King's College is a coeducational, secondary boarding school in Taunton, Somerset, England. It is an independent school of 430 pupils aged 13 to 18, including about 300 boarders. The head of the school is currently Richard Biggs, who started his first academic year in the winter of 2007. Kings College Taunton was founded in 1880. The building was designed by C.E. Giles and built between 1867 and 1869. A new chapel followed in 1903 designed by W. E. Tower. It has been designated as a Grade II listed building. Benjamin Disraeli stood for MP in Taunton, and many of his early political appearances took place on what is currently the school's 1st XI cricket pitch. After the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1936, Emperor Haile Selassie I fled in exile to Bath. During his stay in the UK many of his younger children went to Kings College, and the Emperor himself distributed the awards at the end of every academic year. The school purchased Pyrland Hall in the 1950s which now houses the King's Hall School co-educational prep school.