Prince George arrives at Eton College: Inside its elite and controversial fame

Eton College, the elite school that taught British PMs, Bear Grylls — and now Prince George There are very few schools that can guarantee its graduating cohort will be future prime ministers, royals or esteemed stars. Britain's Eton College may just be the exception. The exclusive boy's school — just a stone's throw away from Windsor Castle — boasts itself a venerable list of alumni. More than one in three British PMs including Boris Johnson and David Cameron attended the college, as did author George Orwell, actor Hugh Laurie and adventurer Bear Grylls. But perhaps the most noted figures to walk the hallowed halls are its generations of British royals. That includes Prince William and Prince Harry. And now William's eldest, Prince George, who started his first day at the school this week. But behind its 586-year history also lies unbending tradition, royal upset and controversy. An expensive education — if you can get it The school was founded in 1440 by Henry VI to provide free education and a gateway to Cambridge for 70 poor boys. Its noble origins didn't last long. The charity mission was soon scrapped by Edward IV who annulled the school's grants and transferred a large number of its assets and treasures to St George's Chapel, Windsor. Today, Eton is one of the UK's most expensive schools — with tuition costing about of 65,000 British pounds ($121,000) a year. That is if you can pass its enrolment interviews, tests and references. Admission tests where, as recently as 2011 prospective students were asked to imagine they were prime minister and write a speech arguing that employing the army against violent protesters, and killing many of them, was "both necessary and moral". Still, it remains one of the most coveted educations boys can acquire. Some reports say the school sees around 1,300 registrations a year for approximately 250 spots. And Boris Johnson — at age 16 — was quoted extolling its virtues to parents because "you will imbue your son with the most important thing, a sense of his own importance". Two brothers, two versions of Eton Prince William and Harry are perhaps the two Eton alumni who were born already knowing their Commonwealth importance. While more than half a dozen royals have attended the college, very few were as hounded as the brothers, who graduated in 2000 and 2003 respectively. On his 18th birthday, William spoke about leaving Eton. "I'll miss my friends and Dr Gailey (housemaster) who has been a tremendous support to me," he said. "I've really enjoyed being able to go about Eton as just another student." As for why he was doing a photo shoot at the college on his birthday? "I knew there would be a lot of media interest in my 18th and I didn't want a whole host of media involved," he answered. "Neither did I want any distractions as I was revising for my A-levels." His brother's experience wasn't quite the same. In his memoir Spare, Harry wrote William wanted him to pretend they didn't know each other at school. The Duke of Sussex also called the school a "profound shock", though soon clung onto the school's strong rugby traditions. "Sport held me together," he told Time in June. "I was one of those kids at school who did not enjoy classroom work. "If it wasn't for the sports field and the amount of sports that were on offer, there's no way I would have stayed in school." Further controversy also engulfed Harry's Eton years in 2006, when he was embroiled in cheating allegations. Dismissed teacher Sarah Forsyth said she had ghostwritten the prince's A-level art project — though Harry was later cleared of the allegations by the exam board. A storied history of scandal And as Prince George begins his Eton journey, the school faces a fresh challenge: escaping further scandal. For an institution cloaked in tradition, it has also repeatedly been the perpetuator of institutional cover-up. Dating as far back as the 1920s, MI5 investigated allegations US actress Tallulah Bankhead seduced its students while headmaster Cyril Alington fought to keep the scandal from headlines. "He wants to do everything possible to keep Eton out of the scandal," an investigator noted. Several teachers have also been convicted of child sexual abuse. As recently as 2020, former teacher Matthew Mowbray was jailed after abusing boys in the dorms, with the pretext of discussing schoolwork. The same year, teacher Will Knowland was dismissed for teaching students male aggression was a biological fact and that "saying smash the patriarchy … amounts to saying smash human nature and biological reality". A letter asking for his reinstatement later gathered thousands of signatures. In 2022, girls visiting from a nearby state school were also reportedly subjected to misogynistic language and racial slurs. Increasingly, Eton faces a world sceptical of its archaic elitism. Oxford and Cambridge admitted more Etonians each year than the country's entire pool of boys poor enough to get free school meals, The Economist cited in 2009. It has also been accused of rorting the EU's farm subsidies, scoring £2,652 ($4,979) in funding. Even Australian venture capitalist Mark Carnegie noted Eton's above-average influence in Sonia Purnell's 2012 book about Boris Johnson "It became clear to me how powerful Eton is as a manufacturer of cultural capital," he remarked about Mr Johnson's education. "It's disproportionately powerful, devastatingly so."