Under the Commonwealth rule of Oliver Cromwell, Richmond suffered enormously but the Hanoverians and Queen Victoria’s reign brought happy days once again.  George III lived for much of his life in Richmond and Kew to the benefit of both places and later in the nineteenth century, the Borough of Richmond was graced by the presence and hospitality of the Duke and Duchess of Teck.

Richmond and East Sheen County (Grammar) School is itself a product of the past:  the name dates from 1939 when the East Sheen County School for Boys, founded in 1927, was amalgamated with the much older Richmond County School, founded in 1896. The amalgamated school was housed in the buildings of the East Sheen school but much of this thesis is concerned with the Richmond School, whose Diamond Jubilee was celebrated in 1956.

CHAPTER 1

RICHMOND COUNTY SCHOOL — THE BEGINNING, 1896-1912

With the advent of the railway to Richmond in 1846 the proportion of royalty and titled people in the town began to decline as the town increased rapidly in population. The new residents were mainly those of the middle classes to whom Richmond had that royal attraction and who thought it only right and proper that they should settle in such a town. The population rose from 7,760 in 1841 to 15,113 in 1871 and to 25,577 in 1901.

Education was an important factor in the lives of the new residents and in 1867, Hiscoke wrote ‘there are schools of’every degree’, National, Parochial, Infant, District and Sunday Schools, academies for young gentlemen and genteel seminaries for their sisters’ — such was the need for education that many of these private schools sprang up in the neighbourhood. However, there was a deficiency in this system, for there was no reasonable secondary education for miles around except for those who could afford private tuition or send their children many miles to school.

General primary education was in the hands of the churches and after this education, no opportunities were open to the pupil for further education. Boys from elementary schools, who gained scholarships, were obliged to hold them at Kingston where school accommodation was already severely taxed by the numbers in attendance. If a straight line was drawn from Wandsworth to Kingston, an area of about fifteen square miles would be included between this line and the Thames, and in this district, containing a Surrey population of 150,000, there was not a single public secondary school. Parents with limited means in the most populous areas of Surrey, namely Sutton, Wimbledon and Richmond, anxious to do the best for their boys, yet unable to pay rail fares in addition to school fees, were obliged to be content to give them an education either strictly elementary or Art, Manual Work and Commercial Subjects during the day for about 350 to 400 scholars, and to serve all the purposes of a Polytechnic including women’s classes in the evening. The school was to be one of a series of new Technical Buildings erected or being erected by the County Council in the seven principal towns of the County.’

The school was completed in two stages: the first stage, the major part of the school in 1896, and the second stage, the new south wing in 1901.  In 1895, the cost of the school was estimated at £6,467 but with the actual completion in 1901, the cost amounted to £l4,457

The cost of the school can be analysed as follows:

1)         Surrey County Council

Purchase of site                                                1,577

First origina1 contribution                                  4,000

Stage Grant towards fencing,fitting etc.              2,853

Grant towards new south wing                          2,650

Amount repaid to Science and Arts Dept.            127                                       11,207

2)         Richmond Borough Council

Contribution to original building                         1,250

Contribution to new wing                                  1,250                                         2,500

3)         Private Subscription                                250                                            250

4)         Science and Arts Department, Kensington

Building grant less £127 repaid

by S.C.C.                                                           500                                            500

TOTAL COST                                                                                              £14,457

The County Council grants were always on condition that the Town Council paid their share, but the latter assembly would never have finally given the money if it had not been for the continual prompting and untiring efforts of George Cave. The Town Council was generally apathetic to the whole scheme. This can be explained as the Richmond gentry saw no reason for the school to be built because all the upper classes and titled people could afford to send their children to the innumerable private schools scattered throughout the county: the building of the school would not be to their benefit. By 1901, the school had proved its worth by the academic standard it had set itself: many upper class children were thus transferred to the local grammar school in preference to the usually inferior private schools. Support for the new extension south wing was thus strong in contrast, and the council gave the County Council its whole hearted support. A second drawback to the new school was the need to raise £250 by local contributions as laid down by the County Council towards alterations needed in the plan of the Art Room. At the time of opening in 1896, only £160 of this sum had been raised. The people who could afford to subscribe to the fund were those same people who were apathetic to the idea of a grammar school, and thus it was only natural to find such a poor public response. The buildings opened in 1896 were built by J.W. Brooking, the architect being F.W. Fryer of Church Road, Richmond.

