and culture A Stanley Spencer painting of The Crucifixion was commissioned by the Master of the Brewers Company, for the Aldenham School Chapel in 1958. Aldenham was used to film additional interior scenes in the 1968 classic British film If...., directed by Lindsay Anderson. The most frequently used room was the main school Dining Room containing the portrait of Aldenham's founder Richard Platt. Aldenham was used for scenes in Tom Brown's Schooldays (2005 film). It was used for some scenes in the British satire Greed (2019 film). Masters Before the school was rebuilt and enlarged in 1824, the head of the school was known as the Master. The founder, Richard Platt, arranged that when there was a vacancy, St John's College, Cambridge, was to nominate three Masters of Arts, from whom the Brewers' Company would appoint one. Thomas Neale (1598–1623) Roland Greenwood (1623–1634) Christopher Smyth (1634–1643) Robert Cresswell (1643–1648) Jeremy Collier (1648–1653) William Elliot (1653–1663) Andrew Campion (1663–1673) William Swayne (1673–1678) Randolph Nicoll (1678–1703) John Button (1703–1703) Francis Thompson (1703–1714) Allen Allenson (1714–1738) Gilber Allenson (1738–1757) William Ellis (1757–1767) Joseph Cantrell (1767–1774) Samuel White (1774–1785) Rice Hughes (1785–1792) John Griffin (1792–1799) Methusalem Davies (1800–1823) Joseph Summersby (1823–1825) Heads of the Aldenham Foundation Jonathan Wilkinson (1824–1833) Richard Foster (1834–1836) Thomas Spyers (1836–1842) Alfred Leeman (1843–1876) John Kennedy (1877–1899) Alfred Cooke (1900–1920) Harvey Beck (1920–1933) George Riding (1933–1949) Peter Mason (1949–1961) Paul Griffin (1962–1974) Peter Boorman (1974–1983) Michael Higginbottom (1983–1994) Stephen Borthwick (1994–2000) Richard Harman (2000–2006) James Fowler (2006–2022) Alex Hems (2022–) Notable Old Aldenhamians Sir Samuel Wilks, FRS, (1824–1911), physician and pathologist. William Josiah Sumner Hammersley (1826–1886), journalist, sportsman, co-founder of Australian rules football Colonel Sir Robert Edis (1839–1927), architect Sir Alfred Gilbert (1854–1934), sculptor and goldsmith Sir William Laird Clowes (1856–1905), naval writer Stanley Owen Buckmaster, 1st Viscount Buckmaster (1861–1934), politician, judge and Lord Chancellor, 1915–1916 Arnold McNair, 1st Baron McNair (1885–1975), legal scholar, judge of the International Court of Justice, 1946–1959, and first President of the European Court of Human Rights, 1959–1965 Sir Wallace Akers (1888–1954), chemist and Director of Research, ICI, 1944–1953 Leo Reid (1888–1938), cricketer Sir Kenneth Pickthorn, 1st Baronet (1892–1975), historian, politician, and President of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 1937–1944 Group Captain Ernest Fawcus (1895–1966), cricketer and military officer Colonel Dennis Edward Francis Waight MC (1895–1984), professional soldier and World War I flying ace General Sir Richard Gale (1896–1982), General Officer Commanding 6th Airborne Division, 1943–1945,