The Manchester Radium Institute started in a similar way to the London Institute, except that its originator was a surgeon on the staff of the teaching hospital and its chief patron was a local brewer rather than a monarch.
Naypyidaw also has initiated a slight break with its chief patron, Beijing.
Nor does the talk of transparency particularly chime with the controversy surrounding the project's chief patron, Len Blavatnik, a Ukrainian-born oligarch and Britain's richest man, who donated £75m to set up the school.
But, in testimony last week, Defense Secretary James Mattis said he was worried that American military action in Syria, if it went too far, could start a wider war, principally with Assad's chief patron, Russia.
Protestants lauded Walsingham as "a sound pillar of our commonwealth and chief patron of virtue, learning and chivalry".
After the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572 this trait in him became the more pronounced, and he continued as the chief patron of English Puritans and a champion of international Calvinism.
Later a school, Prior Park was originally the residence of Ralph Allen, Wood's chief patron and the principal supplier of Bath building stone (an oolitic limestone).
China, Myanmar's chief patron for decades, wants to maintain a relationship that will allow unfettered access to Myanmar's energy resources.
And the president of the Syrian Opposition Coalition, Ahmad al-Jarba, has accepted an invitation to visit Moscow on Monday, continuing a thaw in ties between Assad's opponents and his chief patron.
