Royal Hospital School

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The Royal Hospital School is a co-educational independent boarding school which takes pupils from age 11 to 18 (years 7 to 13). It is located in the village of Holbrook, near Ipswich, Suffolk, England.

History

The School has been at Holbrook since 1933. The land on which the school is now situated was bequeathed to the school by Gifford Sherman Reade, along with the sum of £1 million. Originally the school was located at Greenwich Hospital (London) and was based in what is now the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London. The Hospital was founded by Royal Charter in 1694 but the school was not formed until 1712. The school was designed by the Birmingham based arts and crafts architect Herbert Tudor Buckland. Most of the buildings are now Grade II listed with the main range and chapel being Grade II*.

Pupils

The school currently houses approximately 680 pupils. The school removed all female pupils at one stage in its early history due to their "demonic influence". However, they were allowed back into the school in the 1990s. The ratio for boys to girls is 3:2 and for all ages students are provided with a positive environment for academic learning and personal development. The school is now in the process of integrating day pupils into the school community.

Greenwich Hospital

The school was founded by Royal Charter and is maintained by Greenwich Hospital who support a number of pupils with bursaries who demonstrate sufficient charitable need. In recent years the number of pupils receiving bursaries has been cut dramatically in an effort to expand the school's wider national profile. The school also awards a number of scholarships annually based on achievement in sports, music and academics among other areas.

Houses

Each house, is in the shape of an ‘H’ with a more modern extension where the housemaster or mistress lives built onto the front. Collingwood House was the latest to receive a multi-million pound refurbishment after the Anson House refurbishment was completed.

Most boys and girls join the School at the age of eleven or thirteen and will live on the ‘junior side’ of the house. In years seven to nine they live in bed clusters of four, known as ‘cubies’ and then as they grow older they are accommodated in small double studies and then larger doubles as they move towards the top of the house. In some cases the older pupils do have single rooms, although most enjoy the 'camaraderie' of sharing. The boarding houses are:

Boys

Anson
Collingwood
Drake
Hawke
Raleigh
St Vincent

Girls

Blake
Cornwallis
Hood
Howe

Upper Sixth

Nelson

Royal charter

The aim of the royal charter was to provide assistance and education to the orphans of seafarers in the Royal and Merchant Navies. Thus, until relatively recently, entry to the school was limited to the children or grandchildren of seafarers. Now, although it is not exclusively seafarers' children or grandchildren, there is still a subsidy to the school fees of these students. Until the 1950s, boys of the school were also required to join the Royal or Merchant navies and as such the education was very much maritime focused. However, this requirement has not been in force for some time, but the school has retained certain naval traditions such as number 1 dress, divisions and an element of marching.

The school has a marching and concert band, a choir, an orchestra, a ceremonial guard and a Community Action Team, composed almost entirely of pupils.

Holbrook Coastguard

The Holbrook Coastguard, founded in 1996, has a fully operational watch station and CRV. The area the team covers stretches from the Dry Dock in Ipswich to Shotley and then from Shotley to the White Bridge at Manningtree, but often operate in the Wrabness area with the neighbouring team.

Holbrook Coastguard is unique since, in term-time, it is run entirely by students. While there is a student-operated coastguard in Scotland and Wales, it is the only one of its kind in England. There is a student in charge elected every year but there are adult team members who are in control during the school holidays. The student team has members aged 14-18.

Notable alumni

Admiral Arthur Phillip - founder of Sydney, Australia and the Governor of the first European colony on the continent (NSW)
Admiral Sir Phillip King Enright (1894-1960)
Admiral Sir Henry Felix Woods, Pasha, (1843-1929) - Admiral in the Turkish Navy
Rear Admiral Stanley McArdle, GM (1922- 2007)
Don Topley - (Essex CCC and coach of Zimbabwe)
Peter Richards (Rugby, England and Gloucester)
Captain Thomas Henry Tizard (1839-1924) - Oceanographer, Hydrographic surveyor and Navigator
Sir Thomas Godfrey - Inventor of the sextant.
John Deane (1800 – 1884) and Charles Deane - inventors of the diving helmet, and discoverers of the wreck of the Mary Rose in 1839, whilst clearing the wreck of the Royal George.
Professor Bernard de Neumann (1943- ) – Mathematician
Commander Harry Pursey MP (1891—1980) - Member of Parliament for Kingston upon Hull East 1945-70
Captain Oswald Tuckv (1876-1950) – Naval Chaplin and Instructor
Malcolm Douglas Cooper (1947-2001) - British marksman who won Olympic gold medals at Los Angeles and Seoul and beat or equalled 15 world records
Henry Davenport Sarratt (1828-1899)- Navigator, Royal Navy, Command of the Royal Yacht. which brought Princess Alexandra from Denmark to marry the Prince of Wales
The Brazillian footballer Pele spent a brief period at the school as an exchange student in 1956.

References

External links

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Last updated on Saturday March 01, 2008 at 18:40:14 PST (GMT -0800)
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