Malvern College is a coeducational independent school located on a 250 acre (101 ha) campus near the town centre of Malvern, Worcestershire in England. Founded on 25 January 1865, until 1992, the College was a secondary school for boys aged 13 to 18. Following a series of mergers, with private primary schools and a girl's school in the area, it has since become coeducational with pupils from 3 to 19 years old. As at February 2008 the school had a total of 600 pupils, of which 477 were boarders aged 12 – 19. The school is known for its innovative approaches to education and for sports. Among its alumni are at least two Prime Ministers, two Nobel Laureates and an Olympic Gold medalist. The novelist C. S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia was also a former student of the school. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and of the Rugby Group of British independent schools. Set in the Malvern Hills, the school's location owes much to Malvern's emergence in the nineteenth century as a fashionable spa resort, appreciated for its unpolluted air and the healing qualities of its famous spring water.