Talk:Bedford School

Domesday book source?
I can find no mention of Bedford school (or indeed any school) in the domesday entry for Bedford. The entry for Bedford mentions land in alms, but there is no mention of the use of income and therefore we cannot conclude (from domesday at least) that a school existed. Unless a clear reference in domesday to a school can be found, this should be removed.

S ellinson (talk) 14:40, 16 January 2015 (UTC)


 * S ellinson@undefined This seems very speculative to me as well. The Victoria County History, always a robust source, says "The school mentioned in the 13th century..." the first time it's discussed. There's also no implication in that article that the thirteenth-century school is the "same" as the one founded (or refounded?) in the mid-sixteenth, which this article states as fact. The school itself does not suggest it had a pre-sixteenth century history (see here) and if anyone might be expected to claim great antiquity, it'd be them! Andrew Gray (talk) 18:44, 6 March 2015 (UTC)


 * Looks like this is what Godber was originally used to cite, and the citation then drifted. Hmm. I'll rewrite the article this evening to be a bit less assertive and keep with the school's own interpretation of founded by Williams, with an earlier school noted but no direct connection. Andrew Gray (talk) 18:56, 6 March 2015 (UTC)


 * Now done. Andrew Gray (talk) 20:01, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

Fire vs Arson
I have tagged the section about the fire as I do not believe that a NON-PRIMARY RELIABLE SOURCE has been found that confirms the fire was arson. I am aware various sources have been proffered in support of this claim, including this one - however none of them show the fire was arson (intentionally and maliciously setting fire to structures).


 * You have gone above and beyond disruptive here. I will re-raise this at the RS noticeboard. If you promise not to comment, at all, to my question, I promise to abide by whatever the first uninvolved party says. Hipocrite (talk) 16:27, 26 February 2010 (UTC)


 * that has already been done - see this edit - the school is not a WP:RS for the claim of arson. Codf1977 (talk)


 * Except he thought the other source was an RS, and that was after your tremendously biased presentation of the matter. You will either accept a new verdict from RS, or I'll try another type of dispute resolution. Hipocrite (talk) 17:14, 26 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Disagree it was in any way biased - I see now there has been a reply to your section which says without the trial record we don't know if the man was actually found guilty of arson or of some other offence which involved setting fire to the structure. and that the easiest route forward is to use a construction such as The Great Hall was destroyed in 1979 after a man set fire to it. - which I am more than happy with - if someone ever gets hold of the trial records or the press clippings confirming he was convicted of Arson - will be happy to see it reverted to arson then. Codf1977 (talk) 17:55, 26 February 2010 (UTC)


 * I do not see how the statement was biased or unjust in any way. I have found the following articles all referring to the cause of the fire as an arson attack: http://www.bedfordschool.org.uk/prep-school-news/?news=254
 * http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM55TZ_Bedford_School_Fire_Pemberley_Avenue_Bedford_UK
 * http://wikimapia.org/604987/Bedford-School-Main-Building
 * http://www.bedfordshire.gov.uk/CommunityAndLiving/ArchivesAndRecordOffice/GuidesToCollections/FireServiceRecords.aspx
 * I do not see the issue seeing as the school, local authorities and local council all refer to the incident as arson?
 * --Disclosure07 (talk) 00:47, 3 July 2012 (UTC)

Notable Old Bedfordians
Currently (6 March 2010), there are inline citations for only four of the notable Old Bedfordians listed in the article. Clearly it would be better if all of these had ciations. To aid the process, I think it would be a good idea to only allow additions to the list if they have inline citations to appropriate sources.

