Imperial Service College
This article is about the school in England. For the institution which occupied the same site from 1809 to 1858, see East India Company College. For the College's Australian counterpart, see Haileybury, Melbourne. Haileybury and Imperial Service College Mottoes Fear God, Honour The King Sursum Corda (Lift up your Hearts) Established 1862 (Haileybury College. Predecessor colleges were founded as follows: East India Company College - 1806; Imperial Service College - 1845; United Services College - 1874) Haileybury College Haileybury and Imperial Service College (usually shortened to Haileybury & ISC or Haileybury) is a British independent school founded in 1862. The school is located at Hertford Heath, near Hertford, 20 miles (32 km) from central London, on 500 acres (2.0 km2) of parkland occupied until 1858 by the East India College. Originally a boys' public school, it is now co-educational, enrolling pupils at 11+, 13+ and 16+ stages of education. Over 750 pupils attend Haileybury, of whom more than 500 board. The previous institution on the site was East India College, the training establishment founded in 1806 for "writers" (clerks) of the Honourable East India Company. The College was initially based in Hertford Castle, but the site at Hertford Heath was acquired for future occupation. William Wilkins, who had previously designed the buildings of Downing College, Cambridge, and would later design the National Gallery in London, was appointed principal architect. The buildings were completed and occupied in 1809. They comprise four ran
es which enclose an area known as Quad, the largest academic quadrangle in the UK and one of the largest in the world.[citation needed] In the wake of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the East India Company was wound up, and its College closed in January 1858. Four years later, in 1864, the buildings were re-opened as a public school, Haileybury College. The Chapel dome was added by Arthur Blomfield and completed in 1877. Further Victorian additions were designed by John William Simpson. The Memorial Dining Hall was opened by the future King George VI & Queen Elizabeth, and serves as a monument to former pupils who gave their lives in the First World War. During the past 40 years, its use has been extended to commemorate deaths in all military conflicts. The dining hall boasts one of the largest unsupported domes in Europe. Until the 1990s, the entire school of over 700 pupils dined there at a single sitting, all brought to silence for grace by the beating of a massive brass howitzer shell, captured from a German gun emplacement during World War I and then converted into a gong. A gilded plaster boss in the centre of this dome represents an oak tree being struck by lightning. Known as Little Lightning Oak this decoration represents the massive oak tree that stands on the lawn in front of Terrace, the promenade visible in this photograph. This tree was struck by lightning and all but destroyed but, miraculously, re-sprouted. The oak has been seen as a metaphor for the school, a valuable entity decimated by war, but nonetheless capable of regeneration.