The Royal Hospital School

The bigger of the two schools merged to form the Royal Hospital School was The British National Endeavour School, later The Royal Asylum School .

In 1798, a Mr Andrew Thompson raised funds for an independent development, British National Endeavour, a boarding school in Paddington Green, with fervent public support and subscription. This followed public concern at the loss of life and injuries sustained by British seamen during the recent battles. 

Originally it was a small “industrial school” for children whose fathers had been seamen in the Royal Navy, and had fallen in action. It had powerful royal and naval backing and a £40,000 endowment from Lloyds. Lord Nelson was an early patron, as were the brothers Abraham and Benjamin Goldsmid.  Following the news that the French and Spanish had been defeated at Trafalgar it was renamed under a Royal Warrant backdated to 21st October 1805 as The Royal Naval Asylum, and had a serving RN Captain as governor, and flew the White Ensign signifying that it was a Royal Navy establishment. 

The school rapidly outgrew its premises on Paddington Green, which could only take 70 children. On the 21^st October 1807 (Trafalgar Day), the Asylum acquired from the Crown The Queen’s House, in Greenwich Park, to the south of the Royal Hospital site. This historic building was originally commissioned in 1616 by Anne of Denmark (the wife of James I).

Queen's House, with added colonnades and side wings

To accommodate the then 700 boys and 300 girls, the two large wings and connecting colonnades were built, being completed in 1807, the house being earmarked for the girls and the wings for the boys. The upper floors of the new wings were dormitories, with teaching, dining and other space below. The younger children were merely taught to read and write, but the more clever children were transferred to the adjacent Hospital School , currently using their 1783 building in King William Street .

Lloyds Patriotic Fund, instigated by Edward Lloyd, a coffee house owner in the 18^th century, raised many thousands of pounds for sailors and their families, eventually naming it in 1803 The Patriotic Fund, later called Lloyd’s Patriotic Fund (not to be confused with the Royal Patriotic Fund, started in the time of the Crimean War, and referred to elsewhere in this website). Because of a generous donation valued at £61,000 by Lloyd’s Patriotic Fund when the school moved to its new premises in 1807, Lloyd’s were permitted to nominate children from other seafaring backgrounds for attendance at the Asylum. 

Only the children (boys and girls, orphans or motherless, or the father disabled or serving on a distant station) of sailors and marines were admitted to the Asylum, aged between 5 and 12 and presumably left at normal school leaving age (14?).

  ________________________________

The older of the schools was William and Mary’s Royal Hospital for Seamen, (including the Hospital School) 

The Royal Hospital itself was built on the site of the Palace of Placentia, in Greenwich.

The Palace, which no longer exists (although in 2007 the floor to the Royal Chapel was uncovered), stood by the Thames on the site of the old Royal Naval College (the buildings now mainly used by Greenwich University) and was the foundation of 'Royal Greenwich'. It replaced the earlier manor house of Bellacourt, developed from about 1428 by Henry V's brother Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, who created the enclosed the Park in 1433. After his death in 1447 the manor reverted to Queen Margaret (wife of Henry VI). She renamed Bellacourt Placentia, or Pleasaunce, and it underwent major redevelopment from 1485 by Henry VII, with further additions by Henry VIII.

He and his two daughters, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth I, were born there and it remained a major royal residence until the Civil War began in 1642. It then fell into less noble uses and decay until Charles II demolished the buildings in the 1660s and began a new palace on the site; of this only one uncompleted wing was built, now part of the King Charles Court.

In 1694, William and Mary, inspired by the defeat of the French navy by the English in the Battle of la Hogue in 1692, created a charter in 1694 aimed at helping former sailors no longer able to continue their trade, or the widows and orphans of these seamen who may be in need. 

The wording of the charter was -

1 – (to provide) relief and support of seamen . . .(who) by reason of age, wounds or other disabilities shall be incapable of further service at sea and be unable to maintain themselves;

 2 – The sustenation of widows of seamen happening to be slain or disabled in such sea service;

 3 – The maintenance and education of the children of seamen happening to be slain or disabled in such sea service;

4 – The further relief and encouragement of seamen;

 5 – The improvement of navigation.

Sadly the main inspiration for the hospital development, Mary, died of smallpox in December 1694 and William backdated the charter in both their names to 25th October.

