Brookfield, the fictional boys’ school that provides Chips with his longtime home, belongs to a small, select number of fee-charging boarding schools known in England as public schools. Unlike the public schools of the US, the British versions are privately run, often with an endowment, and have no affiliation with the state school systems. The term “public” derives from their tradition of admitting mostly nonlocal students, occasionally from other parts of the British Empire, whose patrician families can afford their residential fees. Primarily for students between the ages of 13 and 18, public schools have a long and prestigious history in England, with three of the most famous (Eton, Harrow, and Rugby) dating back to the 15th and 16th centuries. Exclusively for wealthy male students for most of their history, public schools were for many years virtually synonymous with the British ruling class and the Empire’s richest families, who maintained long legacy student traditions at certain schools, though the past century has brought more diversity to their student bodies. Their curricula, once narrowly focused on classical studies (Mr. Chips’s specialty), have also expanded a great deal.

Culturally, socially, and politically, the public school was for many decades the primary bellwether of the English national character.