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17 unusual facts about Clifton College


Cecil Reddie

He returned to Fettes to teach science and then moved to Clifton College in Bristol until 1888.

David Stancliffe

Three years later he returned to the West Country as Chaplain to Clifton College, Bristol.

Dixon Edward Hoste

He was educated at Clifton College and the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, and at the age of 18 was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Royal Artillery.

Francis Mudie

After graduation Robert Francis Mudie spent a term as assistant master at Clifton College before commencing as assistant master at Eton College.

Henry Herbert Symonds

From 1909 to 1935 he followed a career as a teacher, first at Clifton College and Rugby School, and later as headmaster of The King's School, Chester and the Liverpool Institute High School.

Horace Kadoorie

In 1913-14, he spent a year at Clifton College and was a member of Polacks House; a boarding house solely for Jewish boys at Clifton.

John Leonard Thorn

On returning to civilian life, he took up a place at Corpus Christi, graduating in 1949, and was then an assistant schoolmaster at Clifton from 1949 until being appointed headmaster of Repton in 1961.

Michael George Glazebrook

Michael George Glazebrook was a Headmaster of Clifton College, later a Canon of Ely, and is reputed to have once held the world record for the high jump.

N. G. L. Hammond

In 1954 he became headmaster of Clifton College, Bristol and in 1962 was appointed professor of Greek at Bristol University, a post which he held until his retirement in 1973.

Norman Hargreaves-Mawdsley

Hargreaves-Mawdsley was born in Bristol in 1921, where he attended Clifton College prior to matriculating at Oriel College, Oxford in 1940, where he read Classics and Modern History.

Norman Whatley

Norman Whatley (September 8 1884 - April 1, 1965) was an English educationalist, headmaster of Clifton College from 1923-1939, and also a historian, Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford.

Peter Brush

Educated at Clifton College and RMA Sandhurst, Brush spent his early teenage years at his father's citrus plantation in Canada, later returning to Drumnabreeze House, Magheralin, County Down.

Roger Wingate

Educated at Clifton College, Bristol and the University of London, he took over the Chairmanship of Chesterfield Properties PLC in the mid 1960s.

Sea Mills railway station

On 16 February 1878, the station was the scene of a shooting accident when former Wales international footballer, Alexander Jones, a master at Clifton College, was accompanying a party of cadets from the college home after rifle practice at Avonmouth.

Simon Blackburn

Blackburn attended Clifton College and went on to receive his bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1965 from Trinity College, Cambridge.

St Paul's Church, Clifton, Bristol

The architect was Charles Hansom, who lived locally at the time, following his work on Clifton College.

Stephen Spurr

Before his current appointment, Dr Spurr was the headmaster of Clifton College, and prior to that he was a master at Eton.


Craig Sellar Lang

Born in Hastings, New Zealand, Dr. C. S. Lang (as he is generally known) was educated at Clifton College, and studied with Sir Charles Villiers Stanford at the Royal College of Music.

Edwin Kempson

He was successively an assistant master at Clifton College, a Housemaster at Harrow and finally Principal of King William's College, Isle of Man.

George Vassila

Vassila played a single first-class match for Middlesex in 1880 against Gloucestershire at the Clifton College Close Ground in Clifton, Bristol.

John Kendall-Carpenter

He appeared as a club player for Penzance & Newlyn, forerunners of the Cornish Pirates, before moving on to Bath, where he was dubbed "Prince of Cornerflaggers", while he taught rugby at both Clifton College and Wellington School.

Thomas Little Heath

He was educated at Caistor Grammar School and Clifton College before entering Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a DSc and became a Fellow.