Ongegund, as it was then known, was sold to a young Englishman, Joseph Henderson, by Johanna Grobbelaar, widow of the original owner, in 1849.

[4] The first of the founders, Gould Arthur Lucas, left for South Africa in 1851 as a lieutenant of the 73rd Foot Regiment of The British army.

William Orde Newnham, who had arrived in Natal at the request of Bishop John Colenso to become master of the new Pietermaritzburg Grammar School.

In 1867, after a period in England, Newnham returned to Natal and left to establish a school in Ladysmith, with the encouragement and support of his friend Lucas.

Ellis, a Rugby old boy,[7] sought to reform Hilton College around the English public school system.

[10] Falcon also lead reforms in the school's academic curriculum and, foreseeing the inevitable union of the South African colonies, replaced French with Dutch as the official second language in 1907.

In Forms 1 and 2, Hilton College pupils follow a bespoke, semesterised curriculum that draws content and structure from the best curricular practices in South Africa and globally.

He is joined by a second Hilton student in August/September 2019.He plans to major in Social Sciences with a view to going to Harvard Law School.

In addition, another Hilton College student began at the University of Pennsylvania in August 2018 studying Finance and Behavioral Economics at Wharton School of Business.

The school offers a wide variety of sports: The house system at Hilton was created under the headmastership of William Falcon.

Today there are seven houses, Churchill, Ellis, Falcon, Lucas, McKenzie, Newnham and Pearce which each occupy their own independent building.

There is a rivalry between the seven houses who compete in inter-house tournaments such as swimming, athletics, rugby, general knowledge, debating and pancake eating.

The informal 'School Song' is Oh Boys of Hilton, which was written by Bobby Skinstad in 1993, and is sung to the tune of Flower of Scotland.

Immediately beyond the campus is the school farm which includes wattle plantations and natural grazing areas and is used by boys for running and cycling.

Hilton boys have access to the reserve and make use of the grounds on Sundays for swimming, tubing, mountain biking, fishing, bird watching and exploring.

In addition, academic departments make use of the reserve as part of the curriculum (e.g. Art, Biology, Geography) Hilton College has produced a number of notable old boys.

There have been eight Springbok Rugby players including two captains (Gary Teichmann and Bobby Skinstad)[19] and two constitutional court judges (John Didcott and Arthur Chaskalson).

Hilton also educated sports journalist Robert Marawa and Italian Rugby player Sebastian Negri.

Paul Maritz was previously Vice President of Microsoft and CEO of VMware Conor Mccreedy Swiss based artist and engineer.