Queen Mary's School for Boys, Basingstoke, owed its origin to Queen Mary in 1556, when the pre-existing Chantry Chapel of the Holy Ghost, Basingstoke, was reopened as the Holy Ghost School, with the priest able to teach ten boys of the town.

The Holy Ghost School survived the death of Queen Mary in 1558, remaining at the Chapel until a purpose-built structure was erected on Worting Road, Basingstoke, in 1870.

For centuries the school provided basic education in Latin and numerical skills to young boys from the town, and just a few dozen of them at a time.

In 1938, the school moved to Vyne Road, Basingstoke, in a newly constructed building in the functional, modernist style of brick architecture of the period.

The school uniform was a black blazer, grey trousers, and white shirt for Senior Boys and a grey shirt for Junior Boys, worn with the school tie which had broad pale blue and navy blue diagonal stripes.

Boys in the lower school, up to 4th form, wore a black peaked cap with a silver emblem of the dove descending.

The RAF section of the Combined Cadet Force had access to a catapult-launched single seat training glider.

After World War II the school produced an annual Shakespeare play, under the direction of the English master, Mr J.H.C.

Brian Theodore Ralph in the eponymous role went on to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and enjoyed a successful career in the theatre.

Also after World War II the school maintained a symphony orchestra and gave public performances under the direction of the modern languages master, Mr Dennis R. Stephens (who had a M.A.

The number of boys in the school, in the last years of its separate existence, was about 650, with three forms of entrance, each of about 20–25 children per class.

The school benefitted greatly in the postwar years from the presence of two refugee-teachers: Miss Strauss, from Vienna, who taught Latin, and the avuncular Mr. Hermann, a liberal-minded German.

The senior geography teacher, Mr. Eric G. Stokes, had had a notable wartime RAF career, having gained, amongst other decorations, the Distinguished Flying Cross and bar, and attaining the rank of wing commander.