Financial Help for OMs

The Marlburian Club’s Charitable Funds exist to assist OMs in various circumstances, as outlined below.

Assistance with College fees

Assistance may be made available to ensure that when OMs with children at Marlborough encounter some unexpected severe hardship (sudden redundancy, severe illness or death) their children can complete their education at the College.

Assistance with professional training expenses

Nowadays, more students are studying for postgraduate qualifications that often involve periods of study abroad. The Trustees have assisted various OMs training to be doctors by helping towards the costs of overseas medical elective studies; a talented music graduate – who had shown great initiative and determination in his fundraising – was given a grant to enable him to undertake specialist training abroad; and a former student was given a grant to take up a United Nations internship.

Assistance with gap year plans

Gap year pupils are invited to apply for grants to undertake schemes that involve an element of service to those less privileged than themselves. About £5,000 is made available each year for this purpose, with typical grants averaging about £400. Funds come from an endowment made by Judge Edwin Konstam (LI 1884-87).

Constructive emergency assistance

Help is occasionally given to OMs who fall on hard times and are in need of short-term help in order to get them back on their feet. Such assistance is usually given in the form of a one-off ex-gratia payment for a very specific purpose. Beyond the categories of personal grants listed above, the Club – as a charity – has been able to give considerable financial help to the College making it possible to undertake capital improvements, which would otherwise have been beyond its means. The funds have paid for the building of the Sixth Form Social Centre, the Marlburian Club, mobile shelving in the College Archives, and they have contributed to the refurbishment of the Memorial Hall.

To apply for assistance from the Charitable Funds, please either send an email to the Trustees at marlburianclub@ marlboroughcollege.org or write to them at:

The Marlburian Club Marlborough College Bath Road Marlborough Wiltshire SN8 IPA

The Marlborough Mound

Prehistoric Mound, Medieval Castle, Georgian Garden

The Mound has been a mysterious but familiar presence in the College for generations of Marlburians, largely concealed by trees and with nothing to explain what it is or why it is there. Guarded, or so it seemed, by the locked iron gates of the Grotto, and with a crude concrete stairway to the summit, it looked abandoned. This air of neglect made it a favoured spot for illicit smokers and drinkers, while the more law abiding Marlburians simply passed it by. In the last 20 years, the curiosity of one Marlburian, Eric Elstob (B2 1956-60), who set up a trust for its systematic restoration and the exploration of its history, has led to dramatic results. We now know that it is the second largest Neolithic mound in the whole of Europe, broadly contemporary with Silbury Hill, and thus part of the much-vaunted Stonehenge landscape. In its later guise as a royal castle, it ranks as one of the five most important residences of the king under John and Henry III, both of whom spent a great deal of time (and money) there. The surviving royal records enable us to reconstruct many of the details of life in the castle, and also tell us a great deal about the vanished buildings. Finally the Mound was a major feature in one of the finest gardens in 17th- and 18th-century England. The restoration has returned something of the impressive aspect of the original Mound, and the newly published book presents a fascinating picture of the history of the hidden treasure in the heart of the College. Copies are available at £25 (reduced from £45) from The White Horse Bookshop in Marlborough, or direct from the publisher, Boydell and Brewer Ltd, on their website until December 31 2022, using code BB072.