The Philberds

The Philberds was a preparatory school based in a house in Holyport, near Maidenhead, Berkshire, on the site of one which Charles II had given to Nell Gwyn. The name derives from a family which owned land in the area in mediaeval times.

School founder Edward Henry Price

Edward Henry Price (1822–1898) was educated at Rugby School under Thomas Arnold, arriving in May 1835 aged 13. He matriculated at St John's College, Cambridge in 1841, graduating B.A. in 1845, M.A. in 1863.

Ordained deacon in 1845 and priest in 1846, Price spent the years 1845 to 1853 at Lutterworth as a curate. He founded The Philberds in 1862, having previously founded a school at Tarvin in Cheshire which he moved to become Mostyn House School, in Cheshire, in 1855. In 1862 he sold Mostyn House School to Algernon Sydney Grenfell.

Price was headmaster of The Philberds from 1862 until 1879. The initial school fee was 80 guineas per annum. He succeeded in building the reputation of Philberds as a preparatory school. He then took the living of Kimbolton.

Later history

Frederick William Stephen Price, one of the sons, took over the school. He later was head of Ovingdean Hall School. In 1885, the partnership he had with his brother Edward Matthew Price as schoolmasters at The Philberds was dissolved. He left the school in the charge of his brother Edward and another brother, Herbert Johnson Price.

In 1898 Frank Watkinson took over the school—an Oxford B.A. in 1892, he had been an assistant master at Mostyn House School. In 1904 Charles R. Lupton moved his school from Farnborough, Hampshire to The Philberds.

The school survived until the start of World War I. During the war, the manor building was used as an internment camp for German prisoners of war, and in 1919 was demolished.

Old Philberdians F.C.

The Rev. Price founded an association football club, the Old Philberdians, for the old boys and masters of the school, for which he regularly played as captain; the first such recorded match being a 0–0 draw in a 12-a-side match against Maidenhead in April 1875. By 1877–78 the Old Philberdians were playing regularly against teams in the Berkshire area, and the club was strong enough to beat the established teams of Marlow and the Remnants.

In 1879–80, the club reached the final of the Berkshire & Buckinghamshire Senior Cup, having beaten Maidenhead away 7–0 en route. Following two draws with the Swifts (in Maidenhead and Reading), the clubs agreed to share the trophy.

The club was one of the first fifteen members of the Berkshire and Buckinghamshire Football Association and in 1880–81 entered the FA Cup for the only time. The club withdrew when drawn away to Pilgrims; three of the club’s key players (the Wild brothers and Arnott) played instead for the Swifts.

Following that season, the club did not play competitively on either the local or national stage. Old Philberdians continued until at least 1889, with annual matches against Guy’s Hospital.

Notable individuals associated with the school

Pupils:
* John Challen, cricketer for Somerset and football international for Wales (played at least two games for the Old Philberdians in 1877)
* Major Alexis Charles Doxat VC
* William Pasteur, discoverer of atelectasis
* Vice-Admiral Cecil Vivian Usborne, Director of Naval Intelligence

Teachers:
* Charles Henry Major, chief justice of British Guiana (schoolmaster and goalkeeper for the Old Philberdians)
* Graham Wallas, political scientist (Latin teacher)

References

Defunct football clubs in England
Defunct schools in England
Association football clubs established in the 1870s
Defunct football clubs in Berkshire

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