Farnham Grammar School

The grammar school was created at some time before 1585 (the date of a donation being made by a Richard Searle "to the maintenance of the school in Farnham").[1] The first evidence that the school was built is a record in 1585 of a yeoman in Farnham donating 20 shillings 'to the maintenance of the school of Farnham'.[2] It is, though, possible that this ancient school dated back as far as 1351 when a chantry was created at Farnham Castle, but there is no documentary evidence of this.[1]

The school benefited over the years from bequests by different people as well as the generosity of Bishops of Winchester who occupied Farnham Castle over the centuries.[1]

The school was housed in West Street, Farnham until 1906. It moved then because in the previous year, the town centre assets were sold in order to purchase and build a new school in fields to the south of the town.[1]

In 1973, under Government education reforms, the school merged with Farnham Girls' Grammar School (now South Farnham School) to form Farnham College.[1]

• Patrick Blower (born 1959), Chief Political Cartoonist at The Daily Telegraph
• Jack Coutu (1924–2017), printmaker and sculptor[3]
• Maj-Gen Alexander Elmslie CB CBE, Colonel Commandant of the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) from 1964-5, and the Royal Corps of Transport from 1964–69[4]
• Cyril Garbett (briefly), successively the Anglican Bishop of Southwark and Bishop of Winchester, later Archbishop of York from 1942–55[5]
• Jack Gwillim, actor[6]
• Jeremy Hardy, comedian[7]
• Hugh Johns, ITV football commentator[8]
• Charles Judd CBE, Director General of the United Nations Association UK from 1945–64
• James Kendall, Professor Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh from 1928–59, and President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh from 1949–54[9]
• David Lea, Baron Lea of Crondall OBE, trade union official
• Lt-Gen Sir Harold Redman CB CBE, Governor of Gibraltar from 1955-8
• Prof Charles Rees CBE, Hofmann Professor of Organic Chemistry at Imperial College London from 1978–83, and President of the Royal Society of Chemistry from 1992–94[10]
• Sir Eric Rideal MBE (briefly), chemist, Professor of Colloid Science at the University of Cambridge from 1930–46[11]
• George Sturt, author[12]
• Jeffrey Tate CBE (attended 1954–61), conductor[13][14]
• Bill Wallis (attended 1948–55), actor and satirist (head boy in his final year)
• David Watkin, Professor of History of Architecture from 2001-8 at the University of Cambridge[15]
• Squadron Leader Sydney Wiltshire,[16] awarded the George Cross

• Old Farnhamians' Association
• Farnham College

51.208°N 0.793°W / 51.208; -0.793