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OMTs

Merchant Taylors’ has produced great scholars, writers and statesmen throughout the ages. The very first generation of boys at the school contained Sir Edmund Spenser the poet, playwrights Thomas Kyd and John Webster, and Bishop Lancelot Andrewes, the translator of the King James’ Bible.

All through its history there have been great men: Samuel Palmer the artist; John Walter, founding editor of The Times; even Titus Oates the conspirator (expelled). In the twentieth century, OMTs have included Sir James Jeans the Astronomer Royal; Lord Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury; Sir John Sulston, Nobel Prize winner; E. H. Carr, the internationally renowned historian; Reginald Maudling, Chancellor of the Exchequer; and Boris Karloff, Frankenstein. There have been physicists, biologists, Egyptologists, revolutionaries and parliamentarians. Indeed, there is a strong OMT presence in both Houses of Parliament.

This tradition constantly renews itself. In the last twenty years, Conn Iggulden took his love of classics and the traditional values of a Merchant Taylors’ education and produced the best-selling ‘Emperor’ novels and ‘The Dangerous Book for Boys’. Mehdi Hasan read PPE at Christ Church, Oxford before he became political editor of the New Statesman, yet Riz Ahmed - who also read PPE at Christ Church - went on to become a film star (recently featuring in Star Wars) and South Bank artist-in-residence, pursuing the passion for drama he had acquired at the school. Jason Solomons developed his love for drama into a successful career, as a film critic for The Guardian. It does something to a young man to grow up in the shadow of such names; it nurtures an inner resolve that he too will make his mark upon the world.

Past pupils automatically become members of the Old Merchant Taylors’ Society – one of the most vibrant in the country - and its many activities help to sustain the friendships made at school, whilst also providing important networking opportunities. The OMT Clubhouse at the school is the centre of most of what the Society does and is an important meeting place for Old Boys.

History

The school has enjoyed a distinguished history since its foundation by the Merchant Taylors' Company in 1561. It was one of the nine original public schools that formed the basis of the work of the Clarendon Commission of 1861 and the subsequent Public Schools Act.

Its pupils have achieved distinction throughout its history. The school enjoys close links with the Company, which, to this day, constitutes its Governing Body. In 1933, the school moved from central London to its present superb, rural setting of 250 acres at Sandy Lodge, Northwood. We are within easy reach of parents in Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Middlesex and North-West London by car, train or school coach service, as well as a mere half hour by tube from Baker Street.

The Merchant Taylors’ Company founded the school in 1561 and continues to have a close association with it, not least within the governing body. It was one of a number to become closely involved with the foundation or re-foundation of schools in the sixteenth century, whether under the influence of the ‘New Learning’ of the Renaissance or, coupled with this aim, a desire to advance and preserve the religious principles of the Protestant Reformation.

Richard Hilles and his associates in the founding of the school were decidedly representative of the latter tradition but also concerned to establish an orderly training of the mind through the study of the Greek and Latin languages and literature.

Almost from the outset there was a close link with St John’s College, Oxford, founded by the Merchant Taylor, Sir Thomas White here

A look back at the place where the School began - Suffolk Lane 1561-1875 here

A brief guide to the Merchant Taylors' Company can be read here

Wikipedia: A history of Merchant Taylors' School