The private school power league: The schools producing the most ‘influential’ toffs

A new study has revealed the top 10 schools in Britain which produce the most powerful people, and unsurprisingly they’re all private schools and Eton College is at the top of the list.

Private tutoring company, Keystone Tutors, carried out the study by going through 66,000 entries on  biographical data publications Who’s Who and Who Was Who to find the schools whose pupils have gone on to have the most “national impact”.

Eton College is said to have produced 10 per cent of the country’s most powerful people, thanks to Boris Johnson, Prince Harry and Prince William being notable alumni.

There was only one co-ed school in the top five most influential, Marlborough College, who counts Kate Middleton as a former pupil. The top three schools all happen to be boarding schools and this is supposedly a key factor in creating the most powerful people. Clearly a bunch of toffs spending every day together for seven years will create you a really powerful country.

These are the top 10 private schools who produce some of the country’s most “influential” people:

10. Wellington College

Notable Alumni: Will Young, James Haskell, Prince Constantine Alexios of Greece and Denmark

Wellington College in Berkshire is a co-ed school and pupils can either board or just attend as a day pupil. The school fees are nearly £14,000 per term.

The school has been around since the mid 1800s, so no wonder they’ve had plenty of time to count a lot of pupils as “influential”. Will Young’s “Leave Right Now” has really changed so many lives.

9. Ampleforth College

Notable Alumni: Rupert Everett, James Norton, Antony Gormley

Ampleforth College is a co-ed school and first opened in 1802. The school is based in North Yorkshire and costs a casual £25k a year to attend as a day pupil, it’s £36k if you want to board.

8. St Paul’s Boys’ School

Notable Alumni: Dan Snow, George Osborne, Peter Morgan

St Paul’s Boys’ School counts Peter Morgan, the creator of The Crown as a former pupil, so I guess they do deserve their place on this list.

The school is day school based in London and fees per term are just over £8,000.

7. Charterhouse School

Notable Alumni: Jeremy Hunt, David Dimbleby, Peter Yates

Yes we really have Charterhouse School to thank for moulding Jeremy Hunt into the man he is today. The boarding and day school is based in Godalming, Surrey.

To board there for a year costs £40,000, but it does have a nine hole golf course on campus, so I guess it’s worth the money?

6. Rugby School

Notable Alumni: Sir Salman Rushdie, Neville Chamberlin, Lewis Carroll

Rugby is a co-ed boarding school based in Warwickshire. It’s one of the oldest schools, having been founded in the 1500s.

It currently costs just over £12,000 per term to attend the school as a boarder.

5. Marlborough College

Notable Alumni: Duchess of Cambridge, Bruce Chatwin, Princess Eugenie

Marlborough College is the only co-ed school to be in the top five schools that produce the most influential people. Is the list saying then most powerful people are men? What a shocker.

The school is based in Wiltshire and costs nearly £40k a year to board there.

4. Westminster School

Notable Alumni: Nick Clegg, Louis Theroux, Helena Bonham-Carter

Any school that counts Louis Theroux as an ex-pupil has surely got to be good? But they did also teach Nick Clegg, so not exactly perfect.

Girls can attend the school but only at age 16. The school is based in London and costs nearly £14k per term to board there.

3. Harrow School

Notable Alumni: Winston Churchill, Benedict Cumberbatch, James Blunt

Harrow has narrowly missed out on the top two, they must be gutted. They’ve only produced seven prime ministers in comparison to Eton’s 20 former pupils turned prime ministers. Honestly Harrow, try harder.

2. Winchester College

Notable Alumni: Rishi Sunak, Lord Alfred Douglas, Ian Gow

Winchester College is responsible for teaching the man who created “Eat Out to Help Out”, they must be so proud. The school is naturally based in Winchester and costs £41,709 per year to attend.

1. Eton College

Notable Alumni: Boris Johnson, Prince William, Prince Harry

And the award for the private school who produces the most “powerful” people obviously goes to Eton College. There’s been 20 prime ministers from the school, numerous royals and of course several members of the Made in Chelsea cast.

Spencer Matthews and Proudlock are some of the school’s former pupils. Despite Spencer’s iconic bridge scene in MiC, I doubt this is what the creators of the ranking meant when they said “influential”.

Related stories recommended by this writer:

•These are officially the private schools who get the most students into Oxbridge

•It’s official: These are the country’s most ridiculously expensive private schools

•I went to a private school and I don’t think they should exist