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User:CatrionaMorton/History of The Royal High School

History edit

The Royal High School is, by one reckoning, the eighteenth-oldest school in the world.[1] Historians associate its birth with the flowering of the twelfth-century renaissance. Building on a tradition of teaching by the Augustinian Order at Edinburgh Castle, the school first enters the historical record as the seminary of the Abbey of Holyrood, founded for Alwin and the canons by David I in 1128. However if also considered as a castle body on the continuity of its personnel, the school might be said to predate the abbey by a century.[2]

The Grammar School of the Church of Edinburgh, as it was known by the rectorship of Adam de Camis in 1378, grew into a church-run burgh institution providing a Latin education for the sons of burgess families, many of whom pursued careers in the Church.[3][4] In 1505 it became the first school in Great Britain to be designated a high school.[5][6] In 1566, following the Reformation, Mary, Queen of Scots, transferred the school from the control of the Abbey to the Town Council, and from about 1590 James VI accorded it royal patronage as the Schola Regia Edimburgensis.[7]

In 1584 the Town Council informed the rector, Hercules Rollock, that his aim should be 'to instruct the youth in pietie, guid maneris, doctrine and letteris'.[8] As far as possible, instruction was carried out in Latin. The study of Greek began in 1614,[9] and geography in 1742.[10] The egalitarian spirit of Scotland and the classical tradition exerted a profound influence on the school culture and the Scottish Enlightenment.[11] A former pupil recalled:

The turn of the nineteenth century was for Edinburgh a golden age of literature, bringing the Royal High School worldwide fame and an influx of foreign students:[13] 'Walter Scott stood head and shoulders above his literary contemporaries; the Rector, Alexander Adam, held a similar position in his own profession.'[13] By the end of the Napoleonic Wars, an old scholar remembered, 'there were boys from Russia, Germany, Switzerland, the United States, Barbadoes, St. Vincent, Demerara, the East Indies, besides England and Ireland.'[14] The Royal High School was used as a model for the first public high school in the United States, the English High School founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1821.

Greek ceased to be compulsory in 1836, and the time allotted to its study was reduced in 1839 as Mathematics became recognised.[15] The curriculum was gradually broadened to include French (1834),[16][17] after-hours Fencing and Gymnastics (1843),[18] German (1845),[16][18] Science (1848)[16] Drawing (1853),[19] Military Drill (1865)[20] English (1866),[19][21] gymnastics as a formal subject and Swimming (1885),[18] Music (1908),[22] and History (1909).[23] In 1866 classical masters were confined to teaching Latin and Greek.[19] A modern and commercial course was introduced in 1873.[24][25] A school choir was instituted in 1895.[26]

Through the centuries, the school has been located at many sites throughout the city, including the Vennel of the Church of St. Mary in the Fields (c. 1503 - c.1516), Kirk o' Field Wynd (c. 1516-1555), Cardinal Beaton’s House in Blackfriars Wynd (1555–1569), the Collegiate Church of St. Giles or St. Mary in the Fields (1569–1578), Blackfriars Monastery (1578–1777), Infirmary Street (1777–1829) and the famous building on Calton Hill (1829–1968), Jock's Lodge – now the Royal High Primary School (1931–1972). Royal High moved to its current site at Barnton in 1968. In 1973 the school began to admit girls and became a co-educational state comprehensive.

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    Cardinal Beaton’s House, Blackfriars Wynd (1555-1569)
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    Blackfriars Monastery (1578-1777)
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    Infirmary Street (1777-1829)
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    Calton Hill (1829-1968)
  •  
    Barnton (1968-present)

Sports and games edit

Main article: Royal High Corstorphine RFC

The Royal High School boasts many venerable sporting clubs. The RHS Cricket Club was formed in 1861.[28] The RHS Rugby Football Club was formed in 1868.[29] The RHS Golf Club was formed in 1876.[30] The RHS Athletic Club was formed in 1920.[31] These clubs were pioneered by former and attending pupils, who originally played their games together.[27] Among the celebrated student founders of cricket and football at the school were Taverner Knott and Nat Watt, who undertook their labours with the encouragement of Thomson Whyte, reportedly the first master to take a serious interest in sport at the school.[27] The sporting clubs were formally integrated into the school body when, in 1900, at the request of the club captains, two masters undertook the management of cricket and rugby.

