Tavistock
Tavistock ( ) is an ancient stannary and market town within West Devon, England. It is situated on the River Tavy from which its name derives. At the 2011 census the three electoral wards (North, South and South West) had a population of 13 ...
,
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
, with around 350 students ranging from ages 3 to 18. There was an associated preparatory school for primary school children, Kelly College Preparatory School, nearby. In June 2014, the school formally merged with Mount House School to form Mount Kelly School.
The college had twenty acres (eight
hectare
The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100- metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is ...
s) of landscaped grounds, including playing fields, set on the edge of
Dartmoor
Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers .
The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous P ...
and including a stretch of the
River Tavy
The Tavy () is a river on Dartmoor, Devon, England. The name derives from the Brythonic root "Tam", once thought to mean 'dark' but now generally understood to mean 'to flow'. It has given its name to the town of Tavistock and the villages of ...
, and four separate senior boarding houses, and a junior house, each with its own facilities.
The last headship was of Mr Mark Semmence who joined the college in 2013. The college's motto is ''fortiter occupa portum'' - "defend your harbours bravely", a quotation from Ode XIV from the first Book of Odes by Horace.(1)
It offered many
extracurricular
An extracurricular activity (ECA) or extra academic activity (EAA) or cultural activities is an activity, performed by students, that falls outside the realm of the normal curriculum of school, college or university education. Such activities a ...
activities, such as the CCF ( Combined Cadet Force) and the DofE Scheme; in addition to a wide variety of sporting activities.
History
The school was founded in 1877 after Admiral
Benedictus Marwood Kelly
Benedictus Marwood Kelly (3 February 1785 – 26 September 1867) was an officer of the Royal Navy. He rose to the rank of Admiral (Royal Navy), admiral after service in the French Revolutionary Wars, French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars ...
left the great part of his real and personal estate to Trustees, founding a charity which he directed should be called "The Kelly College", which should be for the education of the "sons of Naval officers and other gentlemen". The school opened in October 1877, under the Headmastership of Robert West Taylor, late fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, with twelve boys on the school roll. It became co-educational in the early 1970s, initially with entrants into the Sixth Form, and in September 1991 welcomed thirty one girls into the First Form, fourteen of whom became Kelly Veterans in 1998.
Houses
The School had six houses;
School house (Girls Year 9-11 boarding/day House) (founded 1877), Courtenay House (Senior Boys House boarding /day) (founded 1901), Newton House (Boys Year 9-11 boarding/day house) (founded 1939), Conway House (Junior house, 1st and 2nd form only) (founded 1975), and Marwood House (Senior Girls House) (founded 1983),
Yahoo
Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Manage ...
; president CLT Ufa; chairman and CEO of Channel 5.
*
Robin Brew
Robin Brew (born 28 June 1962) is a male former competition swimmer for Great Britain and Scotland.
Swimming career
Brew represented Great Britain at the Olympic Games and Scotland in the Commonwealth Games. He swam in the men's 200-metre indi ...
Sharron Davies
Sharron Elizabeth Davies, (born 1 November 1962) is an English former competitive swimmer who represented Great Britain in the Olympics and European championships and competed for England in the Commonwealth Games. Davies has attended 12 ...
MBE, swimmer
*
Flora Duffy
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BBC Sport
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Trad Jazz
Trad jazz, short for "traditional jazz", is a form of jazz in the United States and Britain in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, played by musicians such as Chris Barber, Acker Bilk, Kenny Ball, Ken Colyer and Monty Sunshine, based on a re ...
British resident
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in
Brunei
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Gerald Seymour
Gerald Seymour (born 25 November 1941 in Guildford, Surrey) is a British writer of crime and espionage novels.
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Gerald Seymour was born to William Kean Seymour and his second wife, Rosalind Wade.ITN correspondent
* Lauren Steadman, triathlete
*Bishop
Mervyn Stockwood
Arthur Mervyn Stockwood (27 May 1913 – 13 January 1995) was a Church of England bishop who served as vicar of St Matthew's Church, Moorfields, then of Great St Mary's, Cambridge, and finally as Bishop of Southwark, retiring in 1980.
Early l ...
RAF
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
officer
*
Jakie Wellman
Jakie Kim Wellman (also ''Matana Wellman'', born July 22, 1988) is a Zambian swimmer, who specialized in sprint freestyle events. She is a high school graduate of Kelly College in Devon, England, and a member of the swimming team for the Missouri ...
, Zambian Olympic Swimmer
* Mike Westbrook OBE, jazz musician