Surrey County Council also undertook to endow the school with grants in aid of Science, Modern Language and Shorthand teaching, Apparatus and Scholarships to an amount close upon £500 a year. Fifteen free scholarships were provided for boys attending elementary schools in Richmond and ten for boys outside Richmond.

The Richmond County School and Technical Institute was opened on 22nd July 1896 by the Lord Lieutenant of Surrey, Lord Middleton. He outlined, at the opening, the events leading to the erection of the school and emphasised the grammar school part of the scheme. He stressed the need for educated technicians and men of commerce in an age of competition in world trade when France and Germany were becoming dangerous rivals.

Th. fees charged at the School were nominal and were stabilised soon after the opening of the school as follows:

All Surrey boys and nearby Middlesex boys :                £6 a year

Boys from further away:                                              £10 a year

An entrance fee of £1 was payable on admission to the school and £1.10.0d. payable per year for stationery, apparatus and equipment, chemical and physical laboratories, an Art school, carpentry, carving and plumbing rooms were all included in the new building.

The first Chairman of the Governors, George Cave, later Lord Chancellor, said at the opening that the programme of subjects was a comprehensive one and it supplied all that boys up to 15/16 were likely to want. It appears that science was to be made the prominent subject at the school as considerable attention was given to fitting out the laboratories. The following subjects were available to pupils throughout the school:

Religious instruction, English grammar, composition and literature, English history and geography, mathematics, French and German, chemistry, physics and mechanics, drawing, shorthand and book keeping, vocal music, drill and manual training and the use of tools. Latin could be taken as an optional subject, alternative to shorthand and geography. It can be clearly seen that there was a great technical bias in the curriculum, mainly to allow for the provision of the school under the aforementioned Act and not for any special technical skills needed in the neighbourhood.

Nine years later in 1905, the prospectus of the school gave the following subjects as taught: 

Religious knowledge, English, grammar, composition and literature, geography and English history, mathematics, French and German, Latin, chemistry, physics and mechanics, drawing, shorthand and commercial subjects, vocal music, drill and manual training and the use of tools. Latin has here been included as a major subject, book-keeping has disappeared and the study of only English History is significant of the time. The German taught was mainly in the matriculation form and was most probably for scientific purposes. There is a gradual shift towards the basic grammar school curriculum and away from the technical bias of the first few years. As a dormitory suburban area with no industries before the First World War, it was quite natural for this process to develop and reach its completion in the early 1920’s.

The first Headmaster was Mr A.E. Buckhurst M.A. (Oxon), a scholar in science and mathematics: his staff to start with was small, and in 1900 consisted of five assistant masters and three visiting masters. The number of pupils rose rapidly and this occasioned the building of the new south wing. The plans were prepared by Mr G. Hamlin Fox and the wing opened in 1901. Between 1900 and 1914 the numbers in the school were fairly constant around 200. In 1900, 75% of the boys were resident in the Borough of Richmond, 14% lived in the rest of Surrey and 11% came from Middlesex. The completed school, however, could have catered for 300 boys should the need have arisen.

A governing body was constituted consisting of twenty one persons and approved by Surrey County Council. It consisted of four ex-officio governors — the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of Surrey County Council, the Mayor and Vicar of Richmond; and seventeen Representative Governors — eight appointed by S.C.C., five by Richmond Town Council and one each by City and Guilds of London Institute, Kings College, University College and the Incorporated Association of Headmasters. The first chairman in 1896 was George Cave who was the guiding light in the foundation of the school. 

As a result of the 1902 Education Act, Surrey County Council agreed that Richmond Borough Education Committee should exercise and carry out the powers of the Governors as above. This Act legalised the founding of Grammar Schools by the County from public funds.

The examinations taken by the school’s scholars were those set by the University of London and remain so to the present day. The first major school successes were quick in fruition: H,A, Timpany gained the school’s first County Major Scholarship for University study in 1898, two more were added in 1899, one in 1900 and another in 1901.

