The Reverend Percy Ewart Warrington (1889–1961) was an educationalist and evangelical Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

 clergyman who created an education empire, known as Allied Schools in the 1920s by purchasing a group of 10 schools in Britain and a girls school in Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

. One of the schools was located in Wellington, Shropshire

Wellington, Shropshire

Wellington is a town in the unitary authority of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England and now forms part of the new town of Telford. The population of the parish of Wellington was recorded as 20,430 in the 2001 census, making it the third largest town in Shropshire if...

: Warrington renamed it the Wrekin College

Wrekin College

Wrekin College is a co-educational independent school located in Wellington, Shropshire, England. It was founded by Sir John Bayley in 1880 and was known as ‘The School in the Garden’ owing to its extensive gardens and playing fields...

. Stowe School

Stowe School

Stowe School is an independent school in Stowe, Buckinghamshire. It was founded on 11 May 1923 by J. F. Roxburgh, initially with 99 male pupils. It is a member of the Rugby Group and Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The school is also a member of the G20 Schools Group...

, founded in 1920, owes its existence to financial assistance from Allied Schools.

He saw an advertisement in The Times for Canford Manor and bought it the same day and founded Canford School

Canford School

Canford School is a coeducational independent school for both day and boarding pupils, in the village of Canford Magna, near to the market town of Wimborne Minster in Dorset, in South West England. The school was founded in 1923. There are approximately 600 pupils at Canford, organised into houses...

 which opened on 15 May 1923.

The Martyrs' Memorial and Church of England Trust became its trustees. The schools ran into severe financial difficulties during the years of depression

Depression (economics)

In economics, a depression is a sustained, long-term downturn in economic activity in one or more economies. It is a more severe downturn than a recession, which is seen by some economists as part of the modern business cycle....

 in the early 1930s and were rescued by the intervention of the Legal and General Assurance Society. As a result, in 1934, the influence of the Martyrs' Trust was restricted to nominate only one sixth of the Governors of School. The Legal and General mortgages were finally repaid in 1980. The new Allied Schools Council was then set up. He was instrumental in founding St Peter's College, Oxford

St Peter's College, Oxford

St Peter's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, located in New Inn Hall Street. It occupies the site of two of the University's oldest Inns, or medieval hostels - Bishop Trellick's, later New Inn Hall, and Rose Hall - both of which were...

.