Merchant Taylors School

Merchant Taylors’ School (MTS) is a British independent day school for boys. Since 1933 it has been on 285 acres (115 ha) of grounds at Sandy Lodge in the Three Rivers district of Hertfordshire.

Founded in 1561 by Sir Thomas White, Sir Richard Hilles, Emanuel Lucar and Stephen Hales, it was one of the nine English public schools investigated by the Clarendon Commission set up in 1861, but successfully argued that it should be omitted from the Public Schools Act 1868, as did St Paul’s School, London, the other day school investigated by the Clarendon Commission.

The school caters for 1100 students between the ages of 11 and 18. The school is now an all-through school from age 3 to 18 after merger with Northwood Prep School in 2015.

The school’s old boys, called OMTs, include naturalists, poets, academics, politicians, authors, sportsmen, actors, and military figures, including three winners of the Victoria Cross award. OMTs include Lancelot Andrewes, the translator of the King James’ Bible; John Walter, founding editor of The Times; John Sulston, Nobel laureate in Physiology and Medicine; General Sir Richard Barrons, former Commander Joint forces command: E. H. Carr, the historian, Boris Karloff, the actor, Sir James Jeans the Astronomer Royal; Lord Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury,  Major-General Lord Robert Clive, and more. There is also a strong OMT presence in both Houses of Parliament.