The school's annual games date from the early 1860s,[27][32] following the acquisition of Holyrood Field for use as a cricket field in 1860.[33] At first the organisation of the games was undertaken by the masters, but at the request of the rector, Dr. James Donaldson, the burden was assumed by the Cricket Club, which carried it until the outbreak of the First World War.[27]

The nations system was introduced in 1912 by a later rector, Dr. William J. Watson. This has continued to the present day. On joining the school every pupil is allotted membership in one of four school houses, known as nations, named after the gentes or primordial peoples from the infancy of the Scottish state: Angles, Britons, Picts and Scots. Siblings are usually members of the same nation. The nations originally competed against each other in athletics, cricket and rugby, the champion nation being awarded the school shield for the annual session.

Conceived as a character-building exercise, the annual games and nations system were intended to foster a team spirit and encourage physical activity among all pupils. Within each nation, masters were appointed to committees to develop Under 15 and Under 13 cricket and rugby teams, and to broaden participation beyond the First XI and XV by training pupils of every level of ability.[34] The competitive scheme proved popular with pupils and teachers and has since been expanded to encompass a wide variety of games, sports, and other extracurricular activities, held throughout the year. Nation badges were introduced in 1928.[35]

Today the nations compete for the Crichton Cup. This was first presented as a trophy for the inter-nation squadron swimming race in 1914 by J. D. Crichton, whose sons were at the school. In 1920 it was transferred to the nation championship in scholarship and athletics combined.[36]

Earlier generations of Royal High Scholars had played their own schoolyard game, known as clacken from the wooden bat used by players, and as late as the 1880s 'no High School boy considered his equipment complete unless the wooden clacken hung to his wrist as he went and came',[37] but the rise of national games, especially rugby, the grant of Holyrood Field for cricket in 1860,[33] and the construction of a gymnasium and swimming bath in 1885,[38] meant the ancient Royal High Schoolyard game was extinct by 1911.[37]

Uniform edit

File:RHS Captain.png
The Royal High School Full Colours

The school uniform is black and white, derived from the municipal colours of Edinburgh.[39]

The school retains the now traditional uniform of a blazer and tie. Boys are required to wear a plain white shirt, official tie, black blazer with school badge, black trousers and black polished leather school shoes. There is the option of a black pullover. Girls must wear a white blouse, official tie, black pullover or cardigan, black blazer with school badge, black skirt or trousers, black tights and black polished leather school shoes. A black and white striped tie is standard; a plain black tie denotes a Sixth Year.

The school badge features the school motto and the embattled triple-towered castle of the school arms. Prefects are presented with a silver badge (gold for school captain) to pin on their blazer. A select few 5th-formers are also awarded this badge.

The school badge features the school motto and the embattled triple-towered castle of the school arms. Prefects and Vice Captains are presented with a silver badge whilst the School Captain is presented with a gold badge to pin on his or her blazer. A select few 5th-formers are also awarded a Prefect badge.

When full colours are awarded to a pupil a new pocket is attached to the blazer with the school emblem embroidered in silver wire with the dates of the present academic year either side of the badge.[40]

These dress regulations, which were introduced to include those for girls as well as boys, date from 1973.[41]

The school garb worn at the end of the eighteenth century is described by Lord Cockburn:


Clothing patterns were gradually standardised from the 1860s,[43] and an outfitter, Aitken & Niven, was appointed for the school after 1905. The blazer became part of the regular uniform in the early 1930s. The school badge was introduced in 1921, superseding an intertwined monogram RHS in silver thread on a black school cap, which had been standard wear since the turn of the twentieth century. The cap became a casualty of the clothes rationing and wartime austerity of the 1940s, since when pupils have gone bareheaded.[44] Long trousers replaced shorts by the 1970s.