These successes established the school as one of high academic achievement and, thus consolidated, the school turned to initiating more leisurely pursuits. The first Athletic sports were held in Richmond Athletic Ground in 1903, a meeting marked by the many handicap races — obviously it was not right for the fastest boy to win the laurels!  The same year, the swimming sports were started and again, handicapping was a common feature.

School Speech Days were a feature from the very first year, but in 1912 dramatics were first introduced to give an added interest to the occasion. The first school society recorded was founded in 1912, namely the Debating Society, and this was restricted to boys in the Upper School.

On February 7th 1911 King Manuel of Portugal visited the school accompanied by the Mayor of Richmond, A1derman C.B. Edgar. The Cadet Corps of the school formed a guard of honour and after the visit, the school had the rest of the day as a holiday. The King toured the school buildings under the guidance of Mr Buckhurst and Mr Palmer, the second master.

Unfortunately for the school, Mr Buckhurst died suddenly in 1912 at the age of 48.  As a remembrance to the first headmaster, the old boys of the school subscribed to a fund in order to present a prize as a memorial to Mr Buckhurst at each Speech Day; this became known as the Buckhurst Memorial Prize and is still given for outstanding work at Mr Buckhurst’s main subject, mathematics.

Later in 1912, the new headmaster, Mr T.W. Beasley, M.A. (Oxon), a scholar in classics and modern languages, came to the school and thus ended the first phase in the history of the school.

Mr Buckhurst’s sixteen years as headmaster did much to mark the Richmond school as one of high academic achievement, a reputation the school and its successors were to enjoy throughout its history. School clubs and societies were hardly in existence by 1912 and the ‘house system’ was not in operation: however these points are purely subsidiary to the basic achievement of Mr Buckhurst: it remained for Mr Beasley and his staff to consolidate this initial start and to broaden the school activities beyond academic work.

CHAPTER 2

RICHMOND COUNTY SCHOOL THE CONSOLIDATION 1912-1939

Mr Beasley remained headmaster from 1912 until the amalgamation with East Sheen County School in 1939, in which year he also retired. It is the policy of the author in this span of twenty seven years to take each aspect of school life as a coherent whole throughout the period.

References must first be made to the cadet corps which was founded on 25th June 1900 by Capt. A.E. Buckhurst MA., who had as his Second-in-Command Lieutenant T. Batcheldor B.A., the initial complement was forty boys and this was probably the first of such organisations in Surrey. In 1913 the Corps became seventy strong; it held its own camps and held many rifle-shooting records and cups. The Drill Instructor to the Corps for many years since its foundation was Sergeant-Instructor H.C. Banks. In the November edition, 1913, of the School Magazine, reference is made to life aboard H.M.S. Worcester, the Thames Nautical Training College moored off Greenhithe in Kent. Some of the cadets attended courses at the college whose purpose was that of educating youths who intended to become officers in the Mercantile Marine. The First World War stimulated recruitment and the Cadet Corps numbers soared to 90: many boys won commissions with the East Surrey Regiment and others during the war, and at its close, the complement returned to a norm between forty and fifty. In 1931, the Cadet Corps was disbanded with the withdrawal of official recognition, but it had served a very useful purpose in its early years to instil a sense of responsibility and discipline into the school.

Two main aspects stand out during Mr Beasley’s tenure of office as headmaster: firstly the great rise in school activities and societies, and secondly the rise of the House System as an inherent part of the school in all functions.

The most important school activity after the advent of Mr Beasley was undoubtedly the foundation of the school magazine, the first issue of which was dated 1913. The Debating Society flourished since its inaugural meeting in 1912: it is of interest to note that in 1916 the house passed a motion ‘that English Railways be nationalised’.

In 1919, physical jerks were initiated by the Headmaster, taking place before school, half-an-hour before prayers: doubtless, it may be added, the whole idea was abandoned after one term.

Another stalwart society, the Chess Club, was founded in 1920 at the instigation of Mr Jeffs. This club expanded considerably and in the 1930’s took part in tournaments and the local chess league: the results were always of the highest standard and undoubtedly increased the powers of concentration of club members.

In 1920 tennis matches were started with Richmond County School for Girls, and later in the same decade swimming matches were started but during the 1930’s these competitive games faded away.

