In defence of Eton’s Provost

The world divides into two groups. Those who liked school and those who didn’t. Sir Nicholas Coleridge, the next Provost of Eton, is firmly in the first group. In an article in the Telegraph, he has frankly admitted that he prefers people who went to Eton, as he did. He said:

I am bound to say that if I meet somebody that I have never met before – for example, if I am travelling abroad, or through work or something – and it emerges that they were at Eton, I feel an interest in them that is multiplied by at least ten.

If we are being completely candid, I do accept that I prefer the company of Etonians to the company of people from any other school in the world.

This might sound shockingly snobbish to some. But in fact he’s just stating a truth most of us subscribe to. We are more interested in those who share something with us – particularly if it’s five years at a boarding school in your formative years.