King's College, Taunton
Description
King's College is an independent coeducational secondary day and boarding school in Taunton, Somerset, England. A member school of the Woodard Corporation, it has approximately 450 pupils aged 13 to 18, including about 300 boarders. Its affiliated prep school is King's Hall School. The head of the school is currently Richard Biggs, who started his first academic year in the winter of 2007.HistoryKing's College Taunton was founded in 1880. The building was designed by C.E. Giles and built between 1867 and 1869. A new chapel followed in 1903 designed by W. E. Tower. It has been designated as a Grade II listed building.Benjamin Disraeli stood for MP in Taunton, and many of his early political appearances took place on what is currently the school's 1st XV Rugby pitch. After the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1936, Emperor Haile Selassie I fled in exile to Bath. During his stay in the UK many of his younger children went to King's College, and the Emperor himself distributed the awards at the end of every academic year. The school purchased Pyrland Hall in the 1950s which now houses the King's Hall School co-educational prep school. Many of the boarding houses still hold trophies related to now defunct activities on which is it inscribed that that particular prize was handed out by Haile Selassie. A portrait of the emperor once hung in the main school building. Before the General Election in 1964, the Prime Minister, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, addressed a public meeting at the school.
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