Holly Hiscox

My doctoral project uses Rugby School, c.1860-1918, as a case study to explore the relationship between public schools, the formation of Britain’s financial elites in the City of London, and empire. The significant presence of public school alumni in the City during this period (and beyond) has been acknowledged, but few studies have examined these connections and their associated networks in detail. This project seeks to address this absence in the scholarship, taking Rugby as the principal site of investigation for reconstructing the formation, functioning and legacy of these networks, both in Britain and across the empire. The significance of the project lies in its potential to break new ground in our understanding of British elites, imperial finance and wealth extraction, and in particular how these were embedded in a new culture of elite pedagogy, corporate socialisation and financial specialisation. Before starting my PhD I received a BA in Modern History and Politics from the University of Oxford (Pembroke College), an MA in History from Oxford Brookes University, an MSc in Learning and Teaching from the University of Oxford (Kellogg College), and have worked in secondary education as a History teacher for several years. My PhD is funded by an OOC AHRC Doctoral Training Programme Studentship in partnership with Rugby School as part of their Schools of Empire: Class, race, and colonialism, c.1750-1945 research project. I am supervised at the Open University by Dr Katie Donington and Dr Rosalind Crone.