Churcher's College

Churcher's College was founded in 1722 in the market town of Petersfield, Hampshire, under the terms of the will of Richard Churcher. The original intent was specific: Churcher endowed the school to provide "twelve poor boys" with the literacy, numeracy and seamanship needed to be apprenticed into the East India Company's commercial fleet. From this East India Company origin the school broadened gradually into a conventional grammar foundation, then into an HMC public school after the abolition of the direct grant. It became co-educational in the 1990s.

The school today operates across two Hampshire sites. The Senior School (ages 11-18) is in the centre of Petersfield, on a campus with playing fields rolling up towards the South Downs. The Junior School and Nursery (ages 3-11) are at Ramshill in nearby Liphook. Total enrolment is approximately 1,185 pupils, and the school is fully co-educational. The Headmaster is Simon H. L. Williams.

Churcher's is consistently rated among the strongest independent schools in southern Hampshire by A-Level performance. The school has a strong Combined Cadet Force tradition, reflecting its East India Company foundation, and a substantial outdoor-education programme using the South Downs and nearby New Forest. Sport is centred on cricket and rugby, with the school's own ground at Hogmoor used for first-team fixtures.

Alumni from the school's most recent decades include Michael Auger, a member of the vocal group Collabro who won Britain's Got Talent in 2014; Brigadier Henry Baxter CBE GM, who commanded the Ulster Defence Regiment in the mid-1970s and was awarded the George Medal for bomb-disposal work in Northern Ireland; and numerous Old Churcherians active in the Royal Navy, the senior civil service and South Hampshire business. The school operates a substantial bursary programme intended to honour Richard Churcher's original 1722 intent of supporting Hampshire families regardless of means.