Marlborough College

For more than a century-and a- half, the college has been the chosen public school for the sons and - for the past 40 odd years - the daughters of royalty, the aristocracy and the wealthy who pay £22,000 for a year’s education.

Household names who have passed through its doors include the First World War “trench poets” Charles Sorley and Siegfried Sassoon, the late Poet Laureate John Betjeman, singer Chris de Burgh and more recently Princess Eugenie, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of York.

The school was founded in 1843 to provide cheap boarding for the sons of clergy but became an educational tour de force when headmaster George Cotton took over in 1852.

Under his guidance the public school established a high reputation for both scholarship and sport and since 1870 there has been considerable competition for entry.

It was originally a boys school and allowed girls into the sixth form in 1968. It became fully co-educational in 1989.

Today there are 860 students accommodated in 14 boarding houses and the college is one of Marlborough’s major employers.

In 2012 Marlborough College Malaysia will open in Iskandar Malaysia.

It will have a preparatory school for up to 430 day pupils and boarding facilities for more than 900 11-18 year olds and will mirror its Wiltshire campus with sporting facilities including eight rugby pitches and a 400 metre running track and 25 metre swimming pool.