historical hang-over from scholarships endowed by the college's founder. (King's College Cambridge and Eton College were both founded by Henry VI, and are sister colleges.) At King's it is rumoured that the right to use K.S. after a name is a privilege of King's Scholars, but the legal status of this is not clear.
King's Scholars at King's School Canterbury
The term King's Scholar is also used for scholars at The King's School Canterbury. These are students who have taken the scholarship exam on entry or achieved exceptional grades in their GCSE, usually more than 8 A*. They wear a black gown over their uniform and are entitled to several additional traditional privileges:
- They have the letters KS after their name
- Former KSs can marry in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral
- They can be buried within the grounds of Canterbury Cathedral
See also Kings_School_Canterbury#Traditions.
King's and Queen's Scholars at Westminster School
The foundation scholars at Westminster School are called Queen's Scholars when there is a reigning Queen and King's Scholars when there is a reigning King. As at Eton, they are selected by competitive examination ("The Challenge"), board at the oldest house in the school, known as College, and wear gowns.
Famous ex-King's Scholars (Eton)
- Lewis Gielgud, intelligence officer and Red Cross worker
- Harold Macmillan (later 1st Earl of Stockton)
- Boris Johnson, Mayor of London
- Eric Arthur Blair (pen name George Orwell)
- Aldous Huxley
- Douglas Hurd (Baron Hurd of Westwell)
- John Maynard Keynes
- Sir Robert Walpole
- Lord Hailsham
- Michael Beloff (Barrister)
- Julian Huxley
- Alfred Ayer
- J. B. S. Haldane
- Peter Warlock (composer)
- Richard Porson
- Cyril Connolly
- Cuthbert Ottaway (first England soccer captain and all-round athlete)
- Simon P. Norton, mathematician
- Martin Taylor (businessman)
- James Arbuthnot (politician)
- Jamie Borwick, Lord Borwick, industrialist
- Charles Moore (Journalist)
- Noel Malcolm (writer)
- Pico Iyer (novelist)
- Arthur Rhys Davids D.S.O., M.C. With bar.(First World War flying ace)
- Ralph Dominic Gamble M.C. (Army Officer)
- Robin Milner FRS (Computer scientist)
- John Paul Morrison (Inventor/discoverer of Flow-based programming)
- James Kenneth Stephen (Poet and suspect in the Jack the Ripper case)
- Stephen Wolfram (creator of Mathematica)
- Robert Armstrong, Baron Armstrong of Ilminster (originator of 'economical with the truth')
- Ferdinand Mount (journalist)
- Timothy Gowers (Fields Medal-winning mathematician)
External links
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 6 December 2008, at 00:56.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "King's Scholar".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.