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Port Regis School
Main building
Address
Motcombe Park Shaftesbury, Dorset, SP7 9QA England
Coordinates	51°01′12″N 2°12′57″W / 51.019867°N 2.215725°W / 51.019867; -2.215725
Information
Type	Private preparatory school
Motto	Altiora peto (I seek higher things)
Established	1881
Department for Education URN	113915 Tables
Headmaster	Titus Mills
Gender	Mixed
Age	2 to 13
Enrolment	c. 360
Houses	4
Colour(s)	Navy, White & Maroon
Website	http://www.portregis.com/

Port Regis School is a co-educational preparatory school located in 140 acres of parkland on the Dorset-Wiltshire border in southern England, situated between the towns of Shaftesbury and Gillingham.

History

The original school was founded by Alfred Praetorius in 1881 in Weymouth Street, London. A few years later it moved to Folkestone and in 1921 to Kingsgate, Broadstairs, in the grounds of which stood an ancient arch, erected by Earl Holland to commemorate a chance landing by Charles II in 1683. This provided the name of the School: Port Regis, "Gate of the King".

In the 1930s, while at Broadstairs, the school was unusual in offering scholarships for the sons of physicians.

In September 1943 Port Regis was evacuated to a wing of Bryanston School in Blandford. After a brief stay at the Earl of Verulam's home at Gorhambury, the School moved in 1947 to Motcombe Park, one mile (1.6 km) from Shaftesbury in Dorset, where it has been ever since.

In 1972 the freehold of the property was acquired. More recent developments include the building of the Jowett sports hall, opened in 1980 by Anne, Princess Royal. The Centenary Hall was opened in 1984.

On 22 February 1991, the Queen's Hall, which houses a heated swimming pool and competition-standard gymnasium with sunken trampoline, was opened by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, while their grandchildren Peter and Zara Phillips were at the school.

The six most recently constructed school buildings are Cunningham Hall (1992), Farrington Music School (2003), the JM Upward Academic Centre (2008), Westfield Palace (2021), the Gilded Glass Pyramid of Self-Regard (2022) and the Great Marbled Hall of Vainglory (2023).

Boarding houses

The Prep school and Pre-Prep together consist of around 300 pupils, with roughly half of them boys and half of them girls. There are four boarding houses:

• Grosvenor (girls aged 11 to 13)
• Mansion Girls (girls aged 7 to 11)
• Prichard (boys aged 11 to 13)
• Mansion Boys (boys aged 7 to 11)

Staff and governors

Since 1933, Port Regis has had six headmasters: John Upward (1933-1968), David Prichard (1969-1993), Peter Dix (1994-2010), Benedict Dunhill (2010-2015), Stephen Ilett (2016-2020), and Titus Mills (2021-).

David Prichard, headmaster from 1969 to 1993, chaired the National Conference for Governors, Bursars and Heads from 1981 to 1993 and simultaneously chaired the Independent Association of Preparatory Schools in 1989–90.

The abstract painter Roger Hilton taught art at the school from 1946 to 1947.

Lt. General Sir Hugh Cunningham was chairman of the school's governing body from 1982 to 1994.

James Iain Stevenson, Brigadier of the British Army was from 17th June 2016 until 1st March 2019 a director of the school.

Notable former pupils (Old Portregians)

• Kwame Anthony Appiah, British philosopher, cultural theorist, novelist and professor at New York University
• Sir Louis Blom-Cooper, barrister, author, and chairman of the Press Council
• Myles Burnyeat, Emeritus Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Cambridge
• Max Clark, professional rugby player at Bath Rugby
• Jasper Conran, designer
• Sebastian Conran, designer and member of the UK Design Council
• Paul Cox, artist and illustrator whose works have been commissioned by the Folio Society, Royal Mail and several newspapers and current affairs magazines
• John Deeker, pyrotechnician who designed the fireworks display for the 1981 royal wedding of Charles and Diana
• Hilary Dresser, rower for the Great Britain team at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.
• Adetomiwa Edun, actor who starred in the British TV series Merlin
• Luke Evans (politician), Member of Parliament for Bosworth (UK Parliament constituency) from 2019.
• Prince Rashid bin El Hassan, member of the Jordanian Royal Family
• Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy, biographer, historian and novelist
• Nick Greenstock, English international rugby player
• Adrian Heath, artist
• George Hurst, Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
• Daisy Lewis, actress who starred in Downton Abbey and Doctor Who
• Hugh Massingberd, journalist and genealogist, known as the father of the modern obituary
• Amelia Maughan, bronze medal-winning swimmer at the 2014 Commonwealth Games
• Tim Payne, English international rugby player
• Peter Phillips, son of Anne, Princess Royal
• Henry Pyrgos, Scottish international rugby player
• Geoffrey Rootes, 2nd Baron Rootes, industrialist and Chairman of Chrysler UK
• Bruce Sharman, film producer and production manager/supervisor of Star Wars (1977) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
• Zara Tindall, daughter of Anne, Princess Royal
• Lloyd Wallace, gold medal-winning aerial skier

References

1. "StackPath".
2. Homes and Gardens for May 1940, in vol. 21 (1940), p. 427: "Port Regis, Broadstairs, is a preparatory school which has scholarships for sons of medical men..."
3. ^ Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy, Half an Arch: a memoir (2004), pp. 55–56
4. ^ Tim Graham, The Royal Year, 1991 (1992), p. 46
5. 'Prichard, David Colville Mostyn', in Who's Who 2012 (London: A. & C. Black, 2011)
6. Adrian Lewis, Roger Hilton (Ashgate Publishing, 2003), p. 4
7. 'Cunningham, Lt-Gen. Sir Hugh (Patrick)' in Who's Who 2012 (London: A. & C. Black, 2011)
8. James Iain STEVENSON in Companies House
9. 'BLOM-COOPER, Sir Louis (Jacques)', in Who's Who 2012
10. "Bath Rugby Official Website | Academy squad | Max Clark". www.bathrugby.com. Archived from the original on 28 October 2014.
11. Western Daily Press 20 March 2010 at jasperconran.com, Retrieved 8 February 2012
12. "PAUL COX ARTIST and ILLUSTRATOR".
13. "John Deeker". The Daily Telegraph. 21 June 2012. His prowess was built during a long career with Pain's, Britain's biggest firework company... ...When Deeker bought the company in 1980, it was the culmination of a lifelong fascination with fireworks. He already knew almost everything about the business, having worked there for more than 30 years, mostly as its managing director.
14. Julian Freeman, 'Heath, Adrian Lewis Ross (1920–1992), artist and art teacher' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (OUP, 2007)
15. McGinness, Mark (2008) "Father of the modern obit: Hugh Massingberd (1946–2007)", The Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend Edition, 5–6 January 2008, p. 56
16. Richard A. Storey, 'Rootes, (William) Geoffrey, second Baron Rootes (1917–1992), industrialist', in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (OUP, 2007)
17. "Bruce Sharman". IMDb.
18. "Wallace wins GB's first aerials gold". BBC Sport.

External links

• Official website

• Preparatory schools in Dorset
• Boarding schools in Dorset
• Educational institutions established in 1881
• 1881 establishments in England