The trust fund established by George Smeed's will that had been providing both Ada Esther's annuity income and the funds for William Graham's and Ernest John's education had been wound up in 1903, and the residual capital and accumulated income was disbursed to the surviving beneficiaries. Although the exact amount received by Ada Esther is not known, the evidence of the remainder of her and her husband's lives shows that they were able to live comfortably with no income beyond that provided by their investments. Thus, they were in a favourable position when it came to the selection of a public school for their sons. Marlborough College in Wiltshire had been founded in 1843 to provide ‘a public boarding school education chiefly for the sons of clergymen at a modest cost’. Moeran's father’s cousin, Edward Henry Moeran (son of the Reverend Edward Busteed Moeran), had attended the college between 1861 and 1867, and it was probably because of this family connection that the Moerans chose Marlborough as the school for their elder son William Graham, who was admitted in January 1903. Five years later, when it came to school selection for their second son, it is apparent that they had a different intention. Instead of following his brother to Marlborough College, Moeran was sent to Uppingham School in Rutland. William Graham Moeran suggested in 1962 that when his ‘parents sent [Moeran] to Uppingham, their plan was that he should become an Engineer’, but this claim does not stand up to rigorous scrutiny. There is no reason to believe that the provisions for education in science, mathematics and the other subjects appropriate for a budding engineer were any less adequate at Marlborough or any better at Uppingham during the early 1900s than they were at other schools.

Moeran had left Suffield Park Preparatory School having achieved a competent playing ability on both violin and piano and probably with a portfolio of juvenile compositions. Thus, Uppingham was chosen because Moeran's parents (or at least his mother) had the intention that his obvious musical talent should be encouraged. Although music tuition was possible at other schools – including Marlborough College – none could match Uppingham's pedigree and particularly the excellence of the violin and piano teaching that was available.