The following e-mail arrived from John Gill (johngill789@googlemail.com) on June 12, 2007:

After reading your input as concerning public schools i would like to point out that Malvern College has been excluded from the list of the british public schools. I would be pleased to inform you that malvern college was in fact founded in January 1865, though five years after the focussed date in your introduction to British public schools i feel that it indeed deserves and should be included in the article giving greater factual basis and reference for your article as a whole.

Response: Mr. Gill is correct that at in least part of the twentieth century — and certainly now in the twenty-first — all independent schools are considered one of the "public schools." During the Victorian years, however, when writers used the phrase "public school," they usually referred only to the so-called great seven public schools — which is not to say that Malvern College is not an important and prestigious school.

If anyone can quote Victorian sources, such as the parliamentary debates about public schools or discussions in contemporary periodicals, that use a broader definition of public school, I shall be happy to include that fact in VW.


Last modified 27 July 2007