The 1920’s and 1930’s marked a great upsurge in out-of –school activities; a Rowing Club was formed in 1922, Stamp Club 1924, Photographic Club 1926, Art Club 1930, Rifle Club 1931 and Boat Club 1931. The Rifle Club was formed to accommodate the former Cadets, whose Corps was disbanded in that year. It is of interest to note that a School Scout Troup was also formed in 1931 and the Group became known as the 23rd Richmond. The Boat Club was formed to provide occupation for members of the Upper School to whom football and cricket did not appeal. The School Tuck Shop may also be included in this section as it was opened in 1926.

With the arrival of Mr Beasley, boys were distributed into four houses .. North, South, East and West - of Richmond, one presumes — with house Captains and House Prefects. In sport, the school followed the traditions of the country at large and thus sporting interest was mainly directed towards cricket and football, our two national sports. Matches were soon arranged with other schools in the area and this increased the sporting standard of the choo1. In 1912, House Championships took place in cricket, football and athletics, and in 191k, the swimming sports were organised on the same basis. A late addition to the sporting activities, of the school, boxing, was also competed for as a house championship in 1933 but this was short-lived.

In 1916, the school magazine noted that the house element was growing. At the beginning of the term, masters were appointed to houses and the Cadet Corps divided into house sections. It was hoped that these arrangements would make the boys keener and also prouder of their houses. A gymnastics competition was started in 1916 on an individual as well as house basis whilst a cross country championship is mentioned in 1924 but there seems to be no system by which the champion house of the school year is proclaimed.

In 1926 House matches in football were played on a league basis as opposed to a knock-out competition and this was extended to cricket in 1928. Democracy, however, was on the wane in 1929, when it was decided that all school captains should not be elected by the masses at the beginning of term. The magazine states.. ‘the need for such a reform has been evident for some time’.

There were no playing fields belonging to the school:  cricket and football matches took place in the Old Deer Park and the athletic sports at Richmond Athletic Ground. Later in the 1930’s the school at last obtained extensive playing fields at Pesthouse Common, Richmond, in Queen’s Road.

The staff did not increase greatly during this period. In 1912, the headmaster had nine assistant masters and two visiting masters, whilst in 1939, thirteen assistant masters were employed.  The school roll, too, did not vary considerably from Mr Buckhurst’s period; except for a bulge after the war when numbers rose to 280, the school roll was fairly constant around 220. Continuously throughout its existence, Richmond County School remained a two-stream school.

The curriculum during the period 1912-1939 changed greatly to accommodate itself to the fierce competition for scholarships with other secondary schools. The main aim of every grammar school became the winning of scholarships and thus the Richmond school had no further need to follow any technical course. The early 1920’s marked the introduction of the mixed arts and science course of the standard grammar school.  In 1919, Modern European History took its place together with English History in the curriculum. Shorthand was dropped from the school course and relegated to the Technical Institute.

The examinations set by the University of London for secondary schools and the County requirements for the award of major scholarships had great effects upon the matriculation and post-matriculation forms at Richmond County School. Before 1918, the County required a pass in the senior school Examination of the University of London of not more than six subjects. From 1918 until 1923, the awards were granted on a special examination taken after a year’s work following matriculation in the General School Examination: this tended to lengthen the life of a schoolboy by one year. It is interesting to note that no scholarships were won by the school in this period because firstly the school must have found it difficult to adapt itself to the new arrangements, and secondly the scholarships were opened to the son of any Surrey ratepayer without regard to school: but in 1924, the County requirements changed again, stating that awards would be granted on results in the Higher School Examination which took place generally two years after matriculation in the General School Examination. This requirement led to the foundation of the two year sixth form course as we know it today, and, as it stated that the award would be granted on ‘main subjects in a selected group’, the appropriate designations ‘Arts’ and ‘Science’ were used to distinguish between the two groups in the Sixth Form. The matriculation examination was thus in l924 commenced in the fifth year, and in 1927, the new arrangements bore fruit when the school gained its first County Major Scholarship since 1915.

Before l924 the Sixth Form was divided into post matriculation and future matriculation sections, The former were divided into Arts and Science students known as VIA and they worked for the special examination mentioned above. The latter were in a form known as VIB and in 1920 were ten in number, whilst VIA had seven students. In 1923 twenty boys were in VIB working for their matriculation, and of these, fifteen matriculated and twenty reached General School Standard.