Like the uniform, the school sports colours are black and white. They were adopted from the city in 1875. Prior to 1866 the sports colours had been white with an orange scarf; between 1866 and 1869, white with a blue and orange scarf; between 1869 and 1871, blue and orange; and between 1871 and 1875, scarlet and blue.[45] This rapid mid-Victorian evolution was prompted by the innovation of annual games


Alumni and Former Pupils edit

Further information: List of alumni of the Royal High School (Edinburgh)

The Royal High School clubs of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were class clubs, formed by cohorts of old boys who had studied for four years under one master before being taken under the rector's wing in their fifth. The names of some of the last class clubs are immortalised in the school prizes they endowed, such as the Boyd Prize (1857) now awarded to the Dux of Form I,[46] the Macmillan Club Prize (1865), a gold watch now awarded to the Dux in English,[46] and the Carmichael Club Medal (1878), now given to the Dux of Form III.[47] However, because the traditional cohort system was governed by independent masters with separate student followings, the club classes did little to foster a common school spirit.[48]

Thus, even after 1808, when fourteen former pupils of Dr. Alexander Adam banded together as the first High School Club and commissioned Henry Raeburn to paint a portrait of their master as a gift to the school, the old independence resurfaced again, in 1859, when the five surviving members handed over the priceless masterpiece to the Scottish National Gallery.[49] The school instituted legal proceedings against the club,[50] but in the end had to make do with a Cruickshank copy of the original, presented in 1864.[19]

Today the Royal High School has three flourishing former pupils' clubs in the United Kingdom. The present Royal High School Club was founded in 1849 under the presidency of the Earl of Camperdown. The first annual report, dated July 1850, contains the original constitution,[51] clause IV of which states: 'The objects of the Club shall be generally to promote the interests of the High School, maintain a good understanding, and form a bond of union among the former Pupils of that institution.'[52] Known in the beginning, like its predecessor, simply as the High School Club, it adopted its full name in 1907.[53] Since 1863 the club has given an annual prize at the school games.[51] It also pays for the framings of engravings of former pupils and other art works which decorate the walls of the school.[54]

The Royal High School Club in London was founded in 1889. On the occasion of its seventieth anniversary dinner (1959) the Scotsman reported: 'We believe the London Club is indeed the oldest Scottish School Club in existence in London – among the members are No. 111 HRH The Prince of Wales, Sandringham.'[55]

The third former pupils club in the UK is the Royal High School Achievers Society.

The Royal High School (Canada) Club was formed in Winnipeg in 1914, and after lapsing into inactivity because of the war it was revived in British Columbia in 1939.[55] The Royal High School (India) Club was formed in 1925 to help former pupils in the east; it disbanded in 1959.[56] The Royal High School (Malaya) Club flourished between the two world wars and was revived in the 1950s.[57]

For many years the school maintained a boarding facility for pupils from outside Edinburgh. The boarders ranged in age from six to eighteen. The House, as it was known, was located at 24 Royal Terrace and in later years moved to 13 Royal Terrace. When the boarding house was closed the records of all boarders, the artefacts such as the board with the names of head boys, and the memorial to boarders killed in the 39-45 war, were all lost.

References edit

  1. ^ Royal High School Club, History of the Club (June 2008). Accessed 24 September 2008.
  2. ^ Murray, History, pp. 1-2.
  3. ^ Murray, History, pp. 3, 142.
  4. ^ Elizabeth Ewan, Town Life in Fourteenth-Century Scotland. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1990, pp. 12, 131. ISBN 0-7486-0151-1.
  5. ^ James J. Trotter, The Royal High School, Edinburgh (London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, 1911), p. 186.
  6. ^ J. B. Barclay, The Tounis Scule: The Royal High School of Edinburgh (Edinburgh: Royal High School Club, 1974), p. 137.
  7. ^ Murray, History, p. 142.
  8. ^ William C. A. Ross, The Royal High School (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1934), p. 74.
  9. ^ Ross, Royal High School, p. 41.
  10. ^ Ross, Royal High School, pp. 46, 144.
  11. ^ Murray, History, pp. 39-40.
  12. ^ Trotter, Royal High School, p. 58.
  13. ^ a b Ross, Royal High School, p. 11.
  14. ^ Ross, Royal High School, p. 58.
  15. ^ Barclay, Tounis Scule, p. 18.
  16. ^ a b c Trotter, Royal High School, p. 190.
  17. ^ Ross, Royal High School, pp. 58, 145.
  18. ^ a b c Ross, Royal High School, pp. 59, 145.
  19. ^ a b c d Trotter, Royal High School, p. 191.
  20. ^ Ross, Royal High School, p. 146.
  21. ^ Ross, Royal High School, pp. 66, 145.
  22. ^ Ross, Royal High School, pp. 69, 147.
  23. ^ Ross, Royal High School, p. 70.
  24. ^ Ross, Royal High School, pp. 66-7, 146.
  25. ^ Barclay, Tounis Scule, p. 140.
  26. ^ Ross, Royal High School, pp. 69, 146.
  27. ^ a b c d e Ross, Royal High School, p. 73.
  28. ^ Barclay, Tounis Scule, pp. 58-9.
  29. ^ Robert Ironside and Alexander M.C. Thorburn, Royal High School Rugby Football Club: Centenary 1868-1968. Edinburgh, Royal High School, 1968, p. 8.
  30. ^ Barclay, Tounis Scule, p. 140.
  31. ^ Barclay, Tounis Scule, p. 141.
  32. ^ Barclay, Tounis Scule, p. 61.
  33. ^ a b Ross, Royal High School, p. 145.
  34. ^ Ross, Royal High School, p. 74.
  35. ^ Murray, History, pp. 68-9, 145.
  36. ^ William C. A. Ross, The Royal High School (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1934), p. 112.
  37. ^ a b Trotter, Royal High School, p. 66.
  38. ^ Ross, Royal High School, pp. 34-5, 146.
  39. ^ The Royal High School: School History. Retrieved on 2 September 2007.
  40. ^ http://www.royalhigh.edin.sch.uk/content/information/prospectus/school.htm
  41. ^ Barclay, Tounis Scule, p. 82, Appendix X: 'School Rules of Discipline', pp. 134-6.
  42. ^ Trotter, Royal High School, pp. 123-4.
  43. ^ Robert Anderson, 'Secondary Schools and Scottish Society in the Nineteenth Century', Past and Present, No. 109 (November 1985), p. 195.
  44. ^ Barclay, Tounis Scule, pp. 81, 82.
  45. ^ Barclay, Tounis Scule, p. 82.
  46. ^ a b Ross, Royal High School, p. 106.
  47. ^ Ross, Royal High School, p. 108.
  48. ^ Anderson, 'Secondary Schools and Scottish Society', p. 183.
  49. ^ Ross, Royal High School, pp. 76.
  50. ^ Barclay, Tounis Scule, p. 139.
  51. ^ a b Ross, Royal High School, p. 77.
  52. ^ Ross, Royal High School, p. 80.
  53. ^ Ross, Royal High School, pp. 75-6.
  54. ^ Ross, Royal High School, p. 81.
  55. ^ a b Barclay, Tounis Scule, p. 77.
  56. ^ Barclay, Tounis Scule, pp. 77-8.
  57. ^ Barclay, Tounis Scule, p. 78.

--CatrionaMorton (talk) 23:42, 1 October 2010 (UTC)

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