When private tutor Thomas Arnold (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) becomes headmaster at Rugby, a boy's preparatory school in England, he puts into place a policy of strict punishment for unruliness and bullying. Arnold finds an ally in Tom Brown (Jimmy Lydon), a new student who is subjected to hazing and abuse by a group of older boys and is pressured by his friends to keep quiet about it. Fed up, he leads his fellow classmates in an underground rebellion against their tormentors. But certain unspoken rules still apply at the school and Brown loses his hero status when he is accused of breaking the Rugby code of silence.Based on a novel by Thomas Hughes, <i>Tom Brown's School Days</i> costars Billy Halop of the Dead End Kids and Freddie Bartholomew, a prolific child actor who starred in a number of other period films including <i>David Copperfield</i> and <i>Little Lord Fauntleroy</i>.