54 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 
for this purpose, providing accommodation for 2,200 pupils nightly three 
times per week. 
While provision is made for the education of the normal child, the 
needs of the child who is unable to benefit by attendance at an ordinary 
school are not overlooked. The Education Authority make special 
provision for the education and training of mentally and physically 
defective children, deaf mutes, and the blind. 
Robert Gordon’s College, a secondary school for boys, is administered 
by Governors under powers granted them in 188r, and is a development 
from Robert Gordon’s Hospital, a benevolent educational institution 
opened in 1750. By a Deed executed in 1729, Robert Gordon, formerly 
a merchant in Danzig, mortified his whole substance and effects for the 
building of an hospital, and for the maintenance, aliment, entertainment 
and education of young boys whose parents were poor and indigent. 
The original hospital buildings form the central block of the present 
school. The Provisional Order of 1881 provided for the conversion of 
the hospital buildings into a College or Day School, the foundation in 
future to be designated ‘ Robert Gordon’s College in Aberdeen.’ The 
college quickly gained the confidence of town and county, and by 
August 1884 it had a full complement of 600 boys. With modifications 
to meet the changing conditions, the college, which is very well endowed 
with foundations and bursaries, is still carried on under the original 
powers. In February 1934 the enrolment was 999, of whom 289 were 
in the primary department and 710 in the secondary department. 
A play field of 12 acres provides adequate recreational facilities, and 
the amenities of the college were enhanced in 1930 by the opening of a 
handsome assembly hall. 
By the Provisional Order of 1881 the Governors of Robert Gordon’s 
College were empowered to carry on day or evening classes for boys, 
girls and adult persons. Evening classes were begun in the college 
in 1882, and have been carried on continuously ever since, the 
instruction being since 1902 of a special or advanced nature. The 
Provisional Order of 1881 also permitted the Governors, by agreement 
with the directors of the Mechanics Institute, to amalgamate the Institute 
(founded in 1824) with the college, and such an amalgamation took 
place in 1884, when the whole educational work, including what was 
known as the Aberdeen School of Art, was transferred to the college. 
A further Provisional Order obtained in 1909 contained the following 
provision: ‘The Governors shall establish in the city a College of 
Technical Instruction for the city and for the North of Scotland, to be 
called Robert Gordon’s Technical College.’ Thus came to be created 
the local technical college, now recognised by the Scottish Education 
Department as a Central Institution. The schools at present consti- 
tuting the technical college are: (1) Engineering, (2) Chemistry and 
Pharmacy, (3) Art and Crafts, (4) Domestic Science, (5) Navigation. In 
the case of the School of Engineering there is co-operation with the 
university authorities in the provision of classes for the B.Sc. in 
Engineering at the university and for the Diploma of the Technical 
College. The number of students who attended day classes in the 
