Lives in Cricket No 5 - Rockley Wilson

Chapter Two School and University The Reverend Wilson was determined to provide the best possible education for his sons. Parents at the time had no compunction about sending their children, at any rate their sons, away to boarding school. The Wilsons’ aim was to place the boys at one of the leading public schools, but their father endeavoured to arrange that no son should be at the same school at the same time. The two older Wilson boys, Rex and Cyril, attended Shrewsbury and Haileybury schools respectively and Rowland Alwyn went to Rugby. Uppingham was the chosen school for Clement. In Rockley’s case, his father chose to send him to Bilton Grange School, a preparatory school near Rugby that prepared its pupils for senior school at 13 years, and in particular for Rugby School. Rockley’s prep school was established in 1887, after the purchase of the Bilton Grange mansion by the Reverend Walter Earle, the school’s first headmaster. In 1887 Rockley was already eight years old and it is likely that he attended the local school in Bolsterstone before being sent to Bilston Grange. It is rather surprising that Rockley’s father should have chosen so untried an institution for the education of his youngest son in his formative years. Perhaps he was influenced by the boldness of the Reverend Earle’s venture and the fact that the headmaster had previously been a housemaster at Uppingham School, where Rockley’s brother Clem was proving an outstanding pupil. 17 Rockley Wilson at Bilston Grange School, probably in 1891.