It was founded as Marlborough School in 1843 by the Dean of Manchester, George Hull Bowers, for the education of the sons of Church of England clergy.

[7] Each school was required to pay a nominal penalty of £10,000, and all agreed to make ex-gratia payments totalling three million pounds into a trust designed to benefit pupils who attended the schools during the period in respect of which fee information was shared.

[8] Jean Scott, the head of the Independent Schools Council, said that independent schools had always been exempt from anti-cartel rules applied to business, were following a long-established procedure in sharing the information with each other, and were unaware of the change to the law (on which they had not been consulted).

She wrote to John Vickers, the OFT director-general, saying, "They are not a group of businessmen meeting behind closed doors to fix the price of their products to the disadvantage of the consumer.

At the south end is the back of an early 18th-century mansion, later converted to a coaching inn, which was bought as the first building for the school.

[13] The main block of what now forms C House, it was built by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset and is a Grade I listed building.

The west side consists of the 1959 red brick dining hall, and a Victorian boarding house now converted to other purposes.

The north west corner is dominated by its Victorian Gothic style chapel by the architects George Frederick Bodley and Thomas Garner, which has a collection of pre-Raphaelite style paintings by John Roddam Spencer Stanhope and stained glass by Old Marlburian William Morris.

The rest of the Court is surrounded by buildings in styles ranging from "Jacobethan" (a name coined by Old Marlburian Sir John Betjeman) to classical Georgian and Victorian.

[19] Former pupils include the Nobel laureate Sir Peter Medawar, Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman, wartime poet Siegfried Sassoon, art historian and Soviet spy Anthony Blunt, writer Dick King-Smith, journalists Frank Gardner, James Mates, Tom Newton Dunn and Hugh Pym, businessman Simon Woodroffe, comedian Jack Whitehall, singers Nick Drake and Chris de Burgh, DJ and producer Frederick Gibson aka.

Fred Again, fashion moguls Amanda Harlech and Stella Tennant, and convicted human trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rab Butler, Home Secretary Henry Brooke, Baron Brooke of Cumnor, Archbishop of Canterbury Geoffrey Fisher, Olivia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster, and individuals from the British monarchy including Catherine, Princess of Wales and Princess Eugenie are also Old Marlburians.

[22] There are three academic terms in the year: The Memorial Hall was built to commemorate the 749 Old Marlburians who were killed in World War I.

The new Chapel, designed in the Late Decorated Gothic style, was dedicated to St Michael and All Angels and was consecrated in 1886.

The original colour scheme of greens and browns was much loved by Sir John Betjeman and there are twelve large Pre-Raphaelite murals by Spencer Stanhope which depict various Biblical scenes involving angels.

Sir Frank Brangwyn, who had been trained by Morris, produced murals for the school chapel of Christ's Hospital (1912-1923) and visited Marlborough College, particularly its Chapel, on several occasions to deliver lectures and practical workshops to members of the Marlborough College community.