King William's College

King William's College (nicknamed KWC or King Bill's; ) is an independent school for pupils aged 3 to 18, located near Castletown on the Isle of Man. It is a member of the International Baccalaureate and Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference organisations. The College operates at two sites in or near Castletown: a main senior school campus on the shore of Castletown Bay, and a prep school (called The Buchan School) in the Westhill part of Castletown, two miles from the main campus. The College was originally for boys only, but became co-educational in the 1980s. It has roughly five hundred pupils, many from beyond the British Isles. The UK Department for Education categorises it as an Overseas British school. History The establishment of the College was funded principally by the Bishop Barrow Trust, originally set up in 1668 to provide education in the Isle of Man. When founded in 1833, the College opened its doors with only 46 boys. The shield in the centre of the College's coat of arms is that of Bishop Isaac Barrow. The school was named after King William IV, who is said to have been asked for a financial contribution and to have offered the founders "my most valuable possession, my name". The school features, thinly disguised, in the Victorian schoolboy book Eric, or, Little by Little by Dean Farrar who had himself been a boy at the school. Though the school name was changed to Bishop’s College, it is the central location, too, in the book 'The Zone' by Graham Hamer who was educated at King William's College in the 1960s.