Fettes College.

History of Fettes

The Founder

"At first sight there would appear to be nothing to connect a Grand Tour of Europe in the winter of 1814/15 with the opening of Fettes College in the autumn of 1870. Yet the two events are in fact intimately connected. For it was while he was engaged on the Grand Tour that the 27 year-old William Fettes, the only child of Sir William and Lady Fettes, fell ill and died of typhoid fever. Thus deprived of his chance of establishing a dynasty, the grieving father turned his thoughts to how he should dispose of the substantial wealth he had accumulated, largely during the Napoleonic Wars. On his death in 1836 it emerged that he had decided to devote the bulk of his fortune to the establishment of a school, though for various reasons it was more than thirty years before his wishes were realised."