A-hed Brexit’s Warring Parties Share Old-School Roots: They All Went to Eton The fancy boarding school educated people on both sides of the divide, making reunions a bit awkward Eton College pupils. UPPA/Zuma Press By Alistair MacDonald and Max Colchester Oct. 20, 2019 4:07 pm ET Brexit has riven families and friends across a divided Britain. It has challenged the country’s constitution and sucked in its revered monarch. And the “old boys” of Eton, the prestigious private school, are fighting over who’s to blame. Eton College, the 580-year-old boarding school for boys, educated many of the lawmakers most closely associated with Brexit, both for and against Britain’s break with the European Union. One flag, two sides. In class-obsessed Britain, this has inextricably linked the country’s best-known private school to the highly contentious Brexit process. For some “old Etonians,” or OEs, that’s somewhat awkward. Old Etonian David Cameron was the prime minister who called the Brexit referendum. The current prime minister, Boris Johnson, is one of four “old boys” in the government looking to push a Brexit deal through Parliament. Lawmakers deferred a vote on the deal, forcing Mr. Johnson to ask the European Union for yet another extension. A vote in Parliament could come as early as Monday. Etonians, like Britain, are split over whether Brexit is a good idea. Three Etonian members of Parliament were thrown out of Mr. Johnson’s Conservative Party for rebelling over the issue. One former Etonian is a leader in the campaign to call a second Brexit referendum. SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS Who are your favorite Eton heroes and villains? Join the conversation below. British PR executive James Wall was at a recent business meeting in Washington, D.C., when the conversation turned to Brexit and somebody outed him as an OE. “Don’t worry, I am not a huge fan of Boris,” Mr. Wall recalled saying. The boarding school west of London, which serves as a secondary school for teenage boys, has a special place in the British psyche for producing heroes and villains. Fictional spy James Bond was an old Etonian. Peter Pan’s Captain Hook was an “old boy.” Twenty British Prime Ministers were educated at the elite school since the 18th century. Twenty of the current crop of MPs went there, according to the think tank Sutton Trust. Anti-Brexit demonstrators hoist a placard showing Prime Minister Boris Johnson and David Cameron, the former prime minister. They both attended Eton. Photo: Matt Dunham/Associated Press “Can the (government) investigate how this country is being held to ransom by a number of dangerous former pupils of a school called Eton College?” George Foulkes, or Lord Foulkes of Cumnock, asked during a recent debate in the House of Lords, the upper chamber of Parliament. Among the members of the Lords, 8% are Eton grads. A representative for the school declined to comment. Eton in particular has always served as a lightning rod for criticism of privilege and class in the U.K. Brexit has only increased the Eton bashing. Defenders of independent schools say it’s natural for parents to want the best education for their children. Britain as a whole benefits from having kids educated in world-class schools that take a burden off the taxpayer and offer scholarships to poor pupils, the say. Detractors say private schools give some an unfair advantage, entrenching privilege and stymieing social mobility, which has fallen in the U.K. Eton can cost as much as $55,000 per year. When former miner Ronnie Campbell arrived in Parliament in 1987 as an MP for the opposition Labor Party, he was shocked at the number of Etonians. “Somebody would tell you, that bugger there, he went to Eton, that one did too, him also,” said Mr. Campbell, who was educated in a state school—what would be called a public school in the U.S.—in one of the country’s most impoverished regions. Brexit has brought home just how dominant Etonians are in politics, because so many of them have had a role in the highest-profile political debate. “There’s more today than there was even then,” Mr. Campbell said he has come to realize. The school’s traditions live on in British politics. Mr. Johnson once joshed that the only way Mr. Cameron could get revenge for failing to be selected to “Pop,” or Eton’s elite cadre of prefects who get to wear special waistcoats, was to become prime minister. (Mr. Johnson made it to Pop.) Most Old Etonians wanted to remain in the bloc, believes former pupil Hugo Dixon, deputy chair of a campaign to call a second Brexit referendum. Mr. Dixon is also godfather to one of Mr. Johnson’s children. A former Eton headmaster, Tony Little, told a recent literary festival that old boys like Mr. Johnson, Mr. Cameron and Jacob Rees-Mogg, a government minister who has pushed for Brexit, were giving the school a bad name, according to reports of the event. Mr. Little could not be reached for comment. What a “gutless and disloyal” remark, said William Sitwell, a food critic who attended Eton with Mr. Rees-Mogg. Mr. Sitwell voted to remain in the European Union, but says Eton should be proud of its graduates. Richard Braine, the old Etonian leader of the U.K. Independence Party, says part of the problem is that people see politicians like Mr. Rees-Mogg, famed for his plummy tones and double-breasted suits, as typical of Eton. Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the House of Commons, has a laugh earlier this month in London. Photo: Jack Hill/Press Pool “He’s not the norm, he was regarded as highly abnormal even at the school,” he said, remembering Mr. Rees-Mogg as “anachronistic” even at age 13. “Just because you were at school with someone you didn’t know, doesn’t mean you agree with them,” Mr. Rees-Mogg said. It’s all leading to some awkward social encounters. Harry Eyres sometimes bumps into fellow OE Mr. Cameron at social events. “In a social context, to tell him, ‘you made a terrible mistake and have ruined the country for generations’ is tempting,” said Mr. Eyres, who is a published poet and writer. “But I am not the sort of person that would say that,” he said. “I would write it.” In a country where social class can lead to snap judgements, many Etonians are well practiced at hiding their old school ties. For a long time, when asked about his education, Mr. Eyres said he would “mutter vaguely” that he went to a school near Slough, the nondescript town which Eton borders. For some Etonians, now is particularly a time to lay low because of the school’s association with the highly contentious Brexit. “How do you know I am from Eton?” said one Conservative lawmaker, who talked on condition of anonymity. “You aren’t supposed to know that.” Write to Alistair MacDonald at alistair.macdonald@wsj.com and Max Colchester at max.colchester@wsj.com https://www.wsj.com/articles/brexit...shareToken=std1be209000af4ec3a5191af0c5b885d4