This Side of the Pond

A mystery recently solved sets up a peculiar connection between your part of the world and mine. To be specific, between a school just down the road from where I grew up and a town in Colorado.

The former is Sherborne School in Dorset, an all-boys private boarding establishment that has been in constant operation for 1300 years. In all that time, as you might imagine, it has boasted some illustrious alumni; in more recent days, it has educated students including Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis, Hugh Bonneville of Downton Abbey fame, actor Jeremy Irons and Chris Martin from Coldplay.

But one grad...