Sir Christopher Wren designed the buildings, incorporating the unfinished wing of Charles II's 1660s palace on Mary's instructions. Work on the four 'courts' began in 1696 but was only completed in 1751.

However, from 1705 the Hospital provided residential accommodation for maimed and destitute Naval seamen - the Greenwich Pensioners - of whom it housed 2710 at its largest in 1814, with many more 'out-Pensioners' dependent upon it.

One of the greatest events in its history was in January 1806, when its Painted Hall, decorated by Sir James Thornhill in 1708-25, was the scene of the lying-in-state of Vice Admiral Lord Nelson before his body was sent up-river for burial in St. Paul's Cathedral. 

In 1712 the Governor of the Hospital began using money collected from visitors to the Painted Hall to support the educational needs of ten sons of poor Greenwich Pensioners. They were first taught at Thomas Weston's Academy, near the Park, off modern King William Walk. At this time the boys were accommodated in the attic of the Queen Anne House of the Hospital buildings. 

Soon the number of Greenwich Hospital pupils grew to such an extent that it became economical to provide their own school and teachers. By 1720 fifteen boys were boarded at the hospital, and by 1731 sixty boys were in residence, by then using a new ward fitted for them in the Queen Mary Court . Having grown to one hundred by 1747, it was decided that a new building was required. The site chosen was the conveniently close original site of the Weston/Burney Academy, who had moved to a new site in what is now Greenwich town centre. However, the new building took eleven years to complete; the boys continuing to dorm in the Hospital Buildings. 

Though solely for Hospital pupils, the school was run by Weston’s successors until, in about 1779, the Hospital’s insistence that its master Thomas Furbor devote himself solely to the 150 Hospital boys completed the split with the Academy.

The school became a great success through its teaching of mathematics, navigation and nautical astronomy, providing its pupils with sufficient knowledge for them to become navigators and ships’ officers in the Royal and Merchant Navies where they joined directly as Masters’ Mates. The boys would have been taught to use such navigational instruments as the magnetic compass, Nocturnal, Back-staff, Cross-staff, Quadrant, and Sextant, and would have been familiar with map projections such as Mercator.  They would have participated fully in the propagation of techniques for determining longitude, especially after Harrison ’s construction, and Cook’s demonstration of the sea-going chronometer.  

Such education was highly prized, but extremely unusual, in those times when hardly any mathematics was taught in schools, let alone universities, and grammar schools concentrated upon the “practicalities” of speaking Latin.

The rules of the school stated: that no boy was to be admitted before the age of 14, nor retained after the age of 18, and furthermore that: boys are “To be put out as apprentices to Masters of ships and substantial Commanders, for better improvements of their talents, and becoming Able Seamen and Good Artists ”.  The school also provided the bulk of officers to the Hydrographic Service (the branch responsible for surveying the oceans of the world).

Though solely for Hospital pupils, the school was run by Weston’s successors until, in about 1779, the Hospital’s insistence that its master Thomas Furbor devote himself solely to the 150 Hospital boys completed the split with the Academy.

By 1783, an even bigger school was recommended, and a building 146 feet by 42 feet was built, close to King William Street . The building had classrooms on the ground floor, and two floors of dormitories above that. In addition, a schoolmasters house was built. In 1821 this main building became the infirmary for the finally enlarged school, and remained as such until the school moved to new premises at Holbrook, near Ipswich, in 1933, where it still functioning. The building is now part of Devonport House, a university residence and conference centre.

The Merging of the two Schools

In 1821 it was considered uneconomical to have two similar schools so near to each other to exist as separate foundations, so they were amalgamated.

When the Royal Naval Asylum and Greenwich Hospital School merged, GHS was already a noted school of navigation, whilst the RNA was more like a junior school.  GHS became the Upper School of what was then known as the Royal Naval Asylum, whilst the old RNA became the Lower School .  

The original Hospital School boys moved into the two large wings already being used by boys of the Royal Asylum School , their own 1783 building became the infirmary for the merged school, until it moved to Holbrook, Suffolk , and part of this building is still in use today.

The merged school initially took the name `The Naval Asylum’, four years later this was dropped in favour of `the Upper and Lower Schools of the Royal Hospital ’. Officially the merged school was called Greenwich Hospital Schools, but generally known as the Royal Hospital Schools; in 1892 ` Royal Hospital School ’ was adopted, a name it retains to this day.  

