A teacher who banned mobile phones at a public school has been announced as the next headmaster of Eton College.
Alastair Chirnside, an Old Etonian and current warden of St Edward’s School, Oxford, has been appointed to succeed Simon Henderson, who announced this year that he would stand down after 12 years in the job.
Mr Chirnside will be headmaster when Prince George, 12, will join Eton in September.
The former fund manager was educated at Eton as a King’s scholar and began his teaching career there after five years in the City.
During his tenure at St Edward’s, he reinstalled landlines in boarding houses and prohibited mobile phones on weekdays for most pupils as part of a crackdown on screen time.
Sir Nicholas Coleridge, provost of Eton, said Mr Chirnside had a “sharp mind” and “warm personality”.
The appointment was made a week after it was announced that Prince George would follow in his father’s footsteps and join Eton later this year.
Eton College is close to the family home in Windsor and the alma mater of his father, Prince William, and uncle, the Duke of Sussex.
The current Prince of Wales in the distinctive Eton uniform in 1995 – John Stillwell/PA Wire
The school, where fees are around £63,000 per year, is full boarding although there is some flexibility for boys to go home at weekends.
Eton describes its purpose as to “draw out the best of young people’s talents and to enable them to flourish and make a positive impact on others through the course of a healthy, happy and fulfilling life”. Its motto is Floreat Etona – “May Eton flourish”.
It is known for educating generations of the British establishment, including 20 prime ministers.
Mr Chirnside, a father of two, became captain of the school at Eton before moving to Merton College, Oxford, for university, where he obtained a double First in Classics and Modern Languages.
He then worked for five years at Schroders as a financial analyst and fund manager before returning to Eton as an assistant master, colloquially known as a beak.
Mr Chirnside was promoted to head of classics and then housemaster of Walpole, one of 25 boarding houses at the school.
He became director of studies and then housemaster at Harrow before becoming warden (the headmaster) at St Edward’s in 2021.
Prince Harry, pictured at Eton in 2003, is another of the school’s royal alumni – Anwar Hussein/Getty Images
He has defended the teaching of Latin across the country, saying he was a “big believer” in the subject and that its decline was a “retrograde step”.
Mr Chirnside previously said that the “equality, diversity and inclusion” drive meant Eton and Harrow were likely to admit girls within the next 50 years.
Responding to his appointment, he said: “I am greatly looking forward to returning to the school which I loved as a boy and in which I started my career as a teacher, and to playing a part in the next chapter of Eton’s history.”
