Foundation

The school was founded by Edward Wilson in 1615 and was located in Camberwell, now part of Greater London but at that time a small village of cottages, homesteads, inns and larger buildings grouped around a village green. Wilson was born around 1550 in Cartmel, Lancashire, which had its own grammar school, from where he passed on to Cambridge University. No record remains of him taking a degree, although it is known that he went into the Church, being appointed Deacon at Ely in Norfolk in 1576. He subsequently became Vicar of the Parish of Camberwell, which was presented to him by Queen Elizabeth I in person. This would indicate that he favoured the settlement of the Church of England, which the Queen was resolved to make. His nephew Peter Danson became a governor of the new school at its founding. Danson was also vicar of Carshalton in Surrey, only one mile from the present site of the school. A further member of the Wilson family, a namesake of Edward Wilson, is named in the charter of the school as the Master.^[8]

After his wife died, and having had no children, he decided to set up a school using his available resources to create a legacy- saying in the royal charter that for all time there would be a school in Camberwell named after him. At the time, the establishment of a grammar school in England required the assent of the crown. This was obtained after the first school buildings were constructed. The original charter bearing this assent has since been lost, although in 1929 the governors of the school obtained a certified extract from the Patent Rolls. This requirement for the agreement of the Crown explains the legend "Founded in 1615 by Royal Charter" that appears in various places beneath the school name. The charter was granted by King James I, who had succeeded his cousin Elizabeth by this time.

The charter names the school as "The Free Grammar School of Edward Wilson, clerk, in Camberwell, otherwise Camerwell, in the County of Surrey."^[9]

Reconstitution

In 1845 the school was forced to close as a result of a financial scandal. This was the result of Governor James Goulston, who sued the school. Following an Order in Council of Queen Victoria in 1880, which superseded the previous Royal Charter, the school was rebuilt on a different site in Camberwell, opening in 1883. It again catered to the need for schooling of boys in Camberwell, which by this time had grown considerably from its rustic origins. Its working population largely consisted of men working in the professions, clerks, journalists, tradesmen and labourers.^[9] Naturally, a grammar school provided an asset to the neighbourhood, with the prospect for boys to go on to University education. For five and a half years during the Second World War, Wilson's was evacuated to a Camp School at Itchingfield near Horsham, Sussex, and for the only period in its history became a boarding school. The whole compound stood around a broad elliptical area, set in large part to grass and the remainder, an asphalt quadrangle. Radiating from this central area, in spoke-like fashion, was a series of large cedarwood huts. These were the dormitories, ablution blocks and classrooms. Two larger buildings stood adjacent to the asphalted space, one the dining hall and the other the assembly hall which also functioned as the gym, cinema and church. The whole establishment catered for four hundred plus boys forming six houses, all named after past headmasters of the school, Nairn, Macdowell, Wilson, Kelly, Whiteley and Jephson. The Head Master of Christ's Hospital was kind enough to allow Wilson's the use of the school's cricket pitches, swimming bath and other facilities, including the Great Hall for Speech Day.^[9]

In 1958, an elementary school in Camberwell known as the Greencoat School was closed after a 250-year history and part of its assets passed to Wilson's Grammar School. The funds were used to provide a new science facility, the Greencoat Building, which was constructed opposite the main school site in Wilson Road. Two carved figures of a boy and a girl which are believed to have stood over the boys' and girls' entrances to the school were installed first in the Greencoat Building, and later in the Greencoat Courtyard in the new school at Wallington.

While information on pupils taught at the school before 1843 has been lost, Wilson's has a long list of noted Old Boys across the fields of entertainment, science, the military and the church. A Short History of Wilson's School,^[9] from which much of the information below was taken, was first published in 1951; its most recent edition was in 1987.

Relocation

In 1975 the school moved to the current site. A three part plan for expansion only saw part one carried out, though subsequent construction has included additional science blocks, the Sixth Form Centre, the Foundation Building, the Venner Building (for Art and Design), the Lower School (to accommodate Year 7 and 8 teaching), and the Britton Centre (for Music).^[10]

Entertainment and sport

• Tom Abbott, presenter and commentator for US television network The Golf Channel
• Sir Michael Caine (formerly Maurice Joseph Micklewhite), actor.^[17] Caine wrote of his dislike of his time at Wilson's, which was still in Camberwell during that period, in his autobiography What's It All About? However, he also states that his English teacher, Eric Watson "took the trouble to guide my rebellious mind into the area of literature."
• Jack Elliott, professional footballer^[18]
• Simon Furman, comic book writer^[19]
• Stephen Jenkins, stage name Stephen Beckett, actor with regular roles in Coronation Street and The Bill^[20]
• Andrew Kazamia, actor with a regular role in London's Burning, playwright and film-maker^[21]
• Glenn Moore, comedian^{[citation needed]}
• Andy Scott, professional footballer and manager^[22]

Arts, humanities and politics

• Pascal Anson, artist and designer
• Colin Butts, writer, Is Harry on the Boat? and White Island^[23]
• John Galliano, CBE, RDI, fashion designer
• Harry Golombek, OBE, Chess Grandmaster^[17]
• Roy Porter, historian
• Sir Norman Reid, former director of the Tate Gallery^[17]
• Mark Stone, opera singer
• Matthew Todd, editor of Attitude Magazine and playwright^[24]

Military

• Capt. Harold Auten, VC, DSC, RD, "Q-Ship" commander in the First World War,^[17] author of ""Q" Boat Adventures" and later executive Vice-President of the Rank Organisation^[17]
• Sir Alan Cobham, KBE, AFC, pioneer aviator (first flight from Britain to Australia in 1926 and pioneer of air-to-air refuelling).^[17] Curiously, his flight to Australia was from Croydon Airport, the site of which is the present location of the school.

Science

• Sir Lewis Fermor, OBE DSc FRS^[25]
• John Stevens Henslow, botanist and geologist
• Sir James Jeans, OM MA DSc ScD, astronomer^[17]
• George Barker Jeffery, mathematician

Industry and government

• Ernest Partridge, MP and industrialist^[26]

Church

• The Very Revd. Dr Walter Robert Matthews, CH, KCVO, DD, DLitt, former Dean of St Paul's Cathedral^[17]