User 67.87.222.156 has proposed adding the names listed below. Codf1977 has reverted this on the grounds of lack of citations to reliable sources. I think that he/she was right to do so.--Toddy1 (talk) 11:30, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

A simple search through the web or a library proves many of these names to be old boys of the school. I think references should be added to help instead of the page being dismantled by other users. --Disclosure07 (talk) 17:54, 17 July 2012 (UTC)


 * Peter Freyhan (1950–1957); cellist BBC Symphony Orchestra (retd).
 * Ian Fox (1956–1964); Director of Music of The King's School, Gloucester (retd).
 * Richard Kerr (1958–1962); songwriter, for Elkie Brooks, Dionne Warwick, Frank Sinatra, and Andy Williams.
 * Michael Freyhan (1951–1958); pianist and harpsichordist.
 * Alisdair MacRae Birch (1967–1976); jazz guitarist, bassist, and arranger.
 * Philip Stopford (1990–1995); Director of Music at Belfast Cathedral.
 * Peter J.M Battle Esq, (Born 1954) - Former Coldstream Guards Officer.
 * Leo Oakley (1925–1981), England rugby player
 * David Callam (born 1983), Scotland rugby player
 * Henry Corbet (1820–1878), agricultural writer and editor
 * Sir Wyndham Dunstan (1861–1949), chemist and Director, Imperial Institute, 1903–1924
 * John Platts (1830–1904), Indian and Persian language expert
 * John Dudley North (1893–1968), aircraft designer
 * Sir Percivale Liesching (1895–1973), Permanent Under-Secretary, Ministry of Food, 1946–1948, Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, 1949–1955, and High Commissioner in South Africa, 1955–1958
 * Sir Karl Parker (1895–1992), art historian and Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, 1945–1962
 * Joe Chamberlin (1919–1978), architect and town planner
 * Anthony Page, Surg-col (born 1937), Doctor and soldier
 * Peter J.M Battle Esq, (Born 1954) - Former Coldstream Guards Officer.
 * Shoo Rayner (born 1956), children's book author and illustrator
 * Lucien Jenkins (born 1957), writer and editor
 * John Buglass (born 1962), archaeologist
 * Caspar von Winterfeldt, (born 1968), investment banker turned film producer. Known for cameos in his films such as Played


 * As of March 2015, there's approximately 400 names listed here. Given there are 473 in the category (which is linked at the top of the section), that means about 80% of the ones where we have articles are listed on the school's page. It seems overkill; a few dozen selected names would seem much more balanced, but I'm not sure of the best way to trim it. Andrew Gray (talk) 18:30, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

Two names should be deleted from this list: Guglielmo Marconi and Sir John Phillips. Marconi lived in Bedford for a few years with his older brother and mother when he was very little. He was six or maybe seven when he left the town. There are a lot of sources, including one from the School itself, which state that it was the brother, not Guglielmo, who was the Old Bedfordian, so I'm not sure why and how this claim has recently appeared. Phillips went to the now defunct Elstow (County) School. I think the person who created his page mixed him up with someone else called John Phillips who did go to Bedford School. I will delete these names unless there is some compelling evidence why I shouldn't (I've already edited their respective pages anyway). I don't know about the rest of the list, I haven't really studied it properly. Ndstead (talk) 20:10, 26 March 2015 (UTC)

Currently we have (Feb 2023) "The school has produced six Nobel Prize winner, five recipients of the Victoria Cross . . . "  Yet the list of Old Bedfordians includes only one Nobel Prize awardee - Archer Martin - and only three VC recipients. So either the numbers are wrong, or some deserving names have been omitted from the list. Cross Reference (talk) 21:21, 8 February 2023 (UTC)

Unsourced additions
Houses, Officials and School Colors are all sections that are unsourced and require attention. Please leave the OR template in place until this is addressed.  Flat Out  let's discuss it  11:59, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
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Merge school
I have proposed that Bedford Preparatory School should be merged here. Any comments appreciated. CalzGuy (talk) 18:25, 28 December 2016 (UTC) Done! CalzGuy (talk) 15:42, 26 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Support - prep school article offers no indication of notability separate from its parent school with which it shares a campus. It's currently a longish, and slightly promotional, collection of unencyclopedic detail about the operation of the school. Shorn of that, plus some secondary WP:RS references, it would fit comfortably in a section of this article. Wikishovel (talk) 20:58, 28 December 2016 (UTC)

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Split Headmasters
#Headmasters seems long enough to warrant a list article, similar to that of List of headmasters of Eton College, so I am considering splitting it to reduce the article length. I'll add some references etc., but before I do so, does anyone have any objections? The new article would probably be entitled List of headmasters at Bedford School, and extra information in the section can be added as notes.

Frzzl (talk) 04:00, 28 December 2022 (UTC)