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Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys was a grammar school in Leicester, England, in existence from 1876 to 1976.
It was succeeded by the present-day Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College.
After William Wyggeston's death in 1536, his brother Thomas Wyggeston, as a trustee, used part of the money to establish a school for boys known as the Elizabethan Grammar School. This eventually became defunct in the 19th century, but was re-founded on the site of the old Wyggeston Hospital as the Wyggeston Hospital School, which took its first pupils on 30 April 1877.[1] This school passed its name to the later Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys. In 1927, new buildings were built, designed by James Miller.
In 1970/1971, the school won the national Top of the Form radio quiz show, beating Harris Academy, Dundee, in the final on 2 January 1971.
After the reorganisation of local government, the system of education in the City of Leicester became comprehensive, and the school closed in 1976 to be replaced by other schools, including the Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College.
Wyggeston Grammar School for Girls, also known as Wyggeston Girls' Grammar School, was founded not long after the boys' school and also closed in 1976. Its site was re-used for the Wyggeston Collegiate Sixth Form College, known as Regent College, Leicester, between 1996 and 2018, when it was absorbed into Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College.
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- Mark Cox, professional tennis player
- Archibald Crawford, 1st Baron Hungarton, Chairman of the NFU (1902–09)
- Sir Thomas Creed MC KBE, Principal, 1952–1967 of Queen Mary College, and Vice-Chancellor, University of London 1964–1967 (1908–15)
- John Leonard Dawson CVO, Surgeon to the Queen from 1983 to 1990, Serjeant Surgeon from 1990 to 1991, pioneering surgeon, and younger brother of Anthony (1944–51)
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- William Hare (1955–62)
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- Michael Anthony (Tony) Higgins, original Chief Executive of UCAS 1992–2003, (1955–63)
- Alan Hill CBE,[3] managing director from 1973 to 1979 of Heinemann (book publisher)
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- Oliver Kamm, journalist (1974–81)
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- Roland Littlewood, Professor of Anthropology and Psychiatry at University College London
- Jon Lord, composer, Hammond organ and piano player (1952–59)
- Sir Patrick Lowry [5] CBE, chairman from 1981 to 1987 of Acas (1931–38)
- Ed McLachlan,[6] cartoonist (1956–59)
- Roger Manvell (briefly), film historian
- Prof Roger Mason, discoverer of Charnia masoni, one of the earliest known fossil animals, in nearby Charnwood Forest, whilst still at the school
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- Bryan Organ, portrait painter (1946–53)
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- Prof Ewan Page, Vice-Chancellor from 1979 to 1993 of the University of Reading, and President from 1984 to 1985 of the BCS (1939–46)
- Harry Peach, furniture manufacturer and social campaigner
- Sir Charles Peake GCMG MC, Ambassador to Yugoslavia from 1946 to 1951, and to Greece from 1951 to 1957 (1908–15)
- John Pickering, biologist
- Tim Pigott-Smith, film and television actor (1957–62)
- David Pole, economist (1937-44)
- Rt Rev John Richards, Bishop of Ebbsfleet from 1994 to 1998 (1945–52)[12]
- Daryl Runswick, composer
- Bruce Rushin, designer who designed the first two-pound coin in 1997
- Cedric Smith, statistician (1928–29)
- Henry Neville Southern, ornithologist
- Sir Martin J. Taylor, Professor of Pure Mathematics since 1986 at the University of Manchester (1963–70)
- Gordon F. Taylor FRIBA Architect, designed The Library Building at Loughborough University 1959/60 (1930s)
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- Sir Philip Watts, chairman from 2001 to 2004 of Shell, (1956–63)
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- A. R. Whatmore, actor (1900–05)
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- Prof Charles Gorrie Wynne, worked for Taylor, Taylor & Hobson (now Cooke Optics)[13] and invented important optical lens techniques, and was Editor from 1954 to 1965 of Optica Acta (1922–29)
- The Rev. James Went 1878-1920
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- J C Larkin 1947-1969
- Dr G A Thompson 1969-1976 (but continued as head of the new Sixth Form college)
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- Ted Wragg – Educationalist and academic, Head of German from 1964 to 1966
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