Thirty resident graduates, including four Heads of Colleges and seven Professors, were searching for a place where their children could be educated with both rigour and imagination. Among this distinguished group were the Master of Balliol, the Dean of Christ Church, the Archdeacon of Oxford and the Bishop of Hereford. 

They turned to Mr A. E. Clarke, later the Reverend Clarke, a Demy of Magdalen College and an experienced teacher who had worked under the renowned Dr. Walker at Manchester Grammar School. Clarke took up the challenge, and with thirty pupils, The Oxford Little Boys’ School was born. 

Pictured: The first classrooms, now Oxford University Department of Statistics, St Giles

A pivotal moment came in 1878 when, according to legend, the children played their first rugby game behind No. 1 South Parks Road. Seeking a club symbol, the children were inspired by Rev H. B. George, a School Governor, and the image of St George and the Dragon on gold sovereigns, and they chose a dragon. 

In 1920, after 34 years at the helm of the O.P.S., Skipper announced at prize-giving that he was handing over the running of the School to his brother, Hum, and the following term Hum decreed that, as the boys had always been known as ‘Dragons’, the O.P.S. should now be the Dragon School.  

The name became a beloved symbol and, before long, family members were stitching dragon emblems onto School clothing. A dragon has represented the School’s identity ever since. 

Pictured: Skipper and his macaws, 1917