Some explanation of matriculation is perhaps needed:  from the General School Examination three varieties of certificate could be awarded. Firstly, candidates reaching a pass standard in at least six subjects were awarded their General School Certificate. Secondly, candidates who reached a higher standard ‘CREDIT’ in five of these subjects were awarded the Matriculation Certificate and this excluded them from matriculation examinations for entrance to the University of London. Thirdly, candidates who passed the General Schoo1 Certificate at a still higher ‘DISTINCTION’ standard in at least three subjects were given the Honours General Certificate.

It is interesting to dissect a curriculum in the late 1920’s leading to matriculation in the fifth form and in some cases the sixth form as well :

	YEAR 2	YEAR 3	YEAR 4	YEAR 5
ENGLISH	6	4	4	5
MATHS	6	6	6	6
FRENCH	4	4	4	6
HISTORY	2	2	3	3
GEOGRAPHY	2	2	2	3
SCRIPTURE	1	1	1	1
PHYSICS	-	SCIENCE 4	3	4
CHEMISTRY	-		3	2
WOODWORK	4	2	2	-
DRAWING	5	2	ALTERNATIVE WITH LATIN 6	ALTERNATIVE WITH LATIN 5
LATIN	-	4
SINGING	1	1	1	-
GYM.	1	1	1	1
PREP.	4	3	-	-

The choice between Drawing and Latin was not a free choice: any boy showing promise in Latin in the third form was made to take it in the fourth year. The General School Certificate in this period was taken by the School in the following subjects:

English, mathematics, French, geography, history, chemistry, mechanics (physics), magnetism and electricity (physics), Latin and Drawing, The technical subjects were fast disappearing from importance. The withdrawal of shorthand has already been noted; woodwork has, in the 1920’s, been relegated as a junior school subject whilst drawing remains in the Fifth Form as a poor option for those unable to comprehend Latin.

Finally in this section, it is necessary to outline the general historical background of Mr Beasley’s headship. The First World War had a great effect upon the school as many masters and Old Boys joined up with their colours. 298 Old Boys and masters were with the colours during the war and of this number, fifty were officers. The Roll of Honour bears witness to the fact that eighty lost their lives. The effect of the war and return to peace together with the changes in the examinations led to a reappraisal of the whole grammar school curriculum and syllabus and in turn, this paved the way to future academic success from 1927, without a break to the present day.

In 1921 the Old Boys’ Association was set up and their first annual dinner was held in 1924.

An annual general knowledge paper seems to have been the tradition of the school, but in 1924 the paper was scrapped, as was a new prize presented at Speech Day for elocution.

Discipline was generally administered by the staff but a detention system was also in operation. However, with the arrival of Mr Retter in 1925, he and Mr Boulton succeeded in changing the system into the ‘Credit and Debit System’. This system abolished detentions and gave forms extra half days holidays if they had amassed a certain number of credits over a given period. As Mr Retter formerly lived in Exeter, no doubt he copied the old established credit and debit system of Eels’s School, Exeter.

In the same year, the school was graced by the presence of the Lord Chancellor, Lord Cave, at Speech Day and he recalled his efforts in accomplishing the foundation of the school.

In 1926, Saturday morning school was abandoned for a term during the coal strike: this reduced the number of days the heating system had to be used. The school hours since the foundation had been little changed when the school amalgamated with East Sheen in 1939. Morning school was from 9 am until 12.30 pm whilst afternoon school was from 2 p.m. until 4.30 pm There was school on Saturday morning but Wednesday afternoon was generally a games afternoon.

There was much heart-rending with the final decision to amalgamate the two schools of Richmond and East Sheen. The decision to build a new secondary school at Barnes was referred to by Mr Beasley at Speech Day in 1925 when he outlined the difficulties of the school at Richmond — ‘The new Barnes School would relieve the school of any difficulty in finding accommodation.   More serious problems are those arising from our position on the main artery of traffic’. Since there had been an enormous increase in motor traffic, the expenditure of effort required in teaching had increased beyond all possible provision in the school. At Speech Day in 1926, Lord Cave said, ‘every institution which is a success, grows and becomes too big for its shoes, and that has happened to Richmond County School for Boys and the time has come to consider the provision of a better building.’ The accommodation at Richmond became more and more unsuitable for grammar work, until it was decided in 1939 to amalgamate the Richmond and East Sheen County Schoo1s and to house the augmented school in the two school buildings at East Sheen. There was an urgent need to resite the new school in 1926 and the further events leading to the amalgamation will be discussed in full in the next chapter.