Entry to the Lower School was open only to the sons (aged 9 to 12, leaving at 14) of seamen not above the rank of Warrant Officer. There was a “scale” listing the neediness of the boys, with some discretion by the Governors for other cases.

From 1828 sons of officers were accepted by the Upper School, although Lower School boys could be transferred to the Upper School “on obtaining a presentation from one of the Directors”. In 1860s a common entry was introduced for all at the same level and with the same opportunities. The qualification for the Upper School was now through educational examination.  The Upper School was for some time further divided to include a Nautical Division, in effect a kind of Sixth Form.

For both schools there was always the overall requirement that applicants “must be free from any impediment of speech, or other infirmity of body or mind”, presumably because all boys were committed to enter sea service, specifically (after 1848) the Navy, or later the Royal Marines as an alternative. There was also a requirement for Upper School applicants to be “able to read a chapter in the Bible”; by 1855 this had also been extended to Lower School applicants.

The girls, however, were not sent to sea at the end of their time there, but were “put to trades or household service; if unprovided for were to be sent to their friends”. However, by 1841, it had been decided that the girl’s school was not a success (on grounds of “evil communications”), and it was closed. They were sent home with an allowance of £12 per year, on condition they attended a school in their neighbourhood.

At that time the way cleared to extend the nautical education of the boys by providing a land-based training ship in the grounds in front of the Queen’s House facing northwards towards the River Thames.

School life at Greenwich was spartan, regimented, and conducted 'at the double'. It was almost entirely cloistered inside the grounds and self-sufficient.

The boys did the cleaning, laundry, baking, tailoring and so on as 'trades' training, though this modified over time. For many it was still an improvement on the hardship they had known.

The Girls School was not deemed a success and was closed down in 1841- probably they did not fit in with the predominately naval character of the school, although officially it was on grounds of “evil communications”.

Further buildings were added between 1877 and 1884 – the gymnasium (now the main National Maritime Museum), the west wing and a dining wing.

Thanks to a very generous donation and bequest by Gifford Sherman Reade of land in 1919 (850 acres) and money following his death in 1929 (£1 million then, perhaps £35 to £40 million today), the Royal Hospital School was able to build and move to a completely new school at Holbrook, near Ipswich, Suffolk, which was opened by the Duke of York, later King George VI, in 1933.

It remained a largely technical school until after World War II, when the condition that boys enter the Navy was suspended and the `military’ superintendence gave way to civilian, teaching management. The education was still elementary/`secondary modern’ practice, with policy deliberately shifted to build up a grammar school stream, leading to A-level success and university places. Having been banned in 1841, girls were once again allowed into the school in 1989.

To quote the school web site – “Our maritime heritage lives on in the daily life of the school. All pupils are supplied with a naval uniform which is worn to formal parades, spectacular events that generate tremendous pride in pupils and parents alike. The boarding houses, named after prominent naval figures, the traditions we maintain and our enthusiasm and provision for sailing continue to remind us of our proud seafaring heritage and endow our school with a unique sense of community.”

With the exception of the 1783 building, all the surviving buildings on the earlier complex are now occupied by the National Maritime Museum .  

Rules and Regulations for admission into the Royal Hospital Lower School

(1855)

Closure of original Royal Hospital for Seamen - After 1848 the mid-Victorian peace rapidly reduced demand for places in the Hospital and it finally closed in 1869. The School continued  though, as does the organization for the Hospital which is still a charitable body today. In 1873 the Hospital buildings became the new home of the enlarged Royal Naval College, which moved from Portsmouth that year, remaining at Greenwich until 1998. The Greenwich Foundation, a management trust, was then created to maintain and re-purpose the site, and open it for greater public benefit as the Old Royal Naval College.

The Queen Anne, Queen Mary and King William Courts (with the former Infirmary building) are now the headquarters campus of the University of Greenwich. The King Charles Court is home to Trinity College of Music and the Jerwood Library for the Performing Arts.

(The Greenwich Hospital School records are now held at The National Archives, within the following classes: ADM 72, ADM 73, ADM 161, ADM 163 and ADM 164. Descendants seeking boys that may have ended up in the School may find the the following entry lists from ADM 73/449 for the years immediately after the loss of the Captain of interest.))

 -oOo-