Philip Reginald Egerton

Philip Reginald Egerton
Egerton as Founder of Bloxham School
Born	14 July 1832 Bunbury, Cheshire
Died	28 April 1911 (1911-04-29) (aged 78) Vale Mascal, Bexley
Burial place	North Cray
Occupation	Priest and schoolmaster
Spouse(s)	Harriet Gould
Parent(s)	John Egerton, Ellen Gould

Philip Reginald Egerton (14 July 1832 – 28 April 1911) was an English Church of England priest and schoolmaster, who re-founded Bloxham School in Oxfordshire in 1860.

Egerton was born in Bunbury, Cheshire, the son of John Egerton and Ellen Gould. Through his grandmother, he was a descendant of William of Wykeham and he was educated at Winchester College as Founder's Kin, where he was school captain. He proceeded to New College, Oxford in 1851 where he studied for a bachelor's degree in civil laws. In 1855 he entered Cuddesdon Theological College, founded two years earlier by Bishop Wilberforce, to train as a priest. He was ordained as a deacon on 20 December 1857 and became curate in Deddington in north Oxfordshire.

By 1859 he was considering emigrating to New Zealand, when he came across a complex of dilapidated neo-Gothic school buildings in the nearby village of Bloxham. Egerton had been considering starting a school for several years, and immediately purchased the buildings for £1,615. Egerton perceived that by the mid-19th century a gap had emerged in Britain’s education system whereby there was no provision for the emerging middle classes. Bloxham School was founded to act as a school for the sons of professionals, military officers and local landowners in the model of the great public schools, especially that of his own alma mater, Winchester. The school received its first pupil in 1860. In his foundation Egerton was heavily influenced by Nathaniel Woodard, who had established a new model for Anglo-Catholic public schools. Bloxham would eventually become a Woodard School, despite Woodard initially advising Egerton not to found his school.