School History

Established in 1865, Shrewsbury House School is one of England’s oldest boys’ Preparatory Schools and recently celebrated its 150th year of educating boys. Founded by Henry Wilson, a local clergyman, the School was originally located in the centre of Surbiton and derived its name from the Wilson family’s association with the town of Shrewsbury in Shropshire.

In 1910 the School moved to ‘Haulkerton’ a large Victorian ‘Arts and Crafts’ mansion on Ditton Hill. The main house was renamed Shrewsbury House and is fondly referred to as the ‘Grand Lady on the Hill’.

For the next 70 years the School was operated by a series of private owners, most notably Dudley Hamilton-Miller, who gave the School his family coat of arms. In 1979, the School became a charitable trust, administered by a Board of Governors, known as the Shrewsbury House School Trust.

In 2009, Shrewsbury Lodge School, a Pre-Preparatory school in Esher, was brought into the fold. In 2017 Shrewsbury Lodge became Shrewsbury House Pre-Preparatory School and The Rowans School in Wimbledon joined the Trust family.

Today, the School has a reputation nationally for sending boys on to some of the very best day and boarding schools in the country.

The War Memorial Research Project

In 1919 the School erected a Memorial to the former staff and students who served in the Great War.

In 2013 the History Department began a research project with the Scholarship group to discover who these long forgotten men were. In the following 12 months the boys and the History Department, with the help of a number of different archivists, researchers and organisations, such as the Western Front Association and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, managed to uncover the details of all 43 of the men listed on the memorial. These included details such as the Regiment in which they served, where they served and how they fell. The project did not stop there and continues to be researched further. Pleasingly, we have also been able to help some Regimental Museums and some archives with their research.

We are delighted to have our own interactive ‘Shrewsbury House School Roll of Service’ dedicated to all those brave men who died or served during both World Wars to whom we all owe a debt of gratitude.

Please follow this link to view the ‘Shrewsbury House School Roll of Service‘