Former pupil in legal dispute with former Princess of Wales school after fight over ‘two pints and a pizza’

Former pupil takes legal action against Princess of Wales’s former school following claims he ‘had no choice’ but to leave or be expelled after claiming he broke up a fight .

Thomas Cole alleges that Marlborough College failed to respond to a request for data about an incident in which it was involved, providing only heavily redacted documents.

He is currently taking legal action against the Wiltshire school, where termly boarding fees cost £15,665.

He claims in papers filed at the High Court that his parents felt they had no choice but to remove him from school after being warned he faced expulsion for his role in the he incident, which occurred after a beer and pizza ritual known as “Captains.”

Siegfried Sassoon and Jack Whitehall among alumni

The Princess of Wales was educated at Marlborough College, alongside her sister Pippa Middleton, and the Prince and Princess of Wales are believed to be considering enrolling their eldest son, Prince George, at the school.

Other famous alumni include the war poet and author Siegfried Sassoon, the writer Bruce Chatwin and the comedian Jack Whitehall.

In the hours following the incident, Thomas, then 18, submitted handwritten statements outlining his version of events. He was then taken to the college medical center to spend the night.

At the same time, according to court documents, housemaster George Lane emailed Thomas’s parents, David and Anna Cole, to tell them that he “had been involved in an unpleasant incident” and that “this would be nice” to talk to them.

Following an investigation, Deputy Director Ed Nightingale warned Mr and Mrs Cole, both solicitors, that expulsion was the likely outcome due to what was described as the seriousness of the alleged incident .

According to the order, Mr Nightingale told Mr and Mrs Coles that if a student was expelled, all academic support would cease and the student would not receive Old Marlburian status.

However, he would have added that if the student was simply removed, the disciplinary process would stop and the student would be able to maintain his status and would retain academic support.

Thomas, now 19 years old, passed his final baccalaureate on June 21, 2022 and was to be the subject of a disciplinary procedure on July 1. That’s when his parents decided it would be in his best interest to pull him out of school.

Mr. and Mrs. Cole say they believed the school had already decided that no matter what their son said, it would make findings against him leading to his expulsion. As a result, they withdrew him on June 28 – three days before the disciplinary hearing.

Following a formal complaint from Mr. and Mrs. Cole, the school provided them with several heavily redacted documents.

Thomas contends that Marlborough College improperly exaggerated the documents he provided, even though he had a substantial interest in being able to see who said what about his alleged actions.

He also claims the school failed to comply with its obligations under data protection legislation and failed to carry out adequate searches of documents containing his personal data.

“The university must act with fairness and integrity”

Thomas, whose family lives in a six-bedroom £1million listed house in Wiltshire, claims the college’s actions led to him leaving the school after an otherwise exemplary career as a student .

He told the Telegraph: “Regardless of the prestige of the institution, transparency is of the utmost importance to students past, present and future. The College must always act with fairness and integrity, remaining faithful to its founding principles.

The teenager, who is now at university, is asking the High Court to declare that the school acted unlawfully by failing to respect his right to access his personal data and redacted information which should not have been being.

Thomas is also asking the court to order the school to comply with the person concerned’s request within 14 days and to recover its legal costs.

The Telegraph understands Marlborough College denies the allegations and will dispute the claim.

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