Mr Beasley conveniently retired in 1939 and Mr Harries of Richmond was appointed second master to Mr Shephard of East Sheen. In its last issue, the Richmond School Magazine suggested that the house systems of both schools should be abolished and new houses instituted; but this was not to be so: it mentioned the glittering array of cups caused by the pooling of resources and wished the new school, masters and pupils a very successful beginning. The old Richmond buildings remained to house only the evening Technical Institute.

With the departure of Mr Beasley in 1939, the second phase in the history of Shene County School came to an end. Besides consolidating the foundations which Mr Buckhurst had laid in the academic field, Mr Beasley widened the vision of school life into its many societies and created a competitive but friendly atmosphere within the school by the house system.

CHAPTER 3

EAST SHEEN COUNTY SCHOOL FOR BOYS

During the 1920’s, Surrey County Council founded a number of new Grammar Schools throughout the county including both a boys’ and a girls’ grammar school at East Sheen in the Borough of Barnes. East Sheen County School for Boys was opened on January 18th 1927 without the pomp and the celebrities heralding the Richmond opening. Two years later, East Sheen County School for Girls was opened nearby.

There was considerable delay over the building of the boys’ school for two reasons: firstly there was an attempt to build a new school to serve both Richmond and Barnes at Pesthouse Common, Richmond, but the fact that Barnes did not get Borough status till 1927 may have contributed to its rejection: secondly the Sheen gentry campaigned earnestly for years for a mixed grammar school but the decisions and policies of the County Council prevailed.

The school was paid for entirely by the County Council and the headmaster appointed from the 1st January 1927. There were 192 applications for this post and the fortunate applicant was Mr. H. H. Shephard M.A.(Oxon), a scholar in mathematics. Four assistant masters were appointed and on 3rd January the school held its entrance examinations, similar to the eleven plus. All the boys living in Barnes were transferred from Richmond and the remaining numbers filled by the results of the entrance examination. The fees payable at the school were four guineas a term and over half the boys were fee-paying.  A  number of boys joined the school from St .Leonard’s Private School, and these formed the nucleus of the school football and cricket teams as sport was very much to the fore at that school: this, in turn, accounts for the very quick successes in these sports in competition with other schools.

One hundred boys were admitted initially to the school:  one first form contained those boys under eleven, forms 2A and 2B consisted of those boys who entered the school  by the entrance scholarship examination and forms 3A and 3B were mainly boys who had been transferred from Richmond, Provision was made in the school to accommodate two streams throughout the school plus a post-matriculation sixth form.

Four houses were formed and named by the Headmaster. There has been some difficulty to this day in deciding how Mr Shephard chose such admirable names as Hood, York, Fife and Temple. They are all names of famous people who have had connections in Sheen and Barnes but it is possible that Temple is the odd one out because it has two syllables instead of one: it appears that Mr. Shephard attempted to find four single syllable names connected with the neighbourhood: three names were suitable but he was stumped for a fourth name and thus resorted in the end to the inclusion of Temple.

As a new School, East Sheen could incorporate all the successful systems and interests of other schools and develop them. There is, accordingly, no two-stage development as outlined in the Richmond School.  The School magazine, for example, called ‘The Lion’ (of Surrey presumably) was first published in the Summer Term of 1927:  a Scout Troop and a Debating Society were both initiated in 1927: and football and cricket matches were played as house competitions on a league basis in the same year.

In 1928, a silver cup was given to the school by Mr Northover: the Northover cup has always been the most sought after trophy in the school, for it is presented to the Champion House of the School year.   It is more commonly called the ‘Cock House’ Cup. The presentation of the Studies Cup was also started in 1928 and was awarded on a house basis for good work— commendations earned points for the house and detentions lost points. Swimming and Athletic Sports were included in the Cock House Competition in 1929and also in this year, the school printed its first and only magazine at the School Press.

In 1930, the Music Study Circle