Durnford School

{{Short description|Former English preparatory school}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Use British English|date=February 2023}} '''Durnford School''' was an English [[Preparatory school (UK)|preparatory school]] for boys which opened in 1894<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.users.waitrose.com/~langtonmatravers/List%20-Bygones%20p6.htm |title=Dora Cockle, a maidservant at the school when it opened |access-date=2009-05-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927132733/http://www.users.waitrose.com/~langtonmatravers/List%20-Bygones%20p6.htm |archive-date=2011-09-27 |url-status=dead }}</ref> on the [[Isle of Purbeck]] in [[Dorset]].

The school occupied Durnford House, in the High Street of the village of [[Langton Matravers]] near [[Swanage]], and was notoriously spartan and uncomfortable.<ref>[[Nicholas Elliott#Personal life|See entry for old boy J N R Elliot]]</ref> [[Ben Macintyre]] described Durnford as "a traditionally brutal prep school [which] epitomised the strange British faith in bad food, plenty of Latin and beatings from an early age".<ref name=ben/> "Strip and swim" was the morning ritual for the boys – watched by headmaster Thomas Pellatt – into the sea from [[Dancing Ledge]] on the coast in 1898. Later, Pellatt had quarrymen blast out a pool in the rocks of Dancing Ledge, for his pupils to swim in.<ref>[http://www.jurassiccoastline.com/jurassic_Info4.asp?ID=231&ManmadeFeaturesID=231 Dancing Ledge quarry on the Jurassic Coastline]{{Dead link|date=July 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/articles/ArticlesDetail.asp?ID=559 |title=Dorset Life Magazine |access-date=2009-05-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090224103701/http://dorsetlife.co.uk/articles/ArticlesDetail.asp?ID=559 |archive-date=2009-02-24 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Pellatt, who co-wrote plays that appeared on the London stage under the pseudonym Wilfred T Coleby, published his reminiscences in 1936.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.rhs.ac.uk/bibl/wwwopac.exe?&database=dcatalo&rf=000180671&SUCCESS=false&SRT2=ti&SEQ2=ascending |title=''Boys in the making'' Thomas Pellatt 1936 Royal Historical Society Database |access-date=2009-05-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070321144234/http://www.rhs.ac.uk/bibl/wwwopac.exe |archive-date=2007-03-21 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>Nicholas Shakespeare. ''Ian Fleming: The Complete Man'' (2023), pp. 45-54</ref>

The School closed at the onset of the [[World War II|Second World War]] and the Durnford boys were transferred to another prep school in the village, [[the Old Malthouse]]. In 1939 the site became a ramshackle out-station of the [[Telecommunications Research Establishment]], where Britain's [[radar]] systems were devised from 1940 to 1942. The school's location is shown on a map of radar sites scattered throughout Dorset during the period.<ref>[http://purbeckradar.org.uk/purbeck/story.htm Radar sites in Purbeck]</ref>

In 1948, when the British army gave it up, Durnford House was acquired by the owners of the Old Malthouse. The main buildings were variously pulled down or sold, leaving the Old Malthouse with the grounds, which were levelled for playing fields. Durnford House itself still stands.

==War memorial== St George's Parish Church, Langton Matravers, has a war memorial containing 53 names of old boys of the school who died in the First World War. There is a further memorial to those killed in the Second World War, but without the names.<ref>[http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Dorset/LangtonMatraversDurnford.html Roll of Honour, Langton Matravers]</ref>

==Notable former pupils== {{see also|Category:People educated at Durnford School}} * [[Henry Egerton Cotton]] [[CBE]], First [[Chancellor (education)|Chancellor]], (1992-93?) [[John Moores University]], [[Lord Lieutenant of Merseyside]] (1989–92)<ref>[https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/henry-e-cotton-esq-first-chancellor-of-liverpool-john-moores-university-1992-65543 Image of Cotton as Chancellor]</ref> * [[Geoffrey Oliver|Admiral Sir Geoffrey Oliver]] * Sir [[Stephen Hastings]] [[Military Cross|MC]], [[Special Air Service|SAS]], [[Special Operations Executive|SOE]], [[Member of Parliament|MP]] * [[Nicholas Elliott]], [[MI6]] Intelligence Officer notable for his involvement with the Commander [[Lionel Crabb]] affair in the 1950s and the flight of traitor [[Kim Philby]] to [[Moscow]] in 1963. * [[Ian Fleming]] author of the [[James Bond]] novels, who attended Durnford before [[Eton College|Eton]] together with his brother [[Peter Fleming (writer)|Peter]].<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://archive.today/20070811192132/http://www.mi6.co.uk/sections/articles/literary_fleming_life1.php3 Life Magazine - ''Alias James Bond'' - The Real Story of Ian Fleming by John Pearson, 25 April 2006]}}</ref> The school was next to the estate of the Bond family whose motto is 'Non sufficit orbis' ('The World Is Not Enough').<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7701530.stm|title=Bond 'based on Elizabethan spy'|date=31 October 2008|publisher=BBC|access-date=2009-09-02}}</ref> Fleming wrote to his mother at the age of seven: "My coff (sic) has grown to a whoping (sic) coff now. Don't tell Mr Pellatt cause just this morning he said that nun (sic) of us had coffs. I am afraid that I do not like school very much".<ref name=ben>Ben Macintyre. ''For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond'' (2008)</ref> The head's wife read to the pupils from popular fiction including [[John Buchan]] adventures, ''[[The Prisoner of Zenda]]'' and [[Bulldog Drummond]].<ref>[http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/2443706.dorset_days_of_the_spymaster/ Bournemouth Echo 9 September 2008, "Dorset days of the spymaster" Accessed 19 May 2009]</ref> * [[Vice-Admiral]] Sir [[Gerard "Ged" Mansfield]] [[Royal Navy|RN]] (Edward Gerard Napier Mansfield) was Deputy Supreme Allied Commander, [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]], based at [[Norfolk, Virginia]], from 1973 to 1974.<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1524172/Vice-Admiral-Sir-Ged-Mansfield.html Obituary, Daily Telegraph 18 July 2006, accessed 11 May 2009]</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Obituary: Vice Admiral Sir Gerard Mansfield |date=2006-09-27 |website=[[The Guardian]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211217203901/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/sep/28/guardianobituaries.military |archive-date=2021-12-17 |url-status=live |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/sep/28/guardianobituaries.military}}</ref> He was a descendant of [[Admiral]] Sir [[Charles John Napier]]. *[[Admiral of the Fleet]] [[John Tovey, 1st Baron Tovey]] (1885–1971)

==References== {{Reflist}}

[[Category:Defunct schools in Dorset]] [[Category:Educational institutions established in 1894]] [[Category:1894 establishments in England]]