Qualla: Elizabeth College, Guernsey

Elizabeth College, Guernsey: Introduction

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Man vyi, Public domain. On 25 May 1563, in the same year three Guernsey women were burned for witchcraft, Queen Elizabeth I signed a patent roll establishing a free grammar school on the island. The Privy Council had decided that Guernsey badly needed educated clergy. The Franciscan friars at La Rue Des Frères were politely moved off their land. A Belgian scholar named Adrian Saravia was installed as the first master. Within eight years Saravia had quit, describing the islanders as an 'uncivilised race' that 'hates all learning.' Elizabeth College has been there ever since - 463 years and counting, the oldest public school in the Channel Islands.

Image: Man vyi | Public domain

Elizabeth College, Guernsey: Two and a Half Centuries of Almost Failing

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Surgeonsmate at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. For its first 261 years, the school nearly collapsed repeatedly. The endowment was 80 quarters of wheat rents a year, and the bursar's books rarely balanced. Buildings were abandoned. Land was sold off. Principals were dismissed or resigned in disputes with the local authorities....

Image: Surgeonsmate at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Elizabeth College, Guernsey: Sons of Empire, Victoria Crosses

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Formulaonewiki, CC BY-SA 4.0. Through the nineteenth century, Elizabeth College became a finishing school for the sons of British colonial officers. Many alumni went straight on to Sandhurst and into uniform. Four of them eventually won the Victoria Cross - Duncan Home in 1857, John McCrea in 1881, Lewis Hall...

Image: Formulaonewiki | CC BY-SA 4.0

Elizabeth College, Guernsey: Evacuation, Occupation, and a Belgian Strongroom

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ave, CC0. In June 1940, French resistance collapsed and the Channel Islands suddenly found themselves indefensible. The school governors moved fast. On the evening of Thursday, 20 June 1940, Elizabeth College was evacuated to Great Hucklow in Derbyshire. The pupils would spend the next fiv...

Image: Ave | CC0

Elizabeth College, Guernsey: Wodehouse, Hester, and a Quiet Coeducation

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Man vyi, Public domain. The list of Old Elizabethans reads like a strange index card of twentieth-century Britain. P.G. Wodehouse passed through from 1890 to 1892. Robert Morley acted from 1921. Jean Hugo, painter and great-grandson of Victor Hugo, arrived in 1907. Carl Hester, Olympic dressage gold med...

Image: Man vyi | Public domain