St Mary's College is an independent Roman Catholic coeducational day school in Crosby, Merseyside, about 7 miles (11 km) north of Liverpool.

Notable alumni include John Birt, Roger McGough, Tony Booth and Cardinal Vincent Nichols.

The college was established as a boys' school in 1919 by the Irish Christian Brothers, a clerical order founded by Blessed Edmund Rice in the early nineteenth century.

Post-war alumni describe "a heavy emphasis on rote learning and testing, underpinned by the brutal punishment that the Christian Brothers favoured",[2] "the carrot-and-stick method—without the carrot",[3] "a hard, disciplined education ...generous with the strap".

[6] When direct grants were abolished by the 1974–79 Labour government, St Mary's became a private school[7] and is a member of the HMC.

We look forward to reaping "a golden harvest not yet sown", but shall "sometimes pause a moment" to think of yesterday, and the old school and its associations will find a place in our hearts "most wondrous kind".

[citation needed] The college had an alumni association, St Mary's Old Boys' Club,[38] from 1948 until links were severed due to a scandal and resulting court case, Stringer v. Usher, Smith, Flanagan and Fleming.

In 2000 and 2004[40] Merseyside Police raised objections to the continuance of the club on the grounds that it was 'improperly run' and for 'blatant disregard' of the licensing laws.