The misunderstood motto of Rishi Sunak’s old school

The first thing that Dr Tim Hands, headmaster of Winchester College, would like to clear up is his school’s world-famous motto, ‘Manners maketh man’. Whenever a Wykehamist makes the papers, this ancient phrase is wheeled out, referring to his (in)decent manners. But this isn’t quite right, says Hands.

Two pieces of stained glass — one formerly in Bradford Peverell church near Dorchester, and another in the Warden’s Lodgings at New College Oxford (founded by Winchester’s founder Bishop William of Wykeham) — read ‘Manner maketh man’. This, says Hands, is the origin for the school’s motto. ‘“Manner” means what you are and what you do — not how you fold your handkerchief.’ And so, although Winchester’s is probably the best-known school motto out there, ‘it is probably the least well-understood’.

Last month, the public school made headlines as Hands, 64, who became headmaster of Winchester in 2016, following a headship at Magdalen College School, Oxford, announced that from autumn next year, girls would be introduced to the sixth